{"id":41885,"date":"2025-11-13T13:03:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T12:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/?p=41885"},"modified":"2025-11-18T13:41:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T12:41:02","slug":"from-siberia-to-india-author-meeting-with-monika-kowaleczko-szumowska-and-apeksha-niranjan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/from-siberia-to-india-author-meeting-with-monika-kowaleczko-szumowska-and-apeksha-niranjan\/","title":{"rendered":"From Siberia to India\u2026 \u2013 Author Meeting with Monika Kowaleczko-Szumowska and Apeksha Niranjan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This evening, in a hall filled to capacity, we had the opportunity to witness an encounter between two distant worlds \u2013 Poland and India. Their histories intertwine with the fate of hundreds of Polish children, mostly war orphans evacuated during the Second World War from the Soviet Union, who unexpectedly found refuge in the princely state of Nawanagar in northwestern India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stories of these Polish children and Maharaja Jam Saheb, who welcomed them into his kingdom, were brought to life in an extraordinary way by the evening\u2019s guests: Monika Kowaleczko-Szumowska, author and producer of the interactive web documentary The Maharaja\u2019s Children<\/em> (Dzieci Maharad\u017cy<\/em>), and Apeksha Niranjan, an Indian dancer with Polish roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the children who found rescue was Wies\u0142aw Ostypu\u0142a, who, after being deported with his mother and brother, was placed in a diet dom (a state-run children\u2019s institution).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDiet dom is a children\u2019s home only in name \u2013 in reality, it was a place where street children and petty offenders were held. Polish children were there as well,\u201d said Monika Kowaleczko-Szumowska. \u201cWiesio and all the young Poles who ended up there believed this was where their lives would end. The Polish government-in-exile knew exactly what was happening and sent delegates to search for these children. Wiesio was evacuated from the diet dom, and his journey to India began. That journey would never have begun without Maharaja Jam Saheb, the ruler of Nawanagar, who understood the Polish situation very well. No one else at the time offered any place for the Poles. The British refused assistance because they feared the presence of Poles in India due to the strong independence movement. The Maharaja said: \u2018I do not need your permission, because I am inviting them as my guests.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jam Saheb, known in history as the \u201cGood Maharaja,\u201d welcomed the Polish children at the railway station in Nawanagar with the words: \u201cYou are no longer orphans, because I am the father of all the inhabitants of Nawanagar, and therefore I am also your father.\u201d He kept his word and frequently visited the settlement where several hundred Polish orphans lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Polish state honoured the Maharaja by awarding him, posthumously, the Commander\u2019s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and by naming a square in Warsaw after him (the Good Maharaja Square). These initiatives were led by Krzysztof Iwanek, PhD, of the University of Bia\u0142ystok, in cooperation with the Centre for Poland\u2013Asia Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wanda Nowicka also lived in such a settlement. It was there that she found the love of her life, Vasantrao Kashikar, whom she married against all odds \u2013 against tradition, caste norms, social customs, the Polish settlement authorities, and Vasantrao\u2019s family. They were eighteen years old when they found themselves completely on their own, abandoned by everyone. The situation changed when Wanda gave birth to her first son, and then four more. In time, she became the beloved daughter-in-law. Wanda Nowicka became Indian, yet she never forgot her Polish heritage and passed it on so deeply that it remains evident in the lives of her children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apeksha Niranjan, Wanda Nowicka\u2019s granddaughter, presented a remarkable performance of the classical Indian dance Bharatanatyam, telling the story of the \u201cGood Maharaja.\u201d Through dance, she expressed her remembrance of her ancestors from Poland. Although India and Poland are separated by thousands of kilometres, tonight our histories felt especially close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Sybir Memorial Museum hosted Monika Kowaleczko-Szumowska, author of numerous adventure and historical books whose work focuses on the story of the \u201cGood Maharaja,\u201d and Apeksha Niranjan, an Indian dancer of Polish descent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":41746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Siberia to India\u2026 \u2013 Author Meeting with Monika Kowaleczko-Szumowska and Apeksha Niranjan - Muzeum Pami\u0119ci Sybiru<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sybir.bialystok.pl\/en\/from-siberia-to-india-author-meeting-with-monika-kowaleczko-szumowska-and-apeksha-niranjan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Siberia to India\u2026 \u2013 Author Meeting with Monika Kowaleczko-Szumowska and Apeksha Niranjan - 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