In 1922, the recently widowed Rani and regent of Lathi state in peninsular Kathiawar took a lover and fled to Bombay, astounding her fellow Indian princes as well as local British political administrators. She was accused of murdering her husband, abusing her royal powers, and illegally leaving her state. By stepping beyond the walls of the sequestered palace interior and in travelling from princely state to British India, the Rani of Lathi transgressed social, political, territorial, and geographic borders. In the official documents of the time, she was portrayed in the familiar language of colonial exoticism as an oversexed, dangerous, and irrational representative of eastern femininity expressed in its most troublesome form: the secluded oriental queen. Regent mothers, like her, had complex relationships with the colonial government. While perceived as politically inept and morally corrupt, they simultaneously frustrated, thwarted, and eluded the censure of colonial administrators. In the process, their resistance to the colonial state presents vivid historical instances of indigenous women’s agency against both the paramount power and local traditional patriarchies. This article examines her contested regency and the role of gender, sexual impropriety, and psychologies of the mind in late colonial ideas of indigenous sovereignty, female governance, and border crossing.

中文翻译：

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拉蒂拉尼的丑闻：1920 年代印度殖民地的女性摄政、王室政治和性不当行为

1922 年，新近丧偶的拉尼和卡提亚瓦半岛拉西州的摄政王带着情人逃到孟买，震惊了她的印度王子和当地的英国政治行政人员。她被指控谋杀丈夫、滥用王室权力和非法离开她的国家。通过跨过与世隔绝的宫殿内部的围墙，从王侯国前往英属印度，拉蒂的拉尼人跨越了社会、政治、领土和地理边界。在当时的官方文件中，她以殖民异国情调的熟悉语言被描绘成东方女性的性欲过度、危险和不理性的代表，以最麻烦的形式表现出来：与世隔绝的东方女王。像她一样的摄政母亲与殖民政府有着复杂的关系。虽然被认为在政治上无能和道德败坏，但他们同时挫败、挫败和逃避殖民管理者的谴责。在这个过程中，她们对殖民国家的反抗呈现了土著妇女反对最高权力和当地传统父权制的生动历史实例。本文考察了她有争议的摄政权以及性别、性不当行为和心理在土著主权、女性治理和过境等晚期殖民思想中的作用。她们对殖民国家的抵抗是土著妇女反对最高权力和当地传统父权制的生动历史实例。本文考察了她有争议的摄政权以及性别、性不当行为和心理在土著主权、女性治理和过境等晚期殖民思想中的作用。她们对殖民国家的抵抗是土著妇女反对最高权力和当地传统父权制的生动历史实例。本文考察了她有争议的摄政权以及性别、性不当行为和心理在土著主权、女性治理和过境等晚期殖民思想中的作用。