Suniti Devi

Suniti Devi (or Sunity Devi) CIE (1864–1932) was the Maharani of Princely state of Coochbehar, India.

She was a daughter of the renowned Brahmo Samaj reformist, Keshub Chandra Sen of Calcutta. She was married to Nripendra Narayan (1863-1911), the Maharaja of Cooch Behar in 1878, when she was only fourteen years of age. She stayed at her father's place for two years after marriage, as the Narayan left for London for higher studies immediately after their marriage.

She was the mother of four sons and three daughters - Rajendra Narayan, Jitendra Narayan, Victor Nityendra Narayan, Hitendra Narayan and daughters Pratibha Devi, Sudhira Devi and Sukriti Devi. Of his sons Rajendra Narayan and Jitendra Narayan later became the Maharajas of Cooch Behar. Gayatri Devi and Ila Devi, were daughters of her son Jitendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, as such her granddaughters.

In 1887, her husband, Nipendra Narayan was awarded GCIE and she was awarded CIE. Suniti Devi became the first Indian women to be awarded CIE. She attended the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria in 1898 and Delhi Durbar of 1911 with her husband, the Maharaja of Cooch Behar. She along with her sister, the Sucharu Devi, were noted for their elegant style dressing.

Her husband had set up in her name a girls school named Suniti College in 1881 which was later named Suniti Academy. Suniti Devi was the brain behind the establishment of the school.

She was an educationist and a women's rights activist at heart, gave annual grants for the institution, exempted the girl students from paying tuition fees and also rewarded the successful students. She had arranged for palace cars to ferry the girl students from home to school and back. In a further effort to avoid any controversy she ordered that the windows of the cars carrying the girls to school to be covered by curtains.

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