Himani Bundela on Tuesday became Kaun Banega Crorepati season 13’s first crorepati when she rightly answered to a question on Noor Inayat Khan for Rs 1 crore. Himani was up in joy as the show host, Amitabh Bachchan, declared that the option she chose was correct and that she had won.

Now, let’s take a look at Who was Noor Inayat Khan?

Noor Inayat Khan, the first Indian origin woman to be honoured with the Blue Plaque in the UK was a spy in World War II and descendant of ruler Tipu Sultan.

Noor had spied for Britain during World War II and was eventually caught and executed by the Nazis. She was also a descendant of Tipu Sultan – an 18th-century Muslim ruler of Mysore state – remained in near anonymity for decades.

Her contribution to the World War came to light after author Shrabani Basu wrote Noor’s biography, Spy Princess, in 2006.

Meanwhile, Britain also awarded her with the Blue Plaque – the first Indian origin woman to be honoured with the title for her sacrifices as a Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France.

Noor was captured by the Gestapo in Paris and taken to Germany where she was executed in 1944.

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In 2014, in her honour, a stamp was issued and there are reports that her face may soon appear on British coins, AlJazeera said in a report.

She was also awarded the George Cross, the United Kingdom’s highest civilian award, in 1949 and the French Croix de Guerre, a military honour awarded by France in 1946.

In October, 2020, a biopic, A Call To Spy was released that pays tribute to the work of three female British spies during the second World War, including Noor, who was also a children stories writer and pacifist.

Prior to the war, Noor lived a peaceful life and grew up to become a prolific children stories writer, contributing regularly to the local French radio and magazines.

How did Noor decide to spy?

Noor was born on January 1, 1914, in the Russian capital Moscow. After the Nazis captured France in 1940, Noor’s life came to an abrupt halt, and she fled for a second time to Britain along with thousands of other French residents.

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After her arrival, Noor joined the war effort. She signed for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, the female auxiliary for the UK’s Royal Air Force, as a wireless operator – a job Shrabani said she excelled at.

According to Shrabani’s Spy Princess, Inayat was a firm believer in non-violence and the oneness of all religions, concepts which Noor internalised growing up. Her father died in 1927 during a trip to India, leaving 13-year-old Noor, the oldest child, to help her mother raise her siblings.

Why was Noor chosen for the job?

According to Spy Princess, Noor was fluent in French. She was recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret British organisation that sent spies to help local resistance movements in occupied Europe.

Though Noor was aware of the dangerous nature of the assignment, she immediately accepted the offer.

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In June 1943, Noor was sent to France under the code name “Madeleine”, the first woman wireless operator to be deployed to the country by the UK. After landing in the city of Le Mans, Noor travelled to Paris, where she would work with the French resistance network “Prosper”.

In a short period of time, all the high-ranking agents were captured by the Nazis, and their wireless sets were seized, leaving Noor as the only operator in the field for the next few months.

After seemingly being betrayed by one of her colleagues, she was captured by the Gestapo in October the same year and taken to Germany a month later.

The Gestapo considered Noor a highly dangerous prisoner, who had never given up anyone to the Germans and had tried escaping twice under their watch, according to the accounts in the book.

According to Spy Princess, Noor was tortured, and shackled during the imprisonment. Later, she was moved to Dachau concentration camp near Munich, where she was shot alongside three other SOE agents.