Maharani Suniti Devi was the wife of Nripendra Naraya, the Maharaja of Cooch Behar. She was the first Indian woman to be awarded the rank of Companion in the Order of the Indian Empire, which was founded by Queen Victoria. She attended the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations of Queen Victoria in 1898, and the celebrations in India for the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911.
Her husband had a girls school set up in her name, and she 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 an further effort to avoid any controversy she ordered that the windows of the cars carrying the girls to school to be covered by curtains.
She along with her sister Sucharu Devi also financed the foundation of Maharani Girls’ High School at Darjeeling in 1908.She was the President of State Council and also the first President of All Bengal Women’s Union in 1932 and worked along with other women’s right activist from Bengal like Charulata Mukherjee, Saroj Nalini Dutt, T. R Nelly and her sister Sucharu Devi, the Maharani of Mayurbhanj.
She died suddenly in the year 1932 at Ranchi.
