Indian princess's mother had nearly led India (8)
I believe the answer is:
maharani
'indian princess's' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'mother had nearly led india' is the wordplay.
'mother' becomes 'ma' (ma is a kind of mother).
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'led' becomes 'ran' ('run' can be a synonym of 'lead').
'india' becomes 'i' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'had' with its last letter taken off is 'ha'.
'ma'+'ha'+'ran'+'i'='MAHARANI'
(Other definitions for maharani that I've seen before include "Indian widow" , "Indian ruler's wife" , "Indian princess" , "Wife of a maharaja" .)