Despite Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of British India, issuing circular trying to tame the rulers of Princely States, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda continued to be on tours to Europe for longer periods, did not return evading the Viceroy’s advice and continued to have warm meetings with the King also. He was the ruler who showed guts to resist the highhandedness of Lord Curzon.
“Lokmanya Tilak assigned the responsibility of the external affairs to Sayajirao who had gifted the Gaekwad wada at Pune to Tilak. If the Gadar (Revolution) movement under the direction of Ras Bihari Bose would have been successful during the first World War, Tilak might have become the Prime Minister of the free United States of India with Maharaja as the President and Aurobindo Ghose, who knew so many European languages, would have been the External Affairs Minister, ” notes Dr Damodar Nene, the biographer of Sayajirao in Marathi. Both the grandfather and father of Dr Nene held the position of Private Secretary to the Maharaja. Even Ghose was the Private Secretary before becoming the Vice-Principal of Baroda College. The Maharaja had a meeting with the fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini and a secret contract for support with the German dictator, Adolf Hitler!
Sayajirao (March 11, 1863 – February 6, 1939) was adopted on May 27, 1875, by Jamnabai Sahib, the widow of Maharaja Khanderao who died heirless on November 28, 1870. Fatesinghrao Gaekwad, the great grandson of Sayajirao III, records in the biography 'Sayajirao of Baroda: The Prince and The Man': “As to the next Maharaja, Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, as a gesture of recognition of the loyal services of Khanderao in 1857, was pleased to accede to the request of his widow, Her Highness Jamnabai, that she may be allowed to adopt some member of the Gaekwad house, whom the Government of India ‘may select’ as the most suitable person upon whom to confer the sovereignty of the Baroda state.”
“A saintly and calm figure” Khanderao was conferred the Grand Commander Star of India (GCSI) title for assisting the British to quell a revolt of 1857 in Saurashtra.
The search zeroed in on Kavlane village near Manmad (in present-day Maharashtra), the native village of the Gaekwads. A Regency Council was established to decide upon the adoption of the prince. It comprised Sir Richard Meade, Sir T Madhav Rao and Maharaja Khanderao’s widow Jamnabai. All the three narrowed down their search to Gopalrao, the second child of Prataprao’s great grandson, Kashirao. He was to be established as the ruler of Baroda as Sayajirao III. The Dewan Madhavrao was to play a very important role in the life and reign of Sayajirao. The lectures delivered by Madhavrao are compiled and the book “Minor Hints” is published in English and “Shasanna Sutro” in Gujarati too. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the bureaucrats and ministers to read the book. Sir F A H Elliot of the Indian Civil Service arrived in Baroda to set the rigorous curriculum and teaching standards for him. Sir Elliot too turned out to be Sayajirao’s friend, philosopher and guide in the several years that followed.
Maharaja Sayajirao III inclined towards the holistic development of his State and the subjects focusing on social reforms and educational facilities even to the Scheduled Castes i.e. Antyaj Schools. He gave scholarship to Dr B R Ambedkar to go abroad to study and even appointed him as a member of Dhara Sabha (Legislative Assembly) of Baroda State, changing the norm which did not allow an “untouchable” to be the member. The Maharaja was a highly respected Ruler of India. As per the British protocol, he was second only to the Nizam of Hyderabad even in the Durbars the British held in Delhi. He never was shy of expressing his sympathy and support to the nationalists and lost no opportunity, of course tactfully, to insult the Viceroys and even the future King.
In 1911, when the Viceroy planned a lavish Durbar in honour of George V, the then heir to the British throne, Maharaja Sayajirao went, but unlike the other Princes, he wore no jewellery, carried a walking stick instead of a bejewelled sword, and wore a plain white Aachkan or long-coat! When Sayajirao’s turn came to pay respects, he got up from his seat, walked up to George, made an about-turn and returned to his seat. He had committed sacrilege by turning his back on the future Emperor of India. There was a hue and cry demanding his deposition and deportation for insulting the future King. On advice of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a great nationalist himself, the Maharaja reluctantly sent an apology and avoided further confrontation with the British, records Fatesinghrao. Even according to the long serving and able Dewan, Sir V T Krishnamachary, the Maharaja had categorically stated that he had intentionally dressed and behaved in the manner that he did. Even when Viceroy Lord Curzon was to leave, Sayajirao did not go to Bombay for the send-off. Instead he sent a telegram to him: “Bon Voyage, may India never see the like of you again.”
There was a sex scandal involving the Maharaja. Unlike his personal doctor, Dr Sumant Mehta, who accompanied him to Europe, presenting the juicy description of it in his memoirs, Sayajirao’s great grandson Fatesinghrao does put the record straight in his biography. Sayajirao “may or may not have gone to bed with her”, but it was no more than the conventional trick employed by a husband-and-wife team to extort money. Beatrice Stathan’s husband Ernest Emmanuel Statham threatened to name Maharaja as “one of the lovers” of his wife in the divorce suit he was going to file. Initially the Maharaja ignored it but later agreed that Statham should be paid a sum of £5,700 and the case was withdrawn.
The Maharaja, who ruled the Baroda State for more than six decades and loved his subjects like his own children, was himself facing family tragedies as all his four sons died young while he was alive due to various vices and had to train his grandson, Pratapsinghrao, to be his successor who unfortunately was no match to the great ruler of Baroda.
Sayajirao III was a nationalist par excellence.
Next Column: Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the Great Indian Thinker
(The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail: [email protected] )
