Not that we intend to present a picture here to malign the Indian Maharajas, but the recorded history of some of the Maharajas by their own top officials in the memoirs exposing the love traps of pleasure seeking Princely rulers of British India cannot be ignored. The Maharajas had come across such experiences and were blackmailed not only by the gangs and women who laid the traps but even by the British rulers of the time. We take up cases of at least two most important Maharajas of Princely States. One was the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir and another being the Maharaja of Baroda State. Both being well respected and loved by their subjects too. Both were trapped in London during their visits. Both had to pay huge amounts as compensation to get rid of the court proceedings to save their prestige. And despite paying huge amount as compensation to the parties, both could not escape discredit in the eyes of their own officials and family members. Both the Maharajas were on firing range of the British officials as both did not toe the line of the British since they had sympathy for the nationalist elements and their own subjects. Both the Maharajas preferred to be at loggerheads with the English in India as they had direct rapport with the British Royalty. One of them was Maharaja Hari Singh and another was Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III !
“During the time of Hari Singh’s uncle, Maharaja Pratap Singh, the British were supreme in Kashmir. It was well-known that the British intervened in Kashmir and deposed Maharaja Pratap Singh as a result of the machinations of his brother (and Hari Singh’s father), Amar Singh. Pratap Singh had no heirs and consequently the next in succession was his nephew, Hari Singh. Unwilling to see the throne go to the latter, Pratap Singh adopted a distance Prince, but this was set aside in 1925 and Hari Singh installed in the gaddi.” This is recorded by K. M. Panikkar, who served the Maharaja between 1930 and 1935 as his Constitutional Advisor, in his Autobiography first published in 1954 when the Maharaja was still alive. Hari Singh died in 1961. Panikkar writes further : “After 35 years of total British control, Kashmir came under Hari Singh’s rule, but he knew that although his title was exalted, his powers were greatly limited by the Resident’s right to intervene in many important matters…Hari Singh’s one ambition was to regain his sovereignty.. Two things stood in his way of his ambition. One was ‘his own background’; the other was the dominance of Muslims in the State.” The background of course was the notorious ‘Mr. A’ case !
Ambassador Panikkar, who was also the Editor of The Hindustan Times in 1923, describes the plot to involve the young prince in a compromising situation with some woman and to blackmail him. “A few years before assuming his gaddi, Hari Singh made a journey to England. A gang of criminals in London plotted to defraud him of vast sums of money. The leader of the plot was a lawyer named Hobbs and he was abetted by an Englishman named Captain Arthur who was the Maharaja’s A.D.C….The woman they used was Mrs. Robinson. Captain Arther helped to introduce her to Hari Singh as a rich widow. The prince enamoured of her and set out for Paris in her company.” The gang blackmailed the Maharaja to the tune of 45 lakhs of rupees. “When the thieves fell out, the plot was exposed and in 1924 it formed the basis of a lawsuit. The British government directed that the Maharaja should be spared of publicity and thus the victim was referred to as ‘Mr. A’ throughout the proceedings. But as the details of the story leaked out, the world’s curiosity was excited…Ultimately the government itself came out with the statement that the heir apparent of Kashmir, Raja Hari Singh, was ‘Mr. A’! Due to this bitter experience, the Maharaja distrusted everyone. “Newspapers all over the world chronicled his youthful indiscretion and the prince could not get over the disgrace.”
The case of Maharaja Sayajirao was mentioned by his great grandson, Maharaja Fatehsinghrao Gaekwad as his “sex scandal” in the biography he wrote. Of course, Sayajirao’s scandal was first exposed by his own medical officer, Dr. Sumant Mehta, who accompanied him to Europe. Dr. Mehta had described “the old-man roaming around with the young lady” and this led to a friction between the Maharaja and the Maharani. In “Sayajirao of Baroda: The Prince and the Man”, Fatesinghrao notes : “Almost for the first time in his forty-eight years, he became involved in a sex scandal. It was no more than the conventional trick employed by a husband-and- wife team to extort money from a rich man, and indeed Indian princes who were unfamiliar with western norms of morality were looked upon by such people as their natural prey.” The Maharaja’s movements were under surveillance all the time.
“A woman called Beatrice Statham who was ‘well known to the police’ had pretended to be enamoured by him and may or may not have gone to bed with him. At least there is no clear evidence that she had. Her husband, Ernest Emmanuel Statham, had pretended to be outraged and demanded money from Sayajirao if he did not want his name to be mentioned in the papers, as ‘one of the lovers’ of his wife in the divorce suit he was going to file. Sayajirao consulted his lawyers and was advised to ignore the threat. There upon Statham had filed his suit for divorce.” At a later stage, the Maharaja preferred to pay her a big amount as compensation to save his skin from the damaging legal suit, according to Dr. Mehta, who left the job of Baroda State to join Gandhian freedom movement.
Today both the Maharajas are remembered as the rulers with progressive, modern and reformist outlook for the betterment of their subjects. Both were devoted to removal of untouchability making necessary laws for the same.
Both cared for the downtrodden. Both stressed on spreading education in their respective States and even opening schools for the antyajs – dalits (scheduled Castes). Both lived for the people of their State but both had to undergo miserable life so far as their own family tragedies encountered them at various stages. It may be a coincidence that both had to face the love traps at London, had to face the trauma and flush out huge amount as compensation. Of course, despite such sad encounters, both are known as benevolent rulers.
Next Column: Sardar Patel opts for Partition of India
( The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail : [email protected] )
