He was a friend of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, the dictators of Germany and Italy respectively. The English rulers of India also trusted him the most. In the book “The Magnificent Maharaja”, the former External Affairs Minister of India,K. Natwar Singh, has quoted the celebrated authority on Sikh history, Khushwant Singh, as saying: “He(the Maharaja) was a headstrong bully, a debauch, drunkard, womanizer and philanderer.” Even Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre are quoted smartly from “Freedom at Midnight”(page-168) by Natwar, to present “the custom of the Maharaja of Patiala to appear once a year before his subjects naked” as “his performance was adjudged a kind of temporal manifestation of the Shivlinga”. This was the magnificent Sikh Maharaja , Bhupendra Singh (12 October 1891-22 March 1938) who not only ruled the Patiala State during 1900 and 1938 but was also ten time elected Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes during 1920’s and 1930’s. He fathered 88 children of which only 53 survived. Much married Bhupendra Singh also had 350 women in his harem. But when his son, Yadavendra Singh, took over as the 9th Maharaja in 1938, the very first thing he did was to close the harem! Yadavendra was the father of the present Chief Minister of Punjab, Capt. Amarinder Singh and father-in-law of K. Natwar Singh from the Princely State of Bharatpur, Rajasthan.
K. M. Panikkar, who served Maharaja Bhupendra Singh for nearly five years, does mention the Maharaja’s “weakness for women and extravagance as his main failings” in just one sentence in his “An Autobiography”, but has praised “ the prince of the princes” for his “pride, authority, courage and a competent grasp of state of affairs as well as the arts” as his qualities in detail. He writes : “I could understand the ample measure of fear and the respect that Maharaja Bhupendra Singh inspired in his people. He was no doubt devoted to his people, but was equally a stern disciplinarian. A man of outstanding intelligence, he could also be as devious as Chanakya in his dealings. But it can be safely asserted that in generosity, munificence, piety and loyalty to those who served him he had no equal among Indian princes.” The Jamsaheb Ranjit Singh of Nawanagar worked as the A.D.C. to the Maharaja of Patiala, Rajendra Singh, during his days in exile, records Panikkar.
The Maharaja was representing Sikhs during the Round Table Conference and an Indian representative at the Imperial War Council in World War I. The first Indian to own an aircraft bought from the United Kingdom. He was one who commissioned a 1400 piece dinner set, made wholly in silver and gold, to mark the Royal tour by the Prince of Wales in 1922. Bhupendra Singh was one of the most trusted native rulers for the British, but he equally was friendly with the European dictators, Hitler and Mussolini. Hitler gifted him one of the six rare Maybach cars in the world. Of course, the Maharaja was equally generous to gift this car to one of his guests who was keen to buy it at Patiala House in Delhi. He had a fleet of 44 cars at his disposal including more than 20 Rolls Royce. One can visualize the generosity of the Maharaja in the case of Panikkar, his Minister and the Secretary at the Chamber of Princes. Though a friend of the English, Maharaja was dead against the federation where as Panikkar was a protagonist of federalism. To be Foreign Minister to the Maharaja was not an easy task for Panikkar since Bhupendra Singh clashed with many powerful figures for various reasons including the Viceroy, Lord Willingdon and his assertive wife, Lady Willingdon and some of the princes. In such circumstances, he would enter into secret negotiations with Winston Churchill.
When Yadavendra Singh was to take over as the Maharaja of Patiala following his father’s death in 1938, the departure of the English was hardly a decade away. Of course, the Maharaja of Patiala was the most important of the rulers in present day Punjab area. The house of Patiala enjoyed the distinction of having been blessed by the tenth Sikh Guru as his own. While negotiating, Sardar Patel and V.P. Menon accorded respect due to Patiala as compared to other States and Maharaja Yadavendra Singh was the Rajpramukh of the Patiala and Eastern Punjab States Union(PEPSU) which was inaugurated by Patel on 15 July 1948. With regards to the privy purse, the Maharaja wished to be treated in the same way as the Maharaja a of Gwalior and Indore. The amount was fixed at Rs.17 lakhs. The 9th Maharaja enjoyed diplomatic assignments where as the Maharani, Mohinder Kaur nee Mehtab Kaur, was the Rajya Sabha member (1964- ’67)and Lok Sabha member(1967- ’71) from the Congress party. Yadavendra Singh died on 17 June 1974 and his elder son, Amarinder Singh, became the 10th “Maharaja” of Patiala. Having fought two wars, 1965 and 1972, with Pakistan being with Indian Army, Capt. Amarinder opted to fight political battles through Akali Dal and later as a Congress leader. Presently the Chief Minister of Punjab, Amarinder had also an earlier term as Chief Minister between 2002 and 2007, later was elected to the Parliament defeating Arun Jaitely, the present Union Minister in the Modi government. In his earlier stint as the Chief Minister, Capt. Singh had organized mega events to promote the Global level Panjabiyat and Sikhs from all over the world including Pakistan participated with nostalgia of pre-partition India.
Recently, Capt. Amarinder Singh’s mother and “the last recognized Maharani of Patiala”, Rajmata Mohinder Kaur nee Mehtab Kaur died at the age of 95. The former External Affairs Secretary of India, K. C. Singh, in a tribute to Rajmata, has revealed so far unknown secret about the late Maharaja Yadavendra Singh’s first wife, Rajkumari Hem Prabha Devi of Saraikela, now in Orissa, from the family of Singhdeos. KC, who also served as the Deputy Secretary to the late President, Zail Singh, wrote in “The Tribune” of Chandigarh on 3 August 2017: “She passed away unheralded in 2014, aged 101.The stated reason for the Crown Prince remarrying was the first marriage being issueless. Actually the truth is more complex…..In fact, stories circulated that Akali leaders wanted the future ruler of Patiala to marry in a Sikh family so as to beget genuine Sikh heirs.” Singh does add another revelation regarding the Rajmata “throwing her lot with Morarji Desai Congress, due to her rumoured friendship with Ashok Mehta, one of the founders of the trade union movement and INTUC.” The history needs to be rewritten.
Next Column: When Indira was about to divorce Feroze
( The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail : [email protected] )
