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Deccan Herald » Fine Art / Culture » Detailed Story
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Mahatma and the maharajas
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Maharaja Features
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Minions of the British, as they were, Indian maharajas could not risk airing their admiration for Gandhiji. Yet, some forged a relationship, based on respect, with the Mahatma, finds out K R N Swamy.
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Gandhiji was no stranger to India’s princedom, as his father Kaba Gandhi was the Dewan (Prime Minister) to the Maharajas of Porbander and Rajkot in Gujarat and the Mahatma’s formative years were spent in the feudal atmosphere of ‘Indian India’, as these principalities were called.
The effective ‘training’ of the Mahatma in Indian politics began in 1906, when he was a disciple to the great nationalist, Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Many maharajas were friends of Gokhale and Gandhiji met them frequently, when they came to see the leader. In his autobiography the Mahatma states: “Normally I always found them wearing fine Bengali dhotis and shirts and scarves. On the durbar days, when they had to meet the Viceroy, they put on trousers befitting khansamas and shining boots. I was pained and inquired of one of them the reason for the change.
“‘We alone know our unfortunate condition. We alone know the insults we have to put up with, in order that we may possess our wealth and titles,’ he replied.
“‘But what about these khansama turbans and these shining boots?’ I asked.
“‘Do you see any difference between khansamas and us?’ he replied, and added, ‘they are our khansamas, we are the Viceroy’s khansamas. If I were to absent myself from the levee, I should have to suffer the consequences. If I were to attend it in my usual dress, it should be an offence. And do you think I am going to get any opportunity there of talking to Lord Curzon? Not a bit of it!’ I was moved to pity for this plain-spoken friend”.
When the chance came, the future Father of the Nation did not mince words to the Indian princes. On February 4, 1916, Lord Hardinge, the then Viceroy of India, was laying the foundation of the Benares Hindu University and the assemblage was shimmering with Maharajas. Mahatma Gandhi had been invited to the function by the convener, Dr Annie Besant. Gandhiji, who was clad in a short, coarse dhoti, Kathiawadi cloak and turban, rose to speak. Turning to the maharajas, he said that he wanted to speak without reserve. “I compare the richly bedecked maharajas with the millions of the poor. And I feel like saying to these noble men, ‘There is no salvation for India unless you strip yourselves of this jewellery and hold it in trust for your countrymen in India.’” Soon after, the VIPs in the dais took objection to the Mahatma’s words and left the meeting.
As he travelled the length and breadth of the country in the next 40 years, the Mahatma did not have many opportunities to meet Indian princes who were scared that the British would penalise them for talking to the great leader. But, now 60 years after Independence, we find from the archives that some eminent maharajas risked everything to support the Mahatma in his task of freeing India. Sarojini Naidu, a lieutenant of the Mahatma, was approached by members of the royal family of Baroda, who said they wanted to meet the saint but without any publicity. Naidu obliged by conveying the message to the Mahatma and during one of his political meetings in Bombay, he went with her to a neighbouring building, where the Maharani of Baroda was waiting to pay her respects to the great leader. The present Maharaja of Wankaner, Pratap Sinhji, (who at 98 is the oldest Maharaja alive), has revealed that his father Maharaja Amarsinhji (1881-1954) used to send donations to the Mahatma, without the knowledge of the British. In fact, when the Mahatma visited Wankaner in the 1930s, the royal family could not meet him due to British pressure. But the maharaja sent a message to Gandhiji saying that while he felt that while the Harijan movement led by the Mahatma was noble, there were some negative aspects, which the great leader had not taken note of. Mahatma graciously acknowledged the suggestions and promised to examine them. The present scion of the Nawanagar royal family has revealed that his grandfather, His Highness Ranjit Singh (the great cricketer) had met the Mahatma incognito on a number of occasions. This was a huge risk for Ranjit Singh, as he was then the Chairman of the Chamber of Princes, the top political organisation of the maharajas.
The Mahatma did not hesitate to admonish those princes he found double-crossing him, as he did in Rajkot in 1939. The brutality by the minions of the maharaja against women and Congress workers led to a hunger strike by Kasturba Gandhi. Kasturba was arrested on arrival at Rajkot in February 1939, and confined in a dark room of a royal summer residence. Commented Bapu, “Satyagraha is a struggle in which the oldest and the weakest in body may take part if they have stout hearts.”
Progressive rulers, like H H Maharaja Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV of Mysore, were accepted by the Mahatma as great administrators, and his state was regarded as Ram Rajya, an ideal kingdom. When Bapu visited Kashmir in early 1947 to solve the political crisis it was different. He refused to take any refreshment offered by the royal family of Kashmir. In the words of Kashmiri nationalist Sheikh Abdullah: “Barefoot, carrying in her slender hands a plate of gold on which rested a glass of milk, Maharani Tara Devi walked all the way to greet the Mahatma, and told him ‘When a great seer graces our land, it is our custom to offer him a glass of milk.’ Gandhiji told her, ‘I cannot accept the offer of milk from a Maharaja whose subjects are distressed.'
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Sunday, October 2, 2005
