: Manu S Pillai on how maharajah Sayaji Rao of Baroda (temporarily) defied the British government #IndiaNEWS As one who believed in Britain’s duty to civilise the world, Lord Curzon could not brook

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Manu S Pillai on how maharajah Sayaji Rao of Baroda (temporarily) defied the British government #IndiaNEWS
As one who believed in Britain’s duty to civilise the world, Lord Curzon could not brook an independent-minded maharajah. In 1900, in fact, when the maharajah of Baroda, Sayaji Rao, left for one of his many European trips, Curzon issued a circular requiring all rulers to apply for permission in future. Generally seen as a rebuke to Baroda, the maharajah was tempted to register a protest, but his counsellors, including Naoroji in London – to whose historic election campaign he had donated years before – dissuaded him. He did find an opportunity to pay Curzon back in kind, though. When Edward VII came to the throne after Victoria’s death, the viceroy ordered a durbar, with a procession of princes. It was demeaning, for this was really a homage to Curzon than the sovereign. Sayaji Rao, therefore, tried to avoid it. “I am afraid,� he wrote, “it would seriously inconvenience me to join it.� Not prepared to take this lying down, Curzon insisted: the maharajah would have to come. Sayaji Rao gave in, but not without stating that this was “forced upon him�. And in the last minute he absented himself anyway: an old widow had died in the palace, giving him an...Read more

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