The Maharaja Who Asked The British To Quit India

When he stood to speak for the princes, he surprised the British when he declared, 'The breeze is blowing from east to west. It will uproot and blow off the British. It is my earnest request to my British friends to now quit India respectfully'.

There are so many intriguing tales about the princes who ruled the Indian principalities.

They not only relate to the battles that were won and lost, but are also about the good deeds of the princes and the various welfare schemes that a ruler launched during his rule.

There are legends of valour, shikaars, expeditions, foreign jaunts, excellence in sports, and accounts of both eccentricities and excellence. And then too various anecdotes and kahanis focusing on the high lives of maharajas and their love for women.

Maharaja Jey Singh, who ruled Alwar from 1892 to 1937, after which he was sent into exile by the British, was a man oddly caught between the two worlds.

He was educated at Mayo College, Ajmer, where he learned about Indian and world history from his European teachers and was known to be an excellent orator in English and scholar. He was one of the longest-serving maharajas of his state and had many colourful and sometimes bizarre aspects to his life.

He could be called the first truly patriot maharaja, who outright asked the British to pack up and leave India. This he did this much before Quit India was called by Mahatma Gandhi in August 1942.

Maharaja Jey Singh was proud of his ancestors who belonged to the solar dynasty -- suryavanshis that claimed direct descent from Kush, the second son of Lord Ram. Though he was a prince of a small principality, he served as the chancellor of the Chamber of Princes of India, the apex body of the Indian rulers.

He represented the Indian princes at two of the three Round Table Conferences in London starting in 1930, organised by the British between Indian leaders and British administrators to bring about peaceful reform.

At the second conference in September 1931, the British expected him to oppose the Indian leaders -- the Congress, represented by Mahatma Gandhi, the Liberals by Tej Narayan Sapru and Mohammed Ali Jinnah for the Muslim League -- but he did not.

Instead, when he stood to speak for the princes, he surprised the British when he declared, 'The breeze is blowing from east to west. It will uproot and blow off the British. It is my earnest request to my British friends to now quit India respectfully'.

Sixteen Indian rulers, including Maharaja Jey Singh, were invited to the Round Table Conference in London. On receipt of the invitation, Jey Singh wrote back that as he was from the family of Lord Ram, he would not meet people who were anti-Hinduism or shake hands with them without gloves.

King George V was annoyed when he heard about Jey Singh's reply to the invitation. British officials were critical of the Alwar maharaja and warned him to mend his ways.

At one of the banquets hosted by the British monarch, probably on the occasion of the first conference, the maharaja defied all advice and appeared in snow white gloves and only shook hands with the other dignitaries wearing the gloves which were specially tailored for him.

Another version recounts that when he went to shake hands with King George V, he took off his gloves so swiftly and shook hands with the monarch so fast, nobody from the large gathering noticed the brief unrobing of his hands.

There is another curious story connected to Jey Singh's encounters with the British.

Once when Lord Willingdon, viceroy of India from 1931 to 1936, was at Simla, the summer capital of the British Raj, the ruler of Alwar also happened to be in town. Jey Singh was invited for a banquet at the Viceregal Lodge. At the banquet he was seated beside the viceroy's wife. Lady Willingdon at the pre-banquet meeting had lavished attention on the dog in her arms.

As the banquet began, the dog jumped out of the arms of the lady in waiting caring for it, reached the banquet table and found her way to Lady Willingdon's feet, which she began licking joyfully.

The dog then began kissing the maharaja's feet. Jey Singh did not like being touched by a dog while eating; it went against his beliefs. The maharaja leapt out of his seat and marched out of the dinner.

Jey Singh went back to his quarters for a quick bath and returned wearing fresh clothes and, apologising for his absence, took his seat at the banquet table.

The cumulative effect of all this was exile. The British began to find fault in his administration and he was eventually exiled from Alwar.

In exile, he lived in Paris with his wife and died after he fell from the stairs.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com