The Indian Princes and their States
The Indian Princes and their States

Author: Barbara N. Ramusack

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2004-01-08

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1139449087

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Although the princes of India have been caricatured as oriental despots and British stooges, Barbara Ramusack's study argues that the British did not create the princes. On the contrary, many were consummate politicians who exercised considerable degrees of autonomy until the disintegration of the princely states after independence. Ramusack's synthesis has a broad temporal span, tracing the evolution of the Indian kings from their pre-colonial origins to their roles as clients in the British colonial system. The book breaks ground in its integration of political and economic developments in the major princely states with the shifting relationships between the princes and the British. It represents a major contribution, both to British imperial history in its analysis of the theory and practice of indirect rule, and to modern South Asian history, as a portrait of the princes as politicians and patrons of the arts.

Imperial Sovereignty and Local Politics
Imperial Sovereignty and Local Politics

Author: Tripurdaman Singh

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-05-23

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1108603998

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Imperial Sovereignty and Local Politics takes at its focus the historically significant interconnections between local polities and imperial formations in South Asia. Using the relationship between the Bhadauria Rajputs and the Mughal, Maratha and British Empires as a prism to evaluate the constitution of sovereignty and the process of state formation, it demonstrates the enduring relevance of symbolism and ritual, the persistence of pre-colonial political forms and ideologies and the continuing importance of local power networks in moulding imperial projects. Employing theories of state formation borrowed from anthropology, Singh emphasizes the need to conceptually separate political authority from symbolic sovereignty and examine the local context of imperial politics. This work provides a compelling re-orientation of the way we understand the nature of imperial states, the experience of sovereignty and the processes of political change in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur: Life and Legend
Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur: Life and Legend

Author: R.P. Singh

Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited

Published: 2005-12-01

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 9351940586

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Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur: Life and Legend is the story of how fate catapulted Kanwar Mor Mukut Singh of Isarda to the throne of Jaipur, a state that he ruled as Sawai Man Singh II for twenty-seven years before its merger with independent India. From being a ruler to serving as India's ambassador in Spain, he lived through a period of Indian history marked with glory and upheavals. Flamboyant, debonair and elegant, he had two overriding passions - polo and his third wife, Maharani Gayatri Devi. His polo team ravaged England in 1933, winning all major tournaments - a feat yet unparalleled. His romance with Gayatri Devi, the stunningly beautiful princess from Cooch Behar, is the stuff of legend. Sawai Man Singh's dream was to die 'in a polo field, in the midst of a chukka, with my friends around me, my pony under me, my polo stick in my hand, and my boots on'. On 24 June 1970 at Cirencester, England, his dream was fulfilled, plunging the world in grief.

Dethroned
Dethroned

Author: John Zubrzycki

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2025-05-22

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1805263099

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The dramatic true story of the betrayal of hundreds of Indian princely states by both the departing British and the new Congress government. In July 1947, India's last Viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, stood before New Delhi's Chamber of Princes to deliver the most important speech of his career. He had just three weeks to convince over 550 sovereign princely states--some tiny, some the size of Britain--to become part of a free India. Once Britain's most faithful allies, the princes could choose between joining India or Pakistan, or declaring independence. This is a saga of intrigue, brinkmanship and broken promises, wrought by Mountbatten and two of independent India's founding fathers: the country's most senior civil servant, V.P. Menon, and Congress strongman Vallabhbhai Patel. What India's architects described as a 'bloodless revolution' was anything but, as violence engulfed Kashmir and Indian troops crushed Hyderabad's dreams of independence. Most princes accepted the inevitable, exchanging their power for guarantees of privileges and titles in perpetuity. But these dynasties were still led to extinction--not by the sword, but by political expediency--leaving them with little more than fading memories of a glorified past.

The Mertiyo Rathors of Merto, Rajasthan
The Mertiyo Rathors of Merto, Rajasthan

Author: Richard Saran

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2020-08-06

Total Pages: 853

ISBN-13: 0472901737

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The Meṛtīyo Rāṭhoṛs of Meṛto, Rājasthān is a treasure for scholars of Rajpūt history. Richard D. Saran and Norman P. Ziegler, whose contributions to Rajpūt studies are well known to specialists in the field, have given us a work of deep and exacting scholarship. It is the culmination of decades devoted to the study of Middle Marwari chronicles from Rājasthān. The sources translated here provide access to the fortunes of a branch of the Jodhpur royal family, and in doing so they illuminate the larger world of Rajpūts in the middle period. The Meṛtīyo Rāṭhoṛs are significant for several reasons. Their story traces the emergence of a Rajpūt brotherhood into local prominence and follows the establishment of their kingdom on the eastern edge of Mārvāṛ as a defined territorial unit. The evolution of the Meṛtīyos as a brotherhood passed through several clearly defined stages, including a relationship with the house of Jodhpur that ranged from mutual support among brothers to hostility and clear separation. A study of the Meṛtīyos in this context provides a unique view of the formation of a strong and indpenedent Rajpūt cadet line, of the establishment and defense of a local territory, and of the internal relations among Rajpūt brotherhoods regarding issues of precedence, honor, patronage, and service. The translations are accompanied by an extensive explanatory apparatus taking various forms, which includes a valuable essay on Rajput social organization, complete genealogies, and biographies of all the major personages of the chronicles.

Animal Kingdoms
Animal Kingdoms

Author: Julie E. Hughes

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2013-03-25

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0674074807

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One summer evening in 1918, a leopard wandered into the gardens of an Indian palace. Roused by the alarms of servants, the prince’s eldest son and his entourage rode elephant-back to find and shoot the intruder. An exciting but insignificant vignette of life under the British Raj, we may think. Yet to the participants, the hunt was laden with symbolism. Carefully choreographed according to royal protocols, recorded by scribes and commemorated by court artists, it was a potent display of regal dominion over men and beasts alike. Animal Kingdoms uncovers the far-reaching cultural, political, and environmental importance of hunting in colonial India. Julie E. Hughes explores how Indian princes relied on their prowess as hunters to advance personal status and solidify power. Believing that men and animals developed similar characteristics by inhabiting a shared environment, they sought out quarry—fierce tigers, agile boar—with traits they hoped to cultivate in themselves. Largely debarred from military activities under the British, they also used the hunt to establish meaningful links with the historic battlefields and legendary deeds of their ancestors. Hunting was not only a means of displaying masculinity and heroism, however. Indian rulers strove to present a picture of privileged ease, perched in luxuriously outfitted shooting boxes and accompanied by lavish retinues. Their interest in being sumptuously sovereign was crucial to elevating the prestige of prized game. Animal Kingdoms will inform historians of the subcontinent with new perspectives and captivate readers with descriptions of its magnificent landscapes and wildlife.