Gaj Singh

Gaj Singh II
Head of the House of Rathore
Tenure26 January 1952 – present
PredecessorHanwant Singh I
Heir apparentShivraj Singh
Maharaja of Jodhpur
Tenure26 January 1952 – present
Coronation12 May 1952
PredecessorHanwant Singh
SuccessorPosition abolished
Shivraj Singh (heir)
RegentKrishna Kumari
Born (1948-01-13) 13 January 1948 (age 76)
Jodhpur, Jodhpur State, India
SpouseHemalata Rajye (m. 1973)
IssueShivranjani Rajye
Shivraj Singh
DynastyRathore
FatherHanwant Singh
MotherKrishna Kumari
ReligionHinduism
EducationCothill House
Eton College
Alma materChrist Church, Oxford
RelativesChandresh Kumari
Shailesh Kumari
Hukum Singh
The 1927 Rolls-Royce of Gaj Singh

Gaj Singh II (born 13 January 1948), known as 'Bapji' (meaning 'father'),[1] is the titular Maharaja of Jodhpur since 1952, as well as an Indian politician and diplomat.

Early years and accession

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Gaj Singh was born on 13 January 1948 to Hanwant Singh and his first wife, Krishna Kumari, in the Zenana (women's quarters) of Umaid Bhawan Palace.[2][3] When his father, Hanwant Singh, lost his life in an air accident in 1952,[4] the throne and titles were passed to him at the age of four.[2][3][5] To mark his accession, a safa of five colors—pink, white, red, saffron, and green, which are also the colors of the Jodhpur State flag—was designed and is called Gaj Shahi.[2]

During his minority, his mother, Krishna Kumari, acted as regent.[2][6][7] He received a privy purse of 10 lakh rupees[3] and continued to receive it until the 26th Amendment in 1971 abolished it.[8]

Education

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He received his early education at home.[3] At the age of eight in 1956, he was sent first to Cothill House, a prep school in Oxfordshire, and then in 1961 to Eton College, Eton,[5] and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1970 with a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics.[2][3]

Return to Jodhpur

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In 1970, following the completion of his education, he returned to Jodhpur to fulfill his duties as the Maharaja of Jodhpur, assuming control of his vast inheritance as well as the manifold social and cultural responsibilities that accompanied it.[9][10][11]

Derecognition

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On 28 December 1971, following the assent of the then President of India, V. V. Giri, the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of India was enacted by Parliament.[2][12] This amendment abolished the official recognition of titles, privileges, and special rights that had been granted to the rulers of the former princely states.[12]

This deprived him and other rulers of the government annuities that had been guaranteed to them both in the Constitution and in the covenants of accession through which their states had been merged with the Dominion of India in 1947.[13] [14]

Family

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On 19 February 1973, in a simple ceremony at Dehradun, he married Hemlata Rajye, the daughter of Shiv Ratan Dev Singh, Raja of Poonch, and his wife, Nalini Rajya Lakshmi Devi, the daughter of Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah Dev.[2][3][15]

They have two children: a daughter, Shivranjani Rajye (born 22 August 1974), and a son, Shivraj Singh (born 30 September 1975).[3][16]

He has two sisters, Chandresh Kumari and Shailesh Kumari, and a stepbrother, Hukum Singh, who was murdered.[17][18]

Career

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He served from June 1978 to July 1980 as High Commissioner of India,[19] with accreditation spanning the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago,[2][20] Barbados, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Grenada, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.[21][22][23][24] At the same time, he also served as Commissioner to Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Cayman Islands.[21][22][23]

He also served a term in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament.[25]

On 20 July 1992, he established Rajmata Krishna Kumari Girls' Public School, a day and residential school for girls, named in honor of his mother.[26][27]

Maharaja of Jodhpur's coat of arms
Maharaja of Jodhpur's coat of arms

Philanthropy

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Singh heads a number of philanthropic institutions and religious charitable trusts.[3]

Indian Head Injury Foundation

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When his son, Shivraj Singh, suffered serious head injuries during a polo match in Jaipur in 2005 and lapsed into a coma,[28][29] he saw that only a few private hospitals in India could handle such cases.[30] To address this, he started the Indian Head Injury Foundation to quickly treat traumatic brain injuries, especially for those in India with limited resources.[31][32]

Titles and styles

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Raj Rajeshwar Saramad-i-Rajha-i-Hindustan Maharajadhiraja Maharaja Shri Gaj Singhji Sahib Bahadur, Maharaja of Jodhpur, with the style of His Highness.[33]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Epitome of Elegance and Grace". Open The Magazine. 20 January 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Singh, Dhananajaya (1996). The house of Marwar : the story of Jodhpur. Internet Archive. New Delhi : Roli Books. pp. 11, 12, 18, 189, 203–5, 212, 215. ISBN 978-81-7436-026-7.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Sharma, C. L. (1993). Ruling Elites of Rajasthan: A Changing Profile. M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd. pp. 103–106. ISBN 978-81-85880-13-6.
  4. ^ "Rajasthan museum seeks maharaja's plane crash wreckage". BBC News. 24 February 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  5. ^ a b Magazine, Smithsonian; Malhotra, Sonia Faleiro,Dhruv. "The Fall and Rise of a Modern Maharaja". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 24 August 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ "In Memoriam: Krishna Kumari (1926 –2018)". The Indian Express. 9 July 2018. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  7. ^ "Krishna Kumari | Krishna Kumari Jodhpur | Maharani Krishna Kumari | LA POLO". lapolo.in. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  8. ^ Jhala, Angma Dey (6 October 2015). Royal Patronage, Power and Aesthetics in Princely India. Routledge. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-317-31657-2.
  9. ^ "Heart in heritage". The Hindu. 29 February 2012. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  10. ^ "Why wealthy Indian maharajas don't make it to billionaire lists". Rediff. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  11. ^ "Meet Maharaja Gaj Singh II of Jodhpur, from the house of Marwars; know about his lifestyle, net worth, royal marriage, and more". Financialexpress. 4 September 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  12. ^ a b Parliament of India (1971). The Constitution of India (26th Amendment) Act 1971.
  13. ^ "The Constitution (26 Amendment) Act, 1971", indiacode.nic.in, Government of India, 1971, retrieved 9 November 2011
  14. ^ 1. Ramusack, Barbara N. (2004). The Indian princes and their states. Cambridge University Press. p. 278. ISBN 978-0-521-26727-4., "Through a constitutional amendment passed in 1971, Indira Gandhi stripped the princes of the titles, privy purses and regal privileges which her father's government had granted." (p 278). 2. Naipaul, V. S. (2003), India: A Wounded Civilization, Random House Digital, Inc., p. 37, ISBN 978-1-4000-3075-0 Quote: "The princes of India – their number and variety reflecting to a large extent the chaos that had come to the country with the break up of the Mughal empire – had lost real power in the British time. Through generations of idle servitude they had grown to specialize only in style. A bogus, extinguishable glamour: in 1947, with Independence, they had lost their state, and Mrs. Gandhi in 1971 had, without much public outcry, abolished their privy purses and titles." (pp 37–38). 3. Schmidt, Karl J. (1995), An atlas and survey of South Asian history, M.E. Sharpe, p. 78, ISBN 978-1-56324-334-9 Quote: "Although the Indian states were alternately requested or forced into union with either India or Pakistan, the real death of princely India came when the Twenty-sixth Amendment Act (1971) abolished the princes' titles, privileges, and privy purses." (page 78). 4. Breckenridge, Carol Appadurai (1995), Consuming modernity: public culture in a South Asian world, U of Minnesota Press, p. 84, ISBN 978-0-8166-2306-8 Quote: "The third stage in the political evolution of the princes from rulers to citizens occurred in 1971, when the constitution ceased to recognize them as princes and their privy purses, titles, and special privileges were abolished." (page 84). 5. Guha, Ramachandra (2008), India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy, HarperCollins, p. 441, ISBN 978-0-06-095858-9 Quote: "Her success at the polls emboldened Mrs. Gandhi to act decisively against the princes. Through 1971, the two sides tried and failed to find a settlement. The princes were willing to forgo their privy purses, but hoped at least to save their titles. But with her overwhelming majority in Parliament, the prime minister had no need to compromise. On 2 December she introduced a bill to amend the constitution and abolish all princely privileges. It was passed in the Lok Sabha by 381 votes to six, and in the Rajya Sabha by 167 votes to seven. In her own speech, the prime minister invited 'the princes to join the elite of the modern age, the elite which earns respect by its talent, energy and contribution to human progress, all of which can only be done when we work together as equals without regarding anybody as of special status.' " (page 441). 6. Cheesman, David (1997). Landlord power and rural indebtedness in colonial Sind, 1865–1901. London: Routledge. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-7007-0470-5. Quote: "The Indian princes survived the British Raj by only a few years. The Indian republic stripped them of their powers and then their titles." (page 10). 7. Merriam-Webster, Inc (1997), Merriam-Webster's geographical dictionary, Merriam-Webster, p. 520, ISBN 978-0-87779-546-9 Quote: "Indian States: "Various (formerly) semi-independent areas in India ruled by native princes .... Under British rule ... administered by residents assisted by political agents. Titles and remaining privileges of princes abolished by Indian government 1971." (page 520). 8. Ward, Philip (September 1989), Northern India, Rajasthan, Agra, Delhi: a travel guide, Pelican Publishing, p. 91, ISBN 978-0-88289-753-0 Quote: "A monarchy is only as good as the reigning monarch: thus it is with the princely states. Once they seemed immutable, invincible. In 1971 they were "derecognized," their privileges, privy purses and titles all abolished at a stroke" (page 91)
  15. ^ Grewal, Brigadier J. S. (1 August 2022). Poonch: India's Invincible Citadel. Lancer Publishers. p. 142. ISBN 978-81-7062-345-8.
  16. ^ Jhala, Jayasinhji (19 July 2018). Genealogy, Archive, Image: Interpreting Dynastic History in Western India, c. 1090-2016. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 76. ISBN 978-3-11-060129-9.
  17. ^ "Curious case of Jodhpur royal Hukam Singh and his grisly murder". India Today. 21 November 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  18. ^ "Krishna Kumari passes away at 92". The Times of India. 4 July 2018. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  19. ^ "High Commission of India, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago : Previous High Commissioners". www.hcipos.gov.in. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  20. ^ Translations on South and East Asia. Joint Publications Research Service. p. 19.
  21. ^ a b Personalities Caribbean. Personalities Limited. 1983. p. 970.
  22. ^ a b Asian Recorder. 1978. p. 14319.
  23. ^ a b "Governing Council - International Institute of Water". iiwater.org. 21 September 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  24. ^ "Experience a Real Palace". LeadersMag.com. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  25. ^ "Raj of the Royals (III): Rajasthan families that still have finger on power". The Indian Express. 4 December 2018. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  26. ^ "History : Rajmata Krishna Kumari Girls' Public School". rkkgps.com. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  27. ^ "Meet 7 existing Indian royal families – Know about their source of income and how they live a luxurious life". Financialexpress. 10 April 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  28. ^ "Shivraj Singh suffers serious head injuries during polo match in Jaipur". India Today. 7 March 2005. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  29. ^ "After the fall". The Times of India. 17 January 2006. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  30. ^ "Introducing the Indian Head Injuries Foundation". The Telegraph. 23 November 2009. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  31. ^ "Gaj Singh calls for brain trauma awareness | Femina.in". www.femina.in. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  32. ^ "IHIF Story | Indian Head Injury Foundation". indianheadinjuryfoundation.org. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  33. ^ Encyclopaedia Indica: Princely States in colonial India. Anmol Publications. 1996. p. 202. ISBN 978-81-7041-859-7.
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