Manu Pillai’s latest book, False Allies: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma , counters the popular notion that the princely states...
Manu Pillai’s latest book, False Allies: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma, counters the popular notion that the princely states were stooges of the British Raj. Pillai spoke about the book and the place of the rajahs and ranis in the political history of modern India to Scroll.in. Excerpts from the interview:
It is 50 years since Indira Gandhi abolished the privy purse, ceasing all governmental grants to the royals of erstwhile princely states in India. Why is this present time an important juncture to revisit the Maharajahs?
I don’t think it is about royalty as much as about the states over which they governed, and, thus, about seeing them as heads of those states. Behind the colourful stories about rajahs and ranis, and of their quirks and peculiarities, we often forget that the places they ruled – spread over forty percent of subcontinental territory – have serious histories. And these, lying outside British-ruled India, are fascinating political spaces, that can tell us about everything from tribal unrest to court culture and ideas of kingship.
The emphasis, however, for too long has been on British-ruled India alone, and if we are to form a fuller understanding of modern India, I believe it is important to also...
