The Ten Biggest Surprises - Part Three

9.            India is not a poor country and never has been.

Since around 1000 AD until its independence, India’s political and economic history was dominated by “traders and raiders” from the Near East and British Empires. These traders and raiders didn’t come for the scenery. Great Britain had a lot of colonies but christened only one "the jewel in the crown."
 

Widespread poverty in India has always been and still is a result of concentrated control of those resources, starting in the Middle Ages and continued by colonialism and the caste system. That concentration led to dysfunctional distribution and use of the nation's wealth.

The first critical element in any nation's economy is always food. India sits on a subcontinent with fertile soil and a climate that supports three harvests a year, as evidenced by the relentless greenery in the cities.

Keith or I probably snapped this photo to capture the picture of an elephant in city traffic, 
but it serves here to illustrate Delhi's status as the greenest capital city on earth. 
Roughly a quarter of the city is tree-shaded.

I snapped this photo while we were walking in Jaipur 
to show the fecundity of the land and climate. 
As far as I could tell, no one planted this. Stuff just grows.

 

We visited just after one harvest was completed, while the dry-season crops were just beginning. As a result, the air was filled with fine dust pretty much the entire time we were there. But as we drove through the countryside between Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra, the country's agricultural assets were apparent nonetheless.

The dry-season crop getting started, between Jaipur and Agra.

Another one of the many overflowing vegetable stands we saw, this one in Shahpura.

And for good measure, a view of the next rice crop getting started in Nepal.

 

In addition, India's most widely practiced religion has never removed women from the productive workforce, so Indians have always been able to use the contributions from all, not just half, their adult population. 

 

Finally, the land is rich in mineral resources.

10.          The historic and continuing influence of maharajas

Say the word 'maharaja,' and what comes to mind? Chances are, wealth beyond belief. Before this trip, my whole idea of maharajas was shaped by caricatures. I didn't really know what they were--other than wealthy beyond belief--why they existed, what they did, or where they went.

Here's the story: During the first millennium, regional kingdoms dominated India's economic and political life, just as they did in Europe. It was at the end of the first millennium that India experienced its first imperial invaders, the Turks. 

 

Two of these solid silver urns
were created for a maharaja in 1902,
to allow him to drink and bathe
in Ganges River water during an
extended trip to London.

For whatever reason, conflict between the imperial invaders and the local kings was short-lived (as these things go), and they reached a long-lasting accommodation. The native kings accepted the sovereignty of the invading emperors, and the emperors accepted the local kings--the maharajas--as allied local chieftains. This pattern continued through India's Sultanate period (12th through 15th centuries); was repeated when the Moghuls from Persia and Afghanistan replaced the sultans (16th through 19th centuries), and repeated again under the British (mid-19th through mid-20th centuries).

Working with whatever emperor, shah, or king was in charge, maharajas governed the locals while extracting tribute (taxes) and serving the emperor/king. They could pretty much take whatever they wanted with little limit or accountability. 

 

Our Indian guide told a story of a maharaja who went to London in the early 20th century and was disrespected at a Rolls Royce dealership. To soothe his pique, he purchased six limos, used them as garbage trucks, and then made the Rolls representatives repair them.

The maharajas' fiefdoms were known as India's princely states. At the time of independence in 1947, there were 565 such states in India and Pakistan.

The maharani in 1940 at home
in one of her husband's palaces

As we traveled through India, Keith and I were reading A Princess Remembers, the autobiography of Gayatri Devi (1919-2009), the granddaughter and daughter of the maharajas of Baroda and Cooch Behar and wife of the maharaja of Jaipur. Our Indian tour guide spoke very lovingly of the Maharani, who died in 2009. Her step-great-grandson, 16-year-old Padmanabh Singh, is still recognized as the Maharaja of Jaipur and is the recipient of much deference, respect, and good wishes, if our Indian guide is any indication.

A good writer and a decent human being, the Maharani provides a clear window in her autobiography into the lives of the ultra-wealthy who dominated Indian politics and economics before independence. Of her 1920s childhood, she wrote:

“Our palace staff numbered about four or five hundred. For the palace parks and grounds, there were twenty gardeners, twenty to manage the polo ponies’ stables, twelve in the garages, almost a hundred in the elephant stables, a tennis coach and his assistant, twelve ball boys, two staff to look after the guns, ten sweepers to keep the drives and walkways immaculate, and finally the guards. Indoors, there were three head chefs, one for English, one for Bengali, and one for Maratha cuisine. Each had his separate kitchen with his own scullery and his own staff. Six women helped to prepare the vegetables and three bicycle sowars fetched provisions from the market each day. Each of us girls had a maid in addition to our governess and tutors. (Our younger brother) had an additional person servant and (our oldest brother) had four. Mother’s entourage included a two secretaries and a typist, ladies-in-waiting, and a number of personal maids. Five or six men from good families and in no way to be considered servants had the responsibility of managing different departments of the household. Finally, there was a band of about forty musicians who played every night before dinner and on ceremonial occasions.”

The mindset that this sort of upbringing can create in even a good person was evident when she described her life while her husband served as a captain in the Indian Army during World War II:

Only then did I realize how burdensome I found the trappings and duties of rulership. It was bliss to live like any other army wife in a little bungalow, to run the house myself and be directly responsible for my husband's comforts--ordering menus, shopping for supplies, typing his letters. I got no special privileges or deference; I was just a captain's wife. Like the other officers' families, we had a small staff of servants: a cook, a butler, a man to clean the house, a maid for me, a valet for Jai, and his army orderly. Of course there were as well grooms for Jai's eight polo ponies and for his other two horses. "

Although the Indian Constitution was amended in 1970 to end all titles, privileges, and government-provided income to the maharajas, they were allowed to keep their substantial property. Those who managed the assets well are still wealthy and therefore politically powerful. Many have converted their palaces and estates into luxury hotels, resorts, and restaurants. Some they sold outright; others they own and manage themselves. We visited several and stayed in one.

While visiting Ranthambore, we stayed at the Sawai Madophur Lodge, built in the early 20th century by the maharaja of Jaipur, who stayed here when they took their guests on tiger hunts.

Our group on the veranda of the Maharaja of Jaipur's hunting lodge

Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth at the hunting lodge in 1961.

We visited another of the Maharaja of Jaipur's former palaces, this one converted into the Jaipur City Palace Museum. The royal family still owns it, I believe, and still uses it as one of their residences although large parts are open to the public.

Like most of the palaces we visited, the Jaipur palace consists of several buildings and courtyards. This one, I think, was where the maharaja would hold less formal meetings.

This is the durbar (big meeting) room, where the maharaja holds more formal meetings. We were not allowed to take photos, and we didn't, but not all bloggers follow the rules, so pictures are available.

The maharajas of Jaipur had yet another palace outside the city, the Amber Fort, on which construction began in the mid-16th century. From what I've seen of the world's palaces so far, I nominate this one as the most palatial. I would love to have seen it during its heyday.

I don't know how to convey the size of the complex. 
It covers acres and acres, more like what you think of as a small city rather than a palace.

The vegetable gardens, I presume. Flower gardens were closer in.

One of the interior courtyards

A wall in the Amber Fort palace

On the road between Delhi and Jaipur, we stopped for lunch at another maharaja's property, the Shahpura Haveli.  The current owner of the property is Maharaja Surendra Singh, who lives in Jaipur, we were told.

A view from a high balcony of the Shahpura Haveli, looking down at a lower balcony and the entrance. A 300-year-old maharaja's residence is up on the hill on the right; the current palace dates from the mid-1800s. 

Interior views at the Shahpura Haveli

I love these carved and studded doors. 
I don't understand why anyone ever thought to do that
 to a door, but I'm glad they did.

On another day, we stopped at the Hotel Narain Miwas for lunch. The smallest of the palaces we visited, the website says "The palace was built in 1928 by General Amar Singh Ji, the then Thakur of Kanota. Designed in the Anglo-Indian style popular in the Victorian era, the palace served as the country resort for the Kanota royalty."

Love  the doorknob! We actually saw some of these for sale, but it's one of those things...pretty heavy for checked baggage and what would you do with it when you got home anyway?

I would have loved to spend more than one lunchtime at the Laxmi Niwas Palace in Bharatpur, where we stopped to eat on the road between Jaipur and Agra. Built by the Maharaja of Bharatpur in 1857, this palace was converted to a hotel only in 1994.

This isn't even the main palace. This view looks from the first entrance gateway toward the older palace, which serves as an entrance way to the newer palace.

It was a pretty long walk through all those entrance gates, but the view was nice and there was live music. The restaurant was up those stairs behind the second pillar from the right.

Just a few more sumptuous tidbits from other royal buildings of India:

Over the years, almost all the jewels and precious metals were removed from the 
walls and ceilings of the buildings in  Fatephur Sikri, residence of Emperor Akbar. 
But some of the jade roof tiles remain. 
Yes, jade. 
For the roof. 

The Red Fort in Delhi was used by emperors, not maharajas.
Does this picture give you a sense of the expanse of intricate marble work?

Just one of the pillars.

I'm coming to the end of this blog and getting silly. Pools, fountains, and streams ran through and between the royal buildings at the Red Fort. They were all dry when we were there, either for maintenance or preserving water in the dry season. I wanted to see what it might have looked like with the water, so I photoshopped it in.