Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
August 21, 2017
Seven decades into Indian democracy, a royal palace thrives
By Vineeta Deepak
The Associated Press
ODHPUR, India — In the summer
of 1944, hundreds of royals
gathered for the opening of Umaid
Bhawan Palace, a magnificent sandstone
edifice that dominates the skyline in
India’s northwestern city of Jodhpur. It
was the last of its kind.
Three years later, India was free from
British colonial rule and more than 500
princely states — the semi-sovereign
principalities ruled by royal clans — faced
an uncertain future. Most have faded into
obscurity, but the family that built this
palace continues to thrive — in part by
converting a section of it into a hotel.
“How many places do you know in the
world where you can actually live right
where the maharaja is living next door to
you?” said the hotel’s general manager,
Mehrnawaz Avari. “The idea is to treat our
guests like kings and queens.”
The 347-room palace, considered one of
the world’s fanciest residences, was used
as the primary location for Viceroy House,
a new film released in India by director
Gurinder Chadha. The movie details the
last days of the British Empire in India
and the bloody partition with what became
Pakistan in 1947.
The iconic structure in the west
Rajasthani city known for its traditional
handicrafts was named after Maharaja
Umaid Singh, the last king of what was
known as the Marwar-Rathore Dynasty.
He commissioned the project in 1929 with
a “spirit of grandness,” said royal family
associate Karni Singh Jasol. “He had a
larger-than-life vision.”
After independence, most of India’s
princely states opted to join the democratic
republic, and initially maintained their
titles, property, and a degree of autonomy.
Within decades, the royals lost almost all
of it, though. India amended its
constitution in 1971, giving its citizens
equal rights and cancelling royal
privileges, including the regular payments
royal families received from the state.
Stripped of their allowances and unsure
how to survive as commoners, many royal
families descended into chaos. Some held
onto property, only to lose it amid internal
bickering over rival claims.
“The properties that they inherited were
in a true sense white elephants,” Jasol
said. “The royal families were high on
assets, but low on liquidity. They didn’t
have large bank balances to turn their
family properties into something grand or
sustain it for the future.”
The Singhs of Jodhpur not only
maintained their holdings, but managed
over decades to grow.
The last reigning maharaja’s grandson,
Gaj Singh, was only four years old when
J
his father died in a plane crash in 1952,
making him sole owner of the palace and
other family properties, including the
ancestral Mehrangarh Fort.
When royal allowances were cancelled
in 1971, the young Singh patriarch acted
quickly. The family opened part of its
palace as a hotel in 1978, and turned the
fort into a museum, investing profits into
preserving Jodhpur’s royal antiquities.
“They today serve as the main economic
levers for the city,” said Jasol, who is
director of the fort and museum.
The palace is open to visitors year round,
and has become a go-to destination for
government leaders, other royals, and
Hollywood and Bollywood stars alike. In
2007, British actress Elizabeth Hurley
married Indian businessman Arun Nayar
beneath the white marble canopy, or
baradari, on the palace lawn; they have
since divorced.
The palace is divided into a home for Gaj
Singh and his family, and a heritage hotel
of 64 rooms and suites run by the luxury
hotel chain Taj Group since 2005.
Designed by British architect Henry
Vaughan Lanchester, the palace features
elements of the art deco style popular in
Europe and America in the ’30s and ’40s,
combined
with
traditional
Indian
craftsmanship.
Colonnaded verandas guide one’s eye up
to intricately carved pillars, stylized
sculptures, and finally a massive central
dome topped by a 105-foot golden cupola.
The cost of the royal experience ranges
from $500 to more than $12,000 a night.
For those who can afford it, the hotel pulls
out all the stops.
Visitors are greeted by a smiling guard
wearing one of Jodhpur’s famous
handlebar moustaches; he opens the door
while hotel staff shower guests with rose
petals. Peacocks roam the palace lawns.
Further inside, pulsating Rajasthani folk
tunes fill the air as colorful dancers move
in choreographed circles. Guests mingle
amid crystal chandeliers and silk-draped
furniture.
Gold-leaf furniture and ornate mirrors
are arranged around gleaming marble
floors, while the walls are decorated with
family portraits, as well as leopard skins
and the busts of other animals hunted by
former royals. The decoration was done
over three years by Polish artist Stefan
Norblin, who had fled from war-torn
Europe in 1944. He also painted frescoes
and murals in the royal suites.
PALATIAL HOTEL. Pictured is the Umaid
Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, India. The 347-room
palace, considered one of the world’s fanciest resi-
dences, was used as the primary location for Viceroy
House, a new film by director Gurinder Chadha. The
movie details the last days of the British Empire in In-
dia and the bloody partition with what became Paki-
stan in 1947. (AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi, File)
The royal family has long focused on
conserving the region’s heritage as a way
to utilize its enormous real estate
holdings. It manages trusts engaged in
water conservation, education, and
cultural
revival
projects,
creating
employment for thousands of locals.
“I know at one time, royalty was a bad
word,” said Singh’s daughter, 42-year-old
Shivranjani Rajye. “Now you don’t have to
shy away from it.”
The Cambridge-educated Rajye runs
most of the family’s business operations,
though the family heir is her brother,
Shivraj Singh, who also lives with his
family in the palace. He has kept a low
profile since spending several months in a
coma after a near-fatal accident playing
polo in 2005.
Jodhpur’s residents still see the family
as their royals, and Gaj Singh as their
maharaja. And he “very much believes he
is the king,” said Rajye, elegantly dressed
in a chiffon sari with a hint of jewelry.
“He never gave up his title — he doesn’t
have it officially, but he knew who he was,
and he knew he commanded respect of the
people.”
China, India soldiers hurl stones at one another in Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Officials say
Indian and Chinese soldiers hurled stones
at one another during an altercation in the
high Himalayas in Indian-controlled
Kashmir, escalating the tensions between
two nations already engaged in a lengthy
border standoff elsewhere.
Police and Indian army officials said the
Chinese soldiers hurled stones while
attempting to enter Ladakh region near
Pangong Lake but were confronted by
Indian soldiers. They said Indian soldiers
retaliated but neither side used guns.
Soldiers from the two countries are
already locked in a bitter but non-violent
standoff in Doklam, an area disputed
between China and India’s ally Bhutan,
where New Delhi sent its soldiers in June
to stop China from constructing a strategic
road.
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