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Princess: The Autobiography of Dowager Maharani of Gwalior
Scindia, Vijayaraje
281 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1988
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April 19, 2024
Rajmata Vijay Raje Scindia was the last Maharani of Gwalior, an Indian princely kingdom the size of Portugal with over four million subjects, as the preface elucidates. Brought up in an aristocratic Rana family, she later indulged into the political realms too being one of the most influential Right-wing leaders of her time, inter alia.
The autobiography is divided into three sections in terms of content. The first section deals with her childhood and young days in a conservative Rana 'maternal family', exiled after her maternal grandfather Khadga Shumsher was involved in an armed-coup against his brother, Bir Shumsher Rana of Nepal.
The second section includes the history of Scindia Royal Family subdivided into the reigns of few Maharajahs.
The third sections deals about her flamboyant life as a Maharani of Gwalior and the last 'twilight days' of Indian princely states, including their mixed feelings regarding the integration with a to-be-unified India.
The fourth section shares about how she got into politics of Jana Sangh along with her imprisonment in the Tihar jail together with Princess Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, another extraordinarily beautiful and famous regal leaders of post-independence India.
In a nutshell, the autobiography is a worth-reading with some of really intriguing lifestyles of the Indian royals and their ebbs and flows with the introduction of a 'new India', after its 'Tryst with Destiny', as Nehru calls it.
The autobiography is divided into three sections in terms of content. The first section deals with her childhood and young days in a conservative Rana 'maternal family', exiled after her maternal grandfather Khadga Shumsher was involved in an armed-coup against his brother, Bir Shumsher Rana of Nepal.
The second section includes the history of Scindia Royal Family subdivided into the reigns of few Maharajahs.
The third sections deals about her flamboyant life as a Maharani of Gwalior and the last 'twilight days' of Indian princely states, including their mixed feelings regarding the integration with a to-be-unified India.
The fourth section shares about how she got into politics of Jana Sangh along with her imprisonment in the Tihar jail together with Princess Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, another extraordinarily beautiful and famous regal leaders of post-independence India.
In a nutshell, the autobiography is a worth-reading with some of really intriguing lifestyles of the Indian royals and their ebbs and flows with the introduction of a 'new India', after its 'Tryst with Destiny', as Nehru calls it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review