On his telling the viceroy about his inability to go because his mother did not approve of it, Lord Curzon told him in a commanding tone: "Then tell your mother that the viceroy and Governor-General of India commands her son to go." Without a moment's hesitation Sir Ashutosh replied: "Then I will tell the Viceroy of India on her behalf that the mother of Ashutosh refuses to let her son be commanded by anybody excepting herself, be he the Viceroy of India or be he anybody greater."
