Twilight of the Princes

"Need we cavil at the small price we have paid for a bloodless revolution which has affected the destinies of millions of our peoples?" With this eloquent plea, Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel last year won over reluctant Congressmen to his plan for pensioning off India's princes. In return, the princes peacefully turned over their 587,888 square miles and 88 million subjects to republican administration. Last week in a white paper, Patel's Ministry of States disclosed the "small price": 56 million rupees (some $2,600,000) a year in "purses" paid out to 283 princes.

The price was low, at that. The princes have not only taken a 75% cut in income, they have also surrendered to the government at least 700 million rupees' worth of securities, palaces and lands.

New Delhi has promised the princes "the continuances of their rights, dignities and privileges." These include ceremonial salutes (9 to 21 guns, depending on rank and custom), the use of red automobile license plates, and the right to be called Your Highness. Each prince is allowed one palace for everyday living and a second palace at a seashore or hill resort. The fattest purse goes to the Nizam of Hyderabad, fabled richest man in the world, who gets 5,000,000 rupees a year. The leanest, 192 rupees, goes to the Talukdar of Kadodia, lord of a tiny village in the Kathiawar desert.

Many princes have already changed their way of living. Last November the Maharaja of Jodhpur (1,750,000 rupees a year) moved with his Scottish wife from London's Claridge's to a small hotel which charges him only $2 a day. In the past, on Hindu festivals wealthy princes used to stage huge processions with elephants and camels. Now the maharajas' high-born pachyderms are out in the fields working for a living.

Recently, some of the princes joined Bombay society for one of their last flings. The occasion was the splendid wedding of 19-year-old Prince Karam Singh, heir to the Maharaja of Kashmir, and 16-year-old Princess Yashorajya Lakshmi, doe-eyed granddaughter of the hereditary Premier of Nepal (see cut). The wedding was carried out according to ancient Vedic rites, and lasted all day. In the evening the bride's father gave a huge reception on the brightly lit grounds of his mansion, served rare pates, caviar and native delicacies. Republican India will not see many more such shows.

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