Sunday, January 28, 2001		Article

FOUR decades after the abolition of privy purses, the maharajas and nawabs of yesteryear are returning to the mainstream of Indian life. From opening up forgotten forts and palaces to tourists to participating in electoral politics and running roadside eateries, the ex-royals are everywhere.

Other indicators of their integration with popular culture include a medley of kitschy products like films (Shyam Benegal’s Zubeida), pulp fiction (Jyoti Jaffa’s Really, Your Highness) and sports events (polo), not to mention a deluge of royal-feel textiles, jewellery, interiors and cuisine.

Writes Jyoti Kashyap, a social scientist: "Whether it’s a bid to be remembered or a more progressive attempt to integrate with the rest of the population, it is hard to say. But it is clear that ex-royals have got over their aloofness and are trying hard to find a social platform for themselves."

Adds Yashodara Raje Scindia, daughter of Gwalior’s Maharani, Vijayraje Scindia: "After being shunned in post-Independence India, mainly due to Nehru’s brand of socialism, royals and their activities are being accepted into the mainstream once again.

Yashodara is already into politics and had successfully contested the last parliamentary elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket. Her brother, Madhavrao Scindia holds an even older political track record as a Congressman and additionally, is an active member of the Cricket Control Board of India.

There are, of course, others as well like Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Ajay Jadeja in cricket, besides politicians like Natwar Singh, Karan Singh and K.P.Singh Deo, and fashion designer Raghavendra Rathore, who belong to minor principalities.

None of them have, however, attained the cult status of say, Princess Diana or perhaps can command the respect of England’s Queen Mother. But as Pramod Kapoor, who published Really, Your Highness points out: "It’s fashionable to be royal!" He adds that "in the left-leaning times of a decade or two ago", it was improper to be associated with anything or anybody royal. "Today, in a consumerist society, you have to respect the fact that they bring in business, especially in sectors like wildlife and tourism."

Leading this season’s royalty upsurge is Zubeida, in which Benegal has cast Manoj Bajpai as a Rajput prince in Jodhpur, with Rekha playing his first wife and Karisma Kapoor (in the title role) as a young widow, whom he falls in love with and marries.

"The film is set in the 1950s," informs Benegal. "Here nostalgia plays a strong part, as ex-royals have a history associated with them. The love triangle is not as important as the constant references to things gone past — the people, the events..."

Then there is polo, which has been gaining in popularity as a spectator sport. In cities like Delhi, Jaipur and even in distant Imphal, college kids are riding shoulder to shoulder with ex-royals and according to some observers, polo commands a mass appeal comparable to cricket. Says Adhiraj Singh, a professional polo player who hails from the royal family of Udaipur: "The polo turnaround in India happened only three years ago after corporate sponsors began pumping in money into the game. So while corporates are calling the shots, ironically, it is royal patronage which gives polo its aura of glamour and helped in its popularity."

He points out that Saawan Kumar’s next film (hitherto untitled)has Govinda cast as a polo player and there are three other Bollywood potboilers in the making, centered around the sport for which his services have been hired as a consultant.

Bollywood is also drawing upon the textile heritage of the royals and, of late, the clothing styles. But then, before Yash Chopra’s women-in-chiffon could make a style statement, there was Indira Devi, the Maharani of Cooch Behar who introduced the nine-yard chiffon drape, after being widowed as a child.

The subject has inspired designers like Ritu Kumar, who has spent 20 years researching for her coffee table opus, Costumes and Textiles of Royal India. According to her, it is the "quiet aesthetic of royal clothing" that accounts for its popularity, particularly on festive and ceremonial occasions.

Adds Kashyap: "As the metropolitan Indian elite assimilates elements from their feudal past, the ex-royals are themselves changing their perceptions. They do not want to be just inheritors of a far and forgotten past. They are looking into the future!"