GAEKWAR OF BARODA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15862, 27 February 1912, Page 2

GAEKWAR OF BARODA.

(By ,EX-ATTACHE in Boston “ Post.”) Among the many features of the great Durbar at Delhi perhaps the most notable was the presence of somewhere in the neighbourhood of two hundred, vassal rulers of Hindustan, all subject to the suzerainty of George V. in his capacity as Kaiser-i-hind. Assembled for the purpose of according to him their fealty and their homage, as well as to proclaim their royal submission to his overlordship, their numbers served to convey an idea of the grandeur and extent of . King George’s Empire of India, with its teeming population of more than three hundred million natives of every Asiatic race and creed. While Great Britain allowed an immense amount of latitude to the Boer republics, and submitted throughout several years with much forbearance to the flagrant disregard of their obligations of vassalage, it is less enduring, and necessarily so, in dealing with niters who are subject to its suzerainty in India, and' at any moment we may learn that the Gaekwar of Baroda, one of whoso sons is a student at Harvard, may share the fate of his predecessor ou the throne of Baroda, by being DErOSED AND INTERNED. It has long boeii known that the present Gaekwar has been hostile to Great Britain. Indeed, nearly all the revolutionary outrages that have taken j place during tlio past threo or four I years in India liavo been traced to ! Baroda, whenco most of tho funds of ■ the conspirators liavo been derived. | If England, in spite of this, main- j tained him on tho throne, it was be- t cause 'it believed that it could exercise sufficient supervision over him to prevent further harm; also because it was desirous of avoiding tho to such an extreme step as the deposition of the ruler of one of the largest vassal j. states of Hindustan while endeavour-£

ing to pursue a policy of conciliation towards the people of India at large.

The Gaekwar occupies a very peculiar position. When his predecessor on the throne was deposed on a oharge of attempting to murder the English Resident at his court with powdered, glass, Great Britain selected as his successor not one of those nearest to the throne, but its present occupant, who was a mere youth at, the time, in the hope that ho would be more amenable to British influences and more bound to the suzerain power by ties of gratitude than any other member of: hiti house. ' . . Ho is, of all the vassal rulers ot India, tho one who is of most plebeian ancestry, and, in an . empire where Eride of lineage is carried to extremes, e is regarded by the other vassal rulers of India and by the great nobles with contempt, as LITTLE BETTER THAN A PARIAH. It was because he feared some public affront on their part that he remained away from the Durbar held in 1003 for the proclamation of Edward VII. as Emperor of India, although he had actually started for Delhi. At the Durbar held in December he put in an appearance. But recalling the fact that King George and Queen Mary had treated him with coldness last summer in England, owing to their, knowledge of his disloyalty } as well as of his private life, he declined to don. the regalia and.official dress required by etiquette on such occasions, apE eared before his suzerain in'full Durar in ordinary street dress, refrained from making any obeisance to Queen Mary, contented himself with the slighest of bows to King George, and then, turning his back on their Majesties to retire, made, in the sight of all, a gesture of contempt, as if to show to all his fellow' vassals that, though so despised by them on account of his humble lineage, he was neverthelesa the only one of them bold and POWERFUL ENOUGH TO PUBLICLY FLOUI HIS SUZERAIN and the latter’s consort in open Durbar. It is reported by cable that he was compelled by the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge; within twenty-four hours to issue an abject and humble apology for his outrageous behaviour, which he ascribed, not to lack of birth and breeding, but to “nervousness-” The English Government cannot afford, how"ever, to oontent itself with any -such silly excuse, and as many vassal sovereigns have been deposed for far less, it may safely be taken for granted that the days of his reign are numbered, and that he will spend the remainder of his existence in some more or less gilded captivity, far removed from the possibility of engineering any more sedition and revolutionary outrages against the English, to whom he owes his throne and his great wealth, .or against his suzerain and Emnoror.