“RANJI”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20000, 7 January 1935, Page 11

“RANJI”

SPORTSMAN AND STATESMAN (By T.X.M. in the Sydney Morning Herald). His Highness Ranjitsinhji Maharaja Jam Saheb of Nawanagar was known to the English-speaking world as “Ranji,” cricketer incomparable, a batsman “immense, audacious, unstoppable,” and a very fine sportsman. From 1895 to 1912 he made 72 centuries in firstclass cricket, headed the season’s averages three times, and became the idol of the English cricket public as much for his modesty, courtesy, and gentility, as his superb brilliance with the bat and in the field. But in the biography, “Ranjitsinhji,” Mr Roland Wild shows the famous Indian in many other lights, as diplomat and soldier, fisherman and shot, expert in precious stones, patron of art and giver of entertainments, delegate for India at the League of Nations, and, above all, as a progressive ruler of his State and as Indian statesman. The result Is a biography excellently written, sympathetic and understanding in tone, vivid in phrasing, and full of interest. We have a full portrait of “Ranji,” an attractive personality, likeable, openhanded and open-hearted, extravagant in the Oriental Rajput style, courageous, tenacious, humane, with a princely greatness in his character. Nothing is more characteristic than his reception of the accident which befel him on a shooting party in Yorkshire. Nobody noticed when he started to bring the gun to his left shoulder, for a dangerous neighbour had shot him in the right eye. He said no word till the end of the drive, when he had shot ten birds out of twelve. Then he walked three miles home. Three days later his eye was removed. To the day of his death few knew of his loss and not only did he take all care that the friend who was guilty should not be known, but he asked him to shoot with him as his guest. It was a. noble and considerate gesture. His sportsmanship is also hown in a remark made to Sir Stanley Jackson when the Cambridge captain declared he had found a method of getting him out. “I should bowl at your left elbow,” said Jackson, “and place as many men as possible to leg.” Ranji’s comment, on what is now termed “bodyline bowling” was simple but very pertinent. “Yes, you would get me out, Jacker,” he said, “but it would not be cricket.” Father of His People The Indian native princes have often come in for much criticism and there is little doubt that many of the autocrats who rule their States in the oldfashioned way head regimes which are justly entitled corrupt, extravagant, callous, and barbaric. But the Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, like the rulers of Mysore and Jaipur, has Worked wonders in his State with an autocracy which enabled him to carry out reform on a drastic scale and with a speed which would not be possible in British India, or, indeed, in any democratic country. Very illuminating are the photographs in the biography which show his capital city, Jamnagar, in 1907 and in 1917. The transformation is amazing. Filthy slums were wiped out, streets torn down and. rebuilt, and a hotbed of plague and disease became almost a health resort. “Ranji’s” medical adviser tells a story of how he found a chauffeur praying in the street one hot night in midsummer.

“Why do you pray?” asked the doctor. “I am giving thanks,” said the man. “I am blessing the name of the Jam Saheb, who brought the breezes into this bazaar.”

The Jam Saheb built schools, homes for students, and hospitals. He spent over a million pounds in developing the port of Bedi. He strove by means of wells and irrigation to overcome the great curse of famine and starvation. If he could spend royally and ride to the Durbar in a silver coach, flashing with priceless jewels, in the famine of 1911 he cut down his own allowance two-thirds of the amount recommended for him by the British Government at his installation. After many disappointments he became ruler in 1907, and when he died in 1933 his 25 years’ reign had seen unparalleled progress in the development of his State and the improvement of the living conditions of his people. "The Black Prince” A tale is told that a yokel touring Leeds came across an equestrian statue: “Oo’s that?” he asked. “That’s the Black Prince,” he was told. “Wot Ranji? Why not Lord ’Awke?” The story has an inner significance as well as illustrating "Ranji’s” fame, for as “The Times of India” put it excellently, “He was the first Indian who touched the imagination of the British people as a whole, and for that reason it may be said of him that few men did more to bring about a sympathetic understanding between East and West.” He was a pioneer in breaking down the Western colour supersition, which, crude and contemptible as it is, made the first suggestion that he should play cricket for his University revolutionary and impossible. He conquered the prejudice and became the idol of Engand. His patriotism was deep and intense, and he showed it in many ways. In Connemara he gave a dinner to his Irish tenants, but was advised that they would not drink the Royal toast. “Ranji” was determined but diplomatic. He asked his guests to drink the health of “The Emperor of India!” “There was no demonstration. There was no defaulter. The Irish peasant does not know history. The Jam Saheb chuckled.” He showed his loyalty by fighting in France and giving the war his utmost support. But in India British officialdom “nagged” him with many pinpricks. He felt he was treated with injustice and even insult. He believed in kingship for India as well as England, and stood stoutly for the agreement rights of the native States. His views on federation deserve serious study at the present moment. But when he expressed them frankly as Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes in his famous speech of March 25th 1933, he was snubbed by the Viceroy, and the Princes themselves were in conflict. He felt deeply that his friends had stabbed him in the back when he was doing his duty to his Emperor, his country, and his Order. He died eight days later, his faith in the goodness of humanity shattered and those who knew him well believed that he died of a broken heart.