28. The Weird Maharajas Who Helped the British Control India
British rule in India would not have been possible without the Maharajas – India’s ruling princely caste – who helped control the natives for the Raj. However, India’s collaborationist royalty often failed to live up to the expected standards of social responsibility. Some were so vile, and their antics were so extreme, that exposure threatened not only their own reputations but those of their British masters as well. For example, the last Maharaja of Kashmir was blackmailed out of a fortune after he got caught in a hotel with a woman by a man pretending to be her husband.
There was a Nawab of Rampur, who bet other princes on who could deflower the most virgins in a year. Then there was the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad who ruled from 1911 to 1948 and was declared the world’s richest man in 1937. He was a pervert who amassed piles of porn by installing hidden cameras in his six palaces’ guest rooms. He fathered over 100 illegitimate sons, resulting in protracted litigation over his fortune that began after his death in 1967. It continues to the time of this writing in 2021, with almost 500 sons, daughters, and grandchildren fighting for a piece of the pie. Other princely collaborators were far worse.