27. Paris on the Punjab, and Extreme Hunting, Maharaja Style
Jagatjit Singh, the Maharaja of Kapurthala, thought that he was the reincarnation of King Louis XIV of France, so he built a complete replica of Versailles in the Punjab. It covered 200 acres, took eight years to construct and cost a fortune, which was squeezed out of his impoverished subjects. All servants wore seventeenth-century French uniforms, and only French was spoken in what came to be nicknamed “Paris on the Punjab”. The Maharaja ruled from there for forty years, until his state was absorbed into India after its independence. The palace still exists, and is now a school.
Then there was Jai Singh Prabhakar, the Maharaja of Alwar, who refused British plans to build a road through his state because it would interfere with his hunting. Speaking of which, this Maharaja used boys from his villages as live bait in tiger hunts. His antics were so extreme that the British banished him in 1933. The last straw was when he lost a polo match, and expressed his frustration by pouring gasoline on his pony and setting it on fire. The British were embarrassed by their Maharajas – and by the blind eye, they had turned to their antics. So before leaving India in 1947, the departing Raj burned the intelligence files on its native princely collaborators.