The erstwhile royal families across India have termed the Congress MP Rahul Gandhi describing the country's former kings as "pliant maharajas" held subservient by the East India Company.
Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari, a granddaughter of Man Singh II, the last Maharaja of Jaipur, came out on X claiming, "I strongly condemn Mr Rahul Gandhi's attempt to malign the erstwhile royal families of India in an editorial today.". It was these erstwhile Indian royal families that sacrificed the most to make the dream of an integrated India a reality, she added. Baseless allegations made on the basis of half-baked interpretation of historical facts are completely unacceptable, she said.
Vikramaditya Singh, an ex-Congress leader and grandson of Maharaja Sir Hari Singh, the last ruler of Kashmir also responded, criticizing Gandhi for his "superficial understanding of history". He, himself said that the Maharajas contribution was quite far from "pliant". Moreover he said, "Many royal rulers began with humble origins as soldiers or farmers, fighting countless battles to establish their kingdoms." He went on to add, "The irony that Mr Rahul Gandhi, coming from such immense privilege himself, would repeatedly attempt to malign the Maharajas' colossal contributions to the Republic of India is appalling.".
Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar is the scion of a 1,500-year-old House of Mewar at Udaipur. "History has always shown the royal houses of India as having cooperation in governance and never been control and exploitation," he said. He underlines their role in safeguarding and forming the Indian economic, cultural, and political life.
Chaitanya Raj Singh of Jaisalmer, MLA Nathdwara Vishvaraj Singh Mewar, Shrimant Gayatri Raje Puar from Dewas, and Yaduveer Wadiyar, the MLA from Mysore spoke out against it, with the latter even doubting if Gandhi's statements are a case of "ignorance or intentional misrepresentation".
That backlash came after Gandhi's recent opinion piece in which he contrasted current monopolistic pressures with the East India Company's control, stating "India was silenced by the East India Company and it was silenced not by its business prowess, but by its chokehold. The Company choked India by partnering with, bribing, and threatening more pliant maharajas and nawabs.".
We lost our freedom to a nation not to a monopolistic corporation running a coercive apparatus," he said adding a new breed of monopolists emerged with accumulating colossal wealth as creating more unequal India. Indians are asked whether they belong to them: Afraid of speaking on phone? Afraid of monopolists, hand-in-glove with the state entering your sector and kill you?
This opinion piece has generated a lot of debate about the context in which India's history is being presented and of the monopolistic pressures as are of today.
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