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Mint
03-08-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Sita Devi of Baroda: The 'maharani' who never was
On 6 November 1943, Meka Rangaiah Appa Rao—zamindar of Vuyyuru in today's Andhra Pradesh—received a letter from his wife of ten years. It was a short paragraph, probably worded by a lawyer, and carried important news. 'I have become a Moslem," the lady announced, and taken the name Sheherazade. But the crux of the matter was this: 'in order that our relationship of husband and wife might continue," she wished for Appa Rao to follow her into the new faith. When the man said no thank you, Sheherazade moved the city courts to pronounce their union invalid—a wish that was granted by Christmas Eve. With that she terminated a marriage she declared had always been unhappy. But then there was a twist, or in a colonial official's words, a 'first class scandal". For it suddenly dawned upon Sheherazade, who only days ago proclaimed to a judge that she did not 'like the Hindu faith", that she did, in fact, like it. Making use of Arya Samaj rituals, she reconverted to her ancestral religion, retired her Muslim name, and on 31 December at 9pm acquired a fresh (Hindu) husband. Her conviction in Islam had lasted under three months; the moment her divorce was confirmed, Sheherazade became, once again, Sita Devi, princess of Pithapuram. The marriage of Pratap Singh Rao Gaekwad, maharaja of Baroda, and Sita Devi was one of princely India's most entertaining—but also legally complicated—episodes, sparking all species of bureaucratic nightmares and the loss of some tremendous jewels. Things looked unpromising from the start, what with the bride's father denouncing her. Sita Devi was the daughter of Surya Rao of Pithapuram, a princely patron of the Telugu language. In a press statement, he expressed 'unqualified condemnation" of his daughter, noting the 'grief and horror" caused by her 'outrageous abuse" of Islam and Hinduism to discard a husband. Many nostrils flared in indignation also at the thought of her nine-year-old son. Of course, her new husband was resoundingly criticised too: as the British representative in Baroda noted, the maharaja had breached his own state's monogamy laws, betrayed its tradition of progressive rule, and public sympathy was unequivocally with his wife, Shanta Devi—the mother of eight children. Though 'greatly shocked", her willingness to 'acquiesce patiently in anything which contributes to her husband's happiness" only made him look worse. It was not as if Indian princes had not taken multiple wives before—one maharaja is said to have been ribbed as 'His Exhausted Highness" because of his numerous romantic conquests. But Pratap Singh's grandfather, Sayaji Rao Gaekwad, had been famous for his modernity, enlightened public policy, monogamy (though he did allegedly have the odd extramarital affair) and for taking Baroda to the top ranks of Indian states. As a result, the people of Baroda, who prided themselves 'on being in advance of (their) neighbours", felt Pratap Singh had let them down. His defence that the Baroda Hindu Monogamy Act—which he himself had passed into law in 1942—applied only to his subjects, not to him, was preposterous. In truth, he simply did not expect the backlash. In February 1944 the British noted how the maharaja was under the impression that 'everyone would (simply) accept his right to marry when and where he liked". On being proved wrong, he maintained an air of defiance, but in private, 'His Highness' conscience is not altogether easy." It probably didn't help that his lively private affairs allowed the Indian National Congress to slam the maharaja politically as well. But neither Sita Devi nor her second husband was easily defeated. A desperate campaign was launched to win support. For one, the maharaja began to collect letters of approval from other princes like the rulers of Indore and Gwalior to demonstrate, that 'from the Maratha point of view" at least, the marriage was 'perfectly in order". Baroda law too was amended to resolve the maharaja's polygamous conundrum retrospectively. Backing for Pratap Singh arrived from one or two unexpected quarters: the Baroda State Muslim League, and V.D. Savarkar of the Hindu Mahasabha. In the latter's case, it was not so much approval of the union that led to support as fear that the scandal might become an excuse to topple a leading Hindu prince and prove 'extremely harmful to…Hindu interests". Pratap Singh also stockpiled a set of favourable legal opinions, including from stalwarts like Chimanlal Setalvad. But the situation remained hopeless: the British considered the marriage a 'fraud upon the law". The advocate general pronounced its legitimacy 'doubtful", while another top viceregal adviser argued that applying the term 'marriage" to the case was a stretch. What made things worse was blows at home. The maharaja's own minister, the celebrated V.T. Krishnamachari, baulked at the thought of kowtowing to Sita Devi. Like her father, he was horrified by the conversion charade and her first husband's ejection. So, after over 16 years of service, Krishnamachari packed his bags and left. Shanta Devi, meanwhile, although she never openly criticised her husband, was said to be in favour of withholding recognition. The idea was that these complications would cool the maharaja's 'infatuation", and that Sita Devi could be 'discreetly pensioned off". Indeed, Sita Devi was never acknowledged as either a 'Highness" or a maharani—the best the British establishment could offer in a 1945 passport was a watered down 'Lady Sita Devi". But Pratap Singh would not give up trying; with the British set to depart, he began to lobby Congress politicians. His new minister, B.L. Mitter, for example, attempted to persuade Sardar Patel in 1947 to let Sita Devi use the title of maharani, albeit without 'Her Highness" prefixed, or 'of Baroda" suffixed. She would be the maharani of nowhere, but at least a maharani of some variety. The request fell flat again. Predictably, given the age in which they lived, the couple faced a social boycott. Honeymooning in Kashmir in 1944, they found that while the state's ruler would receive Pratap Singh as a fellow maharaja, his queen refused to entertain Sita Devi. Sita Devi was forever tarnished as a 'bad" sort of woman, with an 'unsavoury past". Or as a home ministry official would put it in 1957, Sita Devi was 'a modern Cleopatra who has debauched the mind and body and caused the complete ruin of Maharaja Pratapsinh Gaekwar of Baroda." There is, of course, a whiff of sexism here, not least because Pratap Singh was hardly the ideal man or prince before Sita Devi erupted on to the scene. Indeed, at the time of their marriage it seemed already clear that he was unable to fill his illustrious grandfather's shoes. The general consolation had been that he was at least a 'model husband and father". But the moment he got handsy with a married woman, he forfeited that distinction too. If anything, official support remained firmly with Shanta Devi, who is described in the files as embodying 'the true spirit of a Hindu Dharmapathni". In the end, things doddered to an expensive anti-climax. When the princely states acceded to the Indian Union in 1947, Pratap Singh was among the first to join. But as Sita Devi's brother noted, he was a 'foolish person, and a dangerously foolish one at that." Thus, when Junagadh opted for Pakistan instead of India, creating a crisis for the government, the maharaja was asked to help maintain law and order in the region. Doing so would have won him favour—perhaps even recognition for his 'lady". But instead, he demanded that six Indian territories abutting Baroda first be handed to him (for historical reasons), and he be recognised as 'King of Gujarat and Kathiawar"; in this position, he would assist India as a 'faithful ally". Sardar Patel never forgave Pratap Singh: 'You bargained about your own position at a time when India was in difficulties." Later it was discovered that the maharaja had been pocketing crores of rupees—including from a fund his grandfather founded to back big infrastructure projects. In 1951, after he launched an ill-fated campaign for the resurrection of royal rule, including by collaborating with certain princes who had flirted with Pakistan, Pratap Singh was deposed. Sita Devi, too, was accumulating fresh layers of infamy. It appears she had been merrily taking jewels from Baroda's vaults, and when some pieces were returned under strict orders from Delhi, parts were missing. In 1955 there was furious chatter in official circles after Pratap Singh's son asked for assistance in recovering treasures she had shipped abroad. Some items were said to be in Europe, others in the custody of the American jeweller Harry Winston. The value of Sita Devi's hoard can be estimated from the fact that a single artefact that vanished from Baroda—a canopy with 950,000 Basra pearls, emeralds, rubies, etc.—was auctioned in 2019 for over $2 million. In 1956 India's deputy home secretary complained that 'Lady Sita Devi" had no right to these articles, especially after her husband was dismissed from his post. Yet, 'in spite of all efforts she did not return the jewellery to the present Ruler of Baroda". A partial list of valuables in her custody shows that she possessed everything from strands of the famous Baroda pearl necklace to milk jugs, coffee pots, and even a strainer made of gold. The sale of these pieces kept Sita Devi afloat for the rest of her days. She certainly needed the cash. For after all the drama of their marriage, in 1956 Pratap Singh and Sita Devi divorced (no high-speed religious conversion was needed this time). She moved abroad, posing among society elites as Baroda's maharani, managing to even get this entered briefly into a British passport. That same year, learning that she had also obtained a diplomatic visa for the US (allowing her to deposit jewels there, uninspected by customs), India informed the Americans that this was a grave mistake. In 1957, Sita Devi was seen at an official event in Colombo, where the Indian high commissioner noticed her in a 'place of honour…with Chou En-Lai to her right and Mrs Bandaranaike to her left". She was presented as a 'Highness", and when the diplomat came face to face with her, she was 'cold and unfriendly". Apparently, Sita Devi—who doesn't appear to have returned to India again—was aware she was out of favour for 'having smuggled out the Baroda State jewels worth several million pounds." In the end, still living off the Baroda treasures, she settled in Paris, dying in the 1980s. In all the files around the saga of 'Lady Sita Devi" and Pratap Singh, her own voice is absent. It is difficult to determine how she might have defended herself—the divorce stunt in 1943, her remarriage, and the question of an 'unrecognised" woman's claim to the dynastic riches of her second ex-husband. To the British, she posed a unique kind of difficulty. Typically, it was when maharajas married white women that they confronted problems around recognition and titles. Sita Devi's case was a rare occasion when a brown woman marrying a brown man caused a scandal. To Indian babus, she looked venal and treacherous, the opposite of the forbearing wife they saw in Shanta Devi. In any case, Sita Devi, for all the wealth she acquired, ultimately had a gloomy end: her son with Pratap Singh, 'Princie", killed himself a few years before her death. There is, though, a strange victory she enjoys in her afterlife. All her goods—from art to jewels and furniture—ended up in alien hands, appearing in auction catalogues across the world. But in what might have pleased our queen-who-never-was—and left her critics incandescent—these brochures uniformly style her as Sita Devi, maharani of Baroda. Manu S. Pillai is a historian and author, most recently, of Gods, Guns and Missionaries.
India Today
25-07-2025
- Politics
- India Today
'Talibani era' in Bangladesh? Dress code for women, protest gag order spark row
Restrictions on women's clothing, a hush-hush ordinance introduced in the night that eliminates the right of employees to protest against the government, have become the latest issues to grip the Muhammad Yunus regime in only have the developments invited an avalanche of backlash on social media, some have even compared them to similar diktats issued by the Taliban regime in this week, the Bangladesh Bank caused a storm after it barred women employees from wearing short dresses, clothing with short sleeves and leggings. It asked women to stick to sarees or salwar kameez. The directive by the central bank also suggested that women wear headscarves and hijab and formal sandals or shoes. For men, the order issued by the HR team of the bank explicitly barred jeans and chino to adhere to the directives would attract disciplinary actions, the order said. Moreover, all departments were directed to appoint an officer to monitor compliance with the dress code CODE ORDER SPARKS FURYHowever, the restrictions on the clothing of women sparked fury across the nation, with citizens and journalists taking to social media to accuse the government of "dictatorship".Some even compared the diktat to the orders by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which has ordered all women to wear head-to-toe clothing in public."New Talibani era under meticulous dictator," one user Moslem, the president of the Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, told local media that such a directive was unprecedented in Bangladesh. "A certain cultural sphere is being shaped, and this directive reflects that effort," she the social media stir, Bangladesh Bank withdrew the directive on Thursday. "This circular is purely advisory. No obligation has been imposed regarding the wearing of hijab or burqa," spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan told BD OVER WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN BANGLADESHThe development comes at a time when Islamist groups have opposed the government's proposed recommendations for ensuring equal rights, including ones related to property, for month, an Islamist group staged a protest against teachers of a university, labelling them as "anti-hijab". Another Islamic outfit, Jamaat-Char Monai, has given calls to turn Bangladesh into a Sharia-compliant nation like May, thousands of workers of an outfit named Hefazat-e-Islam rallied near Dhaka University carrying banners reading, "Say no to Western laws on our women, rise up Bangladesh".ORDER ON PROTESTS AGAINST GOVERNMENTadvertisementAmid the row, what has further rankled citizens is an ordinance passed on Wednesday night that proposes action against employees protesting against the amended ordinance replaces the controversial term "disobedience" with "misconduct disrupting public duty", according to a report in BD News. A previous version of the legislation had triggered massive protests by government legislation says if any government employee violates or obstructs the implementation of any government order, they could be dismissed from service or demoted to a lower the new law also does not have any provision for appealing against the decision taken against an employee.- EndsTune InMust Watch
TimesLIVE
16-06-2025
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
A far-right inspired murder forces France to wrestle with what counts as terrorism
Hichem Miraoui, a 45-year-old Tunisian barber, was at home in the south of France late in May, chatting on the phone with his mother and sisters, when a neighbour drove past and shot him dead on his doorstep. After killing Miraoui and shooting Kurdish neighbour Akif Badur in the hand, Christophe Belgembe posted four videos on Facebook, according to France's anti-terror prosecutor's office, known as PNAT. Bemoaning a state 'unable to protect us, unable to send them home', Belgembe said he had 'taken out two or three pieces of sh*t' and this was only the beginning. Belgembe surrendered to police a few hours later and confessed his guilt, the PNAT said. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. Belgembe denied any racist or terrorist motivation but the PNAT charged him with racially motivated, premeditated murder and attempted murder as part of a terrorist undertaking. It was the first time the PNAT, which can take over any criminal investigation it believes meets the criteria for terrorism, has investigated a murder inspired by far-right ideas. Terrorism sentences are tougher, and counter-terrorism forces have greater investigative powers. The PNAT's move is indicative of a broader shift in France, where jihadist attacks have fallen while racist, xenophobic or antireligious crimes are up 11% compared with last year amid growing support for the far-right. In one of his post-attack videos, Belgembe expressed support for the far-right National Rally (RN), France's largest parliamentary party, according to a source who had seen the video but was not authorised to speak publicly about it. RN spokesperson Laurent Jacobelli did not respond to a request for comment on the video. On X, RN chief Marine Le Pen said the PNAT's decision to probe Miraoui's killing would shed light on this 'heinous murder', which appeared to be 'racist'. Each time there is a murder of this sort, it should be considered a terrorist act, as it is done to instil terror in our communities. Azzedine Gaci, a Moslem cleric Miraoui's family, Muslim leaders and antiracism groups welcomed the decision to investigate Belgembe under terrorism laws but said French authorities had been slow to view far-right crimes as terrorism. 'Even if it's late, it's welcome,' said Azzedine Gaci, a rector for a large mosque near Lyon. 'Each time there is a murder of this sort, it should be considered a terrorist act, as it is done to instil terror in our communities.' The PNAT declined to comment on accusations it had been slow to classify far-right violence as terrorism. However, it told Reuters that it has taken on 15 other cases involving far-right suspects since its creation in 2019. None of them were homicides. Jean-Louis Bruguiere, a former antiterrorism judge who helped create the PNAT, told Reuters that France's polarised politics 'pollute the debate' around how to classify such crimes. He said the PNAT preferred 'to exercise extreme caution' by only picking strong cases. Thousands protested across France in April after the murder of Aboubakar Cisse, a 22-year-old Malian who was stabbed to death in a mosque by an intruder who insulted Islam as he filmed the act, calling for his killing to be probed as terrorism. The PNAT declined to take Cisse's case. It also declined to investigate a 2022 shooting at a Kurdish centre in Paris in which three people died, sparking criticism from human rights activists and France's Kurdish community. The PNAT declined to say why it did not take up Cisse's murder or the Kurdish centre attack. However, Nimes Prosecutor Cecile Gensac, whose office took Cisse's case, said the PNAT declined to investigate as the killer had no ideology and only acted out of 'an obsessive desire to kill'. In a 2023 PNAT decision seen by Reuters, it said that while the Kurdish centre attacker had a 'hatred of foreigners', he did not appear to be driven by any ideology and no evidence of far-right links was found at his home. Bruguiere defended the PNAT's decision to investigate Miraoui's murder, saying that even if Belgembe had acted alone, he viewed his act within a larger ideological framework 'that transcends the act itself'. Under French law, terrorism is a crime where the author has the 'goal of seriously disturbing public order through intimidation or terror'. Olivier Cahn, a law professor at Cergy-Paris University, said some of the PNAT's previous decisions underlined how open to interpretation France's definition of terrorism is. 'Terrorism is not the act,' he said. 'Terrorism is whatever the PNAT says is terrorism.' The PNAT did not respond to a request for comment on Cahn's remarks. The PNAT investigated 66 cases of jihadist terrorism last year, down nearly a third compared with 2019. Meanwhile, racism is rising, according to a 2024 report from France's human rights commission. There were 79 anti-Muslim acts recorded by the interior ministry between January and March, a 72% rise compared to the same period in 2024. Belgembe and his victims lived in Puget-sur-Argens, a town in a southeastern region of France that has long been a stronghold of far-right support. In last year's legislative elections, the RN won nearly 60% of votes in the town. Badur, the Kurdish neighbour who was shot in the hand, said his only conversation with Belgembe involved being asked about his nationality and residency status. An activist with the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), Badur said he left Turkey two years ago for fear of imprisonment. 'I fled racism in my country, only to face racism here,' he said.
Eyewitness News
16-05-2025
- Eyewitness News
Woodlands residents against granting of bail to man who gave teen poison to drink
CAPE TOWN - Woodlands residents believe the manager of a local butchery who gave a 17-year-old boy acid to drink should not have been released on bail. Police arrested 53-year-old Nuruddin Tembe on Wednesday after he allegedly gave the teenager drain acid to drink on Sunday. Fayaad Norton is still receiving treatment in hospital after ingesting the liquid. Mitchell's Moslem Butchery manager, Nuruddin Tembe, was granted one thousand rand bail in the Mitchells Plain Magistrates Court on Thursday after appearing for attempted murder. Tembe is accused of giving Norton drain acid to drink from a cold drink bottle. Community leader Raafiqah Ganger, who joined Woodlands residents at the court, says Tembe should be behind bars. "Because at the end of the day, he's a danger to everybody in the community. So our disappointment is with the justice system, but if that's the procedure, then that's what we have to follow." The matter was postponed to 12 August 2025 for further investigation.
