LEADERSHIP SERIES – SOCIAL WORK

Maharani Radhikaraje Gaekwad, the Maharani of Baroda

Corporate Citizen: You have always belonged to the royalty. Tell us a bit about your childhood?

Radhikaraje Gaekwad: My childhood was very interesting because it was not a life of royalty in the conventional sense. My father was the son of Maharaja of Wankaner but from an early age my grandfather and my great grandfather envisioned that India was going to get its freedom and it was time to move ahead with the times. So, from very early on, the family encouraged youngsters to go out and work, find a passion and make a life out of it, instead of relying on old estates! So, my father was one of the earliest IAS officers of his time. He is now 83 years old and he has really seen this transition from Royal India to Post Independent India.

So for me, the story is very much of the stories of yesteryears and the adaptation that my family’s life had to go through. But I am extremely proud of the way my father adapted and created his own legacy through wildlife conservation. So, the importance of doing something, standing up to what you believe in, being active and lending a constructive voice came from a very early age.

I grew up in Delhi and being an IAS officer’s daughter, you meet multi-cultural and intelligent people with exceptional talent in your colonies where you are living. I grew up in Bata Nagar and the Khairul Manazil Masjid built by Maham Anga which is right there. So for me, history was very much a part of my growing up. With my parents being very fond of music, art, culture, history, travel and wildlife – all these became a part of my life’s foundation. So I got a lot of exposure. I think that is what makes me the person I am today - to have that individual voice. Obviously, there was no ivory tower approach for me while growing up.

How was the shift from being a part of the royal family to being a part of the Indian Administrative Services?

It was so different. My father was already an IAS officer when I was born. My earliest memories are of him being the Municipal Commissioner of Bhopal at the time of the horrendous gas tragedy. So he was the first person to step into the Union Carbide factory when that carnage took place. I grew up seeing a working man but when we would go to Wankaner, life was totally different because my grandmother and all other women used to be in purdahs. It was completely different from my Delhi life, where I was going in a Delhi Corporation bus to school, or taking an auto rickshaw. My uncle, the Late Maharaja of Wankaner was very passionate about horses and he would encourage me to ride. My grandfather was extremely passionate about cars and had a beautiful collection. He used to drive in them and would take us for drives. So it is such a multi-dimensional upbringing and I am so enriched by it.

You have again become a part of a royal family which reveres heritage. Women from royal families generally are in a citadel. How did you break the ice here too?

Baroda is very different. It is really not a citadel; it is one of the most progressive states since pre-independent India. The Maharaja was a visionary and much emancipated. Rani Chimnabai II was educated and cast away the purdah system. She started the Maharani Chimnabai Stree Udyogalaya where we are very actively working even today. The women of the house were also part of policy making because of the kind of advancement that was made in girl child education, abolition of child marriage, and law on monogamy. The women in Sayajirao Maharaja’s life were able to influence him enough to bring these positive changes. So this house was always extremely proud of their women, basking in their glory.

For me, it was a very positive experience to come here because I come from a family where by and large women have or tend to play a quiet role. I was amazed at the kind of opportunity and voice that I was given here to be able to be my own person. I am very grateful to my mother-in-law, my late father-in-law and my husband. It is very comfortable having them in my life.

"We are starting a pink line project where we are going to train women to be drivers and align them with school vans because you know how many instances of sexual abuse come up with school children in school vans."

Maharani Radhikaraje Gaekwad: Dignified presence

You do so much outside your own family. What projects do you pursue?

One big passionate project I am pursuing is documentation of this palace. I am in the process of documenting every object, so that one understands its value and history. Also, this palace is like a living museum, so if something is broken or stolen, then you need its photograph to restore it. That documentation has taken me four years and it is going to take a minimum of four more years.

The Maharani Chimnabai Stree Udyogalaya is something very close to my heart. I am the Vice President of that sanstha (institution) and we are doing really amazing work, even if I myself say so. We coach women for the Gujarat State Administrative Examination, conduct workshops on gender sensitisation for our students, which is also open to others. We have entrepreneur skill building classes in tailoring, beauty parlour and block printing so that women can start their own businesses. We train them, help them open accounts, take loans and avail of the best policies that the government has for them. We are also starting a grooming and etiquette class for women, We want to start a café for the transgender and physically challenged fraternity which they would run for the sanstha (institution). We are starting a pink line project where we are going to train women to be drivers and align them with school vans because you know how many instances of sexual abuse come up with school children in school vans. And of course, my personal passion also includes textile and artisans. So I work closely with artisans.

What are your views on the tremendously talented weavers, artisans and craftsmen we have? Is it a dying art?

For me, I believe, the crafts and the master craftsmen are there but it is intangible heritage. Nothing is really written. It is only based on Guru Shishya Parampara. You need to imbibe it in life. Now youngsters find it easier to work at a mall or come to the city as labourers and not work in a loom, bent over it, for several hours of the day with no light and no ventilation. Being an artisan involves a lot of hardship but people don’t understand the hard work because at the end of the day his work is sold in some shop. Nobody even knows where it is made or what hands create it. Real beautiful stuff is sold by designer labels-and thank you for that, because at least they are keeping the craft alive and they demand a very high standard. But the artisans and provenance of craft are never really spoken about. They need to get their share of the glory.

Even financially…

Absolutely! They are really at the bottom rung even though they are creators of it. So what would really help in my opinion is to bridge them with their direct audience to understand what the market really is.

The Crafts Design Society (CDS) Arts Foundation has opened the Weavers School in collaboration with Jindal Foundation. It is important that youngsters start coming back into weaving or whatever the craft traditions their families have been in, for hundreds of years. Most of them are taking up new jobs because there are not enough revenue returns for the hard work and they are not getting any recognition or acknowledgement for that craft. And the crafts market has also shrunk over the years because these people are working from rural homes and they don’t understand how the market has evolved and what the end buyer wants. What is important is to bring in the design element to make it utilitarian, so that people look at it not just as an object or piece of art but something that they can use. That’s where the evolution of design comes in. For that, the efforts of the CDS Arts Foundation and at my personal level are always on, to bridge that gap between the artisans and the end consumer.

"Now youngsters find it better to work at a mall or come to the city as labourers and not work in a loom, bent over it for hours of the day with no light, no ventilation"

When you speak of art and cultural heritage at the government level, the only name that comes to my mind is Pupul Jaikar. At that time there was so much of it. So do you think the Government should have continued with such a post?

Absolutely! They have done away with that post in the recent past but it is important to have one. Despite this, people like Jaya Jaitley and Laila Tyabji who have done so much for craft over the years remain at the forefront because they understand what needs to be done at the grassroot level and are creating a market space for them.

How do you live and maintain this huge palace, which is four times bigger than the Buckingham Palace?

I felt very privileged that I would be sharing space with these works and architecture. That was my first impression. It is a matter of great pride that we have the finest collection of original Raja Ravi Varma paintings. As a student I had read about them and seen them in galleries. Every day it is a matter of great pride to be surrounded by such beauty and history. It is a lot of work because it is an ageing private residence so it needs a lot of attention. And my husband, Samarjitsinh puts in relentless effort to keep it going and running the way it needs to be. So I do the documentation, restoration and conservation of things but the upkeep, the staff and the maintenance is done by him. The credit also goes to my mother in law who has maintained and preserved it for so many decades. So it is team work.

It is a privilege to live in this place. You get beautiful energy. I love the courtyards and it is interesting to be with nature. It is the perfect blend of beauty with art inside and nature when you step out. And the girls love it. My daughters hardly go on holidays. They love to cycle around and play with the dogs. Living here is also a wonderful way to sensitise children to culture and history. And it all looks alive. That’s the best part. There are some palaces which you feel they are a part of the past. But here you don’t feel like that. My mother in law has maintained and preserved it. Now it is 70 years old but she has taken great pains.

You have mentioned how after the privy purses ended it had an adverse social impact. Could you talk about that?

Privy purses ended very abruptly. The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi went back on her word. The repercussions of that were not just on one family, but an entire community associated with it. You had to relinquish your power or your properties or your sources of income but also the way of life in terms of how you would be able to patronise or keep craft and the essence of Indian culture to be passed down over the years. What is Indian cuisine even today? Be it Mughalai, Lakhnavi or Hyderabadi - these were all cuisines which came from the royalty. That died out. The music gharanas that existed or the tradition of musicians playing in the royal courts waned away as that patronage died out. So the musicians suffered. Poojas or ceremonies happened. There were people who did the chanting of the mantras. This was all part of Indian culture. All of that also suffered. Or the retinue of people that were maintained, retained whether they were the dancers, silversmiths, jewellery makers, weavers, embroiderers and so on. There was a whole way of life, craft and culture that these royal households patronised, which suffered. Post-independence, all these people were left fatherless, literally. They looked to royalty as their parents, as innovation and evolution took place in the craft. It was a setback to all of that. Now we are trying to revive it but that continuity has broken. Also, temples were big patrons of musicians, dancers, cuisine, textile and jewellery. These two were big things but post-independence there was so much negativity that even what you had you could not wear or talk about. Therefore, the whole story died out. That voice was completely shut down.

"Love means different things to different people. It can be physical attraction, it can mean romance but that waxes and wanes in marriage and priorities change when we have children. For men it may be work or it may be passions and priorities"

Awesome couple-Maharaja Samarjitsinh Gaekwad
and Radhikaraje Gaekwad

However, it was looked as unification of India…

It was really the time to celebrate the culture of India. Unification does not mean you lose your identity. While unifying all states to create one identity for India, you could have your own individuality, which we lost unfortunately. Until independence, you would see so many different headgears. Every state, every province had their own headgear. All of that suffered, which I think was a very big price to pay.

How did you think of being a working girl?

From very early on, I knew I wanted to be a working girl and my strength was to communicate, to write. So I pursued journalism, and I worked with The Indian Express, Delhi, for two years.

After that, you met your husband?

Yes! It was an arranged marriage. It was organised by my bua (aunt) and my husband’s bua (aunt). Actually my husband’s sister, Alokitaraje had seen me when I was 12 years old at my sister’s wedding and she was newly married at that time. So she had kept me in mind, I think, and thought that out.

So you got married in which year?

In 2002. Actually the train carnage happened on the day of our wedding reception. That was very unfortunate. The marriage was in Delhi but when we came here and were supposed to have an elaborate wedding reception including a procession, everything was cancelled.

Maharaja Samarjitsinh has resurrected the golf course. Tell us about it…

There used to be a golf course during his grandfather’s time but my husband has created this one from scratch. He had the vision that he would never develop the land around the palace. He is passionate about golf, so building the golf course was the best way to keep it manicured and make it citizen-inclusive. It now serves as a great connection between the locals and us. Very often what happens is you may convert the space into a hotel but there is nothing in that for the locals. Foreign tourists may come and stay in the hotel, enjoy the hospitability but for locals there is nothing really to engage in that space. So he opened it as a club for the locals so there is so much interaction and a lot of love we receive from them. It is really a blessing and he has expanded it. It has a swimming pool, a gym and a beautiful old badminton court that he has restored. We have all-weather tennis courts too. He has made it like a wonderful place for people of Baroda to come and enjoy.

"For me it is very important to evolve and better myself as a human being and as a parent, as a spouse, as a daughter-in-law, but also as a conscious individual of the world, as a citizen of the society"

Tell me your thoughts on a successful marriage…

Everyone has a different take on what makes a marriage work. What is okay for you may not be okay for me and vice versa. But what is important is to like the person you are with. Love is something that waxes and wanes. Love means different things to different people. It can be physical attraction, it can mean romance but that waxes and wanes in marriage and priorities change when we have children. For men it may be work or it may be other priorities. We go through ups and down but relationship needs to be consistent and for that you need to like each other. If you are comfortable with each other, you are able to communicate effectively and you have a common goal. You cannot be going in very different directions. At some point of time you need to be on the same page, whether it is on how to raise children, or how you feel for the environment. Some ideological issues have to be common. I also think that you can’t have secrets in a marriage. If you have the desire to make marriage work, it will work. You will make it work. It is a constant project.

Tell me your thoughts on child upbringing.

My thoughts are very basic because I had no nanny. My mother raised me. So I am very hands on on this. That is why I developed so many interests because my parents never left me at home. If they were going for a music programme, however boring I may have thought it at that age, I was taken along. It led to exposure. That’s how my world expanded. I had friends from all walks of life. That is what I try and do with my girls. I don’t have any full time help for them. I am very much involved in them. I put them to bed. We spend time everyday talking to each other. There is a lot of communication. I travel with them. My husband is very hands on. He will take them for golf. If he is attending a meeting and if they are free to attend, he takes them along. It is not a formal relationship at all like it used to be in the royal families.

What is the philosophy of life you live by?

For me, my philosophy is, “Be Authentic”. It is very important to be myself. I don’t think I would have survived if I had tried to be someone else. For me it is very important to evolve and better myself as a human being and as a parent, as a spouse, as a daughter-in-law, but also as a conscious individual of the world, as a citizen of the society. I take that role very seriously to be able to communicate effectively and to use the position that I have in the best, most effective way possible, to reach out, to connect with people and to be useful. For me, to be useful is very important.

Royal Grandeur

The Gaekwad family, a prominent Maratha family, who ruled the Baroda State, constructed the Lakshmi Vilas Palace in Vadodara, Gujarat, India. Major Charles Mant was the main architect of the palace. It was styled on the Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture, built by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III in 1890 at a cost of £180,000 (Rs.27,00,000). It is reputed to have been the largest private dwelling built until that time, and is four times the size of Buckingham Palace. At the time of construction, it boasted the most modern amenities such as elevators and the interior is reminiscent of a large European country house. It remains the residence of the royal family, who continue to be held in high esteem by the residents of Baroda. The Palace compound is of over 500 acres and houses a number of buildings, particularly the LVP Banquets & Conventions, Moti Bagh Palace and the Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum building. In the 1930s Maharaja Pratapsinh created a golf course for use by his European guests. In the 1990s, Pratapsinh’s grandson Maharaja Samarjitsinh, a former Ranji trophy cricket player, renovated the course and opened it to the public.