Scindia family biography letter
Madho Rao Scindia
Maharaja of Gwalior (1876–1925)
MaharajaSir Madhorao Scindia I of Gwalior (20 October 1876 – 5 June 1925), was the 6th Maharaja of Gwalior belonging to the Scindia dynasty of the Marathas.
Biography
Madho Rao acceded to the throne in 1886 and ruled until his death in 1925. He was noted by the British Government as a progressive ruler of a princely state. He was married twice, but only had children with his second wife in 1913, one son and one daughter, to whom King George V and Queen Mary stood sponsors. He was succeeded by his son, Maharajdhiraja Maharaja Sir George Jivaji Rao Scindia, 7th Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior. His daughter married, but died without children in 1934.
The Maharaja of Gwalior is also known as the rejected suitor of Gayatri Devi's mother, the glamorous Princess Indira of Baroda (Indira Devi), who broke off her engagement (contracted between her parents and her fiancé) by letter. The Maharaja then married Gajararaje from the Rane family of Goa. Later on, Gajararaje's sisters were married into the notable Sardar families of Gwalior, which included the Angre, Shitole & the Mahadik Families.
The Maharaja received a number of honours and decorations from the United Kingdom and other Indian States. He was appointed Honorary Aide-de-camp to King Edward VII in 1901, in recognition of his support during the Boxer Rebellion in China. In May of the following year, he received the honorary degree LL.D. from the University of Cambridge.
An interesting story is that Madho Rao, the Maharajah of Gwalior, helped to fund the completion of a set of mosaics in the Church of the Ascension in Timoleague, County Cork, Ireland. The mosaics are of particular note, begun in 1894 by Mr. Robert Augustus Travers of Timoleague House in memory of family members, continued in 1918 by his son Robert in commemoration of his father and brother who were killed at Gallipoli. The last phase of the mosaics was at Scion of the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior, Jyotiraditya Scindia is considered one of the most influential young leaders of the Indian National Congress. For the last 17 years, he’s been a Member of Parliament (MP) from his constituency of Guna, located about 200 km from Gwalior. In the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, he held the crucial portfolios of power, information technology, and commerce. But his promises of development and progress haven’t quite translated from paper to the ground. Guna is one of the most backward districts in the country, according to data from the 2018 NITI Aayog report. Scindia’s constituency of Guna covers Ashok Nagar district, and parts of Shivpuri and Guna districts. Far from development, the constituency which has been voting him to power since 2002—and voted in his father Madhavrao Scindia before that—struggles with basic issues like illiteracy, malnourishment deaths, acute water shortage, poverty, unemployment, the neglect of economically and socially backward classes—and this is just the tip of the iceberg. One such victim of government apathy is the Sahariya tribe that densely populates the constituency. Despite crores being spent on tribal development plans, this tribe still lives in abject poverty. But the Sahariyas continue to vote for the Scindias because voting for the royals of Gwalior is a deeply ingrained habit—being “subjects” of their “kingdom”. Last year, media reports emerged about the death of 92 Sahariya men in Majhera village in Shivpuri due to diseases like silicosis and tuberculosis. Most of the victims worked as bonded labourers in stone quarries, and a letter sent to the then collector (2005) cited hazardous work conditions, no alternate employment, and “inaccessible and virtually non-existent” health facilities. Dr Mihir Shah, the then advisor to the commissioner, Supreme Court of India, sent a letter to the then collector M Geetha on the basis of a report sent to hi While sifting through the daily invites received from the (Patrakar Sangh) for local functions, an otherwise inconspicuous invitation caught my attention mainly because it mentioned , scion of the Gwalior’s Scindia family. The journey General of Maratha Army Dattaji Rao Shinde, also known as Dattaji Rao Scindia, (c. 1723 – 10 January 1760) was the second son of Ranoji Rao Shinde and Maina Bai, alias Nimba Bai. His elder brother was Jayappaji Rao Shinde and his younger brother was Jyotiba. Dattajirao was the elder half-brother of Mahadaji Shinde, who later became the confederacy head of Gwalior princely state, famous fabricator of the Great Maratha Resurrection of 1771, and also the regent for his nephew Jankoji Rao Shinde, from 1755 until Jankoji's death in 1761. Balaji Baji Rao, also called Nanasaheb Peshwa, gave Dattaji Rao command of the subjugated Punjab and Multan provinces, with an army of 18,000 cavalry to stop the Afghan invasion led by Ahmed Shah Durrani, also called Ahmad Shah Abdali. The Marathas had captured the forts of Attock and Peshawar in 1757–1758, and wanted to expand their rule up to Kabul, Kandahar and the Afghanistan-Iran border. After many centuries since 1020, when Mahmud of Ghazni, head of the Ghazanavids, had defeated the Hindu ruler Trilochanpala and Hindushahi of ancient Gandhar and Punjab regions, Hindu rule had returned to integrated Punjab province and the entire Indus River region. After the fiercest wars in Punjab and Multan area, the victorious Raghunath Rao, returned to Delhi and then to Pune, in hurryly manner, without appointing the range commanders, for subjugated Punjab and Multan region. He wasn't much interested to settle down and rule in this region permanently, away from the luxuries of Pune, their own seat and throne area. Eventually, this proved as a historical mistake of the Grand Maratha Confederation Army's top leadership. In March 1759, Dattaji Rao Shinde, reached Machhiwara with a massive army, of approximate 40,000 cavalry men, but just like Raghunath Rao, Dattajirao also did Scindia family horse-trainer pens down his memoirs
What came as a pleasant surprise then was to learn that Jyotiraditya would be releasing of late Major VM Lad’s memoirs penned by his granddaughter Sunita Lad-Bhambre. The author couldn’t have made a better decision other than have the book - Triumphs on the Turf — Life of Major VM Lad, released at the hands of Jyotiraditya, the grandson of Jiwajirao Scindia for whom Lad trained exclusively for over four decades.
The book-launch became a private affair with only the Lad family members and their close friends in attendance. Representing the racing fraternity were Dady Adenwalla, Saeed Shah, Dinku Chenoy (trainer Bezan Chenoy’s father), Dr Farokh Wadia and Zavaray Poonawalla, who shared a long association with Lad.
Jyotiraditya, accompanied by his wife and daughter, charmed the audience and was mindful of tucking away the politician in him for a while.
Lad’s journey as a horse-trainer started in 1944. Interestingly, as the book reveals, Lad’s appointment to train horses exclusively for Jiwajirao came about after late Aziz Mahmoud and the late Major KP Jadhav (trainer MK Jadhav’s father) left abruptly after a two-year stint each with the Maharaja’s horses. Lad took up the daunting task of training horses for the royal family and stayed at the helm till he surrendered his training license in 1986.
What prompted Lad to give up the trade was the waning interest of the Scindia family in the sport a decade after the Jiwajirao’s demise in 1961 but the decision of both Vijayraje Scindia and Madhavrao Scindia to become full-time politicians was the turning point in his career. The eventual sale of the Manjri Stud Farm Dattaji Rao Scindia
Early life
Battle with Afghans and death