Vadodara: Thirty-five years before India won independence, a maharaja turned his back on the British monarch — quite literally — in an act of defiance that would become part of the folklore surrounding India’s freedom struggle.The year was 1911. King George V had arrived in India, and rulers of princely states from across the country were summoned to the grand Delhi Durbar to pay homage to the British monarch. Among them was Maharaja Sayajirao III of Baroda.The rulers had been instructed to appear in elaborate ceremonial attire, decked out in their finest jewellery. But Sayajirao chose not to follow the script. He arrived in simple white clothes and his traditional headgear.Then came the moment that stunned the British.The rulers had been explicitly instructed that, after greeting King George V, they must not turn their backs on him. When Sayajirao’s turn came, he walked up to the stage, paid his respects and then — seemingly without a second thought — turned his back on the King and walked away.The audacious moment was captured on film, leaving the British furious. Newspapers in Britain also reported the incident.Sayajirao later wrote to the Viceroy explaining that he had worn white because he was mourning the death of a close relative. He attributed his turning his back on the King to ignorance of the protocol and nervousness. Historians, however, have long viewed the episode as a deliberate act of defiance.Authors Avinash Kaptan and Smita Bhagwat, in their book Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad: The Visionary, cite an account from Sayajirao’s grandson Maharaja Fatehsinhrao’s book Sayajirao of Baroda – The Prince and the Man.According to the account, many years later Fatehsinhrao asked Krishnamachari, the Diwan of Baroda State, whether he had ever discussed the Delhi Durbar incident with Sayajirao. Krishnamachari replied that the Maharaja had said: “Whatever I did, I did it out of my will and none of my actions were a result of either pressure or mistake.”The incident has continued to fascinate historians and the Gaekwad family. In 2012, the royal family decided to screen the film capturing Sayajirao’s defiant gesture in Vadodara.“Maharaja Sayajirao’s courageous act rattled the British Empire at the time. It is well known that he secretly supported freedom fighters, but he was smart enough never to let the British get a whiff of it,” said Chandrashekhar Patil, an art historian who organises exhibitions on Sayajirao’s life.
