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Charles Allen, Jon Wilson, and Moin Mir in conversation with William Dalrymple

Even at the height of the Raj, the British only directly controlled three-fifths of India. Two-fifths of South Asia’s vast landmass always remained under the control of its indigenous princely rulers, split up between nearly 600 Princely States. "God created the Maharajahs," wrote Kipling, "so that mankind could have the spectacle of jewels and marble palaces.” Not all observers, however, were so enamored with India’s princes. Indian nationalist leaders like Nehru and Gandhi regarded them as foolish and wasteful playboys, spineless quizzings of the British and enemies of India’s freedom movement. Lord Curzon took an equally dim view, and railed in his despatches home against ‘the category of half-Anglicised, half-denationalized, European women-hunting, pseudo-sporting, and very often in the end spirit-drinking young native chiefs.’
But have the Maharajas been undervalued? A distinguished cast of historians of the Raj discusses their history with Moin Mir, author of Surat – Fall of a Port, Rise of a Prince.

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