Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, just Srikant as he preferred to be called, the Maharaja of Mysore is no more. A man born 6 years after independence and the loss of his Kingdom to the Union of India, was hugely respected and revered in the old Mysore State, even though he never ruled the State of Mysore /Karnataka. Why ? What did he do to earn the adulation of the masses? Why was he revered at a time when the so called Modern school of thought derided royalty and everything royal ( except Royal Salute and Royal Challengers).
To be frank he did not do much. Not much was needed for him to do, for all the good and great had already been done by his ancestors who ruled Mysore State for 600 years. At a time when the Royals of India were known for just wine and womanising, petty scheming & plotting against each other, these were the only royals in India who focussed on the development and welfare of the people. When the KRS dam was conceived, there were no funds in the Mysore Treasury & the Wadiyars pledged their jewellery and gold with the Parsi merchants of Bombay to raise money to build KRS. The rice and sugar belts of Mysore State is their historical contribution. They had pioneered electricity generation too and the old Mysore state was first in the county to have Electricity. Wadiyars had given a thrust to Industrialisation by setting up steel plants (VISL), sugar mills, paper mills at a time when the lone attempt at Steel was being made by a certain Jamsedji Tata. Education had pride of place in the Wadiyar agenda with Mysore University being the fourth oldest University in modern India.
Able administrators, the Wadiyars had a knack of empowering people like Sir M Vishweswariah to build KRS, HV Nanjundiah to found the Mysore University, initiate the process of setting up IISc with the Tatas granting them land in Bangalore. It is this IISc model that Pandit Nehru replicated in the form of IIT’s later on (the same IIT’s that Arjun Singh adulterated later on). Legend has it that the people of Mysore State (including Bangalore) went along with the concept of India wholeheartedly because the Wadiyars endorsed it. The Mysore subjects were neither craving freedom from exploitation from the British( they were insulated from British) or from a tyrannical ruler like Nizam of Hyderabad ( on the contrary they had a good Maharaja). In fact they were happy & contented with no corruption, garbage, water or power woes. Roads were good, there was law & order. Rapes were rare. What the people of Mysore State got post Independence from our “elected governments” left many wondering whether they were short –changed post merger, in the name of democracy.
Thus all that Srikant or Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar had to do in his lifetime was to be a simple decent man. And serve the people in the new democratic dispensation. Which he did. As a four-time MP from Mysore Lok Sabha, as President of KSCA, Bangalore Turf Club, Mysore Race Club, Golf Club and so on. He branded the Dasara festivities into a State Festival generating glamor and big money for Tourism. A taste for fine things led him to promote ethnic fashion with Mysore Royal Silks. Thus Srikant, the King without a Kingdom endeared himself to the people of Mysore and became the King of Hearts to them. ( Loosely translated from what I heard in Kannada “ Maharajarige Rajya villa didharu, endugu namma hrudiyadalli awaru Maharajarae “) A Man worthy of the Wadiyar dynasty! May his Soul rest in Peace Jayant ML
