133 



Character Sketch. 



— * — 



THE GAEKWAR OF BARODA. 



IT is a moot question whether the Cinematograph 

 or Mr. Keir Hardie should be regarded as the 

 worse enemy of the Gaekwar of Baroda. On 

 tl„ whole, I think I award the pahn to Mr. Keir 



Hardie. ^^ , 



The Cinematograph, in its Day-of-Judgment 

 accurate fashion, only represented the scene at the 

 Delhi Uurbar as it actually happened. But it is 

 rather a terrible thought that the inadvertent action of 

 a single moment may be preserved in such fashion 

 ihat the scene, in all its living actuality, can be repro- 

 duced in indefinite succession for endless years before 

 the eyes of millions of men. It is a reminder, up-to- 

 date and most striking, of the truth of the saying : 

 " For there is nothing covered that shall not be 

 revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. What- 

 soever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in 

 the light, and that which ye have spoken in the ear 

 in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops." 



The Gaekwar was the second of the Indian princes 

 to pay homage to the King at the Durbar at Delhi. 

 After the Nizam had advanced, had made obeisance, 

 and had backed out of the Imperial presence, it was 

 the Gaekwar's turn. He advanced with apparent 

 nonchalance, bowed slightly, and then departed, 

 apparently turning his back upon his Sovereign. The 

 incident was cau^^ht by tlie cinema, and night after 

 night all last month in all the picture palaces of the 

 world the multitudes assembled saluted with more or 

 less violent ex])russions of indignation the action 

 of "the Priijce who insulted the King." The 

 Gaekwar had no intention of insulting anybody, much 

 less the King-lCmperor. Even if he had been so 

 dislc^yal at heart as some of those who are in his 

 immediate enloiir.i!;i\ it would have been the very last 

 thing he would have thought of doing, to choose such 

 a moment to offer an affront to a Sovereign who 

 literally held him in the hollow of his hand. 



That this was fully understood by His Majesty is 

 obvious from the gracious intimation which was sent 

 to the Gaekwar affording him an opportunity of 

 making a timely and satisfactory explanation. Of 

 this opportunity the Maharaja availed himself with 

 promptitude. He wrote: — 



. . . the very last thing I intended or could ever intend 

 wa> to do anythint; that could displease his Imperial Majesty 

 or lead him or anyone else to doubt the reality of my loyally 

 and allegiance to his throne and person. To the British 

 Government the liaroda Stale owes cvcrythin[{, and to that 

 Govcmnicnt my Slale and myself personally will always he 

 truly yratcful ami loyal. ,. T^ i 



When approaching and returning from the dais at the Durbar 

 I am said lo have failed to observe the exact ciiquctte pre- 

 scribed. If this was the case it was due entirely to nervousness 

 and confusion in the pr. scnce of their Imperial M.ajestics and 

 Ihat vast assembly, l >"ly one chief, the .Nitim, had made 

 obeisance before me, nml I had not h.id the opportunity of 

 noticing others, and, in fact, in the confusion of the moment 



had hardly been able to note the details of what the Nizam did. 

 .■\fter bowing I receded a few steps .ind Hirned round to .ask 

 which way I was to go. I was under the imjinrssion that 1 

 aclually descended by the right passage, but am loUl that I did 

 not. Having turned round to ask the way, I became confused 

 and continued to walk forward. For this mistake I can only 

 say how sincerely sorry I am. 



That is a very simple statement of a very much to 

 be regretted contretemps due to the nervousness and 

 confusion of a man who found himself suddenly in 

 the blaze of the limelight of the world. Tiie pheno- 

 menon of stage fright is familiar. It is a distressing 

 but temporary malady. With this all-sufficient 

 recognition of the origin of the episode the incident 

 might have been regarded as closed. 



And closed it would have been but for the cine- 

 matograph and Mr. Keir Hardie. We had almost 

 /orgotten the story when the films began to come in 

 from India, and from that time onwards every night 

 the British public has been presented with a living 

 picture of the Gaekwar at the Durbar. His explana- 

 tion is not given. Only his inadvertent offence is 

 repeated over and over again until at last a kind of 

 legend has sprung up that the Gaekwar meant to 

 insult his Sovereign, and that the King-Emperor may 

 be relied upon in due season to take it out of the 

 Gaekwar. King George is not so deficient in 

 magnanimity. For him the incident ended with the 

 Gaekwar's explanation. The pictorial re[)etilion on a 

 thousand screens of the scene at the Durbar cannot 

 affect the King's own estimate of the affair. 



To assume otherwise would be to repeat the 

 ■ blunder of the man who on seeing a picture of the 

 Crucifi.xion rushed out and began to beat the first 

 Jew whom he met. " You, brute, you '. " he cried. 

 "Take that, and that!" "What for?" asked his 

 victim. " For crucifying Christ," he replied. " But," 

 pleaded the Jew, " that was done nineteen hundred 

 years ago." " That does not matter," said the irate 

 Christian. " I heard of it for the first time to-day." 

 •The crowd in the cinema shows who hiss the 

 (;aekwar see it for the first time. But to the King 

 it is an old story now, well-nigh forgotten ; nor is 

 there the least reason to think that tlie reproduction 

 of the scene on a thousand or a million screens can 

 aflfect His Majesty's judgment or induce him to go 

 back upon hris decision to accept the Gaekwar's 

 explanation. 



Much more serious, however, than the cinemato- 

 graph is Mr. Keir Hardie. No one denies the 

 simple-hearted sincerity of the member for Merthyr 

 Tydvil. It is as much bcyontl dispute as his 

 Reiniblican abhorrence of moiiarrhs in general. Not 

 even his worst enemy ever accused him of being in 

 the confidence of any reigning Prince in India or 

 elsewhere. Hence he probably thought, if he thought 

 about the matter at all, that he could not possibly do 



