Character Sketch. 



135 



an innocent man any harm if he used the inadvertent 

 blunder of a print e in order to say nasty things about 

 a kino;. At any rate, this is the way in which our 

 Republican Socialist delivered himself concerning 

 the incident at the Delhi Durbar : — ■ 



Api'arcntly s mie, probably most, of his fellow-rulers li;iil 

 been laui;ht lo s^ruvcl low before the Throne, as becomes all 

 who go near iU-li a symbol of imbecility. But he (the Gaekwar), 

 with his American itailitions behind him, kept erect, and then, 

 horror of all horrors, when leaving the dais he actually lurneil 

 his back upon the King. Remembering always that a man's 

 eyes are in front, and that he is not a crab, skilled in the art of 

 walking backwards, ii is difficult to see what else the man 

 could do. 



The figure which stood for something real, and the one that 

 the historian will depict as being alone significant, was not that 

 of the KJng-limptror, going througli his little part like a well- 

 jolnled automaton, nor the be-laced and be-girdcd uniformed 

 men by whom he was so plentifully surrounded, and slill less 

 the be-jewelled and bi'dizened semi-rulers who bent low before 

 him, but the calm, sedate, well-built man in the white robe of 

 a bearer, who moved about with native dignity, doing all that 

 was required of him as a gentleman, but remembering always 

 that his country is in the dust with the heel of the foreigner on 

 her neck, and refusing to add to her abasement by kissing the 

 foot of the oppressor. That, I repeat, was the only significant 

 event of the iJurl ar. and its significance will become even more 

 significant as time unfolds the tragic scroll ofthe future. 



All this rhodomontade is the merest nonsense. 

 Mr. Keir Hardic knows perfectly well that the 

 Gaekwar had no deliberate intention of affronling his 

 Sovereign, for the Gaekwar has said so, and it is to 

 be presumed that this calm, sedate, dignified man is 

 not a liar. But just imagine the unkind suggestion 

 that this reckless speech sets up. First, that the 

 (Jaekwar delilicrately insulted his Sovereign, and, 

 secondly, that to get out of the trouble" thereby 

 occasioned he crawled in the dust with a lying apology 

 in his mouth I 



No wonder with such a lead as this that it is being 

 said openly that tlie Delhi affair is not to be lightly 

 parsed over. Only the most credulous believe ihat 

 it may lead to tin- dethronement of Sayaji Rao. The 

 general story is that his Highness's juinishment will 

 not be so draslK as this. Some say his salute will be 

 reduced. Others i)rcdict that his rank of precedence 

 will be lowered by allowing the Maharaja of Mysore 

 — a larger Statt- than Baroda— lo figure ahead of the 

 Gaekwar, who, .inomalously, ranks immediately after 

 \ the Nizam of Hyderabad, the premier Prince of 

 India. Still oiln is are of the opinion that the Chief 

 will be prevented from absenting himself so fretjuently 

 and for such long periods from his State for travels 

 abroad, as he has been in the habit of doing 

 in the past. Those who ought to know declare 

 that the < hnslisetiK nt will take the form of his not 

 being ii.vited to attend Court functions when he is in 

 London, just as his presence was dispense^l with at 

 the time of tlnir .Majesties' departure from Delhi ; 

 and they add that such intimation has been served 

 upon the refta< tuiy ruler. A few even go to the 

 length of piiiliMiiig that the match arranged for 

 pretty I'rincess liidiraraja with the Mahar.ija of 

 Gwalior will be broken off; and the ruler of Gwalior, 



who is considered to be one of the shrewdest 

 living Indians, may be credited with knowing where 

 and when his interests are at stake, and therefore 

 may, of his own volition, attempt to slip out of 

 fulfilling his promise to marry the daughter of the 

 man who had the efiVontery to act in a cavalier 

 manner toward his liege lord. 



This is all mere gossip, and ill-informed gossip at 

 that. The Gaekwar, who is a very sensitive man, 

 has been already punished in excess for any fault 

 he coinmitted at the Durbar, and it ill becomes a 

 practical commonsense nation like our own to attach 

 such an exaggerated importance to a mere /<!t/x pas 

 in the etiquette of the Durbar. 



Whatever his sins of omission or commission, 

 Sayaji Rao III., it must be remembered, as an 

 administrator, social reformer, and patriot has laboured 

 hard and indefatigably until he has come to be recog- 

 nised throughout the civilised world as being all 

 round the greatest Indian of his time. He has 

 maintained a firm and progressive government all 

 the years he has been Baroda's ruler. He has put 

 into operation reforms of great beneficence, some of 

 which have not yet been adopted in British India. 

 He has introduced into his State a system of free 

 and compulsory education for boys and girls between 

 the ages of si.x and ten ; has established a 

 chain of secondary schools throughout Baroda, and 

 provided institutions for the education and uplift of 

 that miserable wretch the Indian pariah ; has 

 separated the judicial and executive functions ; has 

 instituted a system of arbitration and tentative trial 

 by jury in minor cases ; has revived the Faiichayat — 

 village communities— which in the future will give 

 considerable autonomous powers to rural districts ; 

 has inaugurated several municipalities with restricted 

 powers, and made a beginning in the matter of 

 constituting popular as.semblies ; has raised the age 

 of consent and brought about necessary marriage 

 reforms. He has been liberal in granting subsidies 

 calculated to encourage industrial ventures in and 

 out of his territories ; is doing everylhmg in his |jower 

 to stimulate the agriculturists to atlopt modern 

 methods and machinery by maintaining an agricul- 

 tural experiment farm, distributing seeds, and em- 

 ploying travelling instructors to leach the farmers 

 how to do their work in an up-to-date manner ; and 

 keeps a sanitary commissioner constantly on the go 

 delivering lectures on hygiene and sanitation, in the 

 endeavour to teach die Baroda sttbjects how to live 

 the life hygienic. 



A man who had ihe intelligence to accomplish all 

 this, and in conse(|uence bciame the most respected 

 Indian of our time, must be credited with enough 

 intelligt-nce and sdft onlrol not to betray his sjjirit 

 of revolt (even if he had any} at a grand Imperial 

 assemblage by offering open insult to the King- 

 I'.mperor. A more reason.iblc explanation than this 

 must be lound for the Delhi Durbar incident. 



The fact of the matter is that Sayaji Rao could 



