Mother's Chronicles - Book Five

2

Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad

"Do you know Bapubhai?" Sri Aurobindo asked Purani.

"I think I do," replied Purani. "Once I saw him being stopped in the street by the police for breaking a traffic rule. He gave the policeman a long lecture in English, leaving the fellow flabbergasted."

Sri Aurobindo laughed. "That must be he. It is very characteristic of him. He was my first friend in Baroda. He took me to his house and I stayed there for some time. He was a nice man, but what people call 'volatile and mercurial.'" Sri Aurobindo had known Bapubhai Majumdar from his London days.

During his thirteen years' service to the Baroda State Sri Aurobindo was to make more friends. We shall meet some of them by and by.

Except for official purposes, Sri Aurobindo had dropped his middle name Akroyd when he left England. A. Ghose reached Baroda on 8 February 1893, so far as we have been able to ascertain. He joined work from the 18^th. His first job

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was to learn the work in the Land (Survey) Settlement Department, with a monthly salary of Rs. 200 as agreed upon in London.

Next year, in March 1894, he was transferred to the Stamps and Revenue departments, again to learn the ropes.

It was only after two and half years of his joining the Baroda State service that A. Ghose's salary was raised by Rs. 50. That was in October 1895. Then from November he was appointed Attaché in the Secretariat. Presumably the Gaekwad thought that A. Ghose now knew thoroughly the workings of various departments of his State. He also recognized the superb command the young man had over the English language. So from then onwards the Maharaja not only entrusted him with drawing up dispatches or orders at the Secretariat, but also employed him for his own work.

Most of the personal work for the Maharaja was, however, done in an unofficial capacity. Whenever he thought fit, which was often enough, he would send for 'Mr. A. Ghose' for the writing of an important letter, composing public speeches, writing 'many memoranda' along the lines he gave, drawing up documents of various kinds —order, dispatch, correspondence with the British Government —which needed special care in the phrasing of the language. Let work of a literary or educational character but come up, the Maharaja would at once send for A. Ghose to prepare it. At one time A. Ghose was asked to instruct the Maharaja in English grammar by giving exact and minute rules for each construction.

He was usually invited to breakfast with the Maharaja

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at the Palace and stayed on to do his work. "What work I did directly for the Maharaja," Sri Aurobindo recalled, "was quite irregular and sporadic, though frequent and I used to be called for that from my house, not from the office." Once, when the Gaekwad was holidaying in Ooty in the Nilgiris, he sent for A. Ghose "in order to prepare a précis of the whole Bapat case and the judicial opinions on it." V. S. Bapat was a land settlement officer of the Baroda State whom the British had charged with corruption and who was to be tried by a special commision. The charge was actually false, and solely intended to malign the Maharaja's administration; in the long-drawn-out trial, Bapat was ably defended by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, whom we shall turn to later —we do not know if Sri Aurobindo met Tilak on that occasion.

A. Ghose arrived in this hill station on 26 May 1895. The Maharaja's residence in the Nilgiris mountain resort of South India was a small bungalow, 'Farrington House,' set among tall eucalyptus trees, and overlooking the Botanical gardens.

But Sri Aurobindo was not really interested in administrative work, so he got the Maharaja to transfer him to the College. It was in January 1897 that "he oscillated towards the College and entered it at first as part-time lecturer in French." It was not really joining the College, for he continued to do other work, as the Gaekwad was loth to release him completely. According to the College Principal, Mr. Tait, the Maharaja consented that A. Ghose might teach in the College for one hour a day, but wanted to keep him in the afternoons.

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Next year, in February 1898, A. Ghose was appointed Extra Professor of English at his own request. His monthly pay was accordingly increased to Rs. 300. He became very active in the College. He was elected President of the Managing Committee of the Baroda State Library, was the Chairman of the Baroda College Union, and took charge of the Debating Society and the College Miscellany.

For the work done for him by A. Ghose in his spare time, the Maharaja increased the pay to Rs. 360 from April 1899. Then on 15 May '99 A. Ghose received a cash bonus of Rs. 2000.

At the turn of the century, in March 1900 to be precise, Sri Aurobindo had become Acting Professor of English, succeeding the Englishman Littledale. In September the Principal pleaded with the Dewan that "it is essential to retain Mr. Ghose as a professor in the College," to make it a better institution than it had been hitherto. The Maharaja gave his assent.

But in April next year, the Gaekwad retransferred him to the Central Revenue Office. Simultaneously, from 19 April 1901, he was given charge of the tuition of the younger princes when the regular tutor went on vacation. And how did lie superintend over the children's education? The Gaekwad's daughter, who became the Maharani of Coochbehar, conjured up that episode from her past. "1 was so small when Aurobindo used to come to teach us!" she was wont to say. "But he used to be so concentrated in his own studies and thoughts that he could not pay us much attention."

In 1902, A. Ghose assisted the Dewan in the Crown

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Secretariat, and his salary was raised to Rs. 450 ... after ten years of service to the state.

Next year, that is in January 1903, A. Ghose was posted back to the College. It was again the Principal who requested the Gaekwad "to spare the services of Mr. Ghose for about six hours a week for the purpose of lecturing on French books assigned for the University Examinations." The Maharaja more than granted it, advising the Principal to utilize the services of Mr. Ghose for above six hours a week by assigning him other subjects also. His teaching work, however, was much interrupted this year because of the protracted leave he took, followed by a long tour in Kashmir with the Maharaja as his Private Secretary. The experiment was never repeated as "there was much friction between them during the tour." Sri Aurobindo returned from Kashmir in October via Murree and Lahore.

From June 1904 onward A. Ghose worked as Assistant Crown Secretary. But in August 1904, the Principal, Mr. Tait, was due to retire and a successor had to be found. The State's Minister of Education gave his considered opinion: "In the interests of the College I may also remark that Mr. Ghose had acquired a reputation in the College when he was Professor of English, about four years back. If his services could be wholly spared to the College, he may be advantageously entrusted with the work I have chalked out above for a new Oxford man. With the University also, he will carry as much weight as another Englishman." Accepting his Minister's arguments in favour of Mr. Ghose, the Maharaja decreed that "Mr. Ghose's official designation will be that of Vice-Principal." Thus from

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27 September 1904 Sri Aurobindo became the Vice-Principal of Baroda College. His pay was Rs. 550 a month.

From 3 March 1905 A. Ghose was made the Acting Principal of the College —when A. B. Clarke, the new Principal, went on leave —and now earned Rs. 710. He also served for a time as the Acting Minister of Education. In February 1906, A. Ghose resumed the position of Vice-Principal.

Then, after a leave of absence for three months —combining the College's first term and the summer vacation —he returned in June, this time to quit definitely. But, at first, he took one year's leave without pay. Finally, in August 1906, from Calcutta where he then was, he sent in his official resignation from the Baroda State Service.

So far, we have spoken of A. Ghose's official employment only. The Reader will discover over the pages the unfolding of his personal life.

The Maharaja was not inappreciative of his young officer. He gave A. Ghose "a certificate for ability and intelligence but also for lack of punctuality and regularity," as Sri Aurobindo himself put it. The Gaekwad was indeed very sorry to lose this brilliant young man, quick and efficient in work. He would have much preferred giving him two or three years' leave without pay.

The then Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad (1863-1939) was born on 11 March 1863 in Kavlana village near Nasik. When he was twelve, the Dowager Maharani of Baroda State adopted him from a peasant family distantly related to the house of the Gaekwads. Thus the young Gopalrao became

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Sayajirao Gaekwad III in 1875. The first few years of power brought to Sayajirao an acute awareness of his own shortcomings and at the same time of two of his dominant passions in later life: education and travel. He travelled extensively in India and abroad. It was during one of his trips to England that he found and engaged the services of A. A. Ghose. In the fields of education, health, communication, water supply, the progress was remarkable, and hardly seen in any State in India; the Baroda administration could well stand comparison with the very best to be found in British India. Having understood the value of education, Sayajirao opened schools in villages and towns of his state. Schools for boys, schools for girls. Education was made available to children of all classes and castes. He took up the cause of removal of untouchability and the welfare of tribal people. The Baroda College —its activities financed from State funds —was built in 1881 in the State's capital Baroda. "When I knew him," recalled Sri Aurobindo in 1936, "the Gaekwad was a free-thinker without any religion; I don't know if he has

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altered his views since. Formally, he is of course a Hindu." Sayajirao was a sportsman, a patron of arts and culture. He associated with some of the eminent Poona intellectuals who were critics of the Raj. The British bureaucracy, unable to swallow his great popularity among the Nationalists, came to regard him as a 'patron of sedition' and kept filing secret reports against him.

No, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad was not a prince for nothing: honour and dignity were his watchwords. At the Delhi Durbar of 1911, when the royal couple visited India to celebrate their coronation, he went in a simple dress without the princely regalia or decorations, a walking stick instead of a golden baton. And to the consternation of the assembled dignitaries, he was the one prince who did not walk backwards after presenting himself before the King-Emperor George V and his Queen Mary.

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