Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #FalseAllies
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Writing in the 1870s, Tukoji Rao Holkar II of Indore declared that India had been 'a vast heap of stones' till the British put each piece 'in the right place''. On the face of it this was slavish language, and yet.. 
in internal correspondence, Raj officials described Holkar as a man of 'notorious' disloyalty who 'in every possible manner' gave them 'persistent opposition'. Some of this stemmed from his air of grandeur: a newspaper wrote of how he 'swagger(ed)' about..
was 'lost in his own greatness', and was full of 'pride & self appreciation'. During the 1857 rebellion he pledged loyalty officially but was suspected of having secretly urged his troops to attack--apparently he had lost control over them.
Ram Singh II (1833-80) of Jaipur gets only a page in #FalseAllies but what a shrewd little person he was. Generally discussed these days for his love of photography (which included taking naughty pictures), what we don't discuss enough is how shrewd a political figure he was..
Early in his career, he made use of the British to cut to size certain overpowerful nobles (who had armies and their own territorial units) and assert his own authority over Jaipur. He also strategically decided where to allow 'progress' and where he would rather not..
For example, setting up a college, a girls' school, library, hospital etc. were all welcome. So too roads and railways, so long as they strengthened his hold over the state, were sanctioned. But revenue management was *not* modernised and made transparent for a simple reason..
This man with the fancy moustache is Krishnaraja Wadiyar III (1794-1868) of Mysore. His story, as related in my new book #FalseAllies, encapsulates the complicated internal politics of a princely state, where the British & ruler were not the only factors..
Parked on the throne at 5, his govt was first run by an able minister called Purniah. But when the rajah grew up, Purniah hesitated to let him rule, calling him a 'foolish child'. Krishnaraja's first challenge, then, was to rid himself of the minister..
Then there was the British agent who felt he should be consulted on all things great and small, which the ruler refused. The third element was the bureaucracy: Mysore had a powerful class of Marathi Brahmins who dominated the civil service, and..
This glum looking man is Ayilyam Tirunal, maharajah of Travancore (1860-80). In my new book #FalseAllies I make the case for looking more seriously at the Indian princely states and their histories during the Raj. Ayilyam Tirunal, for example, was no meek ally of the British..
..nor did he spend his time counting jewels & riding elephants. He was, on the contrary, a *political* figure capable of creatively fighting the pressures of colonialism. He knew, for eg, that bad financial management would invite British interference; so..
..together with his minister, he took his government treasury to a surplus. He knew the Raj would ask questions when he spent large sums on traditional temple rites and ceremonies; so he pre-empted them by spending even larger sums building schools, roads, and bridges.
