Vijayaraje Scindia
Encyclopedia
Vijayaraje Scindia born Lekha Divyeshwari and until 1970 styled the Rajmata of Gwalior, was a prominent Indian political personality. In the days of the British Raj
, as consort of the last ruling Maharaja
of Gwalior, she ranked among the highest royal figures of the land. In later life, she became a politician of considerable influence and was elected repeatedly to both houses of the Indian parliament
. She was also an active member, for many decades, of the Jana Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party
. Her biography has been written by famous Hindi
writer Mridula Sinha
titled Ek Thi Rani Aisi Bhi. Based on this book a film is being made on her.
Vijayaraje Scindia was born in 1919 at Sagar
in present-day Madhya Pradesh
, the eldest child of Thakur Mahendra Singh, a government officer, by his first wife Chuda Deveshwari. She was named Lekha Divyeshwari at birth. Her father was a deputy collector in the provincial administration. Her mother, who belonged to the influential Rana family of Nepal, died at Vijayaraje's birth.
Lekha's maternal grandfather, belonging to Dangi
community of Nepal
Khadga Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana (the Shumsher Rana who murdered his uncle Sri Teen Maharaja Ranodip Singh Rana
of Nepal in 1885), had been exiled to India and had taken up residence at Sagar
. It was here that Lekha was born. Her mother's death meant that Lekha never lived with her father: she was raised in the household of her maternal grandparents. The young Lekha was deeply influenced by her grandmother, Rani Dhan Kumari, an exceedingly pious lady of orthodox disposition. The impress of this early influence was to leave a lasting impact on Lekha's personality.
Although her family was aristocratic, their exile status meant that they were not very affluent. To this circumstance may be attributed the fact that Lekha received a relatively normal upbringing and a standard education, suitable to modernizing, upwardly mobile families rather than aristocratic ones. She was educated at home initially, later studying at both the Vasantha College, Benares, and the Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow. She stayed at a ladies hostel during this period and lived largely as other students did. During this period, the Indian independence movement
was at it peak. Already drawn towards austerity by the influence of her grandmother, Lekha gave up the use of foreign goods and fabrics.
of Gwalior, one of the largest, richest and highest-ranking 21-gun-salute princely state
s in India. As per tradition, a new name was chosen for Lekha based upon the matching of the couple's horoscopes, and she assumed the name 'Vijayaraje Scindia'.
Her grandfather having died, Lekha's maternal uncles were instrumental in negotiating the alliance. Her husband family, the Scindias, were among the most prominent Maratha
families of the land. The fact that Lekha belonged to one of the hoariest Rajput
families in the sub-continent, (albeit to an impoverished cadet branch of such), undoubtedly lent special weight, in the eyes of her husband's family, to the suit that was pressed on Lekha's behalf by her uncles. Nevertheless, Vijayaraje Scindia recollects in her autobiography that she did face some initial hostility from her new family. She sensed that this wariness on their part was based on the fear that her non-Maratha heritage may result in the traditions of the ruling family being impacted. Vijayaraje privately resolved never to allow this to become an issue; by sedulous effort, she becoming utterly acclimatized to the Maratha customs and traditions of the Scindia family and thus won over her detractors.
The situation was in every sense reversed where her children were concerned. The demise of Jiyajirao in 1961 left Vijayaraje the only parent for her growing children. True to character, Vijayaraje proved an exacting and somewhat martinet parent; she expected her children to meet her own idealised standards of lifestyle and behavior. This did not make for particular warmth, and in later life, Vijayaraje's relationship with her adult children wavered between the formally cordial and the antagonistic. In her autobiography, she regretfully recounts how little sympathy she was able to extend to her two younger daughters in their troubled marriages, and wonders whether her husband may not have handled those situations better.
Her relationship with her only son was especially troubled; personal problems were exacerbated by political differences, and she sometimes felt moved to attack his character in public. Indeed, when her will was read shortly after her death, it was found that she had forbidden her son from participating in her funerary obsequies. This is the ultimate castigation an orthodox Hindu
can mete out to a son. Her children have occasionally attributed these family differences to the baneful influence of Vijayaraje's advisors, but most observers disagree with this assessment.
seat in Madhya Pradesh on a Congress
ticket. Five years later, she quit the Congress and joined the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Jan Sangh. She won the Kerera assembly seat as the party's candidate and plunged headlong into state politics. She went on to win seven consecutive parliamentary elections. She was jailed by Indira Gandhi
during the Emergency. In the 1970s, Vijayraje and her son Madhavrao were involved in a public dispute over property. Animosities heightened due to their differing political ideologies.
Vijayaraje came to the forefront of the BJP leadership in 1980 when she was made one of its vice-presidents. She played a key role in propagating the party's Ramjanmabhoomi agenda and was considered a hardliner. She remained a BJP vice-president until 1998 when she stepped down on health grounds and quit electoral politics. She died in January 2001.
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
, as consort of the last ruling Maharaja
Maharaja
Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...
of Gwalior, she ranked among the highest royal figures of the land. In later life, she became a politician of considerable influence and was elected repeatedly to both houses of the Indian parliament
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in India. Founded in 1919, the Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all political bodies in India. The Parliament of India comprises the President and the two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha...
. She was also an active member, for many decades, of the Jana Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
. Her biography has been written by famous Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
writer Mridula Sinha
Mridula Sinha
Smt. Mridula Sinha is a famous writer of Hindi Literature and EX Chairperson of Central Social Welfare Board. Her book Ek Thi Rani Aisi Bhi based on the life of Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia has been made into a film.-Partial bibliography:...
titled Ek Thi Rani Aisi Bhi. Based on this book a film is being made on her.
Early years
Vijayaraje Scindia was born in 1919 at Sagar
Sagar District
Sagar District is a district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. The town of Sagar serves as its administrative center.The district has an area of 10,252 km², and a population of 2,021,783 , a 23% increase from its 1991 population of 1,646,198...
in present-day Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
, the eldest child of Thakur Mahendra Singh, a government officer, by his first wife Chuda Deveshwari. She was named Lekha Divyeshwari at birth. Her father was a deputy collector in the provincial administration. Her mother, who belonged to the influential Rana family of Nepal, died at Vijayaraje's birth.
Lekha's maternal grandfather, belonging to Dangi
Dangi
The Dangi are a Hindu caste found in the states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Hariyana, Gujarat, Uttrakhand, Maharastra, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab, and Nepal.-History and origin:...
community of Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
Khadga Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana (the Shumsher Rana who murdered his uncle Sri Teen Maharaja Ranodip Singh Rana
Renaudip Singh Bahadur
Maharaja Sir Renaudip Singh Bahadur also spelt Ranodip or Ranadip, KCSI, Kaiser-i-Hind , was the second Prime Minister of Nepal from the Rana dynasty....
of Nepal in 1885), had been exiled to India and had taken up residence at Sagar
Sagar District
Sagar District is a district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. The town of Sagar serves as its administrative center.The district has an area of 10,252 km², and a population of 2,021,783 , a 23% increase from its 1991 population of 1,646,198...
. It was here that Lekha was born. Her mother's death meant that Lekha never lived with her father: she was raised in the household of her maternal grandparents. The young Lekha was deeply influenced by her grandmother, Rani Dhan Kumari, an exceedingly pious lady of orthodox disposition. The impress of this early influence was to leave a lasting impact on Lekha's personality.
Although her family was aristocratic, their exile status meant that they were not very affluent. To this circumstance may be attributed the fact that Lekha received a relatively normal upbringing and a standard education, suitable to modernizing, upwardly mobile families rather than aristocratic ones. She was educated at home initially, later studying at both the Vasantha College, Benares, and the Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow. She stayed at a ladies hostel during this period and lived largely as other students did. During this period, the Indian independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
was at it peak. Already drawn towards austerity by the influence of her grandmother, Lekha gave up the use of foreign goods and fabrics.
Marriage
The era of leading a normal life was however destined to end at quite an early age. In 1941, at the age of 22, Lekha was married to Jiyajirao Scindia, MaharajaMaharaja
Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...
of Gwalior, one of the largest, richest and highest-ranking 21-gun-salute princely state
Princely state
A Princely State was a nominally sovereign entitity of British rule in India that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule such as suzerainty or paramountcy.-British relationship with the Princely States:India under the British Raj ...
s in India. As per tradition, a new name was chosen for Lekha based upon the matching of the couple's horoscopes, and she assumed the name 'Vijayaraje Scindia'.
Her grandfather having died, Lekha's maternal uncles were instrumental in negotiating the alliance. Her husband family, the Scindias, were among the most prominent Maratha
Maratha
The Maratha are an Indian caste, predominantly in the state of Maharashtra. The term Marāthā has three related usages: within the Marathi speaking region it describes the dominant Maratha caste; outside Maharashtra it can refer to the entire regional population of Marathi-speaking people;...
families of the land. The fact that Lekha belonged to one of the hoariest Rajput
Rajput
A Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...
families in the sub-continent, (albeit to an impoverished cadet branch of such), undoubtedly lent special weight, in the eyes of her husband's family, to the suit that was pressed on Lekha's behalf by her uncles. Nevertheless, Vijayaraje Scindia recollects in her autobiography that she did face some initial hostility from her new family. She sensed that this wariness on their part was based on the fear that her non-Maratha heritage may result in the traditions of the ruling family being impacted. Vijayaraje privately resolved never to allow this to become an issue; by sedulous effort, she becoming utterly acclimatized to the Maratha customs and traditions of the Scindia family and thus won over her detractors.
Children
The marriage was blessed with four daughters and a son, being:- Padmavatiraje 'Akkasaheb' Scindia (1942–64), who wed Kirit Deb Barman, last ruling maharaja of TripuraTripuraTripura is a state in North-East India, with an area of . It is the third smallest state of India, according to area. Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on the north, south, and west. The Indian states of Assam and Mizoram lie to the east. The capital is Agartala and the main languages spoken are...
. - Usharaje Scindia (b.1943), who wed her distant cousin, Pasupati Rana, a Nepalese nobleman. They are the parent of Devyani RanaDevyani RanaDevyani Rana was the prospective fiancée of the Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal. She is the daughter of Pashupati Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana and Usharaje Scindia, of the Gwalior royal family...
. - Madhavrao ScindiaMadhavrao ScindiaMadhavrao Scindia was a prominent Indian politician and minister from the Congress Party. He was born into the Scindia family, who formerly ruled Gwalior...
(1945–2001), prominent Indian politician. - Vasundhara RajeVasundhara RajeVasundhara Raje was the Chief Minister of Rajasthan state of India from December 2003 till December 2008. She is the first woman Chief Minister of Rajasthan.- Early life :...
(b.1953) prominent Indian politician and former Chief MinisterChief MinisterA Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national state, provinces of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, notably a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British Overseas Territory that has attained self-government...
of RajasthanRajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
. She was formerly married to the titular maharaja of DholpurDholpur (princely state)The Dholpur State was a kingdom of eastern Rajputana, India, which was founded in AD 1806 by the Bamraulia clan Jat Rana rulers. After 1818 the state was placed under the authority of British India's Rajputana Agency...
. - Yashodhara Raje (b.1955), also an active Indian politician and MP. She was formerly married to a US-based doctor.
Family life
Vijayaraje's relationship with her husband conformed, by every account, to the Indian ideal of perfect harmony; this is easy enough to believe, as Vijayaraje, the supreme traditionalist, would have deemed it her duty to defer to him, and to family elders, on all matters.The situation was in every sense reversed where her children were concerned. The demise of Jiyajirao in 1961 left Vijayaraje the only parent for her growing children. True to character, Vijayaraje proved an exacting and somewhat martinet parent; she expected her children to meet her own idealised standards of lifestyle and behavior. This did not make for particular warmth, and in later life, Vijayaraje's relationship with her adult children wavered between the formally cordial and the antagonistic. In her autobiography, she regretfully recounts how little sympathy she was able to extend to her two younger daughters in their troubled marriages, and wonders whether her husband may not have handled those situations better.
Her relationship with her only son was especially troubled; personal problems were exacerbated by political differences, and she sometimes felt moved to attack his character in public. Indeed, when her will was read shortly after her death, it was found that she had forbidden her son from participating in her funerary obsequies. This is the ultimate castigation an orthodox Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
can mete out to a son. Her children have occasionally attributed these family differences to the baneful influence of Vijayaraje's advisors, but most observers disagree with this assessment.
Entry into politics
Vijayaraje was initiated into electoral politics in 1962 when she contested the Guna Lok SabhaLok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
seat in Madhya Pradesh on a Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
ticket. Five years later, she quit the Congress and joined the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Jan Sangh. She won the Kerera assembly seat as the party's candidate and plunged headlong into state politics. She went on to win seven consecutive parliamentary elections. She was jailed by Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...
during the Emergency. In the 1970s, Vijayraje and her son Madhavrao were involved in a public dispute over property. Animosities heightened due to their differing political ideologies.
Vijayaraje came to the forefront of the BJP leadership in 1980 when she was made one of its vice-presidents. She played a key role in propagating the party's Ramjanmabhoomi agenda and was considered a hardliner. She remained a BJP vice-president until 1998 when she stepped down on health grounds and quit electoral politics. She died in January 2001.