The reformer of everything

Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda state, was born today in 1863. His pioneering legacies are the architecture, railways and water supply of Vadodara, his patronage to the arts, and his Bank of Baroda.

Sayajirao Gaekwad III; Source: Wikipedia

Born on the 11th of March, 1863, Sayajirao Gaekwad III was not chosen to be the king of Baroda at first. Malharrao, the brother of his father, and a vile oppressor of people, conspirator in assassinations, and a liberal spender of money - to the point that the coffers of Baroda had been emptied, took the throne.

The British government in India, while it could not care about what the Princely states did to their internal subjects, did start an enquiry on Malharrao, only to receive the news that the latter had tried to cover up his excesses by attempting to poison Robert Phayre, the British Resident at the court of Baroda. Such insolence would not stand, and in 1875, a British contingent gladly exiled Malharrao to Madras.

As various factions struggled for Princely power over Baroda, Gopalrao, one of the sons, proclaimed that he had “come to rule”. And rule, he did. Adopting the title Sayaji Gaekwad III, he would be groomed by ministers like Madhava Rao to combat the impending crisis of finances and welfare due to the bad practices of his predecessor.

Sayajirao threw himself to modernising, educating, and enriching his populace - developing Baroda’s textile industry, introducing free primary education in his state (thus becoming the first to do so in British India), banning child marriage, legalising divorce, banning untouchability, developing ideological and religious studies, and the like.

His pioneering economic reforms included the establishment of the Gaekwar Baroda State Railway - the largest narrow gauge railway network in the world, the unfinished Sayajirao University (finished by his successors), the Ajwa reservoir, still supplying its water to Vadodara, and most recognisable - the Bank of Baroda, instituted in 1908, still being one of the leading banks of the country.

Finally, his legacy would also include patronising scholars far and wide - like the famous Indian painter, Raja Ravi Varma, and being invited as the First Asian Member to the House of Commons in Britain, a feat scantly achieved by anyone else in his time.