Of the Raj, Maharajas and Me

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About the Book The fascinating memoir of a minister in the Princely States of Mysore and Gwalior, who was an unusual witness to some of the most significant events in India before and immediately after Independence.

M.A. Sreenivasan (1897-1998) lived through almost the entire twentieth century, and was among the very few people who witnessed at close quarters the enormous changes that took place in India during the period. Born in Madras, he belonged to a family that traced its known origins to about a thousand years ago, and claimed descent from a disciple and associate of the great sage Ramanuja. Subsequent generations were Pradhans (ministers) of successive kings of Mysore. Sreenivasan himself joined the Mysore Civil Service in 1918 and, after a varied career both with the Mysore Government and the Government of British India, became a Pradhan of the Maharaja of Mysore in 1943. In 1947 he was invited by the Maharaja of Gwalior to become the Dewan of that State. During that momentous year he was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India and of its States Negotiation Committee, and in regular touch with many of the leading figures (including Mountbatten) involved in the transfer of power from British to Indian hands. On leaving Gwalior in 1948, he was closely involved with industry as Director of some major firms, including the Kolar Gold Mining Companies.

Much more than an autobiography, Of the Raj, Maharajas and Me is a rare portrait of India during the British Raj, and a reflection on its journey to Independence. The former Princely States of India have been comparatively neglected by scholars, many of whom have tended to be too critical. There is much in this book on the style, culture and effectiveness of administration in two major Princely States, which redresses the balance and makes the book a valuable document on the subject. Further, Sreenivasan provides sharp insights on the negotiations that led to the end of the Raj, and on the new polity that emerged after Independence. This absorbing book will be of immense interest to everyone interested in the history of modern India.

About the Author M.A. Sreenivasan joined the Mysore Civil Service in 1918 and went on to have an illustrious career. He was also a minister in the Princely State of Mysore (1943) and the Dewan of Gwalior (1947). Sreenivasan was part of a select group of people who had the opportunity to not only witness but actively participate in some of the defining events of twentieth-century India. Born in Madras, he died in 1998 in Bangalore at the age of one hundred and one years.

Foreword 'If this book looks like an autobiography,' begins M.A. Sreenivasan, 'It is not what I meant it to be.' And indeed, while Of the Raj, Maharajas and Me may be classified as a memoir, it is in truth largely focused on the remarkable times that Sreenivasan lived in, and the intimate role he played in shaping them, as a minister and senior civil servant in the Princely State of Mysore and, later, as Dewan of Gwalior.

Preface If this book looks like an autobiography, it is not what I meant it to be. My purpose was to write of events and things great and small, describe scenes and situations serious or funny, and of the momentous historical changes I have seen and known in my lifespan of over ninety years in a century that has been truly epochal.