So Who's Afraid Of The Indian States?

And I'm guessing this, which is also loose inside is an invitation? Any ideas Tony?

Peter, that's an absolute treasure! I've never seen anything like it, but you're very, very lucky to have it.

It's particularly interesting for what it tells us of Ranjitsingh's spread of interests. The more I discover of the man, the more attractive he becomes. He certainly wasn't one to just sit back and enjoy his position, to grind the peasants into the dust. He seems to have been constantly busy trying to improve the lot of his people, and of other people as well. (Not least of his achievements, opening up the Barwani Post Office to the public ) This may explain why he died so young, at 42.

I'd need a couple of free hours to unravel the last item. Maybe Spock could make something of it, if approached in the right way ...

I thought you might like that Tony. I don't have anything else as unusual but I'll post some more bits over the next few days.

I imagined the Prince of primitives would be excited,
I could hear him salivating from here.

He will want to trade his car for that lot,
but I'll let you into a secret, he drives a Morris Minor.

I'd trade more than a car, if I had one, Rod

A truly superb piece of Barwaniana

I must agree Tony,
fantastic ephemera, adds atmosphere to the stamps,
now you may get an insight why cinderella collectors
get their passion.

I should think the program was de rigueur for the day,
I have seen menus from the SS Omrah that carried troops
of the Australian Light Horse have similar programmes.
Songs and skits etc.

I like his feeding and donations of clothes to the poor, and his
obvious delight in the Scouts.
Any idea what the term "kusti" refers to?

I think you should replicate the band programme,
from tunes avail on the web, and have that as an an audio
option on your "Stamps of Barwani CD Rom.

Kusti is traditional Indian wrestling.

Ranjitsingh comes across as a very simpatico character from the glimpses we get of him. Always doing something.

He makes an interesting comparison with another Rajput ruler of a (stamp-issuing) State outside Rajputana, Sir Pratap Singh. Pratap Singh had been Prime Minister of Jodhpur and had some expectations of succeeding to the throne there. Instead, he was made Maharaja of Idar, just outside Rajputana in Gujerat. Pratap Singh seems to have taken it as a profound insult, and went into a prolonged fit of the sulks. Ranjitsingh was down in Barwani, even more remote from Rapjutana, and - although the State lineage was a long one, and Barwani had once been considerably more influential than it was - a poor State, with a very large Tribal (backward castes) population, and so an ever less desirable catch. Ranjitsingh, though, threw himself into trying to improve the life of his subjects, and helping out elsewhere wherever he could. (We have records of him donating, and leading as a Captain, an ambulance unit in France in the First World War, and making a hefty donation to famine relief elsewhere in India later on.) He really does deserve a biography, I think.

I think that, when we were discussing the UK dealers Bridger & Kay a while ago, I promised to show two items I'd just ordered from them. They've now arrived, filling in two more gaps.

First the Bhopal ONE ANNA violet surcharge inverted on the 2 Annas of 1935-6, SG O327da:



Then another of the holes in the Cochin WWII surcharges, this time the T21 THREE PIES surcharge on the 3rd Raja Service stamp overprinted TO7, SG O63



I must say, I'm not entirely happy with the word SURCHARGED in the overprint. I think it might need a bit more examination and comparison with other examples.

Devil's advocate,
the stamp is too clean with a dicky cancel as well....?

Those factors don't worry me so much Rod, as that the font of SURCHARGED looks wrong. However, under magnification, the ON definitely seems to lie over the SURCHARGED, and the ON C G S looks OK to me. I suppose the SURCHARGED might have been under-inked/smeared in some way, but I still feel a trifle unsettled by it. I'm engrossed in helping pay off my extravagances at the moment, and I don't dare take time away from my duties to pursue the matter through.

ah Brother Tony acknowledges my little knowledge on the subject

i now translate ( start packing your MNH tony you will need me sooner or later to complete your indian states uglies)

i am doing a word to word translation so you can enjoy

clebration birthday ( as opposed to birthday celebration which would be the right translation but not a word byy word)

sir captain his highness Mr rana ranjitsingh brave ruler of the province barwani ( such nonsense even emperor spock doesnt refer to himself like that)

place: palace indrabhavan

court 5 -1 -18 (better be 1818 and not 1918 that would be appaling eh tony?) from 12 pm onwards in the afternoon

from

and the rest you can read in english int he bottom right

oh I forgot I have left the bottom left out. I can translate it but it means nothing even I am not aware of the stuff being said there it has no contest as to why he keeps mention his office on the left

hahaha this is hilarious I read the first 2 by peter and he celbrsates his birthday in december of one year and may of the next he prolly follows the tithi and not the english calendar this is hilarious if I only wan not going to the hospital it would be more fun.

Very many thanks for the translation Spock. Looks like this card does not go with the programme then, but was for the similar celebration 9 years earlier.

According to a genealogical site, Ranjit Singh was born on 26 December 1888, so maybe he had his "official" birthday celebration in a convenient week in December or January, which is what I believe the date printed is, rather than May (using the English date convention rather than the American).