The Holkar Royal line hold out through the British only to bolt when their people have a choice. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and accept a medal from the Maharajah. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
It seems strange to me to put someone so young on a stamp. In theory the feudal state had a regency to help out the 14 year old who was the dear ruler. Why not just show the British administrator. The English tactfully called him a resident. The Holkar’s apparently thought it was a good system. The previous Maharajah abdicated in favor of his son and this guy did the same when his son was 13.
The stamp today is issue A5, a half Anna stamp issued by the Indian Feudal State of Indore. It was part of a six stamp issue in various denominations. The stamp shows Maharajah Tukojirao Holkar III who had just ascended the throne. The over stamp Service means that the stamp was for the official use of the government. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.10 mint, the over stamp adds 20 cents to the value of the stamp. There are versions of the stamp that have double or even inverted overprints. These mistakes don’t add as much to the value as you would think.
The Holkar Dynasty was granted rights to the central Indian city of Indore in the 18th century during the time of the Maratha Raj. The Holkars built the Rajwada Palace in the Maratha style that still stands today. In the early 19th century the Holkars were defeated by the British in the Third Anglo-Maratha War. The British at that time would have been the British East India Company rather than the British themselves. It was decided to leave the Holkars in charge of Indore but to appoint a British resident to advise.
The British had some favoritism toward Indore as they had fewer issues there than with some other cities in the area. The train came to town in 1875, there was electricity in 1910 and a fire brigade in 1912. The city even received an urban city plan done by noted Scottish sociologists and planner Patrick Geddes, who worked on 18 cities in India in addition to his work in Edenborough, Scotland and Tel Aviv, in then Palestine. The British were the force behind most of these improvements and to a great deal were the beneficiaries of it. It is hard however to contemplate how a city could even function without these improvements.
The Maharajah abdicated in 1926 in favor of his 13 year old son. He had wanted to take a third wife that was an American. She was willing and in fact did convert to Hinduism but the choice was very controversial locally. He became somewhat a jet setter and died in Paris in 1978. He founded several exclusive clubs in Indore and received many awards from the British and handed out many in the name of Indore.
Indore went willingly into India almost immediately after independence in 1947. For a while it was the capital of the Indian Province but that has since been moved to Bhopal. The Rajwada Palace burned in the riots of 1984 but has been rebuilt with the help of the descendants of the Holkar family. The city is a major industrial and outsourcing center with a population over 2 million, over 90 percent Hindu.
Well my drink is empty and so I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.