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Copyright by Julie Elaine Hughes 2009 The Dissertation Committee for Julie Elaine Hughes certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Animal Kingdoms: Princely Power, the Environment, and the Hunt in Colonial India Committee: Gail Minault, Supervisor Cynthia Talbot William Roger Louis Syed Akbar Hyder Janet Davis Michael Charlesworth Animal Kingdoms: Princely Power, the Environment, and the Hunt in Colonial India by Julie Elaine Hughes, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2009 Acknowledgments Research for this dissertation could not have been completed without the generous support of an American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) Junior Research Fellowship for 2007-08. I would like to thank everyone at the AIIS offices in Delhi and Chicago. I am also grateful to my affiliating institution in India, the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and to Dr. Neeladri Bhattacharya and Dr. Indivar Kamtekar at JNU’s Centre for Historical Studies. In India, I completed my research at the National Archives of India and the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts in Delhi; at the Rajasthan State Archives in Bikaner; at the Rajasthan State Archives Intermediary Depository, the Pratap Shodh Pratisthan, the Maharana Mewar Special Library, and the Saraswati Bhavan Pustakalaya in Udaipur; at the Old Secretariat archives, the Banganga Marg library, and the State Museum library under the Madhya Pradesh Directorate of Archeology, Archives, and Museums in Bhopal; and at the Uttar Pradesh State Archives in Lucknow. I am grateful to everyone at these institutions for their help and hospitality, including Dr. Mahendra Khadgawat and Mr. P. C. Joiya at the Rajasthan State Archives; Mr. M. L. Mundra and Mr. Sohanlal Damor at the Rajasthan State Archives Intermediary Depository; Mr. Bhupendra Singh Auwa of the Maharana Mewar Foundation; Mr. Tej Singh Shaktawat, Dr. Mohabbat Singh Rathore, Dr. Ishvar Singh Ranawat and Mrs. Rajmati Datt at the Pratap Shodh Pratisthan; Mr. Pramod Kumar at the Alkazi Foundation; and Dr. Gita Saberwal, Mr. M. K. Khan, Mr. S. Naimuddin, Dr. B. L. Lokhandhe, all under the Madhya Pradesh Directorate of Archeology, Archives, and Museums. In addition, Mr. Dalip Singh, Co- coordinator of the Maharaja Ganga Singhji Trust, kindly answered several questions for me via email and sent me copies of select documents from the collection of the Sri Sadul Museum, Bikaner. I would also like to thank the owner and staff of the Kalka Mata Nursery in Udaipur for allowing me to photograph the wall paintings in the Nahar Odi. The following were instrumental in facilitating my research, in exchanging ideas and offering advice, and in opening doors that otherwise might have remained closed: Dr. Divyabhanusinh Chavda, Dr. Mahesh Rangarajan, Mr. Salauddin Ahmed, Dr. iv Shakti Kak and family, Mr. Lav Bhargava, Mr. Raza H. Tehsin and family, Mr. Karni S. Parihar, Mr. Gajendra S. Parihar, and Mr. Pradeep S. Parihar of The Curios House and of Hotel Panna Vilas in Udaipur, the Boheda family of Hotel Mahendra Prakash in Udaipur, and the Sardargarh family of the Sardargarh Heritage Hotel in Sardargarh. In the United Kingdom I did research at the British Library, The Cambridge South Asian Archive, and The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum. I sincerely thank everyone at these institutions for making my research there successful and enjoyable. Also in London, Richard Bingle deserves special mention for providing excellent conversation and a place to stay, and for sharing the contents of his expansive library. At the University of Texas at Austin, my advisor Gail Minault provided vital feedback and encouragement every step of the way. Cynthia Talbot’s comments and suggestions, as always, helped me improve my writing. Janet Davis’s own interest in animal related history was an inspiration. The organizers of and my fellow participants in the 2007 Association for Asian Studies Dissertation Workshop on Art and Politics, and in the 2007 Graduate Workshop at Tufts University: Interdisciplinary Directions in Modern South Asia, made invaluable suggestions on some early writings. I am also grateful for the feedback I received when presenting papers at the 2007 Department of Sociology Workshop on Political Ecology at the University of Delhi, and at the 37th and 38th Annual Conferences on South Asia in Madison, Wisconsin. Personal thanks go to Sunayana Walia, who gave me a home in Delhi and made my time there easy and enjoyable. Thank you Naheed, Raj, and Simran Varma for always being there, helping me fix problems, making me laugh, and for opening your home to me, and now to everyone who visits your wonderful Lucknow Home Stay. My parents have provided love and support from the beginning. I cannot thank Josh enough for his love, understanding, and encouragement. v Animal Kingdoms: Princely Power, the Environment, and the Hunt in Colonial India Julie Elaine Hughes, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2009 Supervisor: Gail Minault Shaped in part by diverse landscapes, game profiles, and ruling personalities, hunting in the Indian princely states in the colonial period was heterogeneous to a previously unrecognized extent. At the same time, significant underlying political, social, and cultural continuities unified states and their rulers’ approaches to sport. Focusing on the Rajput realms of Mewar, Orchha, and Bikaner, I show how princes of different ranks negotiated their states’ divergent landscapes in pursuit of dissimilar game, and how they trusted in superior hunting grounds, wildlife, and shooting methods to advance their personal standings and sovereign powers. I also investigate how these rulers used hunting to maintain connections with their state and lineage histories, to exemplify local Rajput ideals and identities, and to manage relationships with various audiences, including their subjects, state nobles, other princes, and British officials. This study is concerned as much with princely perceptions of game and shooting grounds as with “real” landscapes or environmental changes. I examine how the princes conceptually linked natural abundance with favorable political conditions and degradation with lost power and compromised dignity. I consider what it meant to pursue tigers, wildfowl, antelope, and wild boar in dense jungles, wetlands, arid plains, and imposing hills. In addition, I look at the ways princes attempted to employ and also to modify those meanings to suit their own purposes. vi I did the research for this dissertation at government and private archives in India and the United Kingdom. Because my primary goal was to discover princely views, I relied as far as possible on sources produced by elite Indians or by those in their service. Among the materials I used were state government records, personal correspondence, speeches, game diaries, hunting memoirs, photographs, and miniature paintings. Much of the documentation was in English, with the major exception of records relating to Mewar State and its subordinate noble estates. The language of those papers ranged from Hindi through Rajasthani (Mewari). To understand British responses better, I consulted Government of India records. Published memoirs and travelogues written by Europeans who visited and hunted in the regions under consideration also proved useful. vii Table of Contents List of Abbreviations x List of Figures xi List of Maps xii Chapter 1: An Introduction to Princely Hunting and its Grounds 1 I. The Importance of Princely Shikar 3 II. Selecting States, Landscapes, and Game 10 III. Maharana Fateh Singh and Mewar State 12 IV. Maharaja Pratap Singh and Orchha State 15 V. Maharaja Ganga Singh and Bikaner State 19 VI. Survey of Sources 22 VII. Organization 30 Chapter 2: Good Tiger Grounds and the Maharaja of Orchha 32 I. Wild Places, Tigers, and Kings 34 II. Someone Else’s Tiger, Someone Else’s Land 43 III. Debating Good Tiger Ground 51 IV. Locating Sportsmanship 61 V. Conclusion 72 Chapter 3: Exceptional Game and Mewar’s Splendidly Harsh Landscape 74 I. A Distinctive Hunting Landscape 76 II. Mewar and its Princely Rivals 93 III. Rajputs, Noble Game, and Englishmen 106 IV. Conclusion 119 Chapter 4: Superior Game, Controlled Shoots, and Progressive Shikar in Bikaner 121 I. Exclusive and Exceptional Shikar 122 II. Impressive Discipline at Gajner 140 III. Modern Grounds and Good Impressions 154 IV. Conclusion 165 Chapter 5: Martial Pasts and Combative Presents 167 I. Reengaging Past Conflicts 169 viii II. Military Environments 181 III. Rajput Acts and British Offences 191 IV. Conclusion 201 Chapter 6: Sovereign Measures, Noble Challenges, and Popular Protests 203 I. Royal Nostalgia 205 II. Noble Shikargahs and Shooting 218 III. Dangerous and Destructive Game 233 IV. Conclusion 243 Chapter 7: Conclusion 245 Appendix A: Dhaibhai Tulsinath Singh Tanwar and his Memoirs 250 Appendix B: Pronunciation and Diacritics 254 Glossary 255 Glossary of Named Places 258 Bibliography 263 Vita 277 ix List of Abbreviations AFA Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, New Delhi AGG Agent to the Governor General BECM British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, London CSAS Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge University DAAM Madhya Pradesh Directorate of Archeology, Archives, and Museums, Bhopal GOI Government of India MMSL Maharana Mewar Special Library, Udaipur NAI National Archives of India, New Delhi