Hanwant Singh

Raj Rajeshwar Maharajadhiraj Shri Hanwant Singh Rathore of Jodhpur (16 June 1923 – 26 January 1952) was the ruler of the Indian princely state of Jodhpur from 1947 to 1949. He was an avid polo player. He succeeded his father as Maharaja of Jodhpur on 9 June 1947, and held the title till his death in a plane crash on 26 January 1952.[1]

Hanwant Singh
Maharaja of Jodhpur
Period1947–1952
PredecessorUmaid Singh
SuccessorGaj Singh
Born(1923-06-16)16 June 1923
Jodhpur, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, India
Died26 January 1952(1952-01-26) (aged 28)
IssueGaj Singh
HouseRathore-Jodhpur
FatherMaharaja Umaid Singh of Jodhpur
ReligionHinduism

Family life

In 1943 he married Maharani Krishna Kumari Ba Sahiba of Dhrangadhra by whom he had a son Gaj Singh Rathore; daughter, Sailesh Kumari married in Banswara; and daughter, Chandresh Kumari Katoch of Kangra,[2] In 1948, he met and married 19-year-old Scottish nurse Sandra McBryde, divorcing her after a tempestuous and brief union. Later he married the Muslim actress Zubeida who converted to Hinduism as Vidya Rani Rathore, by whom he had a son named Hukum Singh Rathore (Tutu Bana), but soon after their marriage they were disowned by the royal family and as a result he left Umaid Bhawan Singh palace and started to live in Mehrangarh. From her first marriage Zubeida had a son, Khalid Mohammed, a film critic and director.[3]

After their death, his son Tutu was brought up by Rajmata of Jodhpur, and later went to study at Mayo College in Ajmer. He married Rao Rani Rajeshwari Kumari Rathore, daughter of Rao Raja Daljit Singh of Alwar. The couple had one son, Parikshit Singh Rathore (b. 1974) and one daughter, Jainandini Kanwar (b. 1975). However, on 17 April 1981, he was beheaded and found on the streets of Jodhpur.[4]

Final years

After Indian independence and formation of Rajasthan as a state within India, he formed a new political party Akhil Bhartiya Ramrajya Parishad in 1952. Campaigning in both the Indian general and state Assembly elections scheduled for February 1952, Hanwant Singh would have won a majority in his region. After only four hours of sleep he took off in a small aircraft with his wife, Zubeida on 26 January 1952. The plane crashed killing him at the age of 28. Zubeidaa also perished in the accident.[4][5]

In 2011, wreckage of the aircraft, Beechcraft Bonanza, a light six-seater aircraft, was discovered inside Jodhpur Central Jail.[5] Subsequently, in 2012, the Mehrangarh Fort Museum founded in 1972 by Maharaja Gaj Singh, formally asked the jail to transfer the wreckage to the museum.[6]

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See also
  • Rulers of Marwar

References
  1. "HH The Maharaja Hanwant Singh". Maharaja Jodhpur website. Archived from the original on 25 August 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 July 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. "Zubeidaa's secret". The Times of India. 11 July 2003. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  4. Anvar Alikhan (17 January 2001). "The Real Zubeidaa". rediff.com, Movies. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  5. "Jodhpur's Maharaja and his wife's aircraft wreckage discovered inside jail". India Today. 11 July 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  6. "Rajasthan museum seeks maharaja's plane crash wreckage". BBC News. 24 February 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
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