During Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s State visit to Poland on August 21-22 — the first by an Indian PM since 1979 — he will pay homage at the memorial to the kind of a fool Maharaja (The Good Maharaja). The story of the ruler of Nawanagar (commonly known as Jamnagar), Shri Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja, giving refuge to 650 Polish children during World War II (WWII) is a poignant and evocative saga, a golden thread in the tapestry of India-Poland ties. .
During WWII, upon release from Soviet gulags, tens of thousands of Poles were sent to the Caucasus as refugees. They traveled over land to Tehran, where conditions proved inadequate. India was among a few countries that responded to the Polish government-in-exile’s appeal for assistance. The Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, the then chairman of the Chamber of Princes, agreed to grant refuge to “a few Polish children”.
In April 1942, 650 Polish children were transported over land to Balachadi on the outskirts of Jamnagar, where the Jam Saheb hosted them until 1946, in a special beachside camp next to his Summer Palace, now part of the Sainik School.
The Jam Saheb, a most large-hearted ruler, epitomized the best of raj dharma, Vasudhaiva family (the world is one family) and atithi devo bhava (the guest is God) were central to his benevolence. It is little wonder that his first words to the Polish children, now famously inscribed at his memorial in Poland, were: “I am your bapu (father), just like I am father to all Nawanagaris. Therefore, you are no longer orphans today”.
Over the next four years, the Balachadi Camp became home to around a thousand Polish children, all of whom received loving care, education and the teachings of their Catholic faith. Father Pluta provided spiritual nourishment and Colonel Jeffrey Clark ran the administration. Between them, Dr Amrutlal Ashani, Anant Joshi, the pharmacist, and Cathy, the chief nurse, ensured good health. Seven Goan cooks provided nutritious food. Expenses were met from Jam Saheb’s personal funds. His egregious charity subsequently earned him the Polish sobriquet — Dobry Maharaja, or the Good Maharaja.
Today, the survivors are represented by The Association of Poles in India: 1942-1948. Many, like Vieslaw Stypula, remained nostalgic about their “best childhood memories”, of the time spent in India. They sang Jai Jai Maharaj, the Nawanagar state anthem. They were trumped by the locals in hockey but were better at volleyball and equals in football. Some locals called it Roopnagari, in view of its cherubic inhabitants. The famous Polish filmmaker, Tomasz Stankiewicz, who spent two years at Balachadi, produced the acclaimed documentary film, The Brave Bunch in India.
A grateful Poland named many landmarks after the Jam Saheb. A commemorative monument was erected in 2014 at Good Maharaja Square in Ochota District in Warsaw. In 2016, the Polish Sejam (Lower House of Parliament), unanimously passed a resolution honoring the Jam Saheb on his 50th death anniversary. Earlier in 2011, he was posthumously awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Poland. Eight prestigious schools in Poland were named after him following a popular vote among students, parents and faculty members.
After WWII, the Polish children of the Balachadi Camp in Jamnagar and others at Valivade, a camp in Kohlapur run by the British colonial authorities, were resettled in Poland and elsewhere around the world. Nearly eight decades on, the shining legacy of the noble act of the “Good Maharaja” still lives on.
Jam Saheb Shri Digvijaysinhji’s alma mater (also mine), The Rajkumar College, Rajkot, established for scions of princely families in 1870, has an active exchange program with The Maharaja Independent High School, Bednarska, in Warsaw. This year, twelve students and a teacher spent two weeks in Warsaw on a family homestay program arranged by this school. When the Polish children come on a return visit in November, they too, like many before them, will undertake the pilgrimage to the hallowed campsite at Balachadi for a wreath-laying ceremony.
I, too, have a special connection with The Good Maharaja. Like the Polish children, I too am a direct beneficiary of the Jam Saheb’s benevolence. In 1965, I was denied admission to The Rajkumar College for lack of a seat. My mother, who hailed from a family of traditional ayurveda physicians to the Jam Sahebs of Nawanagar, requested the erstwhile ruler to intercede in his capacity as the president of the Governing Council of the school. The Good Maharaja telephoned Peter Rogerson, OBE, the British principal, and the doors to the prestigious school magically opened, changing my life forever. He was bapu to me too, not just to his Polish wards.
Sujan R Chinoy, a former ambassador, is currently the director general of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses. The views expressed are personal
