name	Mamata Banerjee মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়
alt	Portrait of Mamata Banerjee
office	Chief Minister of West Bengal
term start	20 May 2011
predecessor	Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
governor	M. K. Narayanan
office2	Minister of Railways
term start2	22 May 2009
term end2	19 May 2011
predecessor2	Lalu Prasad Yadav
successor2	Dinesh Trivedi
office3	Member of Parliament
term start3	1991
predecessor3	Biplab Dasgupta
birth date	January 05, 1955
birth place	Kolkata, West Bengal, India
nationality	Indian
spouse	Unmarried
party	Indian National Congress (1970–1997) Trinamool Congress (1997–present)
residence	Harish Chatterjee Street, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
alma mater	University of Calcutta
profession	PoliticianAdvocateSocial Worker
religion	Hinduism
signature	Signature of Mamata Banerjee.svg
website	West Bengal Government
footnotes	}}

Mamata Banerjee (; , pronounced ; born 5 January 1955) is the 11th and current chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal. She is the first woman to hold the office. Banerjee founded All India Trinamool Congress in 1997 and became chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress. Currently she is also in charge of nine key departments of the government of West Bengal, including Home, Health and Family Welfare, Land and Land Reforms, Information and Cultural Affairs, Minority Affairs and Madrassah Education, Agriculture, Power and Home (Personnel and Administrative Reforms) departments. Banerjee is known as a firebrand orator and popularly referred to as "Didi" (meaning elder sister) to all her followers.

Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the All India Trinamul Congress in West Bengal by defeating the world's longest-serving democratically-elected communist government, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front government, bringing to an end 34 years of Left Front rule in the state. Banerjee previously served as a Minister of Railways twice, Minister of Coal, and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports and Women and Child Development in the cabinet of the Indian government. She opposed forceful land acquisition for industrialization by the then communist government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers.

Early life and career

Mamata Banerjee was born to Gayetri and Promileswar Banerjee on 5 January 1955, in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. She grew up in a lower middle-class family and started her political career in Congress. As a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks to become the general secretary of the state Mahila Congress (1976–80). She was a college student in the mid-1970s when politics in Bengal began to accommodate the riffraff. Uninhibited, Banerjee jumped up and danced on the hood of Jaiprakash Narayan's car.

Banerjee graduated with an honours degree in History from the Jogamaya Devi College, an undergraduate women's college in southern Kolkata. Later she earned a master's degree in Islamic History from the University of Calcutta. This was followed by a degree in education from the Shri Shikshayatan College. She also earned a law degree from the Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, Kolkata.

Throughout her political life Banerjee has maintained an austere lifestyle, never spending much money on clothes, cosmetics or jewellery and always with a cotton bag slung on her shoulder. She has remained single throughout her life.

Early political career

In the West Bengal Assembly elections of 2011, Trinamool Congress and congress parties combined, a move spearheaded by Mamata Banerjee, successfully won with over 77% of the total seats. This is considered a historic victory over the Left Front rule. The highlight of the election was that only four ministers out of the twenty eight of the outgoing regime were able to retain their seats. Even the outgoing chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya lost in his own constituency.

Indian National Congress

Banerjee started her political career in congress, and as a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks of the local Congress group, and remained the General Secretary of Mahila Congress (I), West Bengal, from 1976 to 1980. In the 1984 general election, Banerjee became one of India's youngest parliamentarians ever, beating veteran Communist politician Somnath Chatterjee, from the Jadavpur parliamentary Constituency in West Bengal. She also became the General-Secretary of the All India Youth Congress. Losing her seat in 1989 in an anti-Congress wave, she was back in 1991 general elections, having settled into the Calcutta South constituency. She retained the Kolkata South seat in the 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009 general elections.

In the Rao government formed in 1991, Mamata Banerjee was made the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development. As the sports minister, she announced that she would resign, and protested in a rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, against Government's indifference towards her proposal to improve sports in the country. She was discharged of her portfolios in 1993. In April 1996, she alleged that Congress was behaving as a stooge of the CPI-M in West Bengal. She claimed that she was the lone voice of reason and wanted a "clean Congress". At a private rally at Alipore in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee wrapped a black shawl around her neck and threatened to make a noose with it. In July 1996, she squatted at the well of Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian parliament, to protest a hike in petroleum price, although she was a part of the government that instituted it. In that very time she grasped the collar of Amar Singh, MP of Samajwadi Party, in the well of the parliament. In February 1997, on the day of railway budget presentation in Lok Sabha, Mamata Banerjee threw her shawl at the railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan for ignoring West Bengal and announced her resignation. The speaker, P. A. Sangma, did not accept her resignation and asked her to apologize. Later she came back as Santosh Mohan Deb mediated.

Trinamool Congress

In 1997, Mamata Banerjee came out of the Congress Party in West Bengal and established the All India Trinamool Congress. It quickly became the primary opposition to the long-standing Communist government in the state. On 11 December 1998, she controversially held a Samajwadi Party MP, Daroga Prasad Saroj, by the collar and dragged him out of the well of the Lok Sabha to prevent him from protesting against the Women's Reservation bill.

In 1999, she joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and was allocated the Railways Ministry.

Railway Minister

In 2000, Mamata Banerjee presented her first Railway Budget. In it she fulfilled many of her promises to her home state West Bengal. She introduced a new biweekly New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express train and four express trains connecting various parts of West Bengal, namely the Howrah-Purulia Rupasi Bangla Express, Sealdah-New Jalpaiguri Express, Shalimar-Bankura Arannyak Express and the Sealdah-Amritsar Superfast Express (weekly). She also increased the frequency of the Pune-Howrah Azad Hind Express and extension of at least three express train services. Work on the Digha-Howrah Express service was also hastened during her brief tenure.

She also focused on developing tourism, enabling the Darjeeling-Himalayan section with two additional locomotives and proposing the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited. She also commented that India should play a pivotal role in the Trans-Asian Railway and that rail links between Bangladesh and Nepal would be reintroduced. In all, she introduced 19 new trains for the 2000–2001 fiscal year.

Split with NDA

In early 2001, after making allegations against the BJP, Banerjee walked out of the NDA cabinet and allied with the Congress Party for West Bengal's 2001 elections, amidst speculation that the move could unseat the Communist government. She returned to the cabinet in January 2004, holding the Ministry of Coal and Mines portfolios until the 2004 elections, in which she was the only Trinamool Congress member to win a Parliament seat from West Bengal.

On 20 October 2005, she protested against forceful land acquisition and the atrocities on local farmers in the name of industrial development policy of the Buddhadev Bhattacharya government in West Bengal. Benny Santoso, CEO of the Indonesia-based Salim Group had pledged a large investment to West Bengal, and the West Bengal government had given him farmland in Howrah, sparking protest. In soaking rain, Banerjee and other Trinamool Congress members stood in front of the Taj Hotel where Santoso had arrived, shut out by the police. Later, she and her supporters followed Santoso's convoy. A planned "black flag" protest was avoided, when the government had Santoso arrive three hours ahead of schedule.

Mamata Banerjee suffered further setbacks in 2005, when her party lost control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the sitting mayor defected from her party. In 2006, the Trinamool Congress was defeated in West Bengal's Assembly Elections, losing more than half of its sitting members.

On 4 August 2006, Banerjee hurled her resignation papers at the deputy speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal in Lok Sabha. The provocation was the speaker (Somnath Catterjee)'s rejection of her adjournment motion on illegal infiltration by Bangladeshis in West Bengal. The motion was turned down by the speaker on the ground that it was not in the proper format.

In November 2006, Banerjee was forcibly stopped on her way to Singur for a rally against a proposed Tata Motors car project. Mamata reached the West Bengal assembly and protested at the venue. She addressed a press conference at the assembly and announced a 12-hour shutdown by her party on Friday. The Trinamul Congress MLAs protested by damaging furniture and microphones in the West Bengal Assembly. A major strike was called on 14 December 2006.

Now in the 2009 parliament election where TMC was in alliance with UPA and people of West Bengal acted against the Left front and elected Congress-TMC alliance cccin 26 seats, which made Mamata Banerjee again the Indian Railway Minister for next five years.

In the 2010 Municipal Elections in West Bengal, TMC won Kolkata Municipal Corporation in a margin of 62 seats. TMC also won Bidhan Nagar Corporation in 16-9 seats margin. In 2011, Banerjee won a sweeping majority and assumed the position of chief minister of the state of West Bengal. Her party ended the 34-year rule.

Nandigram protests

The Nandigram violence was an incident in Nandigram, West Bengal where, on the orders of the Left Front government, more than 4,000 heavily-armed police stormed the rural area in the district of Purba Medinipur with the aim of stamping out protests against the West Bengal government’s plans to expropriate of land for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to be developed by the Indonesian-based Salim Group. The police shot dead at least 14 villagers and wounded 70 more.

The SEZ controversy started when the government of West Bengal decided that the Salim Group of Indonesia would set up a chemical hub under the SEZ policy at Nandigram. The villagers took over the administration of the area, and all the roads to the villages were cut off. A front-page story in the Kolkata newspaper, The Telegraph, on 4 January 2007 was headlined, "False alarm sparks clash". According to the newspaper that village council meeting at which the alleged land seizure was to be announced was actually a meeting to declare Nandigram a "clean village", that is, a village in which all the households had access to toilet facilities. The administration was directed to break the Maoist-backed Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee's (BUPC) resistance at Nandigram and a massive operation with at least 3,000 policemen along with armed cadre of the Marxist ruling party was launched on 14 March 2007. However, prior information of the impending action had leaked out to the BUPC who amassed a crowd of roughly 2,000 villagers at the entry points into Nandigram with women and children forming the front ranks. In the resulting mayhem, at least 14 people were killed. Many people of the lower classes were made homeless due to this political carnage. A large number of intellectuals protested on the streets and this incident gave birth of a new hope for movement to ouster the left from government headed by the CPI(M). Mamata Banerjee wrote letters to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to stop the violence promoted by CPI(M) in Nandigram. Agitation in Nandigram subsided, after the state government shelved the proposed chemical hub project.

2009 Indian election

Trinamool Congress performed well in the 2009 parliamentary election, bagging 19 MP seats, among them 5 women (including Banerjee), reiterating its faith in the Women's Reservation Bill. Its allies in congress and SUCI also got six and one MP seats respectively marking the best performance by any opposition party in West Bengal since the start of the left regime. Until then, the Congress victory of 16 seats in 1984, by the sympathy vote after the death of Indira Gandhi, was considered the best show of opposition.

Railway Minister, second tenure

In 2009, Mamata Banerjee became railway minister for the second time and announced a number of new initiatives in the railway budget. Some argued that these reflected her bias towards her home state, West Bengal, although she had lead initiatives to benefit the entire country. She decided to develop about 50 railway stations to be world-class stations with international-level facilities. These will be developed through innovative financing and public-private partnerships. Banerjee also declared the Railway Ministry's intention to develop another 375 stations as Adarsh (Ideal) Stations. Furthermore, she announced construction of multi-functional complexes in station premises for providing rail users facilities, they included shopping-malls, food stalls and restaurants, book stalls, PCO/STD/ISD/Fax booths, medicine and variety stores, budget hotels, underground parking, and the like. The railway minister announced that these complexes will also be developed by public-private partnerships. Banerjee also set up scholarships for the higher education of the female children of group D staff, to promote their economic independence. She proposed to open seven nursing colleges on railway land. Banerjee also introduced new train services like “Duronto” and “Yuva” in the budget, the former the fastest train service in India. To relieve women passengers during rush hour, Mamata introduced a Special Ladies Train on 19^th July between Bandel and Howrah. Later, she introduced more Special Ladies Trains , e.g. Kalyani-Sealdah and Panvel-Mumbai CST.

Mamata Banerjee flagged off the Duronto Express – a nonstop train, fastest train of India between Sealdah and New Delhi on 18 September 2009. The super fast Duronto Express train between Chennai and New Delhi was introduced on 21 September. Banerjee also took steps to spread railway in terror-hit regions of Kashmir. Anantnag-Qadigund Railway line was inaugurated in October.

On 7 February 2010, Banerjee will start as many as nineteen new train services. Due to repeated sexual harassment and/or sexual assault of India's women commuters, eight trains will be designated as women-only.

2011 Assembly election

Mamata Banerjee's All India Trinamool Congress along with SUCI and Indian National Congress Alliance won the state assembly election against the Left ruling party by securing 227 seats. Trinamool Congress alone won 184 seats with the INC winning 42 seats where the other ally SUCI secured one seat. Throughout the 34-year-regime, the Left Front had never won fewer than two-thirds of the 294 seats, but this time it could only manage 62 seats.

Chief Minister

Banerjee was sworn in as Chief Minister of West Bengal on 20 May 2011. As the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal, one of her first decisions was to return 400 acres of land to Singur farmers. "The cabinet has decided to return 400 acres to unwilling farmers in Singur," the chief minister said. "I have instructed the department to prepare the papers for this. If Tatababu wants, he can set up his factory on the remaining 600 acres, otherwise we will see how to go about it," she added.

She has also been credited to solving the longstanding "Gorkhaland Problem" by setting up the Gorkhaland Autonomous Council. , thus fulfilling another of her campaign promises.

She has started various reforms in education and health sectors. Some of the reforms in the education sectors include release of the monthly pay of the teachers on the first of every month and quicker pensions for retiring teachers..In health sector "A three-phase developmental system will be taken up to improve the heath infrastructure and service,” Mamata Banerjee said."

References

External links

; Official

Mamata Banerjee official All India Trinamool Congress Party profile

Parliamentary profile at India.gov.in

; Other

Profile at BBC News

Mamata Banerjee collected news and commentary at The Times of India

|-

Category:1955 births Category:Bengali politicians Category:Living people Category:People from Kolkata Category:Alumni of Jogamaya Devi College, Kolkata Category:Alumni of Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College Category:University of Calcutta alumni Category:Indian anti-communists Category:14th Lok Sabha members Category:15th Lok Sabha members Category:Indian women in politics Category:Members of the Cabinet of India Category:Railway Ministers of India Category:Members of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly Category:All India Trinamool Congress politicians Category:Chief Ministers of West Bengal

bn:মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় fr:Mamata Banerjee hi:ममता बनर्जी it:Mamata Banerjee kn:ಮಮತಾ ಬ್ಯಾನರ್ಜಿ ml:മമത ബാനർജി mr:ममता बॅनर्जी ne:ममता बनर्जी pl:Mamata Banerjee simple:Mamata Banerjee ta:மம்தா பானர்ஜி ur:ممتا بنرجی

name	Anil Basu
birth date	November 07, 1946
birth place	Hooghly, West Bengal
residence	Khanakul, Hooghly District
constituency	Arambagh
office	Member: 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Lok Sabha
party	CPI(M)
spouse	Sabita Basu
children	1 son and 1 daughter
date	September 17 |
year	2006 |
source	http://164.100.24.208/ls/lsmember/biodata.asp?mpsno47 }}

Anil Basu () (born 7 November 1946, Hooghly, West Bengal) is an Indian politician and a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) political party. He was elected for the first time to the 8th Lok Sabha in 1984 from Arambagh constituency in West Bengal. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004 from the same constituency.

References

Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians Category:People from Hooghly district Category:14th Lok Sabha members Category:8th Lok Sabha members Category:9th Lok Sabha members Category:10th Lok Sabha members Category:11th Lok Sabha members Category:12th Lok Sabha members Category:13th Lok Sabha members Category:West Bengal politicians

mr:अनिल बसू

name	Gayatri Devi ()
succession	Rajmata of Jaipur
reign	1939 - 1970
consort	HH Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II
issue	Prince Jagat Singh
royal house	Kachwaha
father	Prince Jitendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur of Cooch Behar
mother	Princess Indira Raje Scindia of Baroda
birth date	May 23, 1919
birth place	London
death date	July 29, 2009
death place	Jaipur
religion	Hinduism
ethnicity	Bengali

Gayatri Devi() (23 May 1919 – 29 July 2009), often styled as Maharani Gayatri Devi, Rajmata of Jaipur, was born as Princess Gayatri Devi of Cooch Behar. She was the third Maharani of Jaipur from 1939 to 1970 through her marriage to HH Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II.

Following India's independence and the subsequent abolition of the princely states, she became an extremely successful politician. Gayatri Devi was also celebrated for her classical beauty and became something of a fashion icon in her adulthood. She has been counted in 'The Ten Most Beautiful Women of the World' along with actress Leela Naidu by the Vogue Magazine.

Gayatri Devi, who was once listed among the 'World's Ten Most Beautiful Women' along with actress Leela Naidu by the Vogue, was placed sixth after Princess Grace of Monaco, Queen Rania of Jordan, Kate Middleton, Princess Diana of Wales and Princess Charlotte of Monaco. and ahead of Princess Madeleine of Sweden, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, Princess Margaret and Princess Masako of Japan.

She died on 29 July 2009 in Jaipur, at the age of 90. She was suffering from paralytic ileus and lung infection.

Early life

Ethnically Bengali her father, Prince Jitendra Narayan of Cooch Behar, West Bengal, was the younger brother of the Yuvraja (Crown Prince). Her mother was Princess Indira Raje of Baroda, the only daughter of Maratha King, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, an extremely beautiful princess and a legendary socialite. Early in her life, her uncle's death led to her father ascending the throne (gaddi). Gayatri Devi studied at Glendower Preparatory School in London, Patha Bhavana of Visva-Bharati University, Shantiniketan, and later in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she travelled with her mother and siblings, then studied secretarial skills in London School of Secretaries; Brilliantmont and Monkey Club London.

She first met Jai (H.H. Saramad-i-Raja-i-Hindustan Raj Rajendra Sri Maharajadhiraja Sir Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur), when she was 12 and he had come to Calcutta to play polo and stayed with their family. She married Sawai Man Singh II Bahadur on 9 May 1940.

Maharani Gayatri Devi (as she was styled after marriage) was a particularly avid equestrienne. Maharani Gayatri was an excellent rider and an able Polo player. She was a good shot and enjoyed many days out on 'Shikars'. Her Highness was fond of cars and is credited with importing the first W126, a 500 SEL to India which was later shipped to Malaysia. Gayatri Devi had one child, Prince Jagat Singh of Jaipur, late Raja of Isarda, born on 15 October 1949, who was granted his uncles's (father's elder brother) fief as a subsidiary title. Jagat Singh was thus half-brother to Bhawani Singh of Jaipur.

Gayatri Devi was once included in Vogue magazine's Ten Most Beautiful Women list.

Gayatri Devi started schools for girls' education in Jaipur, most prominent of which is the Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls’ Public School established in 1943. She also revived and promoted the dying art of blue pottery.she was also known as kutti(little) devi.

Political career

After Partition and Independence Day in India in 1947, Gayatri Devi ran for Parliament in 1962 and won the constituency in the Lok Sabha in the world's largest landslide, winning 192,909 votes out of 246,516 cast, confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records. She continued to hold this seat on 1967 and 1971, Swatantra Party of C. Rajagopalachari, the second Governor-General of Independent India, running against the Congress Party.

When the privy purses were abolished in 1971, terminating all royal privileges and titles, Gayatri Devi was accused of violating tax laws, and served 5 months in Tihar Jail. She retired from politics and published her autobiography, A Princess Remembers, written with Santha Rama Rau, in 1976. She was also the focus of the film Memoirs of a Hindu Princess, directed by Francois Levie.

There were rumors that she might re-enter politics as late as 1999, when the Cooch Behar Trinamool Congress nominated her as their candidate for the Lok Sabha elections, but she did not respond to the offer.

Her father Jitendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur was the second son of Maharaja Nripendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur and Maharani Sunity Devi of Cooch Behar. After the death of his elder brother Maharaja Raj Rajendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, a bachelor, he ascended the throne of Cooch Behar in November 1913, few month's after his marriage with Princess Indira raje Gaekwad of Baroda. Maharani Sunity Devi was the daughter of illustrious Brahmo social reformer Keshab Chandra Sen.

Family

She had one son, Prince Jagat Singh, late Raja of Isarda(15 October 1949 - 5 February 1997), who was granted his paternal uncle's (father's elder brother) fief of Isarda as a subsidiary title. Jagat Singh was married 10 May 1978 to Mom Rajawongse Priyanandana Rangsit (b. 1952) who is the daughter of His Serene Highness Prince Piyarangsit Rangsit and Her Royal Highness Princess Vibhavadi Rangsit (née Rajani) of Thailand. The marriage produced two grandchildren:

Rajkumari Lalitya Kumari (b. 1979)

Maharaj Devraj Singh, now Raja of Isarda (b. 1981)

Today, they are her only surviving descendants, and as such, have claimed to be heirs of their paternal grandmother. Maharaj Jagat Singh was thus half-brother to Bhawani Singh of Jaipur, the eldest son of the late Maharaja by his first wife, a Jodhpur princess.

Family relationships

Jaipur

The Maharani had three stepsons through her husband's first and second marriages, of whom the eldest is the present Maharaja of Jaipur, who has an only daughter (whose son Kumar Padmanabh Singh has been adopted the next heir, somewhat contrary to the tradition and customs of Jaipur, where a sonless Maharaja almost always adopted a son from the next line patrilineally junior to him, or next in succession). His younger half-brothers were given family fiefs, and have one son each. One of the stepsons, Prithviraj Singh (b. 1935), married the Maharani's niece (see below) in 1961 (later divorced) and had a son Vijit Singh (married in 1991 to a princess of Lunawada) with her.

Cooch Behar and Tripura

Maharani Gayatri Devi was related to several other erstwhile royal families in India. She was herself not from Rajput royalty, but from a dynasty native to Koch Bihar in Bengal, and maternally of Maratha stock.

A younger sister of the Maharani, and two nieces married into the main line of princely houses.

Kota a princely state in Rajasthan (princely family genealogy) married to Uttara, a princess of Cooch Behar, as his second wife in 1963). The Maharani of Kota (b. 1942), a niece of the late Maharani Gayatri Devi, has one son (married, with one son), and one daughter (Bhawani Kumari) married 1991 to the son and heir of the Maharaja of Burdwan, a notable zemindar, with issue two daughters. They are great-nephew and great-niece of the late Maharani.

Dewas Jr. (princely family genealogy), whose ruler married Menaka Devi (b. 1920), youngest sister of the Maharani, and had issue 2 daughters. The elder daughter (b. 1950) married the late Raja of Payagpur (d. 2005), and had issue, one son the present Raja, who married in 2006. The Raja of Payagpur is thus a great-nephew, and the Rajmata a niece of the late Maharani.

Her eldest sister Ila Devi (1914–1945) married into the Tripura royal family; her widower later married his cousin, a daughter and sister of Maharajas of Tripura. Their father is Bharat Dev Varma (a distant kinsman of a noted composer Rahul Dev Burman) and their mother a Tollywood starlet Moonmoon Sen, herself the daughter of a famous actress Suchitra Sen; his daughters are the Bollywood starlets - Riya Sen (b. 1981) and Raima Sen (b. 1979) - who are her great-nieces. Their paternal aunt, the late Devyani Devi (1938–2009, a few months before her aunt), a niece of Gayatri Devi, was the former wife of Prithviraj Singh (b. 1935), one of Gayatri Devi's stepsons. (That marriage produced one son).

Baroda and descendants houses

The most significant royal connections are through Baroda. Her maternal grandparents were the remarkable Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III (1863–1939) and his second wife Maharani Chimnabai II of Baroda. Thus, the next Maharaja Pratap Singh Gaekwad of Baroda was her first cousin, and his heirs Fatehsinghrao, Gaekwad of Baroda (1930–1988) and the current Gaekward Ranjitsinh, Gaekwad of Baroda (b. 1938) were her first cousins once removed. (A Baroda princess, Priyadarshini, niece of these men, is currently married to Jyotiraditya Scindia, Maharaja of Gwalior, a great-grandson of the man rejected by Gayatri Devi's mother. Her brother, born 1970, is the eventual heir if the present Yuvaraj fails to produce a son).

Other relatives, also descended from her maternal grandfather Sayajirao, included the rulers of Kota, Sawantwadi, Akkalkot, Jath, Dewas Jr., Jasdan, and Sandur. Of these, the most significant connections are:

Sawantwadi, a 9-gun-salute princely state in Bombay, now part of Maharashtra (princely family genealogy) linked by three marriages to Baroda princesses: firstly, Tarabai, the daughter of the Maharaja prior to her maternal grandmother married the ruler in 1899. Secondly, Laxmibai (1907–1961) a cousin of Gayatri Devi also married another Maharaja in 1922, with issue one daughter. The present Maharaja is the son of the third marriage, of the late Maharaja to the second daughter (b. circa 1935) of Pratap Singh Gaekwad of Baroda.

Jasdan, a tiny princely state in Saurashtra (princely family genealogy); the present ruler, 11th Chief of Jasdan, and his father the 10th Chief (d. 1989) married two Baroda princesses. The 11th Chief married his cousin, a daughter of the present head of the Baroda house). His sister (b. 1955) is named for the late Maharani.

Other connections

More tenuous connections exist to Dhar and Kolhapur:

Tehri-Garhwal, an 11-gun-salute princely state in Uttarakhand (princely family genealogy), where a cadet married a Baroda princess, and has issue.

Dhar, a 15-gun salute Maratha princely state in Madhya Pradesh (princely family genealogy): the late Maharaja (1920–1989) was married to in 1951 and divorced (date unknown) from a living Baroda princess, without issue.

Kolhapur, one of the two Maratha princely states descended from Shivaji (princely family genealogy): a previous Maharaja (d. 1940) married as his first wife a cousin of the late Maharani in April 1918, but apparently had no issue with her. (He had a daughter by his second wife). His wife Indumati Devi (1904–1954) apparently had no issue.

Maharani Gayatri Devi was also indirectly related to the former royal families of Lunawada (a daughter of the house married her great-nephew Vijit Singh) and Baria.

Family relationships by marriage

The late Maharani had an indirect relationship with the Maharajas of Pithapuram in Andhra Pradesh. The daughter of a previous Maharaja, the glamorous divorcee Sita Devi (1917–1989), was the controversial second wife of her first cousin Pratap Singh Gaekwad) from 1943 to 1956. Another daughter Kamala Devi (1920-1980s) married Gayatri Devi's maternal uncle Indrajitendra, the second son of Maharaja Jitendra of Cooch Behar and Indira Devi, and had issue one son and one daughter. (The daughter Uttara Devi is now Maharani of Kota).

Through her marriage to Man Singh II, she was related to Maharaja Hanuwant Singh of Jodhpur (1923–1952). His aunt Marudhar Kanwar and cousin Krishna Kumari (daughters of previous Maharajas) were married to Sawai Man Singh II as his first and second wives. The Maharaja's elder son Gaj Singh (b. 1948) is the present Maharaja of Jodhpur, and as such, a first cousin once removed of Maharaj Bhawani Singh of Jaipur; his only son Shivraj Singh is the heir apparent.

Other relatives by marriage include the Maharaja of Dewas, and the Maharaja of Tripura (whose kinsman married her eldest sister Ila Devi)

Death

The Maharani developed gastric problems in London and was admitted to a hospital there. She was being treated for gastric disorder at the King Edward’s Hospital in London and had expressed her desire to return to Jaipur. Gayatri Devi was flown in an air ambulance to Jaipur. She was admitted at Santokba Durlabhji Memorial Hospital (SDMH) on 17 July 2009. She died on 29 July 2009, reportedly due to lung failure.

Her death came a day after the passing away of actress Leela Naidu, both of whom were named by Vogue as amongst the 10 most beautiful women in the world. Maharani Gayatri Devi died on 29 July 2009 at the age of 90.

Further reading

A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur, by Gayatri Devi. South Asia Books, 1996. ISBN 81-7167-307-4.

Rajmata Gayatri Devi, by Dharmendar Kanwar. Roli Books, 2004. ISBN 81-7436-294-0.

Gourmet's Gateway: A Royal Collection, by Gayatri Devi, Dharmendar Kanwar. Published by Dharmendar Kanwar, 1999. ISBN 81-901221-0-X. Sure she was legendary.

Maharanis by Lucy Moore Published 2006 by Penguin ISBN 978-0-14-303704-0

Notes

External links

The Maharani's Family - Images and Family history

Henry Soszynski. Cooch Behar ruling family apparently extinct in 1992.

Website of the MGD Girls School

The Maharani's Death

Rajmata Gayatri Devi - Daily Telegraph obituary

Rediff article - Memoir by her ghost-writer

Category:Hindu monarchs Category:1919 births Category:People from Jaipur Category:Indian women in politics Category:3rd Lok Sabha members Category:4th Lok Sabha members Category:5th Lok Sabha members Category:Indian female royalty Category:2009 deaths Category:History of Jaipur Category:Visva-Bharati University alumni Category:People educated at Glendower Preparatory School

bn:গায়ত্রী দেবী de:Gayatri Devi es:Gayatri Devi hi:गायत्री देवी id:Gayatri Devi kn:ಗಾಯಿತ್ರಿ ದೇವಿ hu:Gayatri Devi ml:ഗായത്രീദേവി nl:Gayatri Devi ta:காயத்திரி தேவி ur:گایتری دیوی