Maharani Of Baroda Talks About 'Struggle' After Abolition Of Privy Purse, Internet Doesn't Buy It

Radhikaraje Gaekwad, the Maharani of the former princely state of Baroda, is currently under fire on social media for saying that royal families struggled to run their households after the abolition of the privy purse. She appeared on Ranveer Allahbadia’s podcast and said that royal families secretly sold heirlooms like gold utensils and thrones to sustain.

Her remarks failed to inspire much sympathy as many argued that royal families already had enough inherited wealth, most of which was earned out of exploitative feudal ways. People also argued that abolishing the “privy purse” after almost 25 years since independence was right.

Before independence, there were a number of royal families in India. After the British left, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel persuaded the princely states to join India. In exchange, the government offered the royals and their successors a “privy purse”, which was a specified annual sum of money given to them.

However, in 1971, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi decided to stop the privy purse money because giving royal families extra money was against the constitutional principle of equality and the privy purse amount burdened the young nation that was already struggling with poverty. Against this context, many trolled the Radhikaraje Gaekwad for alluding to financial distress over privy purse abolition.

Commenting on her remarks, an X user wrote, “Somehow people overlook the fact that the independence movement did not just kick out the British, it was an epic revolution that established a democratic republic and kicked out these lazy, greedy, parasitic maharajas and nawabs forever.”

Someone sarcastically wrote, “‘It became so difficult to run our palaces without free taxpayer money that we had to sell the gold we originally bought by taxing our peasants to death.’”

Another person wrote, “As someone who worked in a school where her kids went, I have to say how the rules were bent to accommodate the kids and the Gaekwads. Please don’t give me this sob story, I have seen the privilege this family has in Baroda, even now!”

Radhikaraje Gaekwad’s royal family of Baroda lives in Laxmi Vilas Palace, the world’s largest private residence and is four times the size of Buckingham Palace. The palace is open to visitors for a ticket price. It is estimated that the royal family has assets worth over Rs 20,000 crore.