by A. J. PHILIP
Dear Shri Marthanda Varma,
It is your article entitled “Sri Padmanabha Swami and his wealth” in the Sunday Supplement of the ‘Malayala Manorama’ (August 28) that prompted me to write this epistle. You have quoted some old manuscripts to argue that the articles of gold and other precious metals discovered in the safe vaults of the temple were offered to Sri Padmanabha by your predecessors and they should be preserved as such.
Two ladies of the Travancore royal family — Gouri Parvatibhai and Gouri Lakshmibhai — were also quoted saying that it would be dangerous to step into the domain of Hindu faith and traditions. You have also harked back to the days when your family ruled the state and how an unnamed political leader treated you as a commoner the day Prime Minister Indira Gandhi abolished the privy purses.
You were hurt when a security guard at the Kochi airport refused you access to the VIP room because you were no longer a “maharaja”. As regards the conduct of the politician, it can only be described as uncivilized, though I would have loved to hear his version also. Anyway, your complaint is that he asked you some embarrassing questions, lit a cigarette and blew the smoke at your face.
To mention this minor incident four decades after it occurred is nothing but cussedness. You should have remembered that your only claim to the VIP status was an accident of birth. I am sure you would have read the 18th century classic “Rights of Man” by Thomas Paine, which is actually a diatribe against the institution of royalty. I will come back to this book in an instant. The point is that royalty is on the retreat everywhere and wherever it continues, like in Great Britain, it is more ornamental than real.
I also wish you had mentioned that the people of Kerala treat you with a lot of respect and reverence. I remember Congress legislator K. Muraleedharan telling me that when he wanted to sell shares of his company — Janapriya Communications — he wanted a respectable person to inaugurate it. The choice fell on you and you became the first recipient of the shares, though it is a different matter that Janapriya TV didn’t take off. If one politician showed disrespect to you 40 years ago, there are several others like Muraleedharan, who still show respect to you.
THOI for more