How about a story inter woven with history of an Indian Royal Family, their Cricketing excellence, some Polish Refugees of WW2 and the erstwhile King's benevolence? Those who are not aware of this part of history will find no correlation between the topics mentioned above. But it is an interesting part of history and some of my readers might find it intriguing. So, without further ado,let us get down to business. To start with, let us study a little bit of history and geography. We are going to discuss about the Royals of present day Jamnagar. Jamnagar is a large city in the western part of Indian state of Gujrat in the Saurashtra region. It boasts of the two largest( biggest and second biggest) oil refineries of the world. Besides,the city houses the most famous Ayurvedic University of India. It derived it's name from Jam Sahib,as the rulers were addressed. They belong to Jadeja clan of Rajputs and claim themselves to be Yadubangshi(descendents of Lord Krishna's Yadavs). Jam Rawal laid foundation to Nawanagar(about half a century ago) which later turned out to be a Princely State of Nawanagar during British domination in the Indian Subcontinent.
It was wealthy and used to be known as Jewel of Kathiawar coast and the rulers dominated part of the marshland of Kutch. This Yadubangshi Jadeja Rajput Royal family was wealthy,educated and modern. They pursued modern English education in India and Britain,got modern military training,cooperated with the British colonial powers but kept themselves independent from direct British rule. They had their own flag,Coat of Arms and own Armed Forces. Now let me name a few of the Royals who either were direct Rulers/Maharajas of Nawanagar(Later Jamnagar) or Princes/Kumar Sri of the Princely State of Nawanagar. You will then automatically understand how well they were associated with cricket.
They are Maharaja Ranjitsinhji Jadeja,Kumar Sree Duleepsinhji Jadeja, Maharaja Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja, K S Satrusalyasinhji and Ajay Jadeja. Of the above, Ranjitsinhji and Duleepsinhji played tests and first class matches for England,Maharaja Digvijaysinhji played in first class match and led Indian West Zone against visiting MCC, Satrusalyasinhji (Digvijaysinhji's son) has played first class cricket for Saurashtra and Ajay Jadeja has represented India in all formats of international cricket.
The two most important first class cricket tournaments in India go by the names Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy. Relation wise Ranjitsinhji was uncle to both Duleep and Digvijaysinhji. All of them have spent student life in India and England and taking interest in Cricket Ranjitsinhji and Duleepsinhji stayed back for more time to represent England in International arena. Our interest is not in Cricket today. To come closer to the point we now will concentrate on Digvijaysinhji. He was born in 1895 and went to school in famous Rajkumar College of Rajkot of which he later was the longest serving President of Governing Body.
Later he did his higher education in England and had British military training to be commissioned in the British Indian Army towards the end of the WW1. His uncle Ranjitsinhji was then the Ruler of the State of Nawanagar. Digvijaysinhji saw action in Egypt Expiditionery Force and later in the early 20's of last century in Wajiristan. He remained in active service till 1831 but was on a special reserve list and got regular honorary promotions. He was on this list until 1947 and while he finally retired from the British Indian Army,he was a Lt Gen. Ranjitsinhji remained the ruler of the Princely state of Nawanagar from 1907 upto 1933 as Jam Saheb and he himself nominated his nephew as his successor.
So, Digvijaysinhji occupied the throne of the State after the illustrious career of his great uncle was eclipsed by his sudden expiry in 1933. He remained as the Jam Saheb HH Maharaja Digvijaysinji Ranjitsinhji till 1947 when the British colonial power was transferred to bifurcated Indian Subcontinent and he signed the instrument of Accession to the Indian Union. He was a great ruler,benevolent and kind,educated,farsighted with exceptional leadership qualities. He was esteemed by the British powers,his own people and also people as well as leaders of other parts of India.
He was Knighted in 1935. He led the Chamber of Indian Princes(a Forum of Kings and Nawabs of all Indian Princely States)as its President for several years. He represented British India in the League of Nations. A leader is always a leader everywhere. BCCI elected him as its President for two years and he contributed to the improvement of cricket in India. During the second world war he was a member of Imperial War Cabinet, member of National Defence Council and also a member of Pacific War Council.
Besides he was the recipient of many military decorations. Besides all above-mentioned achievements, he did something very special that made him a darling of the Polish Nation. He accommodated about a thousand Polish Children (who were refugees without a shelter) in his own Kingdom against all odds and maintained their livelihood,upbringing and education for several years until they could return to a safe motherland.
Besides he financed upkeeping of many other Polish Refugees elsewhere in India. But why was it necessary? Before the WW2 started,Hitler's Germany had an understanding with Stalin's USSR that each will not interfere with the others activities and honour each others Sovereignty. Which meant USSR did not expect any attack from Nazi Germany. In 1939 the WW2 started when Germany virtually swallowed up Poland entering through its western borders. USSR did not want to lag behind. Tsarist Russia once annexed and ruled a good part of Poland.
In that context the Soviet army also entered Poland through the eastern borders and occupied a part of the country. Naturally the Polish people did not agree to the arrangement and organised protests and struggle against both the aggressors. About 2 million of Polish people were sent by force to Siberia and near Arctic regions to work under inhuman conditions. Those were kind of forced labour camps to teach protestors a lesson. Food was not sufficient,working conditions extremely hard. Living amenities were terribly insufficient. Half of the people in those Gulags perished.
Meantime things changed dramatically in the war front. In 1941 Germany disregarded the non proliferation treaty and attacked USSR and it joined the Allied Forces. All the Polish inmates of Gulags were freed. Men were needed in the warfront. Ladies and children were malnourished and consequently weak. They did not have a place to go. Many of the children,ladies and old people pursued land route through Persia to other countries that would accept them as refugees. There was not many such places. Still some of them got shelter in India and some African/Latin countrires.
At this stage lets get introduced to another great soul,a Polish lady Kira Banasinska wife of the Consul General of Poland in Bombay(Eugeniusz Banasinski). She also was the representative of Polish Red Cross. Heart of Kira was bleeding when she thought about her countries plight sandwiched in the hands of two strong powers. When these polish citizens(ladies,children and old people) were stranded and did not quite know where to go,she thought it to be a lifetime chance to come to their help. She started organising help by collection of funds,relief materials and shelter for them in India.
Her efforts brought in miraculous results.Digvijaysinhji agreed to take charge of 1000 children by making a Children home near his summer retreat in Nawanagar,in a place called Balachadi. Barracks were made, necessary staff deployed,all necessary arrangements made and before the end of 1942 Ms Banasinska could bring the 1000 children to their new address via Tehran. The children had identity crisis. Digvijaysinhji told them not to worry. He said that all Nawanagaris call him Bapu. So,he would be Bapu to them too.
These children found a new land,good living condition and a fatherly figure in Digvijaysinhji,who visited them from time to time and even celebrated Christmas with them. These children were there only about 30km from Jamnagar until 1945 when they were shifted to a bigger facility for Polish refugees at Valivade near Kolhapur. Here Ms Banasinska arranged to construct a facility for 6500 Polish Refugees who were housed at different places in India,mainly Balachadi,Kolhapur and Panchgani. The refugees remained there until 1947/8 before they could either go back to Poland or relocate elsewhere. From amongst the Jamnagar children several are still surviving all around the globe and still visit their nostalgic childhood campsite near Jamnagar from time to time.
It has been turned into a Sainik School now. The Banasinski couple did not want to return to Communist Poland. They went to London for some time but ultimately returned to India and applied for Indian Citizenship which they got. They settled in Bombay and Ms Banasinska worked for introduction of Montessori education in India with the help of Sir J R D Tata. She had a long life and died in 2002 at the age of 102years. The couple's final resting place is near Mahalaxmi, Mumbai. Kira Banasinska recieved the Order of Polonia Restituta, the highest civilian award of Poland for her great service to her Nation in rehabilitating the huge number of destitute Polish Refugees.
The Polish Government has recognised the help of the Jam Saheb to its citizens in various ways. A square in Warsaw has been named the Square of the Good Maharaja. There is a memorial in Warsaw with the sculpture of a lotus with the history of Jam Sahib's help inscribed on its base. They have named a school in Warsaw as Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji Jadeja School. In 2011 he was posthumously honoured with the award of Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. In 2016,on the 50 th Death Anniversary of the Maharaja,the Polish Parliament passed a special resolution in the memory of his kindness and help to Polish Nationals during their dark days. After he signed the accession treaty he became a tutelar head of his State of Nawanagar and has lived in Jamnagar and Bombay until his death in Bombay in the year 1966.
A personality like him could be proud of his education, sophistication, aristocracy, leadership qualities, cricketing abilities and if not anything else for his benevolence. The yet surviving inmates of the Balachadi Chilren Camp will definitely vouch for that. Long live the memory of the great soul!
Pradip Kumar Dutta is a researcher in history
and travel writer
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