The Rolls of the Royals
Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins have described it as ‘the favoured automotive plaything of India’s Princes’, in their book Freedom at Midnight. The Rolls Royce and the Royals of India have had an enduring but for a rather tempestuous and enigmatic love affair.
Royal whims witnessed many a Rolls Royce getting a customized make-over. Seats have been raised so that the Praja can see their Raja during the latter’s drive around the kingdom. They were fitted with extra footboards for servants to stand on and shine high beam lamps to startle the tiger during hunting expeditions. The Rolls Royce could even shoot Cupid’s arrows – the silver-plated convertible of the Maharaj of Bharatpur is said to have sexually stimulating waves and many a prince would be lent this car on the day of his wedding! The office of Rolls Royce is said to have received pink slippers belonging to the wife of Maharaja of Jamnagar so that the ordered Rolls Royce Phantom II could be of the exact colour.
When we talk of royal whims, can royal anger be far behind?
There is an episode when the Maharaja of Alwar, dressed in plain clothes, pointed to a Rolls Royce Phantom II Tourer in a Mayfair car showroom in the 1920s but was snubbed by a young salesman. The Maharaja then ordered seven of the cars with the condition that the salesman who snubbed him would escort these cars to India. On the day, when the salesman lined up the Rolls Royce in front of the Alwar palace, the prince came out to look at them, and with a single royal nod, he told his assistant to have them used to collect municipal trash! Despite an apology from Rolls Royce, the Alwar Royals do not, till this day, have a single Rolls.
The Rolls met with a similar fate in another royal family. Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala showed his anger for the company’s refusal to accept his new order for cars by turning his old ones into garbage trucks. The Maharaja of Bharatpur threatened to convert his Rolls Royce cars into garbage carriers unless the company sent the mechanics to fix the faults in his cars.
The fascination for Rolls Royce among the royal households seemed to have peaked in the 19th century with about 200 Maharajas having said to have possessed about 900 Rolls Royce. The ride has not been very smooth for the Rolls but this did not affect the patronage.
