y
the house fell a prey to one of those bitter and unappeasable family feuds
which are the ruin of great Indian families. In 1800 the inheritance
descended to a prince feeble in body and almost idiotic in mind. British
troops were sent in defence of the hereditary ruler against all claimants;
a treaty was signed in 1802, by which his independence of the peshwa and
his dependence on British government were secured. Three years later these
and various other engagements were consolidated into a systematic plan for
the administration of the Baroda territory, under a prince with a revenue
of three-quarters of a million sterling, perfectly independent in all
internal matters, but practically kept on his throne by subsidiary British
troops. For some time the history of the gaekwars was very much the same as
that of most territorial houses in India: an occasional able minister, more
rarely an able prince; but, on the other hand, a long dreary list of
incompetent heads, venal advisers and taskmasters oppressive to the people.
At last a fierce family feud came to a climax. In 1873 an English committee
of inquiry was appointed to investigate various complaints of oppression
against the gaekwar, Malhar Rao, who had recently succeeded to the throne
after being for a long time kept in prison by his brother, the former
gaekwar. No real reform resulted, and in 1874 an attempt at poisoning the
British resident led to the gaekwar being formally accused of the crime and
tried by a mixed commission. The result of the trial (1875) was a failure
to obtain a unanimous verdict on the charge of poisoning; the viceroy, Lord
Northbrook, however, decided to depose Malhar Rao on the ground of gross
misgovernment, the widow of his brother and predecessor, Khande Rao, being
permitted to adopt an heir from among the descendants of the founder of the
family. This heir, by name Sayaji Rao, then a boy of twelve years in the
humble home of a Deccani cultivator, was educated by an English tutor, the
administration being meanwhile placed for eight years under the charge of
Sir T. Madhava Rao, formerly diwan of Travancore, one of the ablest and
most enlightened of Indian statesmen. The result was a conspicuous success.
The gaekwar showed himself a model prince, and his territories [v.03
p.0418] became as well governed and prosperous as a British district. He
repeatedly visited Europe in company with his wife. In 1887 the
queen-empress conferred upon him at Wind