Page 23 - Demo

that he had hosted Mahatma Gandhi at one of his bungalows in Vizianagaram. As the freedom movement gathered pace, and incessant protests for greater representation, the British were forced to concede and organise provincial elections in the Madras Presidency; in which the Maharaja emphatically declared his intention to stand. The Maharaja was married to Maharani Vidyavati Devi, from a royal family of Keonthal (in present-day Himachal Pradesh). Ostensibly, the match was made by Pandits. In reality, the process was managed by the British who had their own agenda. It would be against British interest, for example, to allow two powerful neighbouring principalities to be bonded by matrimony. A groom from the deep south and a bride from the Shivaliks would be most advantageous to colonial powers as their language barrier would have to be overcome with an unusually heavy reliance on English. Another advantage would be that the children from the marriage would be alienated from their own people. The couple had four children; the eldest, Urmila Devi, a daughter. Then came their heir apparent, Vijayarama Raju. The third was their younger daughter, Jayashree Devi, and finally, the youngest, Visweswara Raju %u2013 known to the family as Vishy. The children were between 10 and 14. The heir apparent, Pusapati Vijayarama Raju or PVG Raju was 12 years old. Family portraits from that era show the children in a happy cluster around their mother. The heir, when captured on camera shows a thoughtful-looking boy, in round glasses, with a bookish mien.PVG Raju, the apple of his father's eye, was studying at St Aloysius school in Vizag. He, along with the rest of his family 13