Page 93 - Demo

Charting a New LegacyBy the time PVG Raju had his affairs in hand, the winds of change were blowing across the land. At the dawn of independence, there was confusion and turmoil as to the future of the princely states, and the zamindaris. While it was clear that India was going to be a democracy and power would be held by those who came to it through an electoral process, the assimilation of the princely states into the Indian Union was still unresolved. There were about 500 such states ranging from behemoths like Hyderabad to tiny ones less than 50 sq. km. The fate of these rulers hung in the balance as subjects like property rights and residual powers were still to be resolved. These issues were decided very rapidly thanks to Vallabhbhai Patel and officials assisting him in these matters.The Madras Estates Abolition Act was passed in 1948, and as far as the Pusapati family was concerned, the Vizianagaram Estate ceased to exist shortly thereafter. In the process of abolition, there was a three-way split of the holdings of the estate %u2013 the first to determine which part of the estate became the property of the government and of individual land holders, the second to determine which part of the estate became the joint property of the family, and finally the impartible part of the estate - an enormous amount of land, urban properties, and wealth in the form of assets - which belongs to the hereditary male primogenitor of the family in the instant case PVG Raju as the eldest male descendant of the family. In addition, the Madras Endowment Act was enacted in 1951 under which the hereditary trustees for all the devasthanams (bodies to manage temple endowments) in the 83