ABSTRACT
I have just returned from an interesting trip to Independent India. Patiala is the premier native state of the Punjab, founded about 1763 by the usual process of wholesale dacoity, and brought under British protection in 1809. e general procedure followed since the British occupation of India has been to honour loyalty and depose turbulence. In 1857 Narindar Singh, the ruler at that critical date, by remaining staunch to us set an example to the other states of immense value; Maharaja Rajendra Singh, who died in 1900, was a great sportsman and, more over, took part in the Tirah campaign of ’98 with a battalion of his own Imperial Service Infantry and a eld troop of Imperial Service Lancers, for which services he received the G.C.S.I.; while his son, Bhupindar Singh, now aged twenty-two, has inherited his father’s love of sport and arms, being at once an excellent cricketer, not above playing “footer” with his scholastic subjects, and having taken part in the Imperial manoeuvres lately. One word more and my statistical introduction to Patiala is over. e area of this state is 5,412 square miles; its population in 1901 was 1,596,692; its estimated revenue £440,000; and its military force 3,429 men of all arms. In short, a little kingdom. And into this kingdom I rst peeped yesterday from the seat of a high-backed tonga.
