Modern Indian Kingship

This work is a significant contribution to the study of kingship and the ritual process, two longstanding areas of anthropological debate both within and beyond South Asia. The Deregulation of Princes Act 1971, was designed to bring to an end the last vestiges of kingly rule in India. Part of a political process begun under British rule, the Act took away the royal privileges of the maharajas and sought fully to integrate them as citizens in a modern democracy. But today, a form of kingship persists in India even though legally kings no longer exist. Many former maharajas continue to exercise considerable power and influence at both local and national levels. This study is an examination of the proceses by which royal power has survived and been transformed within modern India. Focussed on the city of Jodhpur in the nothern state of Rajasthan, the study looks in particular at a set of ritual practices by which royal power is legitimated and consolidated through appeals to a fluid notion of tradition. Drawing upon fieldwork and archival research, this study brings together the disciplines of anthropology and history; it locates its ethnographic examples within broad comparative historical and religious contexts. states. Series editors: Wendy James & Nick Allen

Marzia Balzani is a Senior Lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Surrey Roehampton.