Talk:Maharajkumar of Vizianagram

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Contents

[edit] Relationship with the ruler

The current version says that when the ruler of Vizianagaram died, Vizzy had troubles with his nephew. He left him to rule Vizianagaram and moved to the family estates in Benares. This comes from Cashman. Boria Majumdar seems to suggest that the ruler who died was Vizzy's father. Found an alternate version in a page about Vizianagaram that he was the younger brother (and not the nephew) of the ruler of Vizianagaram. The Cashman version is being retained till a more definitive source is found for this Tintin 20:02, 11 December 2005 (UTC).

[edit] Genealogy

Came across this site and Cashman seems to wrong. Maharaja Sahib Pusapati Chittibabu VIJAYARAMA GAJAPATHI Raju Manea Sultan Bahadur ruled Vizianagaram till 1922. Vizzy was his second son. His elder brother became the new king. Vizzy married in 1923 and his wife was the princess of Benares (Kashipur). Tintin 20:13, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Let us be straight, being a Britisher of darker hue who have had several generations living in Britain from before the Great war. There is always an underlying hatred or contempt especially by British authors for so-called upstarts, the coolies who make good. My uncle, a RAF squadron leader and married to a niece of an ex-PM can sit for hours and recount incidents in his life or even articles about him in press which would illustrate this point clearly. All Indian cricketers especially have had very bad press (so called gutter-press journalism) with no substantiation.

[edit] Transliteration of name

Most of standard texts use Maharajkumar of Vizianagram instead of Vizianagram. Ref:Cricket and Politics in Colonial India - Ramachandra Guha Past and Present, No. 161. (Nov., 1998), pp. 155-190. --Vyzasatya 23:32, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I am not sure whether I got your point, but the article does not use plain 'Vizianagram' as his name. Vizzy is used quite often because he was known that way in cricketing circles and as it is much simpler to write. Tintin 23:57, 21 December 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Comparing sources

Some work is still on behind the scenes to check facts where the sources disagree. These are some of the issues.

1. Where he was born ?

2. Why did he leave for Benares ?

  • Following a quarrel with a nephew (Cashman p.41, Bose p.65). It is possible that Bose took it from Cashman. But Vizzy was never the heir to the throne and Cashman's left his nephew to rule Vizianagram doesn't sound convincing because it was Vizzy's elder brother who succeeded his father. Couldn't find more about this and hence it is left out of the article.
  • He never left Benares, He died in Benares, he did live in Kanpur too for a long time. His grandmother, one who adopted his father, left him one of the main family palaces which he sold for a decent sum back to his nephew in 1950s. That palace was in the estate.
    • The question was not about when he left Benares, but when he left *for* Benares from Vizianagram. Tintin (talk) 04:33, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

3. How much property did he have ?

  • Twenty one villages, extensive property and a palace Cashman p.41
  • Twenty one square miles. Can't find the source for this now. Both could be right but the article leaves this out. It is Cashman himself (p.166) who mentions twenty one square miles. So perhaps it is not a mistake and the twenty one villages did occupy exactly twentyone square miles.

4. Where was he MP from ?

  • Uttar Pradesh (Cashman p.143)
  • Andhra Pradesh (Indian parliamentary site)
    • I want the data to be as accurate as possible but this is driving me crazy. In an Indian parliamentary link of the second Lok Sabha (1957), there is no sign of Vizzy but you will find Vijayram Raju as the MP from Visakapatnam. But if you start from this parliament page, click the 'membership profiles' in the last column and download the .pdf file of all the members, you will find in page 97 that Dr Vijay Ananda was MP from Visakhapatnam in the second and third lok sabha.
But in Page 67 you will find that Raju Pusapati Vijayram Gajapati (Vizzy's nephew, and the person who appears the other link as Vijayram Raju) was MP from Bobbili in 2,5,6 and 7 Lok Sabhas. But there was no Bobbili constituency during the time of the second Lok Sabha according to the first link. I have no clue what to make out of this sort of mess. Tintin 03:06, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
    • Hell, I know the answer ! What happened was that PVG Raju won the Parliament election in 1957. But when the candidate from Bheemunipatnam for the state assembly died in 1960, he stood in the state elections and won. The elections were held on Jan 29, 1960, PVG Raju polled 19366 votes, the guy who finished second got 1416. This link has the details - line 677 in the first sheet.
The elections for the Visakhapatnam parliament seat vacated by PVGR was held on 16.4.1960 and Vizzy won unopposed (line 115 in sheet 2). So Vizzy was an MP twice - in the 1960 by-elections and in the 1962 elections for the third Lok Sabha, both from Visakhapatnam. Tintin Talk 23:47, 5 January 2006 (UTC)


5. Title ?

  • Sir Gajapatairaj Vijaya Ananda (Cricinfo, Bose p.102)
  • But Gajapat*a*iraj doesn't make sense. The article goes with Gajapathiraj(u) which was part of his family name
    • Update : Gajapatairaj appears in his Wisden obit as well (thanks John).
      • Dropped it from the article
        • Further update : User:Natgoo who replied to a question in RefDesk managed to find the London Gazette dated July 21, 1936 online. The entry reads 'Rajkumar Vijaya Ananda Gajapatiraj, of Vizianagram'. It confirms my suspicion that Wisden (and the rest of the people who copied it) mispelled it. Tintin (talk) 13:51, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

6.Complete name

  • Lt. Col. Sir Maharajkumar Dr. Vijayananda Gajapathi Raju (Princely states site)
  • But he renounced his knighthood in 1947 (Cashman p.33). No idea whether the sir should be deleted from the name.

7.Why did he skip the 1932 tour ?

  • Reasons of state (Bose p.69)
  • Majumdar quotes Vizzy's statement announcing his withdrawal (p.43) which says I have not been well for the greater part of the cricket season, and this has been responsible for my very bad form... I keenly feel that I shall not be able to do justice to your selection and to the team if my present form continues and I fear that this will be so with my confidence so shaken after my recent performances.

The article is deliberately rather quiet about the cricketing politics of the 1930s. Tintin 00:49, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Kotla

A recent news article that refers to a plaque at the Ferozeshah Kotla commemorating Vizzy's donation of the pavilion - it reads

The Willingdon Pavilion
By Vizzy of Vizianagram
Opened by His Excellency, the Right Honourable
The Earl of Willingdon
Viceroy and Governor General of India, 10th Feb, 1933

(My note - a typo perhaps ? It cannot be 'Vizzy of Vizianagram' if it was made in 1933) Tintin 05:54, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

  • A friend of a friend checked it out. It does mention Vizzy of Vizianagram. If it was installed in 1933 (I hope not), it will call into question the origin of his nickname Vizzy which is supposed to have been coined in 1936 as mentioned in the article. Tintin Talk 15:34, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Copyedits

Cashman's comment is typical of Britishers of that age who felt insulted by a person of darker skin being respected by Britishers.

That Vizzy was a bad commentator is hardly an isolated opinion and books written by Indians also contain similar opinions about Vizzy's commentary. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050703/asp/look/story_4938223.asp has the story about 'sleeping animals' , where Dicky Rutnagur quotes Rohan Kanhai (neither of whom is British or white). Cashman is Australian, btw. Tintin (talk) 04:36, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] More copyedits

After sitting on this for an age, I have edited this mercilessly. Anything that is not sourced or could not be found in sources, or are personal opinions is removed.

  • Some writers consider that he was merely a humble zamindar (landlord). [1] On the contrary, he was member of a respected family of land-owners and that can be seen by the marital alliances. Vizzy, a younger son married princess of Kashipur (hereditary rulers of Kumaon and very high in list of Hindu families) who was herself, daughter of princess of Nepal and elder sister to the Queen of Kapurthala. Actually, in another cricketing connection, Vizzy would start the love story of his niece, princess of Kapurthala when he would introduce her to his colleague in gloves and pads, Duleep.
Removed what is mostly personal opinion, as well as the 'humble zamindar' comment. No matter how respected they are Vizianagram house was still a zamindary [1] .
  • In reality, Vizzy could not stomach playing second fiddle in the touring squad. Maharaja Porbandar and Maharaja Limbdi donated more than him and Limbdi was a much better player. Chances of Vizzy making to Test side let alone county games was low. He approached 1936 tour as a military campaign with goal of getting the Indian captaincy.
Removed these lines. Replaced the first line with 'ostensibly' in the previous line ('withdrew ostensibly for reasons of health and form') even though it had been obvious. There is no record in my sources that Porbandar or Limbdi paid anything.
  • In India cricket started as a noble pursuit where every man was selected on his right as a sportsman without attention to caste or creed. In first ever Hindu match, they selected Palvankar Balu, an untouchable spinner. Twenty years later, Palwanakar Vithal, brother to illustrious Baloo and now Hindu skipper was limiting his selections to marathis and his castemen. This is where CK Nayudu, already India's best player lead a revolt in favor of including CK Ramaswami in Hindu squad over Vithal's preference. CK was backed in this endeavour by young princeling called Vizzy. So the CK, Vizzy team started. They had nothing in common, except for their mother tongue and even that they both used so sparingly that the joke went that Vizzy mistook CK 's Telegu greeting at breakfast to be an insult. Ten years plus later, Vizzy who had spoken eloquently at non-favouritism in cricket selection used the bribes and promises of selections to touring side adroitly. He was going up against Maharaja Patiala who had an added quiver in his pocket. Second son Yadavendra was a great batsman. Good enough to be selected on merit and most probable captain for 1936 tour. The prince was plebeian enough to allow CK to captain even though Yuvaraj was on the field. This spelled doom for Vizzy's intentions but he persevered and finally the vote was 9 to 8 in his favor and an unwieldy side of 22 players set out for England with no vice-captain and Viceroy's stooge Major Brittan as Manager and chief selector.
There are some good things here but the problem is that it is difficult to say what is right and what is not (I wish someone who really knows the subject look at it again). The Vithal affair happened in 1926-7 during the visit of the Gilligan's team. Mihir Bose talks about it (pp.54-55) but there is no mention of Vizzy being around. Vizzy beat Nayudu by 10 votes to 5 (Bose p.100), Major Brittan is actually Capt RJ Brittain-Jones(Bose)/Major R Britton Jones(Majumdar). I am leaving out this for now but if someone can source and copyedit, it would be fine.
According to Twenty two yards to freedom the votes were 10 in favour of Vizzy, four for Nayudu and two abstained. He also lists the states that voted for each one. It is incredible how literally almost every line in this article is contradicted by one source or the other. Tintin (talk) 12:13, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
  • He started commentating for Ranji matches with AF Talyerkhan and formed a memorable commentary team.
Cannot be accepted without a source. A. F. S. Talyarkhan (sic) was noted for his dislike to commentate with others. There is very little overlap between the commentating careers of the two.
  • After becoming the secretary of board, he restored the Test career of Lala Amarnath and brought him back as India 's captain redeeming himself for the incident 17 years ago.
Vizzy was the vice president of BCCI at the time (1952). Rewrote the sentence.
  • In 1936, he was responsible for downfall of CK Nayudu. In 1953, he requested CK Nayudu to become at 57, the captain of Uttar Pradesh team which CK accepted, playing for UP till 1957.
Don't have a source but retained. Tintin (talk) 03:58, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 23:16, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Maharajah?

Cricinfo's profile lists him as "Maharajah of Vizianagram", as indeed do one or two articles here on Wikipedia (eg Avro Commodore). I've therefore created a redirect from there to here... but what's the difference between "Maharajah" and "Maharajkumar"? (And is Cricinfo actually incorrect to use the former version?) On top of this, CricketArchive's scorecards (such as this one have "Maharaj Kumar of Vizianagram's XI". Again, is that incorrect? Loganberry (Talk) 19:14, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Well to add a further one to the mix, the London Gazette entries realting to his knighthood have him as "Rajkumar". David Underdown (talk) 17:49, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
Maharaja or Raja is a king. Rajkumar or Maharajkumar is a king's son (used on its own "kumar" can mean boy, son, young man etc, usually someone of nobility). (A related term is Yuvraj - "young king" - who is the crown prince and usually the son of the king). Vizzy was never the Maharaja - he was the second son of his father, so his father was succeeded by Vizzy's elder brother and then his (Vizzy's) nephew. Cricinfo is wrong. Tintin 10:38, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
By the way, the Avro Commodore article probably refers to the real Maharaja of Vizianagram - Vizzy's elder brother - and not Vizzy. IMO, Maharaja of Vizianagram should be a dab page, with links to people like Pusapati Vijaya Rama Gajapati Raju and Pusapati Ananda Gajapati Raju, and with a mention about Vizzy. Tintin 10:47, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

The old version of Vizzy here (before 2006) was based on the Cricinfo article as it was then. Cricinfo's article appears to have been expanded quite a bit recently, and they have borrowed content directly from our article. Tintin 10:43, 28 April 2008 (UTC)