Vijayaraji
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Colonel His Highness Maharajdhiraj Mirza Maharao Sri Sir Vijayaraji Sawai Bahadur, GBE (2 September 1885-26 February 1948) was the ruling Maharao of the princely state of Kutch from 1942 to his death in 1948. As Yuvraj, Sir Vijayraji worked closely with his father, Khengarji III, and often was left to administer the state during his father's frequent journeys abroad. He built upon his father's reforms, instituting the Kutch High Court, elected village councils and greatly expanded irrigation works and agricultural development in the state. A very active man, Sir Vijayraji was also an amateur botanist and ornithologist who enjoyed playing cricket, football and tennis, sculling and going on shikar. To Sir Vijayraji fell the thankless task of acceeding to the Dominion of India in 1947, a duty in which his heart was not in. He died five months afterwards at the age of 62, and was succeeded by his son Meghraji.
