The original dynasts

Book review of The House of Scindias: A Saga of Power, Politics and Intrigue

If you live in Delhi and have a nodding acquaintance with the socialising elite, it’s impossible not to run into the Scindias, so omnipotent is their presence in the capital. Madhavrao, whom I had the opportunity to interview on a few occasions during his stints as railway minister and civil aviation minister, combined his royal lineage with an impatient modesty to get things moving along but was not shy of the silver doodahs and royal paraphernalia with which he surrounded himself — indeed, the Scindias have never apologised for wanting to live well in spite of political careers in which