In 1875, a barefoot village boy was plucked from obscurity and crowned Maharaja of Baroda. His only inheritance was fate, his only tool became education. What followed was a bold experiment in tutoring a child into a monarch and a ruler who turned private lessons into a revolution in public schooling.
A Boy Chosen by Fate
In 1875, a boy from a Maratha farming family was led through the gates of the Baroda palace. His name was Gopalrao, son of Kashirao Patil, a cultivator from the village of Kavlana. He was twelve years old, barefoot and wide-eyed, with no more knowledge of letters and numbers than any child in his village. That he would soon be renamed Sayajirao Gaekwad III and declared ruler of one of India’s most important princely states was the sort of improbable turn that historians like to call providence and common people call fate.
Baroda needed a king. Malharrao Gaekwad, the reigning monarch, had been deposed by the British for misrule. The throne stood empty, and the British insisted that a successor be found, but one who would be pliable, manageable, and young enough to be molded. The dowager queen, Jamnabai, was charged with adopting an heir. Adoption in royal...
