#holkar

1935 Duesenberg SJ Gurney-Nutting Speedster

The Speedster body was fitted to chassis number 2614, which is believed to be the last Duesenberg chassis produced in 1935. The body was designed by A. F. McNeil and built by J. Gurney Nutting & Co. Ltd. in the fashionable Chelsea district in London. 

The one-of-a-kind luxury automobile was built for Maharaja Holkar of Indore, India and commissioned through a British sales agent R.S.M Automobiles Ltd of London. 

Destined for a life of royalty, the Gurney Nutting Speedster was built with unique, lavish features including a rumble seat with a concealed fold-down step built into the sides of the body for easy access, as well as red and blue lights on the front fender to indicate whether the Maharaja (red) or Maharani (blue) was driving the vehicle.

Upon its completion, the Duesenberg was delivered to the Maharaja’s mansion in Santa Ana, California due to fears of Japan invading India. After the tension in the region dropped, the automobile was shipped to India, then disappearing over time and thought to be lost until its rediscovery in 1959. 

Avtar Mota* A book on Maratha wars briefly introduced me to an event in the 18th century and mentioned the migration of some Marathas to Jammu during Ahmed Shah Abdali’s invasion. The story goes like this: Ahmed Shah Abdali invaded India eight times between 1748 and 1767, following the collapse of the Mughal Empire. To maintain his huge army created by Nadir Shah for invasions, Ahmed Shah Abdali…

Ahilya bai Holkar was the noble queen of Holkar family of Maratha Empire in Central India. She took over the reigns of the kingdom after the death of her husband Khande Rao Holkar and her father in law Malhar Rao Holkar.

त्याग, न्याय, धर्म की प्रतिमूर्ति :

To give you an idea of the diversity of India, above are a few of the very many princely states (at least as many as 565 officially recognized at the time of Indian Independence) that composed much of the Indian subcontinent.  A princely state was a vassal state (with the British Raj as overlord) with some self-governance - or at least with a nominal indigenous leader.  Which helps go to show that Indian Independence was by no means a unilateral sort of thing, and a few of the princely states (like some of the other vestigial colonial territories) did not just up and swear allegiance to the Republic in 1947 (Hyderabad was a holdout) (and of course, a number of the princely states ended up under the sovereignty of Pakistan after Partition) (one of which, Kalat, is still involved in the unrest in Balochistan).  It was not until 1971 that the Indian Constitution was amended to withdraw recognition of all symbols of the princely states.

Stamp details: Issued: 1869-1950 From: Alwar, Bahawalpur, Bamra, Barwani, Bhopal, Bhor, Bijawar, Bundi, Bussahir, Charkari, Cochin, Datia, Dhar, Dungarpur, Holkar, Hyderabad, Idar, Indore, Jaipur, Jasdan, Jhalawar, Junagadh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kishangarh, Las Bela, Morvi, Nandgaon, Nawanagar, Orcha, Poonch, Rajpipla, Saurashtra, Sirmoor, Soruth, Travancore, Travancore-Cochin, Wadhwan

Ahilya Bai Holker The Courageous Queen of Malwa