As Udaipur and Mewar celebrate the birth anniversary of the iconic Maharana Mewar, the descendant of the folklore hero, Maharana Mahendra Singhji, spoke his heart out on the occasion.

Maharana Mahendra Singhji, eldest of the living generation of the Maharana’s clan in Udaipur, was invited as special guest by the Maharana Pratap Foundation, UK. In COVID times, the celebration was held online and the message of Mahendra Singhji was presented on the occasion.

The message was delivered by way of a video, in the form of an interview conducted by Udaipur’s Khushal Rathore, who runs an adventure company in Jaipur. The reason for a recorded interview and message being telecast was to ensure that signal inefficiences do not cause undesired hinderance.

In the message, Mahendra Singhji was very upfront in sending across the message of the Maharana’s legacy, and that of the principles on which his rule and resistance was based.

VIDEO of Maharana Mahendra Singhji Mewars message

He explicitly mentioned that the venerated name of Maharana Pratap has unfortunately been used on many occasions to suit the purposes and ulterior motives of people.

Speaking on the occasion, Mahendra Singhji made it a point to stress on the fact that Maharana Pratap’s objective and policies were based on freedom of the land from invaders.  He believed and demanded dignity for all, irrespective of religion, caste, creed, faith or any such.

This, he said, was evident from the fact that the singular achievements of Hakim Khan Sur, a muslim; Bhamashah, a Jain Mahajan and Jhalaman, a Rajput are recorded as allies of Maharana Pratap.

Mahendra Singhji added that Rana Pratap’s pursuit of things was in the defence of these principles and the motto of the family is “तिहि दृढ़ राखे धर्म को, ता राखे करतार”, which essentially means that one who leads a theistic life will be looked after by the Almighty.

Giving an example of the underlying principle, of the Maharana family, Mahendraji spoke of a not such a known fact. He said that during partition, a lot of ugly situations happened across India, where two major communities were pitted against each other.  However, in Mewar, not a single such incident was recorded, of any one community going after the blood of another.

He added, that the same phenomenon is there to be seen in these times as well.  Ignoring specific situations, he reiterated the fact the social fabric of Mewar is strong.  He  said that members of the society in Mewar accept that there are differences in the way of doing things and in belief, however, the underlying principles remain the same. It is our duty to attract the rest of the world towards our conduct – by behavior and action and not by coercion.  The family follows Sanatan Dharm – eternal principles given by nature, which cannot change with individual beliefs.