Politician, Beauty, and Royalty, who the hell has that? Other than Queen Rania of Jordan, no no lets try something more Indian. Heard of Gayatri Devi? By some accounts she may have been a goddess on earth.
Maharani Gayatri Devi, was born the daughter of Prince Jitendra Narayan of Cooch Behar, West Bengal and Princess Indira Raje of Baroda, the only daughter of Maratha King, in 1919. Lucky little Gayatri Devi studied at Glendower Preparatory School in London, Patha Bhavana of Visva-Bharati University, Shantiniketan, and later in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she travelled with her mother and siblings, then studied secretarial skills in London School of Secretaries; Brilliantmont and Monkey Club London. But who really cares of her upbringing? Lets skip that!
In 1940, Gayatri married Sawai Man Singh II, Maharaja (King) of Jaipur, giving her the title of Maharani (Queen). And from then on starts her legend. Beautiful without comparison (once being listed as one of the ten most beautiful women in the world by vogue). She later became a legendary socialite, a particularly avid equestrienne! Lets say she pretty cool, even having a interest in cars, importing the first W126, a 500 SEL to India.
But the fancy life aside, she did lead a political role. Gayatri Devi started schools for girls' education in Jaipur, most prominent of which is the Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls’ Public School established in 1943, how’s that for a change? After Partition and Independence Day in India in 1947, Gayatri Devi ran for Parliament in 1962 and won the constituency in the Lok Sabha in the world's largest landslide, winning 192,909 votes out of 246,516 cast! Well done your majesty, well done! She continued to hold this seat on 1967 and 1971.
But here’s the bad news, Booooooo. When the privy purses were abolished in 1971, terminating all royal privileges and titles, Gayatri Devi was accused of violating tax laws, and served 5 months in Tihar Jail. She retired from politics and published her autobiography, A Princess Remembers, written with Santha Rama Rau, in 1976. She was also the focus of the film Memoirs of a Hindu Princess, directed by Francois Levie.
After all that, she died in 2009, July 29th, at the age of 90.
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