Letter from the Respectful Memorial of Sudashiv Rao Guicowar, alias Rao Saheb, a resident of the City of Baroda to His Excellency the Right Honourable Thomas George Baring, Baron Northbrook of Stratton, Viceroy and Governor General of India in Council [‎5r] (3/18)

iias been, your Memorialist hears, supported by each of the successive British Residents at Baroda
Colonel Barr, Colonel Shortt, and Colonel Phayre, in their annual reports to Government.
6. Your Excellency's Memorialist respectfully solicits the attention of your Excellency to the
accompanying genealogical table, which clearly shows your Memorialist's two-fold right of succession
to the Baroda Gadee, first, as the great-grandson of Govind Rao Maharaj, and secondly, as the eldest
of Malojee's surviving heirs.
7. Your Excellency's Memorialist craves leave to submit to your Excellency that the son of
Luxmibai, being illegitimate, can have no claim whatsoever to the Gadee. Luxmibai is not, accord
ing to Maratha law and precedent, a lawful wife, her former husband being still alive, and having,
immediately before her marriage with His Highness Mulhar Rao, filed a suit for the restitution of
conjugal rights, which is still pending. It is an undisputed fact that Luxmibai was in an advanced
state of pregnancy when she went through the ceremony of marriage ; and such a marriage, your
Excellency's Memorialist submits, is quite illegal according to Hindu Law and the custom of the
Guicowar s family. Luxmibai not being also a Maratha woman, her issue illegitimate, on the
same principle that Balvant Rao Guicowar, son of His Highness Anund Rao Maharaj by his Rajput
wife Tukhtbaee, was considered to be illegitimate, and was debarred from succeeding to the Gadee,
(vide Lieut. Col. Wallace's work, page 581). It is a well known fact that for this marriage His
Highness Mulhar Rao stands excommunicated from his caste to the present day. For the reasons
above stated the- son of Luxmibai has not been recognized as a member of the Guicowar's family
by any relations of the Guicowar nor by the nobility and gentry of Baroda. The illegal marriage
too, was performed in spite of the serious warnings and remonstrances of the British Government,
who have justly refused to recognize the child as His Highness' son. A grave doubt also exists
about both the genuinenofts and paternity of this child.
8. Lnder all these circumstances your Excellency's Memorialist respectfully begs that
your Excellency will be pleased, if the question of selecting the future Ruler of the Baroda
Territories has to be considered, to entertain jour Memorialist's claim; and should any doubt arise in
your Excellency's mind in regard to your Memorialist's right of succession as the next legal heir to
the Gadee of Baroda after Mulhar Rao, your Memorialist trusts that your Excellency will, when
deciding the question of succession to the same, be graciously pleased to allow your Memorialist an
opportunity of being heard on the subject through an agent or advocate before your Excellency's
CounciJ.
9. In seeking to occupy the proud position of Maharaja of Baroda your Excellency's Memo
rialist is actuated not only by a belief that he is merely asking for his rights, but by an earnest
desire to do whatever in him lies for the happiness and prosperity of the people, who under the
Providence of God, would be subjected to his rule. Your memorialist is now thirty-two years of
age. He resides in Baroda, and has done so for many years. He is acquainted with the wants, the
wishes, and the character of the people; he knows ; too, the condition of the country and its excellent
capabilities for becoming a wealthy and prosperous state ; and if placed on the Gadee it would be
his firm purpose, as it is his earnest desire, to rule over his fellow-countrymen with wisdom, justice,
and moderation, and to maintain the most friendly relations towards, and act under the advice of the
Government of Her Gracious Majesty the Queen, which, he is sure, has ever at heart the interest
and welfare of the people of India.
And Your Excellency s Memorialist shall as in duty bound ever pray.
Baroda, February
SUDASH1V KAO OUICOWAR,
alias IIAO SAHEB,