About the Book: The Progressive Maharaja
The Progressive Maharaja consists of lectures that Raja Sir T. Madhava Rao
delivered in 1881 to Sayaji Rao Gaekwad III, the young Maharaja of Baroda.
Universally considered the foremost Indian statesman of the nineteenth century,
Madhava Rao had served as dewan in the states of Travancore, Indore and Baroda,
turning them into model states characterized by good governance. Raos lectures
summarize the fundamental principles underlying his unprecedented success. He
explains how and why a Maharaja ought to marry the classical Indian ideal of raj
dharma, which enjoins rulers to govern dutifully, with the modern English ideal
of limited sovereignty, making