Diya Kumari

Some Lesser Known Facts About Diya Kumari

• Diya Kumari is an Indian princess, politician, socialite, and philanthropist. She is the granddaughter of Man Singh II, the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jaipur during the British Raj in India (1922-1947). In 2013, she ventured into politics by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

• Her father, Bhawani Singh, was decorated with the Maha Vir Chakra for gallantry in the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. He ascended the throne of Jaipur in 1970 and held the title of Maharaja until the abolition of the princely order by Indira Gandhi in 1971. However, he remained generally honoured like other erstwhile rulers. He died in 2011 following multi-organ failure.

• Diya Kumari’s mother, Padmini Devi, was the Princess of Sirmur, a princely state of British India in Himachal Pradesh. Padmini Devi’s father, Rajendra Prakash, had two wives Durga Devi (first) and Indira Devi (second). Padmini Devi is the daughter of Indira Devi.

• While talking about her childhood in the column of a Hindi daily she revealed that despite belonging to the illustrious royal family of Jaipur she was groomed as an ordinary child by her father. She wrote,
  

  My father was in army and in Delhi where he was posted he used to live in the army accommodation, which were not big and I lived and played with other army officers’ children. But I was groomed as a disciplined child and was never pampered and I never thought that I came from the royal stock and was a special person or child.”

  

• As a custodian of the royal inheritance, Princess Diya Kumari manages several properties, businesses, trusts, and schools of the royal family. She is the Secretary and trustee of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum Trust and the Jaigarh Fort Charitable Trust. She runs three hotels, Rajmahal Palace (Jaipur), Hotel Lal Mahal Palace (Jaipur), and Hotel Jaipur House (Mount Abu). She also manages various ventures like Durga Diya Enterprises, the Baradari restaurant, museum shops at the City Palace, and the Ashok Club, an exclusive sports and recreational club. A committed educationist, she runs two prestigious schools in Jaipur, namely The Palace School and the Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh School. She is a patron of the heritage platform Royal Fables, an exposition that presents art, design and fashion by patrons who belong to Indian royal families. Royal Fables presents the Palace Atelier Collection developed by Diya Kumari. Apart from that, she is a prominent socialite of Jaipur whose presence is sought in almost every social gathering in the city.

  

• Diya Kumari made acquaintance with Narendra Singh in 1989 when she was just 18. At that time, Rajiv Gandhi had asked Bhawani Singh to contest lok sabha elections from Jaipur. Narendra Singh’s father, Thakur Budh Singh, who hails from Madhopur, served as an aide to Bhawani Singh in his political campaign. Meanwhile, Narendra Singh, who was then undergoing training to become a chartered accountant, started working in the accounts department at the Sawai Man Singh Museum Trust to gain experience. Narendra worked there for three months during which he and Diya grew fond of each other. While talking about the same in an interview, Diya said,
  

  It was certainly not love at first sight or anything like that in our case. I don’t believe in love at first sight. It was only after three months, when he left, that I realised I wanted to meet him more often. We would meet, whenever he was in Jaipur, at a common friend’s place. Upto this time it was just a very nice, strong friendship. It was only when I accompanied my parents on a trip abroad, when I missed him unbearably, that I realised things went deeper than a mere friendship. I wanted him to be with me always. That was when I realised how serious my feelings for him were.”

• Her parents raged at her upon learning that she loved Narendra as he wasn’t a noble and was of the same gotra as Diya, which is Rajawat. Fearing the outrage of her parents and society, the two ended the relationship; however, they couldn’t stay away from each other and reconciled after six months. In 1994, Diya and Narendra secretly got via an Arya Samaj wedding ritual and later went on to register the marriage in court too. She kept the marriage hidden from her parents for the next two years. She disclosed her wedding to her mother in November 1996. Bhawani Singh learned about the marriage in January 1997. Consequently, Bhawani Singh solemnised Diya and Narendra’s marriage without much fanfare at his Maharani Bagh house in Delhi. Thereafter, the couple started living in the city palace. The marriage attracted the wrath of the Rajput community who started raising objections to the fact that Diya and Narendra belonged to the same gotra, Rajawat. In an interview, Diya clarified that despite the same title she and her husband were not related over generations. ^[9]Rediff.com She said,
  

  My husband and I do belong to the same gotra — he is a Rajawat and my grand-father was adopted from a Rajawat thikana. But we are not blood-related. As for breaking tradition, yes, I do believe traditions must be followed and kept alive. But traditions cannot rule your life. They change with times. Having more than one wife was a Rajput tradition, but can anyone do it today? I honestly never imagined that they’d make such an issue of it all..”

  Diya’s grandfather, Man Singh II, was a nobleman hailing from the township of Isarda, a chief of thikana of the Rajawat sub-clan of Rajput. Man Singh II was adopted by the ruling house of Jaipur. However, Man Singh II’s father, Thakur Sawai Singh, was adopted by also adopted by his father from a distant kinsman, which means that Man Singh II wasn’t a Rajawat by blood.

• Reportedly, Narendra’s involvement in the affairs of the city palace was opposed by many senior staff members who complained against him to Maharaja Bhawani Singh. This led to a rift between Diya and Narendra following which Narendra shifted to a bungalow given to him by Maharaja for his parents. The separation was the talk of the town alleging that Narendra was facing humiliation at the hands of his wife and in-laws. Narendra and Diya lived separately for more than two years. During this time, children would meet him at an appointed place once a week. Finally, Diya reconciled with Narendra for the sake of the children and he returned to live in the palace.

• Her elder son, Padmanabh Singh, was adopted by her father, Bhawani Singh, on 22 November 2002 to make him the heir apparent to the throne of Jaipur.

  

• Following the death of Bhawani Singh in 2011, Padmanabh Singh was unofficially installed as the Maharaja of Jaipur. At that time, Padmanabh Singh was only 12 years old. Therefore, Diya Kumari overlooked the affairs of the royal family on the behalf of her minor son.

• In an interview, she revealed that Vasundhara Raje Scindia inspired her to join the BJP in 2013. She said,
  

  I was definitely inspired by Vasundharaji who asked me to join the party. I would not like to be labelled as the representative of any community and I want to serve the community. I am joining politics to serve the people and not for any personal gains.”

  

• A genuine vein of philanthropy has always existed in Diya Kumari. In 2013, she founded the Princess Diya Kumari Foundation (PDKF) which works toward the empowerment of the underprivileged. She is actively associated with several NGOs and charity organizations, including the Eye Bank Society of Rajasthan (EBSR) and Rays, an NGO that works for the welfare of HIV+ children. She oversees the work of Sawai Man Singh Prathmik Chikitsalya (also called SMS Trust), which provides free medical facilities and treatment to the poor and the needy.

  

• She founded the Young Achiever in Education Award in her name to inspire the youth to outshine in the field of academics. The award is distributed annually in a ceremony organized in memory of her father.

• Diya Kumari is a connoisseur of art and culture who extensively promotes the traditional arts, music, and dance of Jaipur. She enthusiastically maintains The Friends of Museum, which was founded by her father in the city palace with the aim to provide a platform for artists and craftsmen to showcase their skills and crafts which were on the verge of extinction. In 2013, she revived the 17th-century tradition of Gunijankhana in which the Jaipur Royal Family provided an institutional forum for singers, musicians, and dancers.

• Diya Kumari was appointed as the Chairperson of Assocham’s Rajasthan Unit considering her contribution to the tourism and hospitality sector. Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) is a non-governmental organisation and advocacy group that represents the interests of trade and commerce in India. She actively advocated organic farming under ASSOCHAM’s programme in 2012.
• She was appointed as Rajasthan State Government’s Ambassador for the “Save the Girl Child” campaign in 2014.

• In January 2017, Amity University, Jaipur bestowed an honorary doctorate on Diya Kumari for her philanthropy and active role in heritage management.

  

• In December 2018, after being married for 21 years, Diya Kumari and Narendra Singh filed for divorce under Section 13B (divorce by mutual consent) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

• She was appointed as a member of the government’s National Tiger Conservation Authority in August 2019.

• She is a recipient of the YFLO Women Achievers Award by the Young FICCI Ladies Organization (YFLO), New Delhi.

• In an interview, she said that she loved chocolates and had a sweet tooth.