1948 (Gwalior State) 1971 (Rajpramukh under the Indian Union)
House of Scindia or earlier known as the Sendrak was a Maratha Royal House They claim descent from the mythical Nagas beings, often associated with serpent worship, that ruled the erstwhile Gwalior State in central India. Ranoji Scindia rose as a prominent military commander under PeshwaBajirao I.[1][2][3][4] Ranoji and his descendants, along with Holkars, played a leading role during the Maratha ascendancy in northern India in the 18th century. The Gwalior State became a princely state during the British Raj in the 19th and the 20th centuries. After India's independence in 1947 and the abolition of princely states, several members of the Scindia Dynasty went on to enter Indian politics.[citation needed]
Sardar Ranoji Scindia (First Maharaja of the Scindia Dynasty)
The Scindia dynasty was founded by Ranoji Scindia, a personal servant and soldier of Peshwa Bajirao I.[1][2][3][4] Ranoji prospered early under Bajirao because of the favorable circumstances created by the appointment of Bajirao as the Peshwa at the age of twenty. This had evoked jealousy from senior officials like Anant Ram Sumant, Shripatrao Pant Pratinidhi, Khanderao Dabhade and Kanhoji Bhosle. This led Bajirao to promote as commanders of his troops talented young men who were barely out of their teens such as Malhar Rao Holkar, the Pawar (Puar) brothers, Pilaji Jadhav, Fateh Singh Bhosale and Ranoji. None of these men belonged to families that held hereditary Deshmukhi rights under earlier rulers such as the Deccan Sultanates.[5][6] The Shindes or Scindias had served as shiledars (cavalrymen) under the Bahmani Sultanate and played an important role in the state of affairs and held Patilki of Kumberkerrab.[7][3]
There are otherwise several anecdotes about the origin of the Scindhias (Shindes), especially those recorded by Sir John Malcolm.[8]Stewart Gordon states the cultivator, etc. origin of other Marathas.[9]
Historical ties with the Company and Britain
During the Second Anglo-Maratha War, Daulat Rao Scindia suffered major defeats at the Assaye and Laswari, leading him to sign the Treaty of Surji-Anjangaon in 1803 and surrender extensive territories to the East India Company.[10] Although still nominally a senior Maratha chief, Scindia increasingly entered into direct arrangements with the British, often at moments when the Maratha Confederacy depended on unified action. Contemporary Maratha correspondence and later nationalist writings repeatedly portray his conduct as a breach of Maratha solidarity, noting that separate settlements and refusals to coordinate weakened the Confederacy’s resistance at decisive stages.[11]
Over the following decades, Scindia’s court deepened its engagement with British authority. The dynasty pursued independent diplomacy with the Company, seeking favourable terms for the preservation of Gwalior even as British influence expanded across North India.[12] Several accounts describe these choices as politically expedient steps that undermined broader Maratha leverage. Critics writing after the fall of the Confederacy have characterised Scindia’s approach during this era not simply as accommodation but as conduct that edged into open abandonment of Maratha interests at moments when collective strength might have altered the balance of power.
These accusations intensified dramatically during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Jayajirao Scindia remained officially loyal to the British even as large portions of the Gwalior contingent mutinied and joined rebel leaders like Rani Lakshmibai and Tatya Tope.[13] Rebel correspondence, as well as later nationalist narratives, describes Scindia’s refusal to support the uprising as a decisive blow to the rebellion in central India. His cooperation with British authorities, alongside his suppression of rebel-aligned forces, is widely interpreted as enabling the British recapture of Gwalior and sealing the strategic collapse of resistance in the region.[14]
The magnitude of Scindia’s decision was captured in the remark attributed to Governor-General Lord Canning: “If Scindia joins the rebels, I shall pack up tomorrow and go to the hills.”[15] The statement reflects the British understanding that a Scindia defection would have tipped the rebellion’s military balance, potentially transforming the uprising into a successful struggle for independence. The dynasty’s loyalty to the Company at this critical moment has therefore remained one of the most frequently cited examples of a princely house whose choices shaped the outcome of both the Maratha decline and the failure of the 1857 revolt.
The Scindia dynasty was founded by Ranoji Scindia, who was the son of Jankojirao Scindia, the Patil of Kanherkhed, a village in Satara District, Maharashtra.[16]PeshwaBaji Rao's career saw the strengthening of the Maratha Empire. Ranoji was in charge of the Maratha conquests in Malwa in 1726. Ranoji established his capital at Ujjain in 1731. His successors included Jayajirao, Jyotibarao, Dattajirao, Jankojirao, Mahadji Shinde and Daulatrao Scindia.The Scindias became a major regional power in the latter half of the 18th century, and figured prominently in the three Anglo-Maratha Wars.They held sway over many of the Rajput states, and conquered north India. In 1818, after accepting the terms of a subsidiary alliance with the British, the family shifted their base from Ujjain to Gwalior.[citation needed]
Rulers of Gwalior state under the British
After the defeat of the allied Maratha states by the British in the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1818, Daulatrao Shinde was forced to accept local autonomy as a princely state within British-occupied India and to give up Ajmer to the British. After the death of Daulatrao, Maharani Baiza Bai ruled the empire, saving it from the British power, till the adopted child Jankoji Rao took over the charge. Jankoji died in 1843, and his widow Tarabai Raje Scindia successfully maintained the position and adopted a child from close lineage named Jayajirao.[citation needed]
Accession of Gwalior state into Independent India
The Scindia dynasty ruled Gwalior until India's independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, when the MaharajaJivajirao Scindia acceded to the Government of India. Gwalior was merged with a number of other princely states to become the new Indian state of Madhya Bharat. Jiwajirao Scindia served as the state's rajpramukh, or appointed governor, from 28 May 1948 to 31 October 1956, when Madhya Bharat was merged into Madhya Pradesh.[citation needed]
Political careers of family members
In 1962, Vijayraje Scindia, the widow of Maharaja Jiwajirao, was elected to the Lok Sabha, beginning the family's career in electoral politics.[17] She was first a member of the Congress Party, and later became an influential member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Her son Madhavrao Scindia was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1971 representing the Jansangh Party, he joined Congress in 1980 and served until his death in 2001. His son, Jyotiraditya Scindia, joined the Congress Party and was elected to the seat formerly held by his father in 2004. He later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on 11 March 2020.[citation needed] Vijayaraje's daughters have supported the Bharatiya Janata Party. Vasundhara Raje Scindia contested and won five parliamentary elections from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Under the Vajpayee government from 1998 onwards, Vasundhara was in charge of several different ministries. In 2003 she led the Bharatiya Janata Party to its largest majority in Rajasthan, and became the state's Chief Minister.[18] In 2013 again, she led Bharatiya Janata Party to a thumping win in the state of Rajasthan, winning over 160 out of the 200 seats in the assembly elections. Her other daughter, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, contested assembly elections from Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh and won in 1998, 2003 and 2013 and also lok sabha 2004, 2009 from Gwalior. Upon the BJP's win in the state, she became the state's Minister for Tourism, Sports and Youth Affairs. Vasundhara's son Dushyant Singh entered the Lok Sabha in 2004 from Rajasthan.[19]
Mahadaji Scindia (18 January 1768 – 12 February 1794). Born 3 December 1730, died 12 February 1794.
Daulat Rao Shinde (12 February 1794 – 21 March 1827). Born 1779, died 21 March 1827.
Jankoji Rao Scindia II (18 June 1827 – 7 February 1843). Born 1805, died 7 February 1843.
Jayaji Rao Scindia (7 February 1843 – 20 June 1886). Born 19 January 1835, died 20 June 1886.
Madho Rao Scindia (20 June 1886 – 5 June 1925). Born 20 October 1876, died 5 June 1925.
Jivajirao Scindia (Maharaja 5 June 1925 – 15 August 1947, Rajpramukh 28 May 1948 – 31 October 1956. Last Maharaja, later Rajpramukh) Born 26 June 1916, died 16 July 1961.
Madhavrao Scindia (1961–2001), the last reigning Maharaja, before the abolishment of the monarchy in 1971.
12Ainslie Thomas Embree (1988). Encyclopedia of Asian history. Scribner. p.14. ISBN978-0-684-18899-7. Archived from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2020. Ranoji Scindia (d. 1750), the founder of Gwalior state, started his political career reputedly as a slipper-bearer at the court of the peshwa, or prime minister, of the Marathas, but soon rose to high office.
12K. V. Krishna Ayyar (1999). The Zamorins of Calicut: From the Earliest Times Down to A.D. 1806. Publication Division, University of Calicut. ISBN978-81-7748-000-9. Archived from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2020. The carrying of the Pallimaradi before the Zamorin on public occasions might have been due to the same reason as the carrying of a pair of golden slippers before Scindia, whose ancestor was the slipper - bearer of Peshwa Baji Rao - to show his respect for his original humble office which was the cause of his subsequent success
123Satish Chandra (2003). Essays on Medieval Indian History. Oxford University Press. p.93. ISBN978-0-19-566336-5. Archived from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2020. The Sindhias, it is well-known, were drawn from a Kunbi family which had the hereditary patel-ship of Kumberkerrab in the district of Wai. The origins of the Holkar were even more humble: they belonged to the caste of goat-herds (dungar), the family holding zamindari rights in the village of Hal.
12Romila Thapar (1994). "Seminar – Issues 417–424": 59. Many peasant caste men who distinguished themselves in battle or otherwise served the ruler became Marathas. Witness the first Holkar who was a shepherd and the first Scindia who was a Kunbi personal servant of the Peshwa{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
↑Stewart Gordon (1993). The Marathas 1600–1818. Cambridge University Press. pp.15–. ISBN978-0-521-26883-7. Archived from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2020. Looking backward from ample material on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we know that Maratha as a category of caste represents the amalgamation of families from several castes - Kunbi, Lohar, Sutar, Bhandari, Thakar, and even Dhangars (shepherds) – which existed in the seventeenth century and, indeed, exist as castes in Maharashtra today. What differentiated, for example, "Maratha" from "Kunbi"? It was precisely the martial tradition, of which they were proud, and the rights (watans and inams) they gained from military service. It was these rights which differentiated them from the ordinary cultivator, ironworkers and tailors, especially at the local level
↑Gordon, Stewart (1993). The Marathas 1600–1818. Cambridge University Press. pp.198–202.
↑Kulkarni, Uday S. (2016). The Era of Baji Rao II and Fall of the Maratha Empire.
↑Mehta, J. L. (2005). Advanced Study in the History of Modern India. Sterling. p.90.
↑Kim, Hyung-Eun (2018). The Gwalior Contingent and the 1857 Rebellion. Routledge.
↑Mukherjee, Rudrangshu (2001). Awadh in Revolt, 1857–1858. Anthem Press.
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