Gayatri Devi

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty four, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:29

Our castaway this week comes from India. It's Rajmata Gayatra Devi of Jaipur.

Presenter0:35

Rajmata, could you endure loneliness? We've dumped you unfeelingly on this desert island.

Gayatri Devi0:41

Not for very long. I hope somebody rescues me quite soon.

Gayatri Devi0:44

But I'm quite used to loneliness, so I could spend.

Gayatri Devi0:47

A couple of weeks, I suppose.

Presenter0:48

Buzz

Gayatri Devi0:49

Yeah.

Presenter0:49

It might be more than that, but we'll get you as quickly as we can. Thank you.

Gayatri Devi0:55

What does music mean in your life? Music means quite a lot to me, all different types of music.

Gayatri Devi1:00

I play gramophone record on the radio quite often when I'm by myself. Do you play an instrument? No, I don't, unfortunately.

Presenter1:08

Well, you just have eight records to take with you. Did you find it very difficult to choose?

Gayatri Devi1:14

I found it extremely difficult amongst all the music I liked just to pick out eight records. What's the first one you've chosen?

Gayatri Devi1:21

The first record I've chosen is Moon River, sung by Andy Williams. And why'd you choose it?

Gayatri Devi1:27

I chose it'cause it reminds me of a time when I used to hear it quite a lot and I let my imagination

Gayatri Devi1:35

fly away with me and I could imagine travelling round the world absolutely free and without a care.

Gayatri Devi1:42

And um it would be rather good on a desert island'cause I could get myself away from there in my imagination.

Speaker 31:49

Uh

Speaker 31:51

Wider than a mile.

Speaker 31:55

Crossing UN styles someday

Speaker 32:02

Oh dream.

Presenter2:04

Uh

Speaker 32:04

Yeah.

Presenter2:04

Make her

Presenter2:06

You hard.

Presenter2:08

Breaker

Presenter2:10

Wherever you're going.

Speaker 12:13

I'm gone.

Presenter2:16

Andy Williams singing Moon Ripple.

Presenter2:20

Rajmata, you are the daughter of the Maharaja of Kuchbeha. Where is Kuchbeha?

Gayatri Devi2:25

Uh

Gayatri Devi2:26

Kujbaha is in the north east of India, the northeast of Bengal, and very near Assaman, at the foothills of the Himalayas.

Presenter2:35

Yes, due north of Calcutta. North east of Calcutta.

Presenter2:39

And it's one of the princely states. One of the erstwhile princely states. How many of them were there? There were about five hundred and fifty six. Five hundred? Uh uh as many as that? Yes.

Gayatri Devi2:42

Yeah.

Presenter2:50

But you were born in London. I was born in London. And I'm told you went shopping at Harrods on your own

Gayatri Devi2:56

The age of about three. Yes, because we had a house in Hans Place, and when the maid used to leave the door open to clean the stairs, and my elder brother and sister were having their lessons, I used to go to Harrods. And order things on the account. And order things on my account until my English governess told my mother that we were being spoilt. And then they discovered that it was me going to a Mr. Jefferson, who used to be the manager of Harrods, and ordering these things on my account. What sort of things? Well, I remember a huge big cracker for my brother, whom I loved very much, and for my sister, just a small packet of safety pins. And for myself, there was a bathtub full of celluloid toys. And when I said, I want that, they picked out one of the toys and I said, No, that. And I stamped my little foot and I said, No, the whole thing, the water and all.

Gayatri Devi3:49

Of course, I didn't get it. How many of you were there? There were five of us altogether. The other two had already gone back to India because my father was very ill at that time.

Presenter3:59

So back you went to the palace of Kooch Behai. I've seen pictures of it, a vast, beautiful palace.

Presenter4:06

How many rooms? How many

Gayatri Devi4:08

Yes.

Presenter4:08

Turbans

Gayatri Devi4:08

There were masses of servants there.

Gayatri Devi4:11

altogether I suppose about four hundred. I mean counting the grooms and the mahouts that the elephant drivers and the drivers and the guards and

Gayatri Devi4:20

the cooks and the butlers and the people, the Farachis who clean the house and the maids and

Gayatri Devi4:27

There would have been about four hundred, I suppose.

Presenter4:29

Yeah.

Gayatri Devi4:29

Uh

Presenter4:29

New children had the run of that vast palace.

Gayatri Devi4:32

Yes, it was a wonderful childhood because the palace had huge grounds and we were allowed to roam around on our bicycles and we had a lot of companions to play with and apart from the hours when we had our lessons,

Speaker 14:43

Uh

Gayatri Devi4:46

rest of the time was ours. You had tutors to give you lessons? We had uh an English governess and a Swiss nursery maid and Bengali tutors. That's how our lessons were carried on until we went to school.

Presenter4:58

Apart from your governess, how much did you see of the British? Were they in and out? Was there a British resident?

Gayatri Devi5:06

Esther was a British resident, and then my mother had a lot of uh guests. Quite a lot of her friends were English.

Presenter5:11

Yeah.

Gayatri Devi5:13

And so we saw quite a lot of British people.

Gayatri Devi5:16

Let's have your second record. What shall that be? My second record is Dhone Dhanne Pushpe Bhora. What does that mean? It means a land full of richness, grain, and flowers. And it's a description of Bengal and particularly Kujbaha at the foothills of the Himalayas.

Speaker 35:44

Even though

Speaker 35:47

Marky Auntie

Presenter5:55

British honourable English, singing.

Presenter6:16

Improve the TV part.

Presenter6:28

Tay Tay Tay.

Presenter6:36

A song about Kuch Beha, who was it sung by?

Gayatri Devi6:39

This was sung by a lady called Mrs. Das, who is the wife of the director of our museum in Jaipur, and she happens to be a Bengali lady.

Gayatri Devi6:49

who has studied all the Tagore songs and sings Bengali very well, and so I asked her to do this for me as there was no recorded version of it.

Presenter7:00

You mentioned just now Baroda. That was where your mother came from.

Gayatri Devi7:04

My mother was the Princess of Brooda.

Presenter7:05

Uh Now on the map Baroda is a very long way away from Kush Bihar, about two thousand miles.

Gayatri Devi7:11

Yes, it's in the west of India, on the west coast of India.

Presenter7:15

Did you have family trips to Baroda?

Gayatri Devi7:18

We used to go there very often as children. How many people? How did you go? We went by train and there were five of us.

Gayatri Devi7:25

A servant to look after each one, my mother, her maids, A D C's and secretaries, a whole lot of people.

Presenter7:33

This was quite a production.

Gayatri Devi7:34

Yes, it was.

Presenter7:35

How much baggage?

Gayatri Devi7:37

And not

Presenter7:37

Yeah.

Gayatri Devi7:37

The baggage.

Presenter7:38

Was the palace of Baroda of comparable size to the palace of Kuchbahar?

Gayatri Devi7:43

It was bigger bigger than yes, much bigger than the palace in uh Kuchbahar.

Gayatri Devi7:48

sort of a Victorian style, and there were my grandmother's apartments and then my grandfather's apartments and the guest suite.

Gayatri Devi7:56

And whereas Kush Baha was on

Gayatri Devi7:59

Two stories. I think broader was about three.

Presenter8:02

You talked of riding. You did a lot of hunting, too.

Gayatri Devi8:05

We used to ride every single morning in Coochbaha actually I think until the day I got married. It was a regular routine riding in the morning, and we used to hunt in Uti, or Uta Command.

Presenter8:18

Where's that?

Gayatri Devi8:19

That's in the south of India, it's a hill station in the Nealgrees.

Gayatri Devi8:24

And um there used to be

Gayatri Devi8:26

regular hunts there in the summer months and I think they're still hunting in Ooti. In fact, you got your first panther at the age of twelve.

Gayatri Devi8:36

That was in Coochbaha. I'm not sure that I wasn't eleven. I think I was eleven. And it was a tradition with us, in our family, that we would try to shoot our first panther by the age of eleven.

Gayatri Devi8:49

Because Koochbahar was surrounded by jungles, it was a very lush part of the country.

Gayatri Devi8:56

and we had panthers and even wild buffaloes and wild elephants within about three or four miles of the palace.

Presenter9:05

Yes.

Gayatri Devi9:06

And sometimes these panthers used to lift cattle or kill goats, and then the villagers would come to the A D C room in the palace.

Gayatri Devi9:14

and complain and say, Could you come and destroy this animal? It's killed our goat or it's killed our cow.

Gayatri Devi9:21

and then the elephants would be sent there, and we would drive out in cars, and would sit in the hauders,

Gayatri Devi9:27

Well

Gayatri Devi9:28

the other elephants drove out the animal. So we started shooting at a very young age. But I must tell you that we were taught from that early age not to kill unnecessarily. And it was only when these complaints used to come from the villages that we went out and our lessons were sometimes interrupted. If there was a cover, as we called it, news of an animal, they let us have a holiday from our afternoon lessons and we used to go out and shoot. That was if my mother didn't have any guests in the house, because otherwise naturally it was for the guests. Were there tigers? There were tigers a little further away.

Gayatri Devi10:08

We had two very big jungles in Cooshbaha. They've gone now. They've cut them all down and there are fields there and people have come to till the soil and the jungles have given way to agriculture.

Presenter10:23

You rode in the howda on the elephants. Elephants are very treacherous animals, aren't they?

Gayatri Devi10:28

Uh

Gayatri Devi10:29

Well, I don't think so, because they're like any other animal, if you treat them well, they're quite docile. And in Kuchbaha, we had a tradition of keeping elephants, and I think we loved our elephants as much as people loved their dogs and their horses. And my grandfather particularly was very fond of his elephants, and there's a story that we heard as children, that he had a favourite elephant that got caught in quicksand, and the elephant the more it struggled, the more it went down. And when he got the report of this, he went there himself and he threw a log into the quicksand, and the elephant put his trunk on the log.

Gayatri Devi11:07

and my grandfather soothed him and quietened him, and slowly, slowly, they were able to pull him out with the help of some other elephants. And they also tell us that um when my my grandfather died in England and when his body was brought back to Kuchbahar,

Gayatri Devi11:22

or his ashes rather, were brought back to Kushpah, the elephants were all lined up and they all trumpeted and had tears in their eyes. And I really believed that because um

Gayatri Devi11:32

I've seen the relationship between a mahaut and his elephant, and as children we used to actually drive the elephants ourselves and ride them, and they were very gentle if treated well.

Presenter11:44

That's a wonderful We'll stop.

Presenter11:45

Let's have your third record.

Gayatri Devi11:47

My third record.

Gayatri Devi11:49

Is a Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square?

Presenter11:52

Why do you choose it?

Gayatri Devi11:53

I chose it because it's part of a memory.

Gayatri Devi11:56

of growing up.

Gayatri Devi11:58

In those days girls were not as free as they are to day, and it was a little bit difficult to sneak out in the evenings, but I remember a day when my brother, who was a year older than me, managed to give the slip to our guardians, and we went out, and we went to the Cafe de Paris, and then on to the Four Hundred.

Gayatri Devi12:17

And my brother got quite gay and I remember him going to the mic and singing A Nightingale Sang in Box Everywhere.

Gayatri Devi12:23

And since then it's always sort of been in my memory and I remember that night and as I say, was the part of growing up.

Presenter12:30

Your brother unfortunately didn't record it. Who would you like to hear?

Gayatri Devi12:30

Boof.

Gayatri Devi12:33

I would like to hear Hatch Smith.

Presenter12:35

Right.

Speaker 312:36

Uh

Presenter12:36

But first

Speaker 312:36

Button die.

Presenter12:37

Uh

Speaker 312:38

I to remember

Speaker 312:40

There was magic abroad

Presenter12:42

Only a little bit of a tree.

Presenter12:45

Ever angels dining

Speaker 312:45

Elbow

Presenter12:48

That's probably

Presenter12:50

And a nightingale sang in Barclay.

Presenter12:56

The Voice of Leslie Hutchinson Hutch.

Presenter12:59

Rajmata, I've been reading your fascinating autobiography of Princess Remembers, and in it you write about the many schools you attended. Now one of them was run by the Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore.

Gayatri Devi13:11

That's right. I went to Shanti Niketan.

Presenter13:11

That's right.

Gayatri Devi13:14

And that was the school that he started. And there was a regular school there, then there was a college there, there was an agricultural college there.

Gayatri Devi13:23

And then there was a section for Fine Arts.

Gayatri Devi13:25

And uh for music

Gayatri Devi13:28

and I spent about six or seven months there.

Presenter13:31

Yeah.

Gayatri Devi13:31

And I actually matriculate it from there.

Presenter13:34

You came to a school in England.

Gayatri Devi13:36

Uh yes, I'd been to school in England before that. I'd been to Glendar in Cromwell Road. That was the first school I've ever went to.

Gayatri Devi13:44

And then I went to a school in Eastbourne, then to Shanti Niceton. And when I came back after that I went to the Monkey Club for a while. What's the Monkey Club? The Monkey Club was a sort of a finishing school in Pond Street.

Presenter13:57

Okay.

Gayatri Devi13:57

It's not there anymore.

Presenter13:58

What if

Gayatri Devi13:59

And of course you you also went to school in Lausanne? Then I went to Briamont in Lausanne.

Gayatri Devi14:04

and finished off with the London School of Secretaries in London. London School of Secretaries? In Grosvenor Place, because I wanted to go home, but my mother wanted to keep me here another year.

Gayatri Devi14:15

She wanted to keep me away from the Maharaj of Jaipur.

Gayatri Devi14:19

And so therefore I chose the London School of Secretaries.

Presenter14:22

Yeah.

Presenter14:23

Well, you were having secret meetings with that very handsome and rich and glamorous Indian prince, the Maharaja of Jaipur, in London. Yes, I was.

Presenter14:33

Now, Jaipur, uh another geography lesson. Jaipur is more or less in the middle, sort of halfway between uh Baroda and Kujpiha.

Gayatri Devi14:42

Yes, you're right.

Presenter14:43

He was a great polo player.

Gayatri Devi14:45

He was a a nine handicap polo player.

Gayatri Devi14:47

and he brought a team to England in 1933.

Gayatri Devi14:52

And they won every tournament they played here.

Gayatri Devi14:55

In fact, I think I'm right in saying that the Jipo team

Presenter14:58

Uh

Gayatri Devi14:58

Was invincible?

Presenter14:59

Uh There's an apocryphal story that if he was invited to stay with uh another Maharaja, he would take sixty or so ponies just in case someone suggested a game. No, that's not quite true. I didn't think it would do, but it's a nice story.

Presenter15:13

and on one occasion he pushed you into the sea with your clothes on.

Gayatri Devi15:16

Yes.

Gayatri Devi15:18

Because what had happened was, I had given him a ring, saved up my pocket money,

Gayatri Devi15:23

and bought him a ring, and it was too loose on his hand, and as he was going in to swim,

Gayatri Devi15:30

he gave it to my sister to wear. So then she showed it to me, and I was so annoyed about it that I told her to give it to me, and I threw it in the sea.

Gayatri Devi15:39

So when he came out, he said, Where's my ring? So I said, Well, it's in the sea. There was a little pier there, so he put his hand round my shoulders and he tried to explain. He said, Listen, that was a very silly thing to do. What were you so jealous about? You and there. I gave it to her to hold. And I was listening to this and sort of beginning to

Gayatri Devi15:58

Mello, when we got to the end of the piano, threw me into the shout Go and fetch my ring.

Presenter16:04

Ha ha ha ha.

Presenter16:07

Let's have another record.

Gayatri Devi16:08

My next choice is these foolish things. Why? Well, again, a part of growing up and a part of those early days before I was married in London in the teens and

Gayatri Devi16:23

It was a nice song, and it was a romantic song, and we used to play it a tremendous amount, and it reminded one of different things. And I think if I'm going to be cast away all by myself

Gayatri Devi16:34

would help me in my daydreams when there was nothing else to do.

Gayatri Devi16:39

A cigarette.

Gayatri Devi16:41

Uh

Speaker 316:41

That bears a lipstick traces

Speaker 316:46

An airline ticket.

Speaker 316:48

To romantic places

Speaker 316:52

And still my heart has wings

Speaker 316:57

These foolish things

Speaker 317:00

Remind me of

Presenter17:05

These Foolish Things by Nad King Cole.

Presenter17:08

You agreed to marry the Maharaja of Jaipur, but he already had two wives. Was polygamy usual?

Gayatri Devi17:18

In India, it was.

Presenter17:19

Yeah.

Gayatri Devi17:20

until about thirty years ago.

Speaker 117:23

Hmm.

Gayatri Devi17:24

And quite a few people had more than one wife. Were there not tremendous problems of jealousy?

Gayatri Devi17:31

Not really, when you were brought up in that way.

Gayatri Devi17:35

And the other two wives had been brought up in that way because my husband's first wife was an aunt of his second wife, and they were engaged to him when they were quite young. Naturally it wasn't a nice thing to do, but there was no other way because there was no divorce.

Gayatri Devi17:53

He's told me always to respect his wives and

Gayatri Devi17:56

treat them with courtesy, which I did.

Gayatri Devi18:00

And in the end, um, the second wife and I

Gayatri Devi18:04

became very good friends. Each wife had her own establishment in the palace. Her own suite of rooms.

Presenter18:10

Mm-hmm.

Gayatri Devi18:10

And their own maids, but not their own establishment. No, the household was common for all. And

Presenter18:17

The children of the three wives played together.

Presenter18:21

Was there still Purdah? When I got married, yes, but his

Gayatri Devi18:24

Dickbed

Presenter18:25

That was in uh 1940 in Brooda.

Gayatri Devi18:28

No, not in Brooda. My grandfather, Maharaja Sayajira Gaikwara Brooda, was one of India's most progressive rulers, and he'd done away with Burda, and my grandmother was not in Purda.

Gayatri Devi18:39

And my mother wasn't in Berda either.

Gayatri Devi18:42

And in my Kushbaha family,

Gayatri Devi18:44

was done away within the time of my grandfather. So actually I was brought up without any purder. There was purder in Jaipur, but Jai didn't want me to be in purdah, but there were certain occasions when I didn't appear in public. Jai was your husband? Jai was my husband.

Gayatri Devi19:00

How many children do you have, Rajman? I have one son.

Gayatri Devi19:03

And um he is married to Thai girl, uh member of the Thai royal family.

Gayatri Devi19:09

And they have

Gayatri Devi19:11

Two little children, a little girl,

Gayatri Devi19:13

of five years old and a little boy of three. And um I love being with them. And they come and stay in Jaipur for a while and I hope they're going to come to England quite soon.

Presenter19:23

Another record, please.

Gayatri Devi19:24

My next choice is an Indian record sung by Muhammad Rafi. It's called Chodivi Kachand, and it means the fourteenth day of the moon. And though I have many favourite records in Hindi, I chose this one because when it came out first I was sent a copy of it, an anonymous present, with a very nice flattering note written on it. And I remembered being so thrilled about this. And I showed it to my husband Jai. I said, Oh, look, they've sent me this record.

Gayatri Devi19:58

And he said, How can you some bloody flatterer somebody wants something out of you? And I kept arguing, I said, It doesn't want anything out of me because it's anonymous and I was so naive in those days that I mean, I was just thrilled with it. So out of all the Hindi records I like, I've chosen this one.

Speaker 320:18

Chodi Kajanho Yafutabuho.

Speaker 120:27

Jo Vi Hotung Khoda Klipa Sun Lajavar Bhuho Chautami Kachandu.

Speaker 320:41

Ya Futa Boho.

Speaker 120:46

Uh

Speaker 320:46

Joe B

Presenter21:05

The fourteenth day of the moon sung by Mohammed Rafi.

Presenter21:09

After the war, Rajmata, to which Jaipur contributed two battalions, there came independence and the virtual collapse of the India you had known that you had been brought up in.

Gayatri Devi21:20

Yes, you're right. But it came gradually. It didn't come overnight.

Gayatri Devi21:25

It was pretty obvious to everybody that after the war

Gayatri Devi21:29

Things would change in India.

Gayatri Devi21:31

We would get independence, and the Indian states, such as they were, would have to go.

Gayatri Devi21:37

But at that time there was of course a lot of speculation as to the position of the Maharajas and the States, how they would be. There was a move to federate them, so Stafford came out and there was a lot of meetings and senior princes like the Maharaja of Bikaner and the Nauab of Bhopal.

Gayatri Devi21:55

used to hold consultations with the other princes, but in the end

Gayatri Devi21:59

Once independence came,

Gayatri Devi22:01

things changed quite rapidly. Now what happened to the palaces and the treasures? The palaces and the treasures were left with the princes, with their owners, but there were some princes who had

Gayatri Devi22:12

Far too many, and it was all right in the days of the State.

Gayatri Devi22:16

take for instance Jaipur, besides the city palace, which is the family home, there was Ambe, which was the ancient capital, which is a fort, there was another fort Jaga, there's another fort in Hargad, all in the vicinity of Jaipur, then there was Rambag, where my husband actually lived and which is now a hotel, and then spread around the state of

Gayatri Devi22:37

Jaipur, which is sixteen thousand square miles, there were other forts and other palaces.

Gayatri Devi22:42

And so each prince in his own state.

Gayatri Devi22:46

decided what he would keep and what he would hand over to the Government, because in the days of the State administration, naturally these uh properties were looked after by the State, and uh it wasn't possible for one individual to look after all those. So they handed some of them over.

Presenter23:04

And of course there were the dreadful problems of partition.

Gayatri Devi23:06

Yes, all going on at the same time.

Presenter23:10

Let's have another record.

Gayatri Devi23:11

My next choice is as time goes by and it's

Gayatri Devi23:16

Sung by Andy Williams.

Presenter23:19

You must remember this.

Presenter23:23

A kiss is still a kiss.

Presenter23:27

A sigh is just a sigh.

Speaker 323:35

The fundamental things apply

Speaker 323:42

As time

Presenter23:48

Andy Williams.

Presenter23:49

Time goes by.

Presenter23:51

You decided to go into politics.

Presenter23:53

Was this a sudden decision, or had this been stirring in your mind for a long time?

Gayatri Devi23:58

No, I'm not at all politically minded, and I never thought that I'd go into politics. I remember once a fortune teller told me that I was going into politics, and it was in my horoscope, so I said, No, it's not possible, there must be something wrong here.

Gayatri Devi24:14

And then sort of around nineteen sixty sixty one

Gayatri Devi24:19

Jakravati Rajagopalachary, who succeeded.

Gayatri Devi24:21

Lord Mountbatten as Governor General of India started this new party called the Swatantra Party.

Gayatri Devi24:28

and he started it mainly as an alternative to Pandit Nehru's Congress party.

Gayatri Devi24:34

And I liked the manifesto of the party, I liked the policies, but I was still not tempted to go into politics.

Gayatri Devi24:43

And then they started to knock the walls of Jaipur down. And Jaipur is a very beautiful city, and it's got its traditional Rajput architecture, and without the walls it would be nothing.

Gayatri Devi24:53

So I said to Jay, I said, Listen, aren't you going to do something about this? So he said, Well, I haven't got the power any more.

Gayatri Devi24:59

'Cause he had in between been in Rajpur Mook, which is governor of the state, and he wasn't then.

Gayatri Devi25:04

So I wrote a letter to Pandit Nehru, and he wrote back immediately and he stopped the work. Then I began to think, I said, Well, what harm would it do to join Raja Kopalachari's party and try to help it?

Gayatri Devi25:17

So I asked my husband one day, early in the morning, if I could

Gayatri Devi25:21

And he said it was all right to join the party.

Gayatri Devi25:23

But I don't think he was thinking, and nor was I. I was going out for a ride.

Gayatri Devi25:28

I sent for the second of the party I had joined. I didn't know quite then what I was letting myself in for.

Gayatri Devi25:33

Then of course the press started ringing up to find out if it was true, because up till then none of the members of the bigger sort of princely houses had joined the opposition.

Gayatri Devi25:43

Well, eventually

Gayatri Devi25:45

The thing came out in the open that I'd joined the party, and naturally Rajagopalachari came to Jaipur, and I had to make a speech and welcome him. I remember I was so frightened.

Gayatri Devi25:55

Then when it came time for elections they asked me if I would stand from Jaipur.

Gayatri Devi26:00

And I was absolutely horrified and petrified. And I went to my husband and I said, Look, now they want me to stand for election. So he said, Well, it's so obvious that you'd be their choice.

Gayatri Devi26:11

And he said, Now you've joined the party. You can't let the side down, you'll have to do it.

Presenter26:15

And I believe you had the biggest majority ever known to anybody in any election anywhere. Yes, I did. It was really absolute

Gayatri Devi26:24

Fantastic. Didn't expect that. How long were you in Parliament?

Gayatri Devi26:28

I was a member of parliament for seventeen years. My first election was in nineteen sixty two when I won by that vast majority.

Gayatri Devi26:36

then again in'sixty seven and in'seventy one. And then during that term

Gayatri Devi26:42

We had the emergency in India.

Gayatri Devi26:45

And most of us, mostly opposition, were put in jail. I myself was in jail for about five and a half months. Under what sort of conditions? Well, not very pleasant conditions, but I did have a room to myself and I wasn't locked in. It wasn't very pleasant'cause one didn't know for how long.

Gayatri Devi27:00

And then I had to come out'cause I had to have gallbladder operation, so I was out on parole.

Presenter27:05

Had you been able to fulfil any political function while you were in prison?

Gayatri Devi27:09

No, we used to get our parliamentary papers there. Most of the opposition was in jail at that time.

Gayatri Devi27:14

Then after the emergency in India.

Gayatri Devi27:17

When the politicians were let out, because they were going to have elections in six weeks' time.

Gayatri Devi27:23

The

Gayatri Devi27:25

Opposition formed a new party called the Janatha Party.

Gayatri Devi27:29

And they didn't ask me to stand from the Japo seat which I'd held for three terms, because I was a member.

Gayatri Devi27:36

of the Jhansang party, which constituted the Jhansang, who they gave that seat to. Also the Spatantra party which I had joined had merged into another party and therefore I wasn't inclined to

Gayatri Devi27:49

Become just an ordinary independent member of parliament not attached to any party. Does it make any sense?

Presenter27:53

Yeah.

Presenter27:55

Yeah.

Gayatri Devi27:55

You have done

Presenter27:56

Okay.

Gayatri Devi27:56

Good long spell of I didn't want to stand actually in'7

Presenter27:57

Yeah.

Gayatri Devi28:01

'Cause it was only six months after Jai died.

Gayatri Devi28:05

But um the opposition had an electoral alliance, and they thought that I was the only person who could hold the Jabbo seat. That was when misses Gandhi was very strong, so I was more or less forced into standing in'seventy one', otherwise I'd have given up politics at that time.

Gayatri Devi28:21

active politics rather.

Gayatri Devi28:23

Let's have another record. We've got to number seven. Autumn Leaves.

Gayatri Devi28:27

Sung in French by Yves Monteau. Why do you choose the This

Gayatri Devi28:31

I like to have things that remind me of the past. It's a bit nostalgic and time is going by and you look back on your life and all the things you've done.

Gayatri Devi28:41

And sus.

Gayatri Devi28:44

a nice background to think with.

Presenter28:54

What you mean, man?

Presenter28:57

Uh

Speaker 328:57

Here's your temperature.

Speaker 329:01

No Vivioto

Speaker 329:04

Uh

Presenter29:04

Leaders of Sambla

Presenter29:08

Walkie Maybe

Speaker 329:09

Yeah.

Presenter29:12

Waitita Meh.

Presenter29:15

Yves Monton

Presenter29:16

Could you look after yourself on a desert island?

Presenter29:19

Are you a resourceful person with your hands? Could you build a shelter?

Gayatri Devi29:23

Oh, I'm sure I could build myself a shelter and um I could practise yoga.

Gayatri Devi29:30

And if you practice yoga,

Gayatri Devi29:32

You get a lot of strength. You don't need all that much to eat.

Gayatri Devi29:37

There's an asen

Gayatri Devi29:38

called the Shavasan, where you just lie down flat and pretend you're sort of dead.

Gayatri Devi29:43

and gives you a lot of strength and a lot of vitality.

Gayatri Devi29:46

could do that and I suppose yes, certainly I could build myself a shelter.

Presenter29:51

Yes, I should do a little eating as well, just to be on the safe side.

Gayatri Devi29:55

But you haven't left me my choice and nothing to eat.

Gayatri Devi29:58

But I could rummage around.

Presenter30:00

Would you try to escape? Would you try to build a raft?

Gayatri Devi30:02

No, I'd wait.

Gayatri Devi30:05

For my Kismets to be rescued, I wouldn't try to build a raft.

Gayatri Devi30:09

Because then I might be cast away and be stranded on a raft instead of on a desert island.

Presenter30:15

Your last record.

Gayatri Devi30:17

My last record is My Way.

Gayatri Devi30:19

And whenever I hear it.

Gayatri Devi30:22

I think about life.

Gayatri Devi30:25

Not necessarily my own.

Gayatri Devi30:27

but other people's, and I think that's how nice

Gayatri Devi30:31

That people have lived a life, they've made mistakes and all, but they're not embittered about it. Like the way Frank Sinatra sings it.

Presenter30:40

Thing

Presenter30:42

I did all but

Presenter30:45

And may I say

Presenter30:49

Not in a shy way.

Presenter30:52

Oh no.

Presenter30:55

Oh no, not you!

Presenter30:58

I did it.

Presenter31:00

Mm

Presenter31:03

Frank Sinatra, My Way. Rautamata, if you could take only one disc, which would it be?

Gayatri Devi31:08

as time goes by.

Presenter31:09

And one luxury?

Gayatri Devi31:11

my can of insect repellent.

Presenter31:14

Tinsect repellent. A good big can. A good big can. May have to last a long time.

Gayatri Devi31:15

Yeah.

Gayatri Devi31:17

Yeah, yeah.

Presenter31:18

And one book. As a statutory ration, everybody has the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare. Yes. You may have one other volume.

Gayatri Devi31:27

Well, I would have James Harriot's book.

Gayatri Devi31:31

An omnibus.

Gayatri Devi31:32

If there is one, if there isn't.

Presenter31:34

Well, we'll bind some of the James Heriot books to the other.

Gayatri Devi31:37

If I could bind them together and then take

Presenter31:39

Yeah.

Gayatri Devi31:39

Yeah.

Presenter31:40

Right.

Presenter31:41

And thank you, Rajmata Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Gayatri Devi31:47

Big

Presenter31:47

Thank you. Goodbye, everyone.