Gaj Singh is a former member of the Indian parliament and a former High Commissioner of India.
Background
Gaj Singh was born the only son of Maharaja Hanwant Singh of Jodhpur by his wife, Maharani Krishna Kumari of Dhrangadhra. He succeeded to the titles and dignities of his father when only four years of age, in 1952, when his father died suddenly in a plane crash.
Career
He was the Maharaja of Jodhpur from 1952 until the royal powers, privileges and privy purses were abolished by an amendment to the Constitution of India in 1971. He was enthroned shortly afterwards. At the age of eight, Gaj Singh was sent first to Cothill House, a prep school in Oxfordshire, England, and then to Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Singh"s full title as Maharaja was His Highness Raj Rajeshwar Saramad-i-Raja-i-Hind Maharajadhiraja Maharaja Shri Gaj Singhji II Sahib Bahadur, Maharaja of Marwar.
In 1970, Gaj Singh returned to Jodhpur to take up his duties as Maharaja of Jodhpur and head of the Rathore clan. They are the parents of two children, being:
A daughter, Shivranjani Rajye (born 22 August 1974), and
A son, Shivraj Singh (born 30 September 1975).
In 1971, the constitution of India was amended. The Maharaja and other princes were deprived of their privy purses, the government annuities that had been guaranteed to them both in the constitution and in the covenants of accession whereby their states were merged with the Dominion of India in the 1940s.
The same amendment also deprived them of other privileges, such as diplomatic immunity. to the Constitution of India promulgated in 1971, the Government of India abolished all official symbols of princely India, including titles, privileges, and remuneration (privy purses).
Later, Gaj Singh served as Indian High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago. He also served a term in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament. In 2002, Gaj Singh celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his accession.