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RAS question

Maharana Fateh Singh of Mewar refused to attend Lord Curzon's Delhi Durbar of:

Correct answer: (A) 1903.

Maharana Fateh Singh of Mewar refused to attend Lord Curzon's Delhi Durbar in 1903.

  1. (A)

    1903

  2. (B)

    1877

  3. (C)

    1920

  4. (D)

    1911

Explanation

The year was 1903. The cited account says Maharana Fateh Singh of Mewar, Udaipur turned back at the Delhi train station in 1903 and refused to attend Viceroy Curzon's Delhi Durbar as a vassal. That fits the standard RAS explanation: Fateh Singh had initially gone to Delhi for the Durbar, but after Kesari Singh Barhath's poem "Chetavni ra Chungtya" stirred him, he refused to bow before the British Viceroy and left Delhi. The point is not merely the date; the episode is remembered as a Rajput ruler's symbolic refusal to accept the subordinate role expected of Indian princes at imperial ceremonies.

Why the other options are wrong

  • (B) 1877 refers to Queen Victoria's durbar, not Lord Curzon's Delhi Durbar involving Maharana Fateh Singh's refusal.
  • (C) 1920 is outside the Delhi Durbar sequence given here, and the question's event is tied to the 1903 Curzon Durbar.
  • (D) 1911 was the Coronation Durbar associated with George V; the source separately notes that Fateh Singh did not attend it either, but Curzon's Durbar was in 1903.

Concept

This tests Rajasthan's princely-state politics under British paramountcy, especially how imperial ceremonies were used to stage hierarchy. It recurs in RAS because Mewar's assertion of prestige and resistance is a standard Rajasthan history theme.

Source

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