A review of the book 'The House of Jaipur: The Inside Story of India's Most Glamorous Royal Family' written by John Zubrzycki.
Deeply researched and compellingly narrated, The House of Jaipur is a gripping saga studded with unforgettable characters, their charmed lives often crossed by misfortune and tragedy.
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Coming up: A review of the book 'The House of Jaipur: The Inside Story of India's Most Glamorous Royal Family' written by John Zubrzycki.
Namaste Friends. My name is 'Shinil Subramanian Payamal' and you are listening to the Historylogy podcast.
Before I proceed, a full disclosure: This book was bought with my own money and not been provided to me by the author or publisher.
Little bit about the author:
John Zubrzycki is an Australian award-winning journalist and acclaimed author specializing in South Asia, in particular India. Apart from this title, his other books are: The Last Nizam: The Rise and Fall of India’s Greatest Princely State, The Mysterious Mr. Jacob: Diamond Merchant, Magician and Spy, Jadoowallahs, Jugglers and Jinns: A Magical History of India, The Shortest History of India: From the World's Oldest Civilization to Its Largest Democracy—A Retelling for Our Times — 2022 and Dethroned: Patel, Menon and the Integration of Princely India.
Let me read a brief description of the book:
QUOTE
For generations the House of Jaipur has been synonymous with exquisite maharanis, polo-playing maharajas and playboy princes, fabulous jewels and opulent palaces. But behind the glittering facades lie stories of forbidden love, forged wills and missing treasures, of lives cut short by alcoholism and of bitter family feuds over assets worth thousands of crores.
Revealed for the first time are the untold stories of life behind the palace doors. Deeply researched and compellingly narrated, The House of Jaipur is a gripping saga studded with unforgettable characters, their charmed lives often crossed by misfortune and tragedy.
UNQUOTE
If you, like me, have read Maharani Gayatri Devi’s famous memoir, A Princess Remembers, you’ve read the fairy-tale version of the House of Jaipur. It is a stunning portrait of polo-playing princes, breathtaking maharanis, and flawless palace life.
But in The House of Jaipur: The Inside Story of India's Most Glamorous Royal Family, published in 2020 by Juggernaut in India and Hurst in the UK, historian John Zubrzycki pulls back the velvet curtain. What he finds isn't a fairy tale, but a gripping, Shakespearean family drama. It is a world filled with bitter court battles, crippling alcoholism, political vendettas, and tragic downfalls.
Much of the narrative revolves around Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II and Maharani Gayatri Devi—known to friends as Jai and Ayesha—whose marriage became one of the great royal love stories of twentieth-century India. Zubrzycki frames them as India's mid-century golden couple—the subcontinental equivalent of JFK and Jackie Kennedy.
They were international jet-setters who seamlessly moved from the polo fields of England and nightclubs of London to the opulent palaces of Rajasthan. They entertained global icons like Queen Elizabeth II, Jackie Kennedy, and Truman Capote.
Zubrzycki draws on archives in India and Britain, court documents, and interviews to deliver lesser-known details, such as British reservations about Gayatri Devi's "non-Aryan" background for the marriage, or the complex personal side of a woman often idealized in memoirs like her own A Princess Remembers.
Zubrzycki refuses to indulge in pure hagiography (idealized biography). He presents a balanced portrait:
The Playboy Prince: Jai is depicted as a charismatic but frequently absent ruler who spent five to six months of the year partying and playing polo in Europe, often leaving the administration of his state to British officers.
The Political Rebel: Ayesha is shown transitioning from a tomboyish princess of progressive Cooch Behar to a fierce politician. She won a landslide parliamentary seat under the Swatantra Party banner, actively challenging the Congress-led establishment.
The book shines brightest when it moves away from the glitter and addresses the structural shifts of 20th-century India. The author masterfully uses the Jaipur family as a prism to view the death of the princely states.
The author captures the sheer panic, negotiation, and ultimate resentment as centuries-old royal privileges were systematically dismantled by democratic India. The climax of this political tension manifests in the bitter rivalry between Gayatri Devi and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The rivalry—rooted all the way back to their school days at Santiniketan—culminated during the 1975 Emergency. Gayatri Devi and her stepson, Bhawani Singh, were thrown into the notorious Tihar Jail on spurious tax violation charges, a humbling and bruising experience that permanently altered the family's trajectory.
While previous accounts of the family gloss over internal conflicts, Zubrzycki dives headfirst into the family's darker chapters:
The Scourge of Addiction: The book handles the reality of rampant alcoholism that plagued multiple generations of the family, leading to cut-short lives and public embarrassments.
The War Over Wealth: The second half of the book morphs into a tense legal thriller. Following Jai’s sudden death on a polo field in 1970, the family dissolved into decades of litigation over a multi-billion-dollar fortune. The narrative details forged wills, hidden treasures, and toxic stepmother-stepson rivalries that fractured the dynasty completely.
The book moves briskly despite covering several generations, and it often reads like a historical drama. Readers who enjoy works such as The Crown will likely appreciate the combination of public history and private scandal.
Final Verdict:
The House of Jaipur is a stellar piece of narrative non-fiction. Zubrzycki combines historical scholarship with engrossing storytelling to produce a book that is informative, entertaining, and surprisingly nuanced.
If you are a reader interested in Indian history, royal families, political transition, or simply a well-told family saga, The House of Jaipur is an absorbing and rewarding read.
I give this book 4.25/5.
A special mention to the beautiful 8 colour plates featuring all the primary characters mentioned in the book showing us a glimpse of a world gone by.
The book is currently available in Hardcover, Paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon and is yet to be made available in Audible format. I have given the respective buy link in the show notes. Please check it out for the latest price.
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