Taxis of Junagadh

Recently I read a very interesting column written by KL Mohana Verma in a Malayalam Business fortnightly. Though the main topic of discussion in it was about black money and the present turmoil the nation is facing; inter alia he also had mentioned about the city of Junagadh. He was narrating about his visit to this city in Gujarat some 20 years ago and a unique phenomenon, (I hope I can call it so) he found there.

I also happened to be in Junagadh towards the end of seventies i.e. about thirty odd years ago and spent some time there and was equally curious about this particular observable fact. It was the taxies of Junagadh. Barring a few modern ambassador and Landmaster they were all vintage Ford Classic 1940 models. Mr Mohana Verma claims that you will find nowhere else in the world Ford Classic 1940 being used as Taxies. As everybody I too had wondered about this uniqueness. In fact you will find them more around Kesod the only air-port of those days in that part of the country which was originally constructed by the Nawab of Junagadh.

Now before I delve more in to this distinctiveness a small historical back-ground for the story.

Before partition Junagadh was a princely state. It was one among the eighteen Muslim kingdoms getting independence from the British rule. Muhammad Mahabat Khanji III the Nawab of Junagadh desired that his country be merged with the newly formed Pakistan, though it held a minority Muslim population and was land-locked by the newly formed Indian state on the three sides and by the sea on the remaining part depriving it the opportunity of sharing a border with Pakistan. Nevertheless the Nawab insisted on merging his territory with Pakistan. The Nawab even signed an Instrument of Accession and sent it over to Pakistan after due consideration (sic) decided to accept the same and Jinnah countersigned it after the approval and ratification by the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. This happened on 15^th Sept 1947.

 V. P. Menon, the Secretary of the States department of the Government of India, travelled to Junagadh on 17 September 1947 to apprise the Nawab of the futility of his attempt and persuade the monarch to desist from whatever he was doing in this regard; but his effort to meet the Nawab sahab did not succeed because the Nawab feigned indisposition and refused any interview. In the mean time two vassals of the Nawab has already expressed their readiness to join the Indian Union.

When the efforts to accede the state with Indian Union in an amicable way failed India decided to apply pressure. It severed all communications including roads, and even postal deliveries were stopped. This caused unrest to brew inside the kingdom. Realising the futility of resisting, the Nawab finally decided to move to Karachi. On Nov 8^th 1947 as per the request of the Chief Minister of Junagadh the takeover of the state was formally declared. A plebiscite was held on 20 February 1948, in which all but 91 out of 190,870 who voted (from an electorate of 201,457) voted to join India i.e. 99% of the population voted to join India.
Nawab Mahabat Khanji was a great animal lover. While travelling to Rajkot in train one can observe rows and rows of kennels made for his 300 odd canines. He even notoriously celebrated their birthdays with great pomp and show. Once he celebrated the marriage of his two dogs spending many thousands of rupees, which was attended by all the dignitaries from far and wide attracting lot of flak for this act of opulence and extravaganza.

At the same time one should also be thankful to this maverick animal lover for preserving the vast tracks of Gir Forests and saving the Asiatic lions which even now is on the verge of extinction. He provided these lions a stable habitat. It may also be noted that during his reign, the Nawab saw the opening of the Willingdon Dam, the construction of the Bahadur Khanji library (named after his ancestor, the first Nawab) and the opening of the Mahabat Khan College.

Now coming back to our story, the gossip around the town is that the Nawab realising that there is no way of acceding his kingdom with Pakistan a secret agreement was struck with the government of India. Accordingly the Nawab was allowed to make as many sorties of his plane from Kesod(The air-port) to Karachi during the day in order to transport all his movable properties.. He plied from early morning sortie after sortie till evening when no more flight was possible as the air-port was not equipped for night flights, shifting everything including his collection of canines and also his women of his harem. He left all his cars which were used to transport the goods and material from the various palaces- all of them Ford Clasic 1940- behind at the air-port and the drivers were free to take them away as a reward for their loyalty. Once the Nawab left they made them into taxies of their own. Once the petrol cost shot up they promptly mounted Diesel engines and made them still viable. I do not know whether they still exist on the roads of today’s Junagadh but they were really quite a relic of the forgone era.