The Gaekwad (or Gaekwar) were a Maratha dynasty that ruled as Maharajas of Baroda (Vadodara) from the mid-eighteenth century to 1947.
Their rule of Baroda began when the Maratha general Pilaji Gaekwad conquered the city from the Mughal empire in 1721. The Gaekwads were granted the city as a fief by the Peshwa, the de facto leader of the Maratha empire. After the Maratha defeat by the Afghans at the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, the Gaekwads, along with several powerful Maratha clans, established themselves as virtually independent rulers of the further regions of the empire, while recognizing the nominal authority of the Peshwas and the Bhonsle Maharaja of Satara.
The Gaekwads, together with the other Maratha Maharajas, fought the British in the First Anglo-Maratha War. In 1802, the British intervened to defend a Gaekwad Maharaja that had recently inherited the throne from rival claimants, and the Gaekwads concluded a treaty with the British that recognized their independence from the Maratha empire, and guaranteed the Maharajas of Baroda local autonomy in return for recognizing British sovereignty.
Maharaja Sayajirao III, who took the throne in 1875, did much to modernize Baroda, establishing compulsory primary education, a library system, a university, and model textile and tile factories, which helped to create Baroda's modern textile industry. With India's independence in 1947, the last ruling Maharaja of Baroda acceded to India. Baroda was added to Bombay state, which was divided into the states of Gujarat and Maharastra in 1960.
Known as "Jackie Baroda," Gaekwar was the last of a family of princes that dated to his great-great-great-grandfather, who had inherited the princedom as a poor 13-year-old cousin from a distant village.
Gaekwar was educated by English tutors and entered national politics in 1957, serving as a member of Parliament for ten years.
Gaekwar, revolted after a two-month shooting safari in the Belgian Congo in the early 1950s, became an ardent conservationist, serving the World Wildlife Fund and establishing a zoo on the palace grounds.
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