Commissioned in the year 1936, the Maharaja Pratapsinh Coronation Gymkhana is yet another example of an act of defiance against the Britishers. Yuvraj Pratapsinhrao the grandson and successor of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, declared that he will be setting up a Polo Club, during the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations of his grandfather’s rule.
The Backdrop:
Just before some decades of securing independence, the growing spirits of the people of India made the Britishers insecure. This made them see any public gathering event as dangerous for their existence.
In the case of Baroda, the 1911 incident of the Delhi-Durbar made the British residents of Baroda even more restless. It had so happened that, while paying obeisance to the King and Queen, Maharaja Sayajirao did not bend his head thrice as required and turned his back at them too quickly. This was viewed by the Britishers as an insult, leading them never to believe him again. Already suspicious about his activities, even before the incident ever happened, the Britishers became all the more suspicious about him after the incident.
The British were skeptical that all the reputed clubs and gymkhanas of Baroda State were being used to breed Anti-British revolutionaries. Hence, no new club was allowed to come up in the kingdom. But the Britishers were no match for the Gaekwads, the royals defied the Brits in any way they could.
Thus, in 1936, when Maharaja Sayajirao completed 61 years of his rule on 9th January, his grandson Pratapsinhrao, the Yuvraj of Baroda State, went ahead and proclaimed that he would set up the Polo Club and Equestrian Gymkhana.
Setting up the Club :
As announced by the Yuvraj, the procedures of setting up the club started. Accordingly, on 25th April 1939, the foundation stone of Polo Club was laid at the hands of the Chhatrapati Raja Ram Maharaja of Kolhapur. On the very next day, on 26th April, Pratapsinhrao was coronated as the king, since Sayajirao III had passed away on 6th Febuary the same year. Thus the Polo Club was aptly re-christened as the Maharaja Pratapsinh Coronation Gymkhana (MPCG) of Baroda.
Then came the second world war in Sept 1939 and there was an acute shortage of construction raw materials. In spite of this Maharaja Pratapsinhrao completed the MPCG by March 1941. The Club came at the cost of Rs 3,43,365/- along with the donation of 43 acres of land from the Maharaja himself. It was then inaugurated by his wife and queen Maharani Shantadevi Gaekwad on 2nd March 1941.
The Life of the Club :
Maharaja Pratapsinhrao was an expert rider and an accomplished Polo player himself. This led to several Polo tournaments being played between the Baroda Royal Polo Team and the rival teams of Nizam, Mysore, Travancore, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jaiselmer, Kolhapur, Dhar, Dewas, Indore, and British India.
The Polo Ground, earlier a part of the club consequently became a landmark for the citizens of Baroda. During the Royal Order, this ground of the club was even used for other sports such as Horse races, Cricket, Indian games and military drills with equestrian events.
It was on this ground that the famed cricketers of Baroda State such as C.S.Naidu, C.K.Naidu, Lala Amarnath, Vijay Hazare, Vijay Merchant, Vinod Mankad, Gulam Mohammad, Nimbalkar brothers and so on, once played and brought fame to their State.
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Such is the story of the Polo Club, which even today after 75 years, is proudly standing amongst the most elite clubs of India preserving the memories of a bygone era at its roots.
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