Hanwant Singh

In 1943 he married Maharani Krishna Kumari Ba Sahiba of Dhrangadhra by whom he had a son Gaj Singh Rathore; daughter, Sailesh Kumari married in Banswara; and daughter, Chandresh Kumari Katoch of Kangra,[2] In 1948, he met and married 19-year-old Scottish nurse Sandra McBryde, divorcing her after a tempestuous and brief union. Later he married the Muslim actress Zubeida who converted to Hinduism as Vidya Rani Rathore, by whom he had a son named Hukum Singh Rathore (Tutu Bana), but soon after their marriage they were disowned by the royal family and as a result he left Umaid Bhawan Singh palace and started to live in Mehrangarh. From her first marriage Zubeida had a son, Khalid Mohammed, a film critic and director.[3]

After their death, his son Tutu was brought up by Rajmata of Jodhpur, and later went to study at Mayo College in Ajmer. He married Rao Rani Rajeshwari Kumari Rathore, daughter of Rao Raja Daljit Singh of Alwar. The couple had one son, Parikshit Singh Rathore (b. 1974) and one daughter, Jainandini Kanwar (b. 1975). However, on 17 April 1981, he was beheaded and found on the streets of Jodhpur.[4]

After Indian independence and formation of Rajasthan as a state within India, he formed a new political party Akhil Bhartiya Ramrajya Parishad in 1952. Campaigning in both the Indian general and state Assembly elections scheduled for February 1952, Hanwant Singh would have won a majority in his region. After only four hours of sleep he took off in a small aircraft with his wife, Zubeida on 26 January 1952. The plane crashed killing him at the age of 28. Zubeidaa also perished in the accident.[4][5]

In 2011, wreckage of the aircraft, Beechcraft Bonanza, a light six-seater aircraft, was discovered inside Jodhpur Central Jail.[5] Subsequently, in 2012, the Mehrangarh Fort Museum founded in 1972 by Maharaja Gaj Singh, formally asked the jail to transfer the wreckage to the museum.[6]

• Rulers of Marwar