§ SIR SEYMOUR KING (Hull, Central)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, why the Indian Government, contrary to the formal and legal settlement made with the assent of the Government by the Jam Sahib of Nowanagar in 1878, refuse to acknowledge the title of Kumar Shri Ranjitsingji Vibhaji, commonly known as Prince Ranjitsingji, to the Gadi of Nowanagar; whether a memorial, in which the grounds of Prince Ranjitsingji's claim to the Gadi in accordance with law and Rajput custom, and the terms of the abovementioned settlement are set forth, was addressed to the Secretary of State in 1898, with a petition for inquiry; why no answer has been returned to the memorial; and when one may be expected.
§ * THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord G. HAMILTON,) Middlesex,225 Ealing I am not aware of any formal or legal settlement under which Kumar Ranjitsingji has any claim to the State of Nowanagar. But since the matter has formed the subject of a question I propose to state briefly the facts of the case. The late Jam was permitted by the Government of India to disinherit his son by a Mahomedan lady who was his natural heir. Having thus no natural heir, he selected Kumar Ranjitsingji as his son by adoption, and as his eventual successor on the express understanding that, if any of the Ranis should give birth to a son, the said Ranjitsingji should have no claim to succeed. In August, 1882, one of the recognised wives of the Jam, a Mahomedan lady, gave birth to as on, Kumar Jarwant Singh, and the Jam applied to the Government of India to recognise him as his natural heir and successor. The Government of India, after full consideration and inquiry, did so, and the Secretary of State confirmed their decision. From that time Kumar Jarwant Singh was treated as the heir, and on the death of the late Jam he succeeded his natural father. It is true that in 1899 I received, through the Government of India, a memorial from Kumar Ranjitsingji setting forth his claim and asking for an inquiry; and on March 16th, 1899, I addressed the Government of India, declining to reopen the decision passed by my predecessors, and requesting them to inform Kumar Ranjitsingji. I have ascertained that these orders were pased in due course onto the Government of Bombay, but that as yet, owing to Kumar Ranjitsingji having left India, they have not been formally communicated to him. This will now be done without delay.