Hanwant Singh

Hanwant Singh I of Marwar (16 June 1923 – 26 January 1952) was the last ruler of the third largest Indian Kingdom of Marwar. He succeeded his father as the Maharaja of Jodhpur of the Rathore dynasty of Marwar on 9 June 1947 and held the title till his death at a young age in a plane crash on 26 January 1952.

Family life
In 1943 he married Maharani Krishna Kumari Sahiba of Dhrangadhra and had three children, the youngest child, a son Gaj Singh Rathore; who succeeded him, daughter Sailesh Kumari married in Banswara; and daughter, Chandresh Kumari Katoch of Kangra. In 1948, he met 19-year-old Scottish nurse Sandra McBryde, with whom he had a tempestuous and brief affair. Later he married the Muslim actress Zubeida who converted to Hinduism as Vidya Rani, by whom he had a son named Hukum Singh Rathore (Tutu Bana). Soon after their marriage he received rebuke from the royal family and as a result he started to live in Mehrangarh. From her first marriage, Zubeida had a son, Khalid Mohammed, a film critic and director.

After their death, their son Tutu was brought up by Rajmata Krishna Kumari 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.

Final years
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 near Sumerpur, killing him at the age of 28. Zubeidaa also perished in the accident.

In 2011, wreckage of the aircraft, Beechcraft Bonanza, a light six-seater aircraft, was discovered inside Jodhpur Central Jail. 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.