Maharajah of Bikaner

The story of the Indian soldiery in the Great War needs new telling, and one important chapter in its history features the Maharajah of Bikaner. Dashing, autocratic, and a formidable public speaker, Ganga Singh fought on the Western Front and in Egypt, became the first Indian general in the British Indian Army, and convinced the maharajas to unite into the Chamber of Princes. He took his rightful place at the Paris Peace Conference table and persuaded the other delegates to include India in the new League of Nations—quite an achievement as it was not yet an independent nation.