PM Modi not the first Gujarati VIP in Ireland, Maharaja Ranji Sinhji was

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not only the second prime minister to visit Ireland (the first being Jawaharlal Nehru 59 years ago) he was also the second Gujarati VVIP to grace the Emerald Isle. In that context, the Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny presenting him with a jersey of the national cricket team this week is particularly fitting, as that first Gujarati happened to be the Jamsaheb of Nawanagar and the maharaja of cricket, Ranji Sinhji. The PM may not be surprised to learn that Ranji found the starkly beautiful landscape of western Ireland — the province of Connaught —strangely reminiscent of his native Saurashtra. So, after landing in Galway in 1924, he was so taken by the region that he bought a castle called Ballynahinch in Connemara and thereafter spent every summer there till his death in 1933.

As Ireland took to cricket relatively recently, Ranji has an enduring appeal there that is very different from his Indian image: of a magnanimous maharaja who revived local crafts and businesses and treated villagers to lavish annual burra khanas. While Ballynahinch passed out of the hands of the royal family after Ranji’s death, the idea that a corner of Ireland at least emotionally remains linked to a generous Gujarati from Jamnagar should give more Indians impetus to consider enhancing the relationship.