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Raja of Manda
Born on 25 June 1931 into the zamindar family of Daiya, Vishwanath Pratap Singh married into the principality of Deogarh in Rajasthan, which had its own school of art. He was born to privilege at a time when that privilege was about to come to an end. So his birth was as much a hindrance for him as an advantage in his life. Economically, the country was steeped in depression. If we take the wholesale price index 1873 as 100, it has fallen from 203 in 1929 to 171 in 1930, 127 in 1931, and only 103 in 1934. Obviously, it was a period of enormous distress. But this economic collapse of the colonial state had a brighter side to it. The hard—pressed peasantry, especially of Avadh, not only rose up in resistance against the colonial intermediaries but took up the agenda of ridding itself of colonial rule altogether.

Indeed, perceptive people living in the area, like Munshi Prem Chand, of Lamhi village, near Varanasi, had already understood this climate of revolt. In his novel, Rangbhoomi of 1925, he shows that not only was the peasantry in a state of ferment, but members of the zamindar families too were not untouched by the winds of change. In fact, the younger generation both among the zamindars and the industrialists were being forced to look beyond their colonial mentors and come to terms with the emerging order. And they found a willing ally in the Indian National Congress. So, in many ways, the life and career of the young V.P. Singh can be found in flashes in the works of Prem Chand. This shows him to be a man of his times. It explains both his success and the dilemmas that forced him to reject office time and again.

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