Case study-Baroda

The British educational policies were not applicable to the states where the princes still ruled. This is how the Mayo College in Ajmer and Scindia School in Gwalior were set up the upbringing of princes. But there were several very enlightened princes who took the initiative in educatiion. In fact progress was much better in some of the princely states then in British India.
Maharaja Sayajirao III of Baroda (1863-1939) war one of them. His administrative and political reforms had earnded him the admiration of the whole of India. On the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of his accession to the throne, he set apart large funds out of his personal as well as state funds for setting up a university in Baroda for the benefit of students from the rural areas of his state.
Sayajirao recognized talent from among his people. He supported education and training and particulary patronized Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar,the architect of the Indian Constitution and Dadabhai Naoroji, who started his public life as the Diwan (Minister) to the Maharaja in 1874. Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad of Baroda used to visit England every year to select outstanding young people to join his service and in one of such visits he med 20-year-old Sri Aurobindo whom he immediately offered a job in the Baroda College. . Sri Aurobindo returned to India in 1893 to join the Baroda service.
He boldly introduced compulsory primary education and a library movement (the first of its kind in India) to augment his adult education scheme.
Before 1871, the Baroda state did not have a single government school. In 1882 the Baroda College took its first thirty-three students. In 1891 an order war passed that each village had to maintain a schoolmaster. In 1907 primary education was made free and complusory for boys aged 7 to 12 and girls aged 7 to 10. By 1945, over 3,00,000 children were attending the 2,614 schools run by the state.
The figures are quoted for you to understand how much royal patronage helped. At the beginning of Sayajirao's reign Baroda was behind British India in literacy rates. In Baroda city, in 1891 there was 21% literacy compared to 24 % in Bombay city. By 1931 there had been a complete reversal. In Bombay city it was 24% as compared to 41% in Baroda city.
What he began was ultimately completed by his grandson Sir Pratapsinghrao Gaekwad, who founded the Maharaja Sayajirao University and settled the trust as desired by his grandfather. This Trust, known as Sir Sayajirao Diamond Jublee and Memorial Trust, exists till today and caters to the educational and other needs of the people of the former state of Baroda.