In July 1967, the Vidhan Sabha of Madhya Pradesh was in chaos. Unhappy at not being given due importance, a Scindia had rebelled against the Congress party and its then Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister DP Mishra, and defected to the Opposition along with 37 MLAs. The Congress Government in the state collapsed and the Opposition came to power with Vijayaraje Scindia as the kingmaker. What Vijayaraje Scindia did in 1967, her grandson Jyotiraditya Scindia would repeat in 2020 highlighting how history has a tendency to repeat itself.

The recent political turmoil in Madhya Pradesh also highlights the close relationship that the Scindia family has had with the Hindu right for over a century. Few realise how closely the history of the Hindu Mahasabha, the original right-wing movement that gave rise to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is linked to the Scindias and Gwalior. It is here that it all started and the Scindia family was its great patron.

The Scindias of Gwalior trace their origins to Kanherkhed village in Satara district of Maharashtra. The family had humble beginnings. The founder of the dynasty, Ranoji Scindia joined the Maratha army as a humble soldier in 1720 and rose to become one of the most important Generals of Peshwa Bajirao I, the man credited with the expansion of the Marathas in the 18th century.

Following the Maratha conquest of Malwa in the 1730s, Ranoji was given a one-third share in Malwa, with the other two shares going to the other important Peshwa Generals, the Holkars (of Indore) and Pawars (of Dhar). Ranoji made Ujjain his capital. This control over one of the holiest cities of Hinduism, a site of the Kumbha Mela, would become a source of prestige and legitimacy for the Scindia family, decades later.