The Nawab's Revenge: an Eastern tale

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We're sure you've heard the story of the Indian ruler, usually a Maharajah but sometimes the Nizam of Hyderabad, who went to London to buy a new Rolls-Royce. He stepped onto the showroom's polished floor only to be brusquely rebuffed by the salesman on duty, an ignorant sort of prig, who mistook the Indian's native dress for the rags of a vagrant. Incensed, the royal went away and later placed an order for a whole fleet of Rolls-Royces which he had a bodied as dustcarts for use by the municipality, to the blushing horror of Rolls-Royce directors and publicists.

The story is both famous and yet, on account of its many variations, rather unreliable. We wouldn't like to say that there is no truth in it, but we'd suggest taking it with a generous pinch of salt. In Pakistan, it is proudly attributed to the Nawab of Bahawalpur although, at the time, Pakistan had not been created and Bahawalpur was a part of India.

Sir Sadeq Mohammad Khan V Abbasi was born in 1904 and was appointed Nawab of Bahawalpur aged just three, following the death of his father. Khan was always on very good terms with the British and holidayed in England regularly from the 1930s, ultimately dying in London in 1966.

There seems to be little else to base the dustcart legend on except that the Nawab was, like so many of his contemporary Oriental rulers, a great lover of cars and of Rolls-Royce in particular. Reportedly, he owned over 70 cars across the course of his life, including 13 Rolls-Royces, 10 Fords and five Cadillacs. In 2004, 26 of them, many neglected and forlorn, were auctioned in a sale at the Nawab's family home, the Sadiq Garh Palace.

We'd love to tell you what's become of the various cars, but unfortunately information is very scant and perhaps not always accurate, but we are pleased to present pictures of one of the Nawab's four Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts, chassis 82RM from 1922, which was originally a Barker torpedo but was later rebodied by Barker as a Pullman limousine. It is said to have been presented by the Nawab as a gift to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the first Governor-General of the newly-formed state of Pakistan, who only ruled for a year before his death.

These pictures come to us courtesy of a friend of PreWarCar.com who discovered the Ghost in pride of place at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Lahore, so if you ever find yourself travelling to Pakistan, you know where to stay.

Words: Zack Stiling, photos: Philippe van Meir

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