art and travel journal from a round-the-world art adventure

We spent the weekend in the former princely state of Bahawalpur. Prior to Partition the British ruled much of the subcontinent through the agency of local rulers bearing varying degrees of autonomy, though never in the critical areas of foreign affairs and defence. The last Nawab of Bahawalpur issued his own currency, collected taxes and possessed a standing army. At Partition, when India refused to release the foreign reserves owed the new country, the Nawab paid the first two budgets from his own treasury. He also built palaces, sumptuous, luxurious affairs, for his household, court, and mistresses. Most are now in the hands of the military and therefore off limits to the public. But on Saturday night the District Commissioner, Dr Khalil, took us inside. They are approached from the usual dusty street along long walls. You turn in through an arched entrance and there, across garden and green lawn, stand impossibly beautiful buildings, pink and white and lit like something from another world. The army has spent considerable resources to restore and preserve. Fountains bubble in the courtyard of a summer palace. The frescos are clear and delicate, the woodwork oiled and shiny with care. In the centre of one palace, now an officers mess, stands a grand piano. Wajih, our guide, and the man charged with supervising the ongoing restorations, says he is waiting for Pakistan's sole piano tuner to return from the UK to effect the necessary repairs. Portraits of the former ruling family line the walls as do photographs of various viceroys, regents, and rulers. King Faisal of Iraq. Mountbatten. Nehru. At the entrance are pictures of the local military commanders, handsome, mustachioed men looking down at us over rows of ribbons and medals. The new rulers.