Friends of Mewar: Inspired by its 1400 Hundred-Year-Old Legacy

Princess Padmaja Kumari Parmar founded her non-profit organization Friends of Mewar (FoM) in 2013 from Boston, USA. Mewar, the region now more popularly known as Udaipur in Rajasthan, India, is home to the world’s longest-serving dynasty of nearly 1400 years. Since India’s independence from British rule and the abolishment of royal titles, the House of Mewar has operated as a custodianship—an unwritten contract, and a pledge that Padmaja’s family makes every generation to protect the heritage of Mewar. For Padmaja, Udaipur is not merely her hometown, but a region where history, culture, and tradition are deeply intertwined with her value ethos of self-respect, self-reliance, service to the community, and respect for humanity.

Since its founding in 734 AD until now, a long line of ancestors of the House of Mewar has provided for Udaipur’s people and protected its tangible and intangible heritage for the next generation regardless of challenges that arose. This lineage includes Maharana Pratap, the 54th custodian of the House of Mewar, who was a crusader of self-determination. The great Maharana will always be remembered as the first freedom fighter who struggled for the independence of his motherland and the preservation of moral values. He has become a symbol of struggle, renunciation, sacrifice, generosity, and perseverance. His story lives on to inspire all of us for many generations to come.

This legacy was a driving force that prompted Padmaja’s grandfather, Maharana Bhagwat Singh Mewar, to establish the public charitable trust the Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation (MMCF) in 1969 on the principle of custodianship. His vision was ‘to serve and assist every individual to realize a special status in the hierarchy of God’s creation, and to serve as a temple of inspiration to future generations.’

In 1984, Padmaja’s father, Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar, became the 76th Custodian of the House of Mewar and conceptualized Eternal Mewar to provide the vision for the 21st century. It expresses, embodies, and encompasses the core values, principles, and legacy of the House of Mewar, which has emerged as a unique heritage brand exemplifying hospitality, cultural preservation, philanthropy, education, sports, and spirituality for global audiences.

Inspired by the efforts of her ancestors, Padmaja founded Friends of Mewar with the aim to preserve cultural heritage, provide access to preventative healthcare, and promote women’s empowerment and education. Since its beginning in 2013, the foundation has built a community of friends and collaborated with partners to support programs and projects that address these three causes.

Preserving Cultural Heritage

An integral aspect of the foundation’s work is preserving the cultural heritage of Mewar by lifting up stories, sharing traditions, and inspiring the world. In this vein, FoM supported a groundbreaking international exhibition, which featured paintings and photos from Udaipur outside of India for the first time. ‘A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur,’ was on view November 2022 through May 2023 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington DC. The exhibition revealed how artists in Udaipur conveyed emotions, depicted places, celebrated water resources, and fostered personal bonds in the rapidly changing political and cultural landscapes of early modern South Asia. The show was organized as a journey that began at Udaipur’s center and continued outward: first to the city, then to the countryside, and finally to the cosmos. Following its close at the Smithsonian, the exhibition moved to The Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, USA from June to September 2023. FoM sought to ensure these incredible pieces are conserved and continue to delight admirers for posterity as they tell stories about the history, culture, people, art, and architecture of Mewar from a unique living cultural heritage perspective.

Preventative Health Care

Another core pillar of the foundation is providing preventative health care through various partnerships and projects. One such project particularly close to the founder’s heart was a recent Type 1 Diabetes focused summit in Udaipur, which brought together experts, advocates, charitable institutions, civil society organizations, and the ImPatient Network.

Organized by Friends of Mewar and Breakthrough T1D in collaboration with UNICEF India, the high-level meeting and following summit (August 2024) addressed the urgent need for early diagnosis and treatment of non-communicable diseases, including Type 1 Diabetes, as a crucial step for improving care and quality of life. Friends of Mewar’s founder, currently serves as a Breakthrough T1D Global Ambassador as well. Having been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes as a child, Padmaja is determined to educate and inspire others through her experience with the chronic condition.

Rural communities in Rajasthan are comprised of a high proportion of tribal populations living in scattered and poorly accessible habitations. The population lives in abject poverty, and young children are often left in the care of older siblings, or grandparents, or even left alone by themselves as their fathers migrate to other cities and states for work, and their mothers deal with a myriad of responsibilities such as farming, tending to livestock, cooking, etc. Another of FoM’s partners, Basic HealthCare Services, began running child care centers called phulwaris (meaning a bed of flowers) for young children to provide them with a nurturing environment, nutritious food, engagement, and play for cognitive development.

These phulwaris are housed in the center of villages and managed by two local women trained in childcare and nutrition. They operate from 9 am to 5 pm and provide three nutritious meals that ensure approximately 100% of the daily protein requirement and 70% of the daily calorie requirement for a child. In addition, outreach workers provide growth monitoring and nutrition education to families and promote kitchen gardens and poultry for household food security. FoM supported three existing phulwaris and aided in the implementation of three new phulwaris as well as continued maintenance and operational support.

Blindness is a well known major public health problem in India with Cataracts being the leading cause of blindness responsible for over 60% of all cases. However, if Cataract blindness is controlled, avoidable blindness can be eliminated. Friends of Mewar has once again teamed up with a long-time partner, Alakh Nayan Mandir Eye Institute, to implement a refraction and Cataract surgeries program. This project concentrates on the Mavli Block of the Udaipur district with a population of 90,450.

The eye care programs include screening patients and school children for eye ailments, cataract operations, and distribution of free glasses. The foundation is committed to raising a minimum of $30,000 to support and provide 775 Cataract surgeries, 350 free glasses to children, and 155 free glasses to adults from now through 2025.

Preventive healthcare doesn’t stop at physical health. Recognizing mental health as equally important, FoM began a fund to support Harvard Medical School’s Global Mental Health initiative. The initiative aims to address disparities and curate an online curriculum to train mental health workers in developing the delivery of psychological therapies. The Friends of Mewar Fund in Global Mental Health of $100,000 has been the primary financial support for the initiative. The fund has supported program activities such as community events, student research assistantships, and investment in program staff as well as finding tangible initiatives that can be incorporated in schools in India.

Women’s Empowerment

The third focus of FoM’s work is women’s empowerment and education, which it believes is a crucial and effective factor in improving quality of life, particularly in underserved sections of society.FoM Founder, Padmaja Kumari Parmar, has conceptualized an exclusive stole design in collaboration with Aavaran, a craft platform in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. Steeped in the beauty and tradition of Mewar, the naturally dyed stoles are crafted in a textile factory in Udaipur. They employ over 100 women artisans and support more than 200 women across five independently-run training and production centers in the villages of Debari, Kanpur, Matun, Zawar, and Sindeshwarkala. At these centers, they undergo training in stitching, embroidery, button making, and other indigenous crafts. FoM is collaborating with Aavaran on this initiative to bring these textiles to a more global audience.

FoM sees its work spanning across generations and not limited to a financial year or a calendar. Its goal is to ensure the actions taken today can serve as a stepping stone to future generations and create a path where Mewar is seen as a model region, is self-sufficient in its needs, and becomes the core of a cultural and traditional value system that inspires the world. Learn more and connect at friendsofmewar.org.

Thank you for being a friend of Mewar!

Courtesy The Sublime India Issue by Vissionaire

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