The article first appeared in The Scroll on January 23, 2024
In December 1905, the governor of Bombay, Charles Cochrane-Baillie, better known as Lord Lamington, received a letter in Burmese from the most high-profile exile in the presidency. “I have now been at Ratnagiri for a number of years and formerly I had nothing to complain of; but now my daughters have grown up, I require more accommodation for them as I find the house I am at present occupying quite inadequate for the requirements of my family,” wrote Theebaw Min, the last king of Burma, requesting the government to build him a house away from the main town.