Saba Ali Khan before the portrait of Nawab Dost Mohammed Khan, founder of the princely state of Bhopal, at the royal palatial Flag Staff House in the city on Monday. Picture by Saeed Faruqui

Bhopal, Oct. 24: The woman in the picture behind her wore a crown but Saba Ali Khan’s head was neither covered nor uneasy.

If she was feeling a tad nervous at her new responsibilities as the first woman head of the Bhopal royals’ religious endowments, the 33-year-old daughter of the late Nawab of Pataudi, Mansur Ali Khan, did not show it.

“I belong to Bhopal. I will look after Bhopal,” the young woman in a blue-and-green salwar suit, white dupatta draped across her shoulders, said in a measured tone. From behind her, great-grandmother Sultan Jahan Begum, former Bhopal state’s most enterprising woman ruler, seemed to gaze approvingly out of her portrait.

Thirty-two days after Mansur Ali Khan’s death, his children are preparing to divide up and don some of their father’s various mantles in Pataudi and Bhopal.

Saba’s new job makes her the muttawalli (custodian) of the Auqaf-e-Shahi, the Rs 1,000 crore worth of princely endowments and properties with religious and charitable significance. She arrived here today to officially take charge of dozens of mosques, graveyards, orphanages and shrines.

Saba said her elder brother and actor Saif Ali Khan, 44, would be unofficially crowned the tenth “Nawab of Pataudi” after their late father’s chaliswan, a ritual that marks the end of the 40-day mourning period.

Asked if she was confident about playing the role of a religious head, she said: “I follow Islam. My father took care to prepare me for the role. The task is tough but I am sure I will be able to live up to people’s expectations.”

She seems to have the enthusiastic support of her male subordinates. “She will be able to bring fresh ideas,” said Anwar Mohammad Khan, a key Pataudi family aide in Bhopal.

Saif’s pagri rasam or notional coronation will take place in Pataudi, Haryana, where the headmen of 52 villages would each tie a royal turban on the actor’s head in a daylong ceremony, professing loyalty and reverence.

Although royal titles are no longer officially recognised, many people in the former princely states still use them to refer to the erstwhile rulers’ descendants for sentimental reasons.

Mansur Ali Khan was the last Nawab of Pataudi, having reigned from 1952 till 1971, when then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi abolished the privy purse.

Sources said “Chhote Nawab” Saif was initially reluctant to prolong what he felt was an outdated custom. Besides, he wanted people to remember his father as the last Nawab of Pataudi. However, the sources said, Saif had now agreed to accept the notional title to respect the popular sentiment in Pataudi.

Like Saba, Saif too is clear about the new responsibilities. He recently told an interviewer: “Being crowned the nawab means taking care of my father’s estate, our ancestral home and the trust. More importantly, I will have to continue the work he was doing for the villagers. I have to look after the eye hospital and other charitable institutions that father was managing.”

The third and youngest Pataudi sibling, Soha, does not have a specific role so far but family friends claim the actress will be an adviser to both Saif and Saba.

“It is a close-knit family. They take decisions after close consultation,” Anwar Mohammad Khan said.

Saba is staying at Flag Staff House, the palatial royal guesthouse with a view of Bhopal lake where her father too would put up during his visits.

She spent most of the day in the company of lawyers, discussing the dozens of court cases the Pataudis are enmeshed in, some against the government and some against aunts and cousins. In between, she found time to meet the mourners who called on her.

Saba also wanted to visit some Bhopal gas survivors but circumstances forced her to cancel the trip. Last evening, the state government razed a few homes in an unauthorised colony at Arif Nagar, which has dwellings of gas survivors.

Some well-wishers felt that a visit by Saba could lead to a brush with politicians in the BJP-ruled state.