Bikaner is a small city (600,000 people) near the western edge of Rajasthan, a large arid state on India's border with Pakistan. Founded in 1488, it joined the Mughal Empire by diplomatic accession in 1570. With the advent of British power in the region, the ruling caste of the area (the Rajputs) made a deal to retain their power by becoming a 'princely state' under the Raj. Upon Indian independence, these highly autonomous states came together to form Rajasthan only with the guarantee of 'privy purses' for their rulers. While these stipends as well as many other traditions have faded in the past sixty years, Rajasthan remains one of the least modernized states in India, with a caste system firmly entrenched by centuries of hereditary rule and an economy still highly reliant on traditional ways of life. Bikaner, deep in the Thar desert and several hundred kilometers away from the state's other major population centers, remains a conservative city even by Rajasthani standards.
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