Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

FREEDOM MOVEMENT

INTEGRATION OF PRINCELY STATES

MOST STATES TO JOIN BY Aug -15

Princes must move with times only hope in doing will of the people National Herald, 1, Jan, 1946.

National Herald, 17, July, 1947.

ruler of Rajkot went back on an agreement he had reached with Vallabhbhai Patel regarding the demands of the people of Rajkot. The credit for the integration of the states with India goes to Sardar Patel, Lord Mountbatten and V.P. Menon. On the suggestion of Sardar Patel the states ministry was set up and he himself became its head. An instrument of accession was drawn up which was acceptable to the princes. They were required to hand over to the Indian Union only the subjects of defence, foreign relations and communications. By 15th Aug. 1947, with the exception of Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir all the states had acceded to either India or Pakistan. Junagadh was a princely state in west Gujarat bounded by the Arabian Sea on its west. It had no geographical contiguity with Pakistan. More than 80% of the people were Hindus. The Nawab of the state lived a life of luxury and his chief pre-occupation in life was dogs of which he had hundred. Hyderabad was the biggest state in India with a Muslim ruler, the Nizam, ruling a population which was 85% Hindu. It had its own coinage, paper currency and stamps. The Nizam declared his intention not to join either India or Pakistan but to become a completely independent sovereign ruler. He wanted Dominion status for Hyderabad. Several rounds of negotiations took place from January 1948 between Hyderabad and the Government of India but all proved unsuccessful. During the final phase of the negotiations a draft agreement was drawn up which Lord Mountbatten, three days before his departure from India, appealed to the Nizam to accept. But to no avail.

When the rule of the English East India Company ended in 1858, the British Crown took over the control of the English empire in India. Britain's Indian empire comprised British India, directly under the Crown, and about 600 Indian states, covering about one- third of the Indian sub-continent and about one -fifth of its population, ruled by Indian Princes. In return for their allegiance to the British Crown, the British guaranteed the continued existence of the princely states, though the real power in these states was exercised by the British residents and political agents posted there. Most of these states were ruled by corrupt and incompetent individuals, commonly called maharajas. They led a life of power, privileges and pleasure, while their subjects were kept backward and illiterate, deprived of all civil liberties and victims of exploitation including forced labour. These maharajas treated the states as their personal properties. The British made use of the maharajas as a divisive force to frustrate the nationalist movement. In 1921, the British established the Chamber of Princes which upheld the princely privileges. The Chamber of Princes consisted of 120 princes in all. Normally, the chamber of princes met once a year and was presided over by the Viceroy. It elected its own Chancellor who would preside over its meetings in the absence of the Viceroy. The people of these states were drawn into the freedom struggle and from 1920 onwards they started forming their own organisations to agitate for responsible governments and rule of law in the states. In Dec. 1927, the representatives of the states’ people met in Bombay to demand that Indian states should be regarded as integral parts of a common Indian nation. They formed

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel 1875-1950

STATES PEOPLE S DEMAND REPRESENTATION IN ASSEMBLY

National Herald, 28 Jan, 1947.

the All-India States People's Conference which declared that the people of the states had the right to determine the form and character of their governments. The AISPC played a vital role in creating a country-wide awareness of the princes' misrule. The movements inside the states, carried on by the Praja Mandals and other organisations, were brutally suppressed by these princes. In 1928, at its Calcutta session, the Congress assured the states people of its sympathy and support in their legitimate struggle for responsible governments in the states. In 1938, at Haripura, the Congress declared that its objective of Puma Swaraj was for the whole of India inclusive of the states; but said that the states people's struggle must be carried on by the people of the states. During 1938-39, there were outbursts of mass struggle in Kashmir, Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, Jaipur and many other states, in which Congressmen participated in large numbers, and there was an increasing identification of the nationalist movement for freedom with the struggles of the states people. In February 1939, Jawaharlal Nehru presided over the AISPC session at Ludhiana, and in March 1939 Gandhiji went on a fast when the