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- Author: Harrison Akins x
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At independence in 1947, India and Pakistan confronted a vast mosaic of political entities: directly administered districts, tribal areas, European enclaves and the princely states ruled by India’s maharajas, rajas, khans and nawabs. The over 560 princely states dotting India’s political landscape were no minor or inconsequential feature of the British Raj, comprising 40 percent of its territory and containing nearly 100 million people. Yet India’s princely states is a relatively understudied aspect of British rule in India and the early years of Indian and Pakistani independence. Far from playing second fiddle to events in the British Indian provinces, the princely states had an integral role in shaping events leading up to and following the transfer of power. Within the British Raj, the princely states were autonomous, with recognized sovereignty through treaties with the British Crown. Therefore, each prince had to be convinced, cajoled and, in some cases, forced to accede to either India or Pakistan. As Indian and Pakistani authorities sought to assert the writ of the postcolonial state, the princes tried to preserve their sovereignty, setting the stage for political and military clashes based in competing conceptions of state sovereignty. Conquering the maharajas examines the often overlooked but essential history of Princely India through the tumultuous end of British Empire in South Asia and the early years of Indian and Pakistani independence. As the noted Indian diplomat K.M. Panikkar once remarked, ‘Any account of the last days of princely rule will sound incredible today.’
The introduction presents the main ideas, arguments and justification for the study. After stressing the importance of the topic under study, this chapter first presents two key ideas for underpinning the book’s argument: the clashing visions of state sovereignty within South Asia and the princely states as emblematic of the British use of indirect rule. Within India’s princely states, the British government instituted a suzerain system of governance in which princes held nominal independence and the political autonomy to handle their internal political affairs, yet maintained an allegiance to an overarching imperial power. This created a political system that shaped the interests of the princes and other political elites who benefited from it. The elites’ privileges and status, therefore, were bound up with the perpetuation of the political system granting them asymmetric access to power, especially in the face of non-elites challenging a political status quo from which they derived few benefits. The princes thus remained resistant to broader political reforms that could undermine their authority, a position that was frequently supported and encouraged by the British government’s policies and rhetoric. As a result, several princes contested the sovereignty of both the Indian and Pakistani governments within their states and attempted to assert their independence to preserve their state’s political autonomy and their personal status. The introduction concludes with a description of the contributions of the study and how the book is structured, including an explanation of the four case studies used within the book.
This chapter provides a broad historical context of the princely states through the final years of the British Empire in South Asia. It explains the origins of the princely states, the nature of their relationship with the British government as the paramount power, how British policy towards the princely states changed over time, how the British colonial authorities administratively engaged with them, and the basis of the princes’ understanding of their sovereignty. The chapter begins with an explanation of the development of British paramountcy through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, beginning with the treaties between the East India Company and the successor states that emerged in the wake of the decline of Mughal authority. These treaties formed the basis of Princely India following the imposition of Crown rule in 1858. This section continues with an explanation of how British paramountcy over the princely states functioned and changed over time, leading up to the efforts to create an All-India Federation in the 1930s, helping to show the multilayered approach to British rule in South Asia that underpinned the princely states’ sovereignty. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the inherent tensions and ambiguity in the relationship between the princely states and the colonial government.
This chapter analyzes the position of the two leading nationalist parties—the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League—toward the princely states and how the parties engaged with them through the 1930s and early 1940s, including Congress’ engagement with the increasing political activism of the states’ subjects and the Muslim League’s more hands-off approach. The chapter analyzes how the nationalist movement’s attitude to the princely states transitioned over time—from seeing the princely states as an example of indigenous capacity to rule, to pragmatic disengagement, to outright hostility and increased activism to challenge the princes’ rule, including increased engagement with political groups representing the states’ subjects as they became more and more active in challenging the princes’ autocracy. The princes’ antagonistic position toward the nationalist movement, dominated by the Indian National Congress, and its vision of Indian nationalism also demonstrated their resistance to any internal political reforms that would increase their subjects’ civil and political rights. The princes feared that this path could lead to the implementation of democratic government within their states, which would undermine their sovereignty and further degrade their status and privileges. Many of the reforms the princes did implement in the face of growing political agitation from among their subjects were criticized as mere eyewash, with Congress growing increasingly active in their political activities against princely rule in the late 1930s and 1940s.
This chapter continues the discussion of the evolving nature of the British approach to the princely states leading up to Indian independence and British efforts to create an All-India Federation under the Government of India Act of 1935, intended to ensure British control over India and undermine the strength of the Indian nationalist movement. It first discusses the intention of the British government in introducing plans for the All-India Federation and then analyzes the reasons behind the princes’ opposition to it, which ultimately blocked the federation from being implemented. The discussion of the princes’ refusal to accede to the Indian federation demonstrates their resistance to any external constitutional changes which might threaten their direct relationship with the British Crown, whose recognition as the paramount power in India served as the source of the princes’ sovereignty. This further demonstrates the princely order’s commitment to the layered sovereignty of British indirect rule and their opposition to any changes in the political status quo within the changing political environment of India, even in the face of efforts by British authorities to reform it. Under the federation scheme, the princes held grave concerns about the future strength of the central government and the extent of its authority over the princely states that acceded to it. Thus the federation, controlled by the political parties within British India, would become an intermediary between the princely states and the British government and could infringe on their political autonomy and sovereignty.
This chapter outlines the constitutional debates about India’s political future during the 1940s and the debates between New Delhi and the India Office in London over how to handle the princely states amid broader political reforms in India, leading up to the Cabinet Mission in 1946 that outlined the basis of the British government’s policy for India. The Cabinet Mission essentially sidestepped the issue of the princely states, as the members of the Cabinet Mission hoped to avoid in any way committing the princes in advance to specific conditions under which they would join India’s constitution-making body, the Constituent Assembly. The chapter goes on to discuss developments with the princes as the British prepared their plans for withdrawing from the Subcontinent in 1947. Partition placed the princely states in an even more difficult position, especially those states with Muslim rulers and majority Hindu populations and vice versa, such as Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, and Bhopal. Their path remained uncertain, with opinions divided among both the British and the Indians. Some British officials even argued for a third path—the right to claim full independence following the lapse of paramountcy. Thus, this chapter provides an overview of British engagement on the issue of the princely states in the years leading up to the transfer of power.
The chapter details the efforts of Indian leaders to convince the princes to accede to the Indian Union, including the creation of the States Department under the leadership of Sardar Patel and V.P. Menon as the vehicle for engaging with the princely states. It outlines the various points of contention among the princely order in relation to issues of the princely states’ sovereignty and the clashes between both Congress leadership and the political groups representing the states’ subjects. The chapter demonstrates how the princes worked to preserve the layered sovereignty of British rule through the broader political changes during 1946 and 1947. It concludes with a discussion of princely opposition to accession through the spring and summer of 1947 as the princes sought to protect their sovereignty following the transfer of power, including the unsuccessful efforts of the Nawab of Bhopal and the Maharaja of Travancore to declare their independence.
This chapter provides a case study of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in northern India from the 1930s to the early 1950s. Among India’s princely states, the accession of Jammu and Kashmir presented one of the most strident and difficult situations, as well as one of the most well known, and served as a focal point in the enduring interstate rivalry between India and Pakistan. The chapter begins with a discussion of the tensions between the state’s Hindu Maharaja and his primarily Muslim subjects, and between the Kashmir government and Indian political leaders, underlying the state’s opposition to joining India. Following a discussion of the Maharaja’s attempts to assert Kashmir’s independence, the chapter discusses the tribal invasion of Kashmir from the neighboring North-West Frontier Province and its aftermath for the status of the princely states. The chapter concludes with a discussion of relations between Kashmir and New Delhi after the implementation of a ceasefire in early 1949 and the eruption of protests seeking to overturn Kashmir’s autonomy as enshrined in the Indian constitution.
This chapter provides a case study of the princely state of Hyderabad, over the central Deccan Plateau, from the 1930s to 1950. For just over a year, Hyderabad’s ruler, known as the Nizam, refused to sign the Instrument of Accession, remaining essentially an independent state in the heart of India until New Delhi resorted to military force to resolve the matter. Like the Kashmir chapter, the Hyderabad case study first outlines the tensions between Hyderabad’s Muslim Nizam and the state’s largely Hindu population and then discusses Hyderabad’s opposition to accession and its intention to remain an independent state. Given the Hindu majority among his subjects and their increased political activism against his rule, the Nizam feared the introduction of a democratic government under the Indian government would ultimately threaten his sovereignty and the privileged position of Muslims within the government. Following this, the chapter provides an overview of negotiations between authorities in New Delhi, who pushed for full accession and the assertion of the sovereignty of the Indian state, and Hyderabad, and the ultimate breakdown in the negotiations as both sides refused to compromise, with the Nizam under pressure from the state’s pro-independence Majlis-e-Ittihad-ul-Muslimeen. The chapter concludes with an overview of Operation Polo, the Indian military’s ‘police action’ against the Nizam’s government, and the resulting military administration put into place in Hyderabad following the military operation, which led to the state’s full integration into the Indian Union and the end of princely rule.
This chapter provides a case study of the princely state of Junagadh within the Kathiawar region of Gujarat on the Arabian coast. Before there was Kashmir, there was Junagadh. One month before Pashtun tribesmen crossed into Kashmir, the dispute over the minor princely state of Junagadh was already bringing India and Pakistan dangerously close to war and provoking serious disagreements within the Indian Cabinet that threatened to break it apart only weeks after the transfer of power. Even though Junagadh did not share a border with Pakistan, had a majority Hindu population and was surrounded by Indian territory, the state’s Nawab signed the Instrument of Accession for Pakistan to preserve his sovereignty and the privileged position of Muslims within the state. This chapter provides an overview of the negotiations through the autumn of 1947 between the Junagadh government and New Delhi, and the Indian government’s efforts to force the state government to accede to India, including the movement of the military into the region to force the hand of the Junagadh leadership, the activities of the Provisional Government of Junagadh representing the states’ subjects, and the eventual annexation of the state in November 1947.