Junagadh 1947

Abstract

The edifice of the Raj in India rested on two pillars: the provinces directly ruled by the British and the indirectly ruled princely states. The political relationship between the British and the states can be traced back to the mid-eighteenth century when the East India Company began establishing diplomatic relations with Indian kingdoms. By the 1850s most of the major kingdoms were linked to the Company by treaty but were not subsumed within the colonial bloc. More important, by this time the central elements of what came to be known as “paramountcy” were in place. A vague and ill-defined term, paramountcy included among other things a system of British “Residents” in princely states, control over the states’ foreign affairs, and the regulation of succession within such states. In 1947 there were around 600 states of varying importance, ranging from Kashmir and Hyderabad, which rivalled France in area and population, to principalities of just a few villages. Between them the states accounted for two-fifths of the area and a third of the population of the empire in India. The fate of the princely states thus held momentous consequences for the subcontinent once the British decided to quit.¹