Integration Of Princely States

Introduction:

The government of India was not in favour of having independent states within the nation as it would hamper the security of the nation as a whole. The British ruled over the Princely states for a long time and forcibly grabbed the states. At the time of independence, the time of the British withdrawal, they left a choice between Pakistan and India. As there are approximately more than 565 princely states, it was quite tough to control all the states individually. At that time, in 1947 the freedom fighter of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, proposed favorable terms for the merger and went to the princely states that were not willing to join the union with army forces and agreed to join India. 

Discussion:

Integration of Princely States:

The Indian states that are ruled by princes separately i.e. princely states are grabbed by the British forcefully into the provinces which constituted their “Empire of India”, this is the first policy of annexation. The second policy was the policy of indirect rule, here the British assumed “Paramountcy” on the princely states. 

As per the Indian Independence Act of 1947, princely states are given an option. Those are either joined with the two newly born dominions India or Pakistan or continue as independent states. On that point, more of the 500 princely states already constituted 28% of its population with pre independent India and covered approx 48% area of the pre independent India. These princely states are not legally part of British India.The Travancore the Southern Indian maritime state was rich in “human and mineral resources”. In 1946, the Dewan, Sir C.P. Ramamswamy Aiyar of Travancore, decided to form an independent state as it has a huge resources of human and mineral and secretly had a relationship with the UK government. But in further days, due to some conflict, in 1947, on 30th of July, Travancore had joined with the India Union. 

“Kashmir” was the princely state, where hindu king was ruling over the muslim population which means the state can join with any of India or Pakistan. The ruler of Kashmir, “Maharaja Hari Singh” was offered by both India and Pakistan a standstill agreement. In 1954, the president subsequently issued an order of constitution under“Article 370”. As per the “Section 3” the “Jammu & Kashmir” is a part of the Union of India. Within days, Hyderabad, Bhopal along with 565 states were merged with the Union of India. 

Role of sardar patel in integration of princely states:

India’s first deputy prime minister and the home minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was given the formidable task with the secretary of the ministry of the states, V.P menon, to integrate the princely states. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel kept trying to convince the princely states to join India. At that time, he also introduced a new concept that is “Privy Purses”. As per that concept, the royal families of the states will be provided a huge amount of payment through an agreement to merge with India. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel took many positive steps to merge the princely states with the Union of India. 

States such as Bikaner, Baroda and few more states of Rajasthan decided to join the Union and they are the first ones. On the other hand, there were several more states who wanted to join with Pakistan and some other states wanted to live as independent states. This way some princely states become part of Pakistan. 

The “Rajput” princely state i.e. “Jodhpur ”, had a Hindu king and a large Hindu population. But the strange thing is, the state is leaning towards Pakistan. The Jinnah of Pakistan gifted the prince of Jodhpur, “Hanvant Singh”, a signed blank check. He also offered him access to the “Karachi Port”. Seeing that, the Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel immediately offered a sufficient amount with sufficient benefits to the king of “Jodhpur”- “Hanvant Singh”.  Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel gave the most effort to merge the “Jodhpur” state with India. As the “Kathiawar rail” is connected with “Jodhpur” and India would supply different grains at the time of famines through that way, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel did not want to lose the state. 

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel worked effortlessly to integrate the princely states with the Union of India that gave the country huge assets as most countries hold a huge amount of wealth. Along with that many of the states were involved with many of the vital works such as trending, import, export of India. 

Conclusion:

The above discussion has shown the conditions of princely states during the independence and the prices view to join India. Many of the princely states had joined Pakistan and more states were merged with India. The role of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to integrate the princely states with India is remarkable. He has done a great job towards India by collaging some of the vital states with India, 565 states had joined with India. The overall discussion disclosed the contribution of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to make India bigger by size, wealth and human resources.