Editing Princely state (section)

==Political integration of princely states==

In 1920, the Indian National Congress under the leadership of [[Mahatma Gandhi]] declared that attainment of ''swaraj'' for Indians was its goal. It asked "all the sovereign princes of India to establish full responsible government in their states". Gandhi assured the princes that the Congress would not intervene  in the princely states internal affairs .<ref name="Sisson Wolpert">{{cite book | last1=Sisson | first1=Richard | last2=Wolpert | first2=Stanley | title=Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-Independence Phase | publisher=University of California Press | year=2018 |isbn=978-0-520-30163-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=47jADwAAQBAJ&pg=PA381 | access-date=2023-08-14 | page=381}}</ref> Congress reiterated their demand at 1928 Calcutta Congress, "This Congress assures the people of the Indian States of its sympathy with and support in their legitimate and peaceful struggle for the attainment of full responsible government in the States."<ref name="o824">{{cite book | last=Purushotham | first=S. | title=From Raj to Republic: Sovereignty, Violence, and Democracy in India | publisher=Stanford University Press | series=South Asia in Motion | year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1455-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4lQMEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT40 | access-date=2024-08-11 | page=40}}</ref>

[[Jawaharlal Nehru]] as well as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played a major role in pushing Congress to confront the princely states.<ref name="o824"/> In his presidential address at Lahore session in 1929, [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] declared: "The Indian states cannot live apart from the rest of the (sic) India".<ref name="Phadnis">{{cite book | last=Phadnis | first=Urmila | title=Towards the Integration of Indian States, 1919-1947 | publisher=Asia Publishing House | series=Thesis Phil. Banaras Hindu University | year=1968 |isbn=978-0-210-31180-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mvYDAAAAMAAJ | access-date=2023-08-14 | page=90}}</ref> Nehru added he is "no believer in kings or princes" and that "the only people who have the right to determine the future of the States must be the people of these States. This Congress which claims self-determination cannot deny it to the people of the states."<ref name="o824"/>

After the Congress's electoral victory [[1937 Indian provincial elections| in 1937 elections]], protests, sometimes violent, and ''[[Satyagraha|satyagrahas]]'' against the princely states were organised and were supported by the Congress's ministries. Gandhi fasted in [[Rajkot State]] to demand "full responsible government" and added that "the people" were "the real rulers of Rajkot under the paramountcy of the Congress". Gandhi termed this protest as struggle against "the disciplined hordes of the British empire". Gandhi proclaimed that the Congress had now every right to intervene in "the states which are the vassals of the British".<ref name="o824"/> In 1937, Gandhi played a major role in formation of federation involving a union between British India and the princely states with an Indian central government.<ref name="Singh 2017">{{cite book | last=Singh | first=R. | title=Gandhi and the Nobel Peace Prize | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2017 |isbn=978-1-351-03612-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SitEDwAAQBAJ | access-date=2023-08-14 | page=4}}</ref>

In 1939, Nehru challenged the existence of the princely states and added that "the states in modern India are anachronistic and do not deserve to exist."<ref name="o824"/> In July 1946, Nehru pointedly observed that no princely state could prevail militarily against the army of independent India.<ref name="books.google.co.in"/>

[[Hindu Mahasabha]] took funding from the [[princely states]] and supported them to remain independent even after the [[independence of India]]. [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar|V. D. Savarkar]] particularly hailed the Hindu dominated states as the 'bedrock of Hindu power' and defended their despotic powers, referring to them as the 'citadels of organised Hindu power'. He particularly hailed the princely states such as [[Mysore State]], [[Travancore]], [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|Oudh]] and [[Baroda State]] as 'progressive Hindu states'.<ref name="c565">{{cite book | last=Bapu | first=P. | title=Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930: Constructing Nation and History | publisher=Routledge | series=Online access with subscription: Proquest Ebook Central | year=2013 |isbn=978-0-415-67165-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iUFalxUFFWkC&pg=PA32 | access-date=2024-10-12 | page=32-33}}</ref><ref name="w584">{{cite book | last=Chhibber | first=P.K. | last2=Verma | first2=R. | title=Ideology and Identity: The Changing Party Systems of India | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2018 |isbn=978-0-19-062390-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nJRqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT248 | access-date=2024-10-12 | page=248}}</ref>

The era of the princely states effectively ended with Indian independence in 1947; by 1950, almost all of the principalities had [[Instrument of Accession|acceded]] to either India or Pakistan.<ref>Ravi Kumar Pillai of Kandamath in the Journal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, pages 316–319 https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03068374.2016.1171621</ref> The accession process was largely peaceful, except in the cases of [[Jammu and Kashmir (princely state)|Jammu and Kashmir]] (whose ruler decided to accede to India following an [[First Kashmir War|invasion]] by Pakistan-based forces, resulting in a long-standing [[Kashmir dispute|dispute between the two countries]]),<ref>{{cite book|last=Bajwa|first=Kuldip Singh|title=Jammu and Kashmir War, 1947–1948: Political and Military Perspectiv|year=2003|publisher=Hari-Anand Publications Limited|location=New Delhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7bREjE5yXNMC&q=dogra+1948+tribal+pakistan+invasion&pg=PA21|isbn=978-81-241-0923-6}}</ref> [[Hyderabad State]] (whose ruler opted for independence in 1947, followed a year later by [[Annexation of Hyderabad|the invasion and annexation]] of the state by India), [[Junagarh (state)|Junagarh]] and its vassal [[Bantva Manavadar]] (whose rulers acceded to Pakistan, but were [[Annexation of Junagadh|annexed]] by India),<ref name="Pande2011">{{cite book|author=Aparna Pande|title=Explaining Pakistan's Foreign Policy: Escaping India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HPWrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT31|date=16 March 2011|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-136-81893-6|pages=31–}}</ref> and [[Khanate of Kalat|Kalat]] (whose ruler declared independence in 1947, followed in 1948 by the state's accession to Pakistan).<ref>{{citation |last=Jalal |first=Ayesha |author-link=Ayesha Jalal |title=The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87VnBAAAQBAJ |year=2014 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-74499-8 |ref={{sfnref|Jalal, Struggle for Pakistan|2014}} |page=72}}: "Equally notorious was his high-handed treatment of the state of Kalat, whose ruler was made to accede to Pakistan on threat of punitive military action."</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Samad |first1=Yunas |author-link=Yunas Samad |title=Understanding the insurgency in Balochistan |journal=Commonwealth & Comparative Politics |volume=52 |issue=2 |year=2014 |pages=293–320 |doi=10.1080/14662043.2014.894280 |s2cid=144156399 |ref={{sfnref|Samad, Understanding the insurgency in Balochistan|2014}}}}: "When Mir Ahmed Yar Khan dithered over acceding the Baloch-Brauhi confederacy to Pakistan in 1947 the centre's response was to initiate processes that would coerce the state joining Pakistan. By recognising the feudatory states of Las Bela, Kharan and the district of Mekran as independent states, which promptly merged with Pakistan, the State of Kalat became land locked and reduced to a fraction of its size. Thus Ahmed Yar Khan was forced to sign the instrument of accession on 27 March 1948, which immediately led to the brother of the Khan, Prince Abdul Karim raising the banner of revolt in July 1948, starting the first of the Baloch insurgencies."</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Harrison |first=Selig S. |author-link=Selig S. Harrison |title=In Afghanistan's Shadow: Baluch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LLnCAAAAIAAJ |year=1981 |publisher=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |isbn=978-0-87003-029-1 |ref={{sfnref|Selig Harrison, In Afghanistan's Shadow|1981}} |page=24}}: "Pakistani leaders summarily rejected this declaration, touching off a nine-month diplomatic tug of war that came to a climax in the forcible annexation of Kalat.... it is clear that Baluch leaders, including the Khan, were bitterly opposed to what happened."</ref>
===India===
{{Main|Political integration of India}}
At the time of [[Partition of India|Indian independence]] on 15 August 1947, India was divided into two sets of territories, the first being the territories of "[[British India]]", which were under the direct control of the [[India Office]] in London and the [[Governor-General of India|governor-general of India]], and the second being the "princely states", the territories over which [[the Crown]] had [[suzerainty]], but which were under the control of their hereditary rulers. In addition, there were several colonial enclaves controlled by France and Portugal. The integration of these territories into [[Dominion of India]], that had been created by the Indian Independence Act 1947 by the British Parliament, was a declared objective of the [[Indian National Congress]], which the [[Government of India]] pursued over the years 1947 to 1949. Through a combination of tactics, [[Sardar]] [[Vallabhbhai Patel]] and [[V. P. Menon]] in the months immediately preceding and following the independence convinced the rulers of almost all of the hundreds of princely states to accede to India. In a speech in January 1948, Vallabhbhai Patel said:

{{blockquote|As you are all aware, on the lapse of Paramountcy every Indian State became a separate independent entity and our first task of consolidating about 550 States was on the basis of accession to the Indian Dominion on three subjects. Barring Hyderabad and Junagadh all the states which are contiguous to India acceded to Indian Dominion. Subsequently, Kashmir also came in... Some Rulers who were quick to read the writing on the wall, gave responsible government to their people; Cochin being the most illustrious example. In Travancore, there was a short struggle, but there, too, the Ruler soon recognised the aspiration of his people and agreed to introduce a constitution in which all powers would be transferred to the people and he would function as a constitutional Ruler.<ref>R. P. Bhargava (1992) ''The Chamber of Princes'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=BAQgNE1uSEgC&pg=PA313 p. 313]</ref>}}

Although this process successfully integrated the vast majority of princely states into India, it was not as successful in relation to a few states, notably the former princely state of [[Kashmir and Jammu (princely state)|Kashmir]], whose Maharaja delayed signing the instrument of accession into India until his territories were under the threat of invasion by Pakistan, and the state of [[Hyderabad State|Hyderabad]], whose ruler decided to remain independent and was subsequently defeated by the [[Operation Polo]] invasion.

Having secured their accession, Sardar Patel and V. P. Menon then proceeded, in a step-by-step process, to secure and extend the central government's authority over these states and to transform their administrations until, by 1956, there was little difference between the territories that had formerly been part of British India and those that had been princely states. Simultaneously, the Government of India, through a combination of diplomatic and economic pressure, acquired control over most of the remaining European colonial exclaves on the subcontinent. Fed up with the protracted and stubborn resistance of the Portuguese government; in 1961 the [[Indian Army]] [[Annexation of Goa|invaded and annexed]] [[Portuguese India]].<ref>Praval, Major K.C. (2009). Indian Army after Independence. New Delhi: Lancer. p. 214. {{ISBN|978-1-935501-10-7}}.</ref> These territories, like the princely states, were also integrated into the Republic of India.

As the final step, in 1971, the 26th amendment<ref>{{Citation|url=http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/amend/amend26.htm|title=The Constitution (26 Amendment) Act, 1971|publisher=Government of India|work=indiacode.nic.in|year=1971|access-date=9 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111206041333/http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/amend/amend26.htm|archive-date=6 December 2011|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> to the [[Constitution of India]] withdrew recognition of the princes as rulers, took away their remaining privileges, and abolished the remuneration granted to them by [[Privy Purse in India|privy purses]].

As per the terms of accession, the erstwhile Indian princes received [[Privy Purse in India|privy purses]] (government allowances), and initially retained their statuses, privileges, and autonomy in internal matters during a transitional period which lasted until 1956. During this time, the former princely states were merged into unions, each of which was headed by a former ruling prince with the title of ''Rajpramukh'' (ruling chief), equivalent to a state governor.<ref>Wilhelm von Pochhammer, ''India's road to nationhood: a political history of the subcontinent'' (1982) ch 57</ref> In 1956, the position of ''Rajpramukh'' was abolished and the federations dissolved, the former principalities becoming part of Indian states. The states which acceded to Pakistan retained their status until the promulgation of a new constitution in 1956, when most became part of the province of [[West Pakistan]]; a few of the former states retained their autonomy until 1969 when they were fully integrated into Pakistan. The Indian government abolished the privy purses in 1971, followed by the government of Pakistan in 1972.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

In July 1946, [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] pointedly observed that no princely state could prevail militarily against the army of independent India.<ref name="books.google.co.in">{{Cite book|last1=Menon|first1=Shivshankar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eaWWDwAAQBAJ|title=India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present|date=20 April 2021|isbn=978-0-670-09129-4|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|pages=34}}</ref> In January 1947, Nehru said that independent India would not accept the [[divine right of kings]].<ref>Lumby, E. W. R. 1954. ''The Transfer of Power in India, 1945–1947''. London: [[George Allen and Unwin|George Allen & Unwin]]. p. 228</ref> In May, 1947, he declared that any princely state which refused to join the [[Constituent Assembly of India|Constituent Assembly]] would be treated as an enemy state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pib.gov.in/newsite/printrelease.aspx?relid=172053|title=Sardar Patel – Man who United India|date=30 October 2017|first=Aaditya|last=Tiwari|website=Press Information Bureau }}</ref> There were officially 565 princely states when India and Pakistan became independent in 1947, but the great majority had contracted with the British [[Governor-General of India|
viceroy]] to provide public services and tax collection. Only 21 had actual state governments, and only four were large ([[Hyderabad State]], [[Kingdom of Mysore|Mysore State]], [[Jammu and Kashmir (princely state)|Jammu and Kashmir State]], and [[Baroda State]]). They [[Instrument of accession|acceded]] to one of the two new independent countries between 1947 and 1949. All the princes were eventually pensioned off.<ref>Wilhelm von Pochhammer, ''India's road to nationhood: a political history of the subcontinent'' (1981) ch 57</ref>

===Pakistan===
{{Main|Princely states of Pakistan}}
During the period of the [[British Raj]], there were four princely states in Balochistan: [[Makran (princely state)|Makran]], [[Kharan (princely state)|Kharan]], [[Las Bela (princely state)|Las Bela]] and [[Kalat (princely state)|Kalat]]. The first three acceded to Pakistan.<ref name="CheemaRiemer1990">{{cite book|author1=Pervaiz I Cheema|author2=Manuel Riemer|title=Pakistan's Defence Policy 1947–58|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CX6xCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA60|date=22 August 1990|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-349-20942-2|pages=60–}}</ref><ref name="Siddiqi2012">{{cite book|author=Farhan Hanif Siddiqi|title=The Politics of Ethnicity in Pakistan: The Baloch, Sindhi and Mohajir Ethnic Movements|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tDb6i9x1FKgC&pg=PA71|year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-68614-3|pages=71–}}</ref><ref name="Paul2014">{{cite book|author=T.V. Paul|title=The Warrior State: Pakistan in the Contemporary World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IYBeAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA133|date=February 2014|publisher=OUP USA|isbn=978-0-19-932223-7|pages=133–}}</ref><ref name="LongSingh2015">{{citation |last=Bangash |first=Y. K. |chapter=Constructing the state: Constitutional integration of the princely states of Pakistan |editor1=Roger D. Long |editor2=Gurharpal Singh |editor3=Yunas Samad |editor4=Ian Talbot |title=State and Nation-Building in Pakistan: Beyond Islam and Security |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nzivCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA81 |year=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-44820-4 |pages=82–}}</ref> However, the ruler of the fourth princely state, the [[Khan of Kalat]] [[Ahmad Yar Khan]], declared Kalat's independence as this was one of the options given to all princely states.<ref name="Schmidle2010">{{cite book|author=Nicholas Schmidle|title=To Live or to Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LayUUE4KNtwC&pg=PA86|date=2 March 2010|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|isbn=978-1-4299-8590-1|pages=86–}}</ref> The state remained independent until it was acceded on 27 March 1948. The signing of the Instrument of Accession by Ahmad Yar Khan, led his brother, [[Prince Abdul Karim]], to revolt against his brother's decision in July 1948, causing an [[Balochistan conflict|ongoing and still unresolved insurgency]].<ref name="Hasnat2011">{{cite book|author=Syed Farooq Hasnat|title=Global Security Watch—Pakistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KiELa2EoA04C&pg=PA94|date=26 May 2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-34698-9|pages=94–}}</ref>

[[Bahawalpur (princely state)|Bahawalpur]] from the Punjab Agency joined Pakistan on 5 October 1947. The princely states of the [[North-West Frontier States Agency|North-West Frontier States Agencies]]. included the Dir Swat and Chitral Agency and the Deputy Commissioner of Hazara acting as the Political Agent for Amb and Phulra. These states joined Pakistan on independence from the British.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}