At the time of Indian independence in 1947, India was divided into two sets of territories, one under direct British rule, and the other under the suzerainty of the British Crown. The latter included 562 princely states, having different types of revenue sharing arrangements with the British, often depending on their size, population and local conditions. In addition, there were several colonial enclaves controlled by France and Portugal. The political integration of these territories into India was a declared objective of the Indian National Congress.
About Political integration of India in brief
At the time of Indian independence in 1947, India was divided into two sets of territories, one under direct British rule, and the other under the suzerainty of the British Crown. The latter included 562 princely states, having different types of revenue sharing arrangements with the British, often depending on their size, population and local conditions. In addition, there were several colonial enclaves controlled by France and Portugal. The political integration of these territories into India was a declared objective of the Indian National Congress. Through a combination of factors, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and V. P. Menon convinced the rulers of the various princely state to accede to India. The British took the view that because they had been established directly by the British crown, they could not be transferred to the newly dominions. Early plans for the transfer of power were produced by the Cripps government, which offered the states freedom to negotiate with the new states of India and Pakistan. But the British government decided that all treaties between them and the princely. states, would come to an end upon the British departure from India. This meant that all rights flowing from the states’ relationship with the. British crown would return to the crown, leaving them free to negotiate relationships with new. states. The plans were produced as a result of the offer of freedom to the states, which was rejected by the government of India as being too costly. The plan was eventually abandoned in 1939 as a consequence of the outbreak of the Second World War, but it still continues to exist in Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur.
While insurgency in Tripura has been neutralized today, it still still continues in J Kashmir and Tripura, where active secessionist separatist insurgencies continued to exist due to various reasons. Although this process successfully integrated the vast majority of princeley states into India, it was not as successful for a few, notably the former princelyStates of Jammu. and Kashmir, Tripura and Manipuri. In 1858, the policy of annexation was formally renounced, and British relations with the remainingPrincely states thereafter were based on subsidiary alliances, whereby the British exercised paramountcy over all princely States. The exact relations between the British and each princelyState were regulated by individual treaties and varied widely, with some states having complete internal self-government, others being subject to significant control in their internal affairs, and some rulers being in effect little more than the owners of landed estates, with little autonomy. In the 1940s the relationship between the crown and the states remained regulated by the principle of paramountcy and by the various treaties between theBritish crown and Princely states. Simultaneously, the Government of India acquired de facto and de jure control over the remainingcolonial enclaves, which too were integrated into India. In 1956, by 1956, there was little difference between the territories that had been part of British India and those that had had been princelystates.
You want to know more about Political integration of India?
This page is based on the article Political integration of India published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
