Stitching a Nation Together: The Integration of the Princely States

When Britain left, it did not hand over one country. British India, governed directly, was one part. The rest was a patchwork of more than 560 princely states, from Hyderabad and Kashmir, each larger than many European countries, to estates of a few villages. Together they covered about two-fifths of the land.

The problem

Under the Indian Independence Act 1947, British paramountcy over the princes lapsed. In law, each ruler could join India, join Pakistan or claim independence. Had even a few chosen the last option, India would have been riddled with foreign enclaves.

Patel and Menon

The task fell to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Home Minister and head of the new States Department, and his secretary, V. P. Menon. Their instrument was the Instrument of Accession: a ruler ceded only three subjects, defence, external affairs and communications, and kept everything else. It was a generous offer, made with a deadline, and backed by the plain fact that the princes' own subjects wanted to be part of free India.

By 15 August 1947 almost every state inside India's borders had acceded. Menon then negotiated a second round of agreements merging the smaller states into provinces or into new unions of states, with the rulers compensated by privy purses.

The hard cases

• Junagadh, a Hindu-majority state in Kathiawar, acceded to Pakistan. Its people revolted, the Nawab fled, and a plebiscite in February 1948 voted overwhelmingly for India.
• Jammu and Kashmir: Maharaja Hari Singh hesitated. When tribal raiders from Pakistan invaded in October 1947, he signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947, and Indian troops were flown to Srinagar.
• Hyderabad, the largest and richest state, sought independence under the Nizam while the Razakar militia terrorised the population. In September 1948 the Indian Army moved in, in an operation codenamed Operation Polo, and the state acceded within days.

After integration: the linguistic states

Integration settled the borders. Reorganising what lay inside them came next. Demands grew for states drawn on the basis of language. In December 1952 Potti Sriramulu died after a fast of fifty-eight days for a Telugu-speaking state, and Andhra State was created in 1953. The States Reorganisation Commission followed, and the States Reorganisation Act 1956 redrew the map largely on linguistic lines. The privy purses paid to former rulers were abolished by the Twenty-sixth Amendment in 1971.

The lesson

Patel's achievement is usually told as a story of iron will. It was also one of careful drafting, of limited demands made first and generous terms kept. Unity was secured mostly by agreement, backed by force only where agreement failed. The Statue of Unity in Gujarat, the tallest statue in the world, stands in his honour.