Evolution of British Policy Towards the Indian States, 1740-1935

At a Glance

• States 562 states, 7,12,508 square miles
• Stages Equality, ring fence, subordinate isolation, subordinate union, equal federation
• Chamber of Princes Narendra Mandal, set up after the Montford Reforms
• Butler Committee 1927; paramountcy left undefined
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Modern History: Independence and the New-Born Nation

Where Does It Fit?

This is the seventh topic of the category on independence and the new-born nation. The previous topic covered the Communists and independence. This topic traces British policy towards the Indian states up to 1935. The next topic covers the integration of the states in 1947-49. Previous topic: Communists and Independence.

What Were the Indian States?

The princely states, also called the Indian states, covered 7,12,508 square miles and numbered no fewer than 562. They ranged from tiny states such as Bilbari, with a population of 27 persons, to large ones such as Hyderabad, as large as Italy, with 14 million people. In the process of conquest the East India Company acquired the coastal tracts, the valleys of the great navigable rivers and other rich and densely populated areas, while the Indian states were generally the inaccessible and less fertile tracts of the peninsula. The making of the states was governed by the same circumstances that raised the Company’s power, and the relations can be traced in broad stages. The wider conquest is in Three Stages of Colonialism in India, and the British policy in the nineteenth century is in British Policy Towards Princely States and Foreign Policy.

How Did the Policy Evolve From 1740 to 1857?

The conquests of the first two stages are in First and Second Carnatic Wars and in Subsidiary Alliance. The annexations are in Doctrine of Lapse.

What Was the Policy of Subordinate Union After 1857?

In 1858 the Crown assumed direct responsibility. Because of the states’ loyalty in the revolt of 1857 and their potential use as breakwaters in future political storms, annexation was abandoned and the new policy was to punish or depose but not to annex. The fiction of authority of the Mughal emperor ended, and sanction for succession was required from the Crown, so a ruler held the gaddi not as a right but as a gift of the paramount power. The Queen’s adoption of the title Kaiser-i-Hind ended the fiction that the states stood on a footing of equality with the Crown. The British claimed a right to interfere in internal affairs, partly in the interest of princes, partly of the people’s welfare, partly to protect British subjects and foreigners, and partly in the interest of India as a whole. Railways, roads, the telegraph, canals, post offices, the press and public opinion helped the encroachment. The Government of India controlled international affairs completely, and the Butler Commission of 1927 observed that, for international relations, state territory was in the same position as British territory. The background is in Consequences and Significance of the Revolt.

Curzon stretched the interpretation of old treaties to make the princes, as servants of the people, work side by side with the Governor-General. His approach was patronage with intrusive surveillance. He described the relationship as neither feudal nor federal but a series of relations that had grown under different historical conditions and gradually conformed to a single line. The trend reduced all states to one type, uniformly dependent on the British Government. After 1905 the policy turned to cordial cooperation, to counter progressive and revolutionary developments in the face of large-scale unrest.

What Were the Chamber of Princes and the Butler Committee?

On the Montford recommendations, a Chamber of Princes (Narendra Mandal) was set up in 1921 as a consultative and advisory body with no say in the internal affairs of individual states and no power to discuss existing rights. The states were divided into three categories: 109 directly represented, 127 represented through representatives, and the rest recognised as feudal holdings or jagirs. The Montford scheme is in Montford Reforms (see Constitutional Development 1861-1935: Councils Acts to the Government of India Act).

The question of how far sovereignty and paramountcy extended remained undefined, so the Butler Committee of 1927 was set up to examine the relationship between the states and the government. It recommended that paramountcy must remain supreme and adapt itself to the shifting needs of time and the progress of the states, and that states should not be handed over to an Indian government in British India, responsible to an Indian legislature, without their consent. Paramountcy was thus left undefined, a creature that fed on usage, the Crown’s prerogative and the princes’ implied consent.

What Was the Plan of an Equal Federation?

The Government of India Act of 1935 proposed an all-India federation with 125 of 375 seats in the Federal Assembly and 104 of 160 seats in the Council of States for the princes. It was to come into being only if states representing more than half of the population and entitled to more than half of the seats in the Council of States ratified it. The scheme never came into existence and was dropped altogether after the outbreak of the war in September 1939. The Act is in Nationalist Response to the Government of India Act, 1935. As an analytical point, the whole series of policies kept the states as separate units under the Crown and not under the government of British India, and that choice is the reason why their entry into the Indian Union in 1947 had to be settled by negotiation, as described in Integration of the Indian States, 1947-49.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Stages of policy Names and dates of the stages are Prelims facts
• Paramountcy Concept at the centre of the 1947 problem
• Chamber of Princes and Butler Committee Frequent questions

What Came Next?

The next topic covers the integration of the princely states into the Indian Union in 1947-49. Next topic: Integration of the Indian States, 1947-49.

Key People and Terms

• Paramountcy The Crown’s supremacy over the states
• Ring fence Policy of buffer zones, 1765-1813
• Subsidiary alliance Wellesley’s system of dependence
• Chamber of Princes Advisory body set up in 1921
• Butler Committee 1927 body on the relation with the states
• Kaiser-i-Hind Queen Victoria’s title as Empress of India

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask about the logic of British policy. These points add depth.

• Stages Five phases
• Doctrine Paramountcy and its limits
• Result Separate treatment of the states