Ministry of States, Government of India

“ It is a plain fact that an India broken into hundreds of independent entities would have inevitably lapsed speedily into a state of chaos. An India hopelessly divided against herself could in no way discharge the responsibilities which her strategic position no less than her moral heritage imposed on her. Far from being a stabilising factor such an India would have only proved a menace to world peace. ”

“ If nothing can be put in its place, only chaos can result, and that chaos, I submit, will hurt the States first—the bigger the State the less the hurt and the longer it will take to feel it—but even the biggest of the States will feel itself hurt just the same as any small State. The first step was to set up some machinery by which it was possible to put the two future Governments of India—the Dominions of India and Pakistan—into direct touch with the States. ”

“ Where, on account of smallness of its size, isolation of its situation, the inseparable link with a neighbouring autonomous territory, be it a Province or a bigger State, in practically all economic matters of every-day life, the inadequacy of resources to open up its economic potentialities, the backwardness of its people and the sheer incapacity to shoulder a self-contained administration, a State is unable to afford a modern system of government both democratisation and integration are clearly and unmistakably indicated. ”

“ So effective was the enforcement of the Pax Britannica, and so abrupt its effect that, guarded against the normal evolutionary and revolutionary processes, the States assumed in the first quarter of the 19th century the "appearance of a sea suddenly petrified in a condition of stormy unrest and disquietude". Firmly set under the external pressure of a resourceful foreign power, the monarchical system in India, which was as old as India's history itself, shifted from its traditional moral plane and lost its own innate strength. ”

“ Now, the Indian Independence Act releases the States from all their obligations to the Crown. The States have complete freedom—technically and legally they are independent. Presently I will discuss the degree of independence which we ourselves feel is best in the interests of your own States. But there has grown up during the period of British administration, owing to the fact that the Crown Representative and the Viceroy are one and the same person, a system of co-ordinated administration on all matters of common concern which meant that the sub-continent of India acted as an economic entity. ”

“ I have no doubt that this is in the best interests of the States, and every wise Ruler and wise Government would desire to link up with the great Dominion of India on a basis which leaves you great internal autonomy and which at the same time gets rid of your worries and cares over External Affairs, Defence and Communications.
The whole country is passing through a critical period. ”

“ On the evils of the Subsidiary System, Thomas Munroe wrote as follows:—
"It is the natural tendency to render the Government of every country in which it exists, weak and too oppressive; to extinguish all honourable spirit amongst higher classes of society, to degrade and impoverish the whole people. The usual remedy of a bad Government in India is a quiet revolution in the palace, or a violent one by rebellion. ”

“ In order to view the payments guaranteed by us in their correct perspective, we have to remember that they are linked with the momentous developments affecting the most vital interests of this country. These guarantees form part of the historic settlements which enshrine in them the consummation of the great ideal of geographical, political and economic unification of India, an ideal which for centuries remained a distant dream and which appeared as remote and as difficult of attainment as ever even after the advent of Indian independence.
Human memory is proverbially short. ”

“ In a democratic federal State, the fundamental rights of the citizens of one constituent unit cannot vary vis-a-vis citizens of another unit. In a people's polity there is no scope for variegated constitutional patterns or disparities as between one federating unit and another. The legislative and executive authority of the Union in respect of the States will, therefore, be co-extensive with its similar authority in and over the Provinces. ”

“ For a large number of States, owing to their slender resources, an organised judiciary was a luxury, which they could not afford. Thus for instance, if the Ruler of a State with a population of little more than 600 individuals and an annual income of less than Rs. 2,000 enjoyed full judicial powers, subject only to confirmation of capital sentences by the Resident and, in consequence, concentrated in himself all original, appellate and revisional jurisdiction over his subjects, the system which sustained such an untenable set-up, rather than the Ruler concerned, was at fault. ”

“ Almost over-night we have introduced in these States the superstructure of a modern system of government. The inspiration and stimulus has come from above rather than from below and unless the transplanted growth takes a healthy root in the soil, there would be a danger of collapse and chaos. I should like those over-enthusiasts who feel that the problem of the States has been solved or who are impatient of further advance calmly to reflect on this true picture that I have given here of the problem as it exists. It will be folly to ignore realities ”

“ I hope the Indian States will bear in mind that the alternative to co-operation in the general interest is anarchy and chaos which will overwhelm great and small in a common ruin if we are unable to act together in the minimum of common tasks. Let not the future generation curse us for having had the opportunity but failed to turn it to our mutual advantage. ”

“ I suggest that it is therefore better for us to make laws sitting together as friends than to make treaties as aliens. I invite my friends, the Rulers of States and their people to the Councils of Constituent Assembly in this spirit of friendliness and co-operation in a joint endeavour, inspired by common allegiance to our motherland for the common good of us all. ”

“ The question of evolving suitable arrangements for the governance of the Unions which would ensure that new Unions make up quickly the leeway of ages and become within a short period full-fledged constituent units of the Indian Union has, therefore, been one to which the Government of India have given their most anxious consideration. Clearly, such administrative organisations and political institutions as are to be found in the Unions cannot be expected to shoulder these great responsibilities. ”

“ In so far as paramountcy embodied the submission of States to foreign will, I have every sympathy with this demand, but I do not think it can be their desire to utilise this freedom from domination in a manner which is injurious to the common interests of India or which militates against the ultimate paramountcy of popular interests and welfare or which might result in the abandonment of that mutually useful relationship that has developed between British India and Indian States during the last century. ”

“ Apart from this central problem of federal finance in relation to the future Constitution of India, in which it was hoped that the States and Unions would occupy precisely the same position as Provinces, there was the further need, on purely economic and fiscal grounds, to bring about uniformity in the structure and administration of federal finance throughout the country, without which the unity of India would be altogether incomplete and any co-ordinated progress in the economic sphere impracticable. ”

“ We have to weave new fabrics into old materials; we have to make sure that simultaneously the old and the new are integrated into a pleasing whole—a design which would fit well into the pattern of all India. You will appreciate the immensity and complexity of the task if you bear in mind that in many States even the rudiments of administrative machinery did not and do not exist; in a large number even local self-governing institutions were either conspicuous by their absence or still in a stage of infancy; popular organisations did not have such far-flung roots as in the rest of the country. ”

“ But an agent cannot act when his interest may conflict with his duty. In all matters of common concern with the States—customs, railways, ports, the salt monopoly, etc.—there is always the possibility that the interest of British India may not be identical with the interest of a particular State. The Crown's duty is, or may be, to safeguard the interest of the State particularly in case of a minority administration. ”

“ The result is, in most of the States, a chronic anarchy, under which the revenues of the States are dissipated between the mercenaries of the camp and the minions of the Court. The heavy and arbitrary taxes levied on the miserable raiyats serve only to feed the meanest and the most degraded of mankind. The theory seams in fact admitted that the Government is not for the people but the people for the King, and that so long as we secure the King, his sinecure royalty, we discharge all the duty that we, as Sovereigns of India, owe to his subjects who are virtually ours". ”

“ So rapid has been the process of sitting the States in the new mould that the framers of the new Constitution were constantly outpaced by the events in States and it became necessary to table, right at the very final phase of the Constitution-making, a whole set of amendments which radically altered the position of the States under the new Constitution. ”

“ The Purna Swaraj or complete Independence, which is the objective of the Congress, is for the whole of India, inclusive of the States, for the integrity and unity of India must be maintained in freedom as it has been maintained in subjection. The only kind of Federation that can be acceptable to the Congress is one in which the States participate as free units, enjoying the same measure of democratic freedom as the rest: of India'. ”

“ They may well claim to be co-architects in building a free and democratic India in which the people of the Provinces and the people of the States will enjoy alike the full measure of freedom and march together as citizens of free India. ”

“ Finally Lord Reading formally laid to rest all talks about the Crown's relationship with the States being governed by treaties. "They construed" writes Westlake, "a treaty not by its bare words but as necessarily reserving the right of the Paramount Power to follow its known principles of action". When once the principle was enunciated that the political system of India did not rest upon treaties, it was easy for the political officers so to extend the tentacles of paramountcy as to envelope the entire structure of the States. ”

“ These commitments had to be borne in mind when the States Ministry approached the Rulers for the integration of their States. There was nothing to compel or induce the Rulers to merge the identity of their States. Any use of force would have not only been against our professed principles but would have also caused serious repercussions. If the Rulers had elected to stay out, they would have continued to draw the heavy Civil Lists which they were drawing before and in a large number of cases they could have continued to enjoy unrestricted use of the States revenues. ”

“ The inspiration and urge for the expeditious completion of the processes of integration and democratisation come from the people of India as a whole, and the Central Government, as the instrument of the will of the people of India, cannot escape the obligation to ensure that these processes are completed with the utmost possible speed and efficiency. ”

“ The progress made in the direction of administrative unification of India rendered it possible to deal with the problem of the territorial enclaves. The existence of numerous small enclaves of States in Provincial territories and vice versa and of one State in the other, led to serious administrative difficulties specially in regard to the maintenance of law and order and the administration of various control measures in force in the Provinces and States concerned. ”

“ To the Princes much of the essence of Federation appeared to turn out to be the negation of all to which they had been accustomed. Their approach to the problem was governed by the view that their accession to Federation involved a process of levelling down so far as their internal sovereignty was concerned, as against the Provinces which were to be levelled up as autonomous units and that, therefore, the Provinces and States could not be treated alike. ”

“ When a new fully self-governing or independent Government or Governments come into being in British India, His Majesty's Government's influence with these Governments will not be such as to enable them to carry out the obligations of paramountcy. Moreover they cannot contemplate that British troops would be retained in India for this purpose. Thus as a logical sequence and in view of the desires expressed to them on behalf of the Indian States, His Majesty's Government will cease to exercise the powers of paramountcy. ”