Princely States #1: VP Menon's Idea

Partition eventually produced India and Pakistan (East and West). But for a while, a 3rd group existed in parallel – the princely states, writes Sam Dalrymple in Shattered Lands. The British even considered handing power separately to the provincial governments (they were honest in its name – Plan Balkan). How large a part of India were these princely states? This map is worth a thousand words (BROWN = India; GREEN = Pakistan; WHITE = “independent” princely states)


 

Nehru was apoplectic at the idea. So Mountbatten turned to the most competent civil servant in his staff, VP Menon, and gave him a single night to come up with an alternative proposal. Menon came up with the idea that each of the 565 princely states would have to pick a side; they couldn’t say “None of the above” (not just for independence. The kingdom of Dir, for example, considered joining Afghanistan!).

 

A senior political advisor to Mountbatten, Conrad Corfield didn’t agree – he wanted the princely states to be made independent as they were Britain’s “age-old allies”. Not surprisingly, the Congress considered Corfield as the obstacle to integrating the princely states. Menon declared any princely state that refused to pick a country would be treated as a hostile state, the threat left implied. While the entire idea was Menon’s, he was willing to stoke Mountbatten’s ego to push it through, even allowing Mountbatten to claim credit for avoiding the Balkanization of India.

“Mountbatten was no republican, yet he had just set in motion one of the great revolutions in world history. From this moment on Menon and Patel would use faith, fortune and occasional force to corral over 550 states into relinquishing their sovereignty.”

Another reason why the princes caved in was the fear of a communist revolution.

 

A princely state could, practically speaking, only join a country if it was contiguous to that country. Hence, Menon and Patel wanted to “ensure a wall of states from Punjab in the north down to Gujarat in the south”. To that effect, they got Bikaner to join India. The rulers of Jodhpur and Jaisalmer met Jinnah, who offered a blank check if they joined Pakistan. Jodhpur almost signed and was dissuaded only when the prince spoke to his mother and his guru. Jaisalmer had decided to follow Jodhpur’s choice either way (Today, few know how close the Golden City and the Blue City came to joining Pakistan).

 

Only 136 of the 550 odd princely states had acceded to India or Pakistan by independence. Thus, technically, when the British left India, they didn’t create 2 countries, but 300+ independent states.

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