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Rajpramukh

Rajpramukhwas an administrative title inIndiawhich existed from India'sindependencein 1947 until 1956. Rajpramukhs were the appointed governors of certain Indian provinces andstates.

Gopalaswami Ayyangar, Minister for States, Addressing the Rajpramukhs' Conference in New Delhi on 16 March 1952.

Background

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TheBritish Indian Empire,which included most of present-dayIndia,Pakistan,andBangladesh,was made up of two types of political units.British Indiaconsisted of fifteen provinces, allBritish possessions,ruled directly by the British in all respects, either through a governor or a chief commissioner, officials appointed by the viceroy. Existing alongside British India were a large number ofprincely states,ruled by local hereditary rulers, who acknowledged Britishsuzerainty,including British control of their external affairs, but who retained local autonomy. At the time of the proclamation ofQueen VictoriaasEmpress of Indiain 1875, more than 700 Indian princely states and territories enjoyed treaty relations with the British Crown. The exact relationship between the Government of India (controlled by the British) and these states varied enormously, ranging from treaties of alliance, defence, protection, or supervision to almost outright control. The British Crown assumed control of British India from theEast India Companyin 1857 and thereafter controlled the internal governance through aSecretary of State for IndiainLondonand a Viceroy in India.

The hundreds of princely states varied greatly in size, fromHyderabad,with a population of over ten million, to tiny states. Most of the rulers of the princely states worked closely with a British political agent who was responsible to the governor of a British province, but the four largest princely states, Hyderabad,Baroda,Mysore,andJammu and Kashmir,had Residents directly under the authority of the viceroy. Two agencies, theCentral India AgencyandRajputana Agency,were made up of numerous princely states, and their political agents were appointed by the Viceroy.

After independence under the Dominion of India, 1947–1950

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See also:Political integration of India,Annexation of Junagadh,andAnnexation of Hyderabad

On 20 February 1947, the British government announced its intention to transfer power in British India to Indian hands by June 1948. However by 16 May 1947, theCabinet Mission Planhad failed to evolve a constitution for India acceptable to all contending parties. Subsequently, the British government announced on 3 June 1947 its intention topartition British Indiainto two dominions. On 15 July 1947, the House of Commons passed theIndian Independence Act 1947,to divide British India into the dominions ofIndiaandPakistan.The House of Lords followed suit the next day. The Bill received the Royal assent on 18 July 1947. From this day thesuzeraintyof the British Crown over the Indian princely states lapsed as per 7(b) of the India Independence Act 1947, and with it all treaties between the British Crown and the Indian states also had a legal quietus. The rulers of the Indian States became sovereign rulers from 18 July 1947, and in principle they were free to accede to either of the two dominions or to remain independent. As per the provisions of the Act, on 15 August 1947 two independent dominions of India and Pakistan were established. The leaders in the Indian Independence movement put strong pressure on the Indian princes to accede their states to the Dominion of India. By 15 August 1947, virtually all of the rulers had signed anInstrument of Accessionwith theGovernor-General of India,giving power to the dominion government to make laws on the three subjects of foreign policy, communication and defence, and otherwise they remained sovereign rulers. These rulers also signed another agreement known as the "Stand Still Agreement", to provide continuity to any existing agreements between British India and their States.

Three Indian states namelyHyderabad,Jammu and Kashmir,andJunagadh,failed to accede to either of the dominions. Jammu together with parts of Kashmir was incorporated into India after the MaharajaHari Singhwas forced to seek Indian military intervention against the marauding Pakistani sponsored tribal lords (Afridis). In time, the two remaining states of Hyderabad and Junagadh were invaded and annexed by India.

In 1948 the Maharaja ofGwaliorsigned a covenant with the rulers of the adjoining princely states to form a new state known asMadhya Bharat.This new covenanting state was to be governed by a council of the rulers with a head known as Rajpramukh. This new state signed a fresh Instrument of Accession with the Indian dominion. Subsequently, many other Indian states merged with their neighbouring Indian states on the same lines to form the covenanting states known asVindhya Pradesh,Patiala and East Punjab States Union(PEPSU),Rajputana,etc.

Rajpramukhs in the Republic of India, 1950–1956

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In the intervening period the Dominion Government of India had set up a Constitution Assembly to formulate a new Constitution for India. Simultaneously each of the independent Indian rulers and Rajpramukhs of covenanting states had set up Constituent Assemblies for their respective states and also sent their representatives to the Constituent Assembly of India so as to make uniform laws for their respective states. The thinking among Indian leaders at that time was that each princely state or covenanting state would remain independent as a Federal state along the lines suggested originally by the 1935 Act. But as the drafting of the constitution progressed and the idea of forming a republic took concrete shape, it was decided that all the princely states/covenanting states would merge with theRepublic of India,and all the Maharajas would be provided with aPrivy Purseand privileges as enjoyed by them on 15 August 1947 by constitutional guarantees. Hence Art. 294, Art 362, Art 366, Art 363 were incorporated. Besides it was also decided that theMaharaja of Mysore,theMaharaja of Jammu & Kashmir,theNizam of Hyderabad,and the Rajpramukhs of the covenanting states would continue to be the constitutional heads of their respective states. By 26 October 1949, the constituent assembly had finalised a new constitution for India and all the accedingIndian princely statesand the covenanting states merged with the new Republic of India. In accordance with constitutional provisions all the Maharajas entered into another agreement with the Governor-General of India to provide for the specific privy purse amount, the right to their personal properties (as distinct from state properties), and the right to succession in accordance with the practice in their territories. These agreements were entered into before 26 January 1950 so as to bring them within the ambit of Art. 363. On 26 January 1950, India became a republic. The new constitution created four types of administrative divisions in India: nine Part A states, the former British provinces, which were ruled by an appointed governor and state legislature; eight Part B states, former princely states or groups of covenanting states, which were governed by a Rajpramukh; ten Part C states, including both former princely states and provinces, which were governed by a chief commissioner; and aunion territoryruled by a governor appointed by thePresident of India.

As per Art.366 of the Indian Constitution (as it existed in 1950):

Art 366(21): Rajpramukh means-
(a) in relation to the State of Hyderabad, the person for the time being is recognised by the President asNizam of Hyderabad.;
(b) in relation to the State of Jammu and Kashmir or the State of Mysore, the person who for the time being is recognised by the President as the Maharaja of that State;
and (c) in relation to any other State specified in Part B of the First Schedule, the person who for the time being is recognised by the President as the Rajpramukh of that State, and includes in relation to any of the said States any person for the time being recognised by the President as competent to exercise Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh, Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU), and Rajasthan.

Governing Rajpramukhs, 1948–1956

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After 1956

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On 1 November 1956, theStates Reorganization Acttook effect, which erased the distinction between parts A, B, and C states, and reorganised state boundaries along linguistic lines. Of the Part B states,Rajputanawas merged withAjmer-Merwarastate to becomeRajasthan;Hyderabad was partitioned among Mysore,Andhra Pradesh,andBombay state;Saurashtrawas merged into Bombay state;Travancore-Cochinwas merged withMalabar districtto form the new state ofKerala;Madhya BharatandVindhya Pradeshwere merged intoMadhya Pradesh;Patiala and East Punjab States Union(PEPSU) was merged intoPunjabstate, andMysore statewas enlarged with the addition ofCoorgstate and parts of Bombay, Madras and Hyderabad states.

By 1956, the system of voluntary unions of states was dismantled and the position of Rajpramukh abolished. New states were created along linguistic and ethnic lines, which tore apart the traditional ties that existed in the former princely states. As the princely rulers died one by one more time was being taken before their successors were recognised by the Government of India. When they were recognised it was usually after they were persuaded to accept lower privy purses or reductions in privileges. But many influential Maharajahs and Maharanis were not content with being mere nominal title holders enjoying privileges. They started contesting in elections either as independents or by joining political parties. Growing popularity and success of many of the former royalty in the hustings particularly MaharaniGayatri Deviof Jaipur andRajmata of Gwalior,Vijaya Raje Scindiaamong others was not to the liking of Mrs. Indira Gandhi who had become prime Minister by 1966.

By the year 1969 Indian National Congress had split intoCongress (Organisational)andCongress (Requisitionist).Congress (R) was headed by Mrs. Indira Gandhi and to score public support she coined slogans like Garibi Hatao (Stop Poverty) which included promise to abolish the royal order. She de-recognized all the Maharajahs by a presidential order in 1969. But this was struck down by theSupreme Court of India.Eventually, the government by the 26thAmendment of the Constitution of Indiawas successful in abolishing the Princely order. This process was completed by the end of 1971. Though a challenge to this amendment was mounted in the Supreme Court, the court neither heard the matter immediately nor gave any relief to the rulers. The case was ultimately decided against the rulers by as late as in 1993, by which time it had become fait accompli.

They have since only enjoyed their traditional styles and titles on a social basis and seem to have adapted well. Former royals likeCaptain Amarinder Singh-Maharaja of Patiala,MaharaniVasundhara Raje Scindiaof Dholpur even rose to post of Chief Ministers of Punjab and Rajasthan respectively till recently. Many others likeSrikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar-Maharaja of Mysore,V. P. Singh,Digvijay Singh,Madhavrao Scindiaand his sonJyotiraditya Scindia,Arjun Singh,and many others have been active politics and been prime minister, governors, ministers, MPs and MLAs at different times.

References

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  1. ^"The Last Nizam –" Hero of his time "".Timesofindia.Archivedfrom the original on 17 September 2019.Retrieved23 September2019.
  2. ^"Fact Check: The Nizam of Hyderabad never fled as Yogi Adityanath claimed".3 December 2018.Archivedfrom the original on 23 September 2019.Retrieved23 September2019.
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