The British Crown and the Indian States: An Outline Sketch Drawn up on Behalf of the Standing Committee of the Chamber of Princes

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In certain matters the Princes of the last generation yielded to the demands of the Government of India, partly from a recognition of their common interests with Britain, cemented during the Mutiny of 1857; partly, as is evident from the records of the time, from a sense -peculiarly strong in the East-of the obligations of courtesy: partly because, though tenacious of their rights as they understood them, they had few opportunities of exploring exactly what these rights were. Moreover, at that period-that is for a quarter of a century between 1860 and 1885-the British power in India was neither sufficiently centralised nor sufficiently dominated by the ardour for development, to claim that control over the internal affairs of the States which characterised the interval between the disappearance of the last generation of Princes, and the attainment by the present of the confidence, based upon age and experience, which could encourage them to put their views forward.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century many leading figures had disappeared from the Indian political stage. Jyaji Rao Scindia, Tukoji Rao Holkar, the Nizam Afzal-ud-Daula, with his great Minister Salar Jung, had all passed away, and it happened that a number of the most important States at more or less the same time fell under minority rule.

**Contents and Sample Pages**