(EDITORIAL) Correcting Hollywood versions of Princely power one of the Indian Rulers, at an informal meeting with the Press in Delhi, pointed out to American correspondents that … Princes seldom went about decked in pearls and diamonds. That many of the innumerable petty principalities in India could ill afford to maintain oriental traditions of splendor has not deterred them from clinging to the shadow of power, but the decision of the Crown Representative to amalgamate some of their uneconomic holdings with the major States has attempted to solve an anachronism.

Prior to the Government of India Act of 1935, the Maharaja of Baroda had outlined a scheme of merger … other larger States had worked out the possibility of incorporating such principalities as had similar geographical, political and economic affinities with them … The territories affected by the new order cover about 7000 square miles with a population of over 800,000 and an annual revenue of more than Rs. 70 lakhs. The justification for their surrender of independent rights is provided by the fact that, split as they are into tiny holdings, no progress was possible with their meager resources. Incor­porated into the larger States they will now be free to share the benefits enjoyed by these wealthy … States …such as … medical treatment which princely poverty has denied to them … — Dawn Delhi

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2018