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Princely state

A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign[1] entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule,[2] subject to a subsidiary alliance and the suzerainty or paramountcy of the British crown.

This article is about the British-Indian usage. For the global concept, see Principality.

At the time of the British withdrawal, 565 princely states were officially recognized in the Indian subcontinent,[3] apart from thousands of zamindari estates and jagirs. In 1947, princely states covered 40% of the area of pre-independence India and constituted 23% of its population.[4] The most important states had their own British political residencies: Hyderabad of the Nizams, Mysore and Travancore in the South, Jammu and Kashmir, and Indore in Central India. The most prominent among those – roughly a quarter of the total – had the status of a salute state, one whose ruler was entitled to a set number of gun salutes on ceremonial occasions.


The princely states varied greatly in status, size, and wealth; the premier 21-gun salute states of Hyderabad and Jammu and Kashmir were each over 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi) in size. In 1941, Hyderabad had a population of over 16 million, while Jammu and Kashmir had a population of slightly over 4 million. At the other end of the scale, the non-salute principality of Lawa covered an area of 49 km2 (19 sq mi), with a population of just below 3,000. Some two hundred of the lesser states even had an area of less than 25 km2 (10 sq mi).[5][6]

Lieutenant/Captain/Flight Lieutenant or Lieutenant-Commander/Major/Squadron Leader (for junior members of princely houses or for minor princes)

Commander/Lieutenant-Colonel/Wing Commander or Captain/Colonel/Group Captain (granted to princes of salute states, often to those entitled to 15-guns or more)

Commodore/Brigadier/Air Commodore (conferred upon princes of salute states entitled to gun salutes of 15-guns or more)

Major-General/Air Vice-Marshal (conferred upon princes of salute states entitled to 15-guns or more; conferred upon rulers of the major princely states, including Baroda, , Travancore, Bhopal and Mysore)

Kapurthala

Lieutenant-General (conferred upon the rulers of the largest and most prominent princely houses after the First and Second World Wars for their states' contributions to the war effort.)

General (very rarely awarded; the Maharajas of Gwalior and Jammu & Kashmir were created honorary Generals in the British Army in 1877, the Maharaja of Bikaner was made one in 1937, and the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1941)

Bangash, Yaqoob Khan (2016). "A Princely Affair: The Accession and Integration of the Princely States of Pakistan, 1947–1955". Oxford University Press Pakistan.  9780199407361

ISBN

Bhagavan, Manu. "Princely States and the Hindu Imaginary: Exploring the Cartography of Hindu Nationalism in Colonial India" Journal of Asian Studies, (Aug 2008) 67#3 pp 881–915

in JSTOR

Bhagavan, Manu. Sovereign Spheres: Princes, Education and Empire in Colonial India (2003)

Copland, Ian (2002), Princes of India in the Endgame of Empire, 1917–1947, (Cambridge Studies in Indian History & Society). Cambridge and London: . Pp. 316, ISBN 978-0-521-89436-4.

Cambridge University Press

Ernst, W. and B. Pati, eds. India's Princely States: People, Princes, and Colonialism (2007)

Harrington, Jack (2010), Sir John Malcolm and the Creation of British India, Chs. 4 & 5., New York: ., ISBN 978-0-230-10885-1

Palgrave Macmillan

Jeffrey, Robin. People, Princes and Paramount Power: Society and Politics in the Indian Princely States (1979) 396pp

Kooiman, Dick. Communalism and Indian Princely States: Travancore, Baroda & Hyderabad in the 1930s (2002), 249pp

Markovits, Claude (2004). . A history of modern India, 1480–1950. Anthem Press. pp. 386–409. ISBN 978-1-84331-152-2.

"ch 21: "Princely India (1858–1950)"

Ramusack, Barbara (2004), The Indian Princes and their States, , Cambridge and London: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 324, ISBN 978-0-521-03989-5

The New Cambridge History of India

Pochhammer, Wilhelm von India's Road to Nationhood: A Political History of the Subcontinent (1973) ch 57

excerpt

Zutshi, Chitralekha (2009). "Re-visioning princely states in South Asian historiography: A review". Indian Economic & Social History Review. 46 (3): 301–313. :10.1177/001946460904600302. S2CID 145521826.

doi

and heads of government, and some biographies.

Exhaustive lists of rulers

released as part of a response from Passport Office, UK to a request made using WhatDoTheyKnow, accessed 17 October 2023.

India, Order Book