- Chamber of Princes
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The British Empire in the East, 1919, showing the princely states coloured green, British India coloured red
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The Chamber of Princes was an institution established in 1920 by a royal proclamation of the King-Emperor to provide a forum in which the rulers of the Indian princely states could voice their needs and aspirations to the government of British India. It survived until the end of the British Raj in 1947.[1]
Contents
Overview
The creation of the Chamber of Princes followed the abandonment by the British of their long-established policy of isolating the Indian rulers from each other and also from the rest of the world.[2]
The Chamber first met in 1921 and initially consisted of 120 members. Of those, 108 from the more significant states were members in their own right, while the remaining twelve seats were for the representation of a further 127 states. That left 327 minor states, which were unrepresented. Also, some of the more important rulers declined to join it.[3]
The Chamber of Princes usually met only once a year, with the Viceroy of India presiding, but it appointed a Standing Committee which met more often. The full Chamber elected an officer called the Chancellor, who chaired the Standing Committee.[3]
Concerns about post-independence constitution
On 12 March 1940, the Chamber resolved:
"The Chamber of Princes, while welcoming the attainment by India of its due place among the Dominions of the British Commonwealth under the British Crown, records its emphatic and firm view that, in any future constitution for India, the essential guarantees and safeguards for the preservation of the sovereignty and autonomy of the States and for the protection of their rights and interests arising from treaties, and engagements and sanads or otherwise, should be effectively provided and that any unit should not be placed in a position to dominate the others or to interfere with the rights and safeguards guaranteed to them, and that all parties must be ensured their due share and fair play; And that, in any negotiations for formulating a constitution for India, whether independently of the Government of India Act 1935, or by revision of that Act, representatives of the States and of this Chamber should have a voice proportionate to their importance and historical position."[4][5]
Chancellors
- Ganga Singh, Maharaja of Bikaner (1921-1926)
- Maharaja Adhiraj Bhupinder Singh, Maharaja of Patiala (1926-1931)
- K. S. Ranjitsinhji, Maharaja of Nawanagar (1931-1937)
- K. S. Digvijaysinhji, Maharaja of Nawanagar - (1937-1944)
- Hamidullah Khan, Nawab of Bhopal - (1944-1947)
Further reading
- R. P. Bhargava, The Chamber of Princes (Northern Book Centre, 1991, 351 pp.) ISBN 8172110057
- S. M. Verma, Chamber of Princes, 1921-1947 (National Book Organisation, 1990) ISBN 8185135444
- Barbara N. Ramusack, The Princes of India in the Twilight of Empire: Dissolution of a Patron-client System, 1914–1939 (Ohio State University Press, 1978)
- Ian Copland, Princes of India in the Endgame of Empire, 1917-1947 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Studies in Indian History & Society, 2002)
References
- ^ Vapal Pangunni Menon (1956) The Story of the Integration of the Indian States, Macmillan Co., pp. 17-19
- ^ Barbara N. Ramusack, The Princes of India in the Twilight of Empire: Dissolution of a Patron-client System, 1914–1939 (Ohio State University Press, 1978) p. xix
- ^ a b John Allan, Wolseley Haig, Henry Dodwell, The Cambridge Shorter History of India (1969), p. 1065
- ^ Nicholas Mansergh, Documents and Speeches on British Commonwealth Affairs, 1931-1952 (Oxford University Press, 1953) p. 606
- ^ Verma, Chamber of Princes, 1921-1947, p. 170
See also
Categories:- British rule in India
- India stubs
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