Princely India and the British: Political Development and the Operation of Empire PDF
Preview Princely India and the British: Political Development and the Operation of Empire
Caroline Keen holds a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. KKeeeenn__BBooookk..iinndddd ii 88//1100//22001122 55::1199::4422 PPMM KKeeeenn__BBooookk..iinndddd iiii 88//1100//22001122 55::1199::4433 PPMM PRINCELY INDIA AND THE BRITISH Political Development and the Operation of Empire Caroline Keen KKeeeenn__BBooookk..iinndddd iiiiii 88//1100//22001122 55::1199::4433 PPMM Published in 2012 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © 2012 Caroline Keen The right of Caroline Keen to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. International Library of Colonial History 1 ISBN 978 1 84885 878 7 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress catalog card: available Typeset by Newgen Publishers, Chennai Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham KKeeeenn__BBooookk..iinndddd iivv 88//1100//22001122 55::1199::4444 PPMM CONTENTS Abbreviations vi Map vii Acknowledgements viii Preface ix Introduction: The Indian States and the British 1 1. Succession 25 2. Education 46 3. Marriage and Royal Women 90 4. Ruler of the State 128 Maladministration and Misrule 128 The Machinery of Government 149 5. Servant of the Empire 173 Epilogue 204 Appendix: Indian Princes and Diwans 211 Glossary 214 Notes 217 Bibliography 264 Index 277 KKeeeenn__BBooookk..iinndddd vv 88//1100//22001122 55::1199::4444 PPMM ABBREVIATIONS ADC Aide-de-Camp AGG Agent to the Governor-General Asst. AGG Assistant to the Agent to the Governor-General CI Central India FD Foreign Department GoI Government of India IOR India Office Records Lt. Gov. Lieutenant-Governor NWP North-West Provinces Offg. Officiating PCI Political Correspondence with India (IOR) Pol. Political PP Parliamentary Papers (IOR) PSCI Political and Secret Correspondence with India (IOR) R/1 and R/2 Crown Representative Records (IOR) Res. Resident Sec. Secretary Sec. Govt. Secretary to the Government SoS Secretary of State (for India) KKeeeenn__BBooookk..iinndddd vvii 88//1100//22001122 55::1199::4444 PPMM MAP KKeeeenn__BBooookk..iinndddd vviiii 88//1100//22001122 99::3311::1199 PPMM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book has been long in coming to fruition. The original research started late in the 1980s under the wise guidance of Philip Woods and Peter Marshall and was furthered in its earliest stages by gen- erous input from Stephen Ashton, Barbara Ramusack, Ian Copland, Robin Jeffery and James Manor. At SOAS it emerged as a doctoral thesis in 2003 with the expert navigation of Avril Powell and Peter Robb. Since then it has been substantially rewritten to accommodate new material, to make it more relevant to the general reader and to take account of the new developments in the historiography of princely India which have occurred over the past ten years. During this period of gestation I owe particular thanks to the solicitous staff overseeing the Oriental and India Office Collections at the British Library where I was a fixture and fitting, to Richard Bingle, to the various partici- pants in the research symposium on the history of the princely states at the University of Southampton in 2005, to the staff of the Institute of Historical Research and to the backing and encouragement of Miles Taylor who spurred me on to publication. Jo Godfrey has been a highly supportive editor and Ian McDonald copyedited the manuscript with much care. Finally I owe many thanks to my husband Nigel and my sons, Dominic and Thomas, for their help and interest. They have co-habited with members of the Indian Political Service for a consider- able time with great tolerance. KKeeeenn__BBooookk..iinndddd vviiiiii 88//1100//22001122 55::1199::5511 PPMM PREFACE Princely India and the British maps out British policy towards the Indian princes and their states from 1858 to 1909 and examines in detail dif- ferent facets of the operation of indirect rule during that period. The years 1858 and 1909 both marked a significant change in British atti- tude towards the rulers. In 1858 a conciliatory approach was urged as a recognition of princely aid in the Indian Mutiny, and in 1909 a policy of laissez-faire was adopted in an attempt to secure the loyalty of the princes in the face of emerging Indian nationalism. The book challenges the view held by a number of modern histo- rians1 that the latter decades of the nineteenth century constituted a golden age for the princes, during which they received considerable assistance and encouragement from the paramount power within a deliberate strategy to form alliances between Britain and influential Indians. It makes it clear that, on the contrary, British ideological motives for westernisation and ‘civilisation’, coupled with the need to curb costs and promote efficient government, resulted in a signifi- cant loss of princely power over the period. While monographs dealing with the subject usually centre on princely rule in one state, and often see 1947 as the rupture which changed the governance of the states, this book’s coverage spans a number of princely states in which notably different circumstances existed and is focused on an earlier stage of princely development which has been little researched. The time frame of the narrative is of great significance since the period covered proved KKeeeenn__BBooookk..iinndddd iixx 88//1100//22001122 55::1199::5511 PPMM
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