IV. Policy of Subordinate Union (1857-1935)

The year 1858 saw the assumption of direct responsibility by the Crown. Because of the states’ loyalty during the 1857 revolt and their potential use as breakwaters in political storms of the future, the policy of annexation was abandoned. The new policy was to punish or depose but not to annex. After 1858, the fiction of authority of the Mughal emperor ended; sanction for all matters of succession was required from the Crown since the Crown stood forth as the unquestioned ruler and the paramount power. Now the ruler inherited the gaddi not as a matter of right but as a gift from the paramount power, because the fiction of Indian states standing in a status of equality with the Crown as independent, sovereign states ended with the Queen adopting the title of “Kaiser-i-Hind” (Queen Empress of India). The paramount supremacy of the Crown presupposed and implied the subordination of states. The British government exercised the right to interfere in the internal spheres of states—partly in the interest of the princes, partly in the interest of people’s welfare, partly to secure proper conditions for British subjects and foreigners and partly in the interest of the whole of India.

The British government was further helped in this encroachment by modern developments in communication— railways, roads, telegraph, canals, post offices, press and public opinion. The Government of India exercised complete and undisputed control in international affairs—it could declare war, peace or neutrality for states. According to the Butler Commission in 1927, “For the purpose of international relations, state territory is in the same position as British territory and state subjects in the same position as British subjects.”