Curzon’s Approach

Curzon stretched the interpretation of old treaties to mean that the princes, in their capacity as servants of people, were supposed to work side-by-side with the governor-general in

the scheme of Indian government. He adopted a policy of patronage and ‘intrusive surveillance’. He thought the relations between the states and government were neither feudal nor federal, but a type not based on a treaty but consisting of a series of relationships having grown under different historical conditions that, in the course of time, gradually conformed to a single line.

The new trend seemed to reduce all states to a single type—uniformly dependent on the British government and considered as an integral part of Indian political system.