Butler Committee

The question of extent of sovereignty and paramountcy was still undefined. The Butler Committee (1927) was set up to examine the nature of relationship between the princely states and government. It gave the following recommendations—

1. Paramountcy must remain supreme and must fulfil its obligations, adopting and defining itself according to the shifting necessities of time and progressive development of states.

2. States should not be handed over to an Indian Government in British India, responsible to an Indian legislature, without the consent of states.

Thus, “paramountcy” was left undefined and this hydra-headed creature was left to feed on usage, Crown’s prerogative and the princes’ implied consent.