To comprehend how this will come about, we have to look again, this time more critically, at the Indian constitution and the forces that are moulding it.
It is to be remarked that, in all our domestic discussions as to the reorganisation of the government of India, the position of the native states seems, relatively speaking, to have attracted small attention. Lord Morley is certainly not open to any such criticism, for he wrote at the close of 1908 that "no one with any part to play in Indian government can doubt the manifold advantages of still further developing not only amicable, but confidential, relations with the rulers of India." The minister was writing with reference to a scheme that had emanated from Lord Minto himself, who had proposed to establish no less a body than an Imperial Advisory Council of the princes and chiefs of India. For the moment this scheme has passed into the background, and nothing has come of it. It is certain in some shape to revive. For to omit, as we practically do at present, from the imperial constitution the whole body of these rulers is a flaw too obvious, and too glaring, to stand unremedied for long. For, even as long ago as 1899, Lord Curzon said at Gwalior, that "the native chief has become, by our policy, an integral factor in the imperial organisation of India. He is concerned not less than the viceroy or the lieutenant-governor in the administration of the country. I claim him as
