White Paper on Indian States (1950)/Part 4/Necessity of a Common Centre

by Ministry of States, Government of India

Necessity of a Common Centre

74. The decision to partition India was a violent blow to the political, economic and geographical integrity of India. The unity of what remained as India after the partition was most essential not only for the political strength, full economic development and cultural expression of the Indian people but also for facing the aftermath of the partition. The following quotation from Coupland shows very clearly how vital a necessity this unity was to the very existence of the Dominion of India:—

"An India deprived of the States would have lost all coherence. For they form a great cruciform barrier separating all four quarters of the country. If no more than the Central Indian States and Hyderabad and Mysore were excluded from the Union, the United Provinces would be almost completely cut off from Bombay, and Bombay completely from Sind. The strategic and economic implications are obvious enough. The practicability of Pakistan must be admitted, but the more the separation of the States from British India is considered, the more impracticable it seems; India would live if its Moslem limbs in the North-West and North-East were amputated, but could it live without its heart?"

75. The first task to which the newly created States Department had to address itself, therefore, was the conserving of the heart out India. This required a common Centre for the whole country including the Indian States, able to function effectively in the Provinces and States alike in matters requiring all-India action.