White Paper on Indian States (1950)/Part 4/Significance of Constitutional Relationship between the Indian Dominion and the States
Significance of Constitutional Relationship between the Indian Dominion and the States
83. The accession of the Indian States to the Dominion of India established a new organic relationship between the States and the Government of India. The constitutional link thus forged proved strong enough to bear the stress of the upheaval through which the country had to pass and enabled the Government of India and the Governments of the States and the Provinces concerned to take concerted and co-ordinated action in relation to matters of common concern.
84. The accession of the States to the Dominion of India was a momentous event in India's history. The full significance of this important development can be appreciated only if it is viewed against its most unpropitious background. For over half a century, the States had been a sealed book so far as the leaders of public opinion in British India were concerned. High walls of political isolation had been reared up and buttressed to prevent the infiltration of the urge for freedom and democracy into the Indian States. Disruptive tendencies had been sedulously cultivated and encouraged and proposals for not only one but several Rajasthans were in the air. There were not a few who nursed the hope that, overwhelmed by the combined weight of the partition of India and the disruption of the States, the Government of India would go under.
85. In the context of these heavy odds and handicaps, the consummation of the ideal of a federal India, comprising both the Provinces and the States, was no mean achievement. After several centuries India became welded into a constitutional entity.