White Paper on Indian States (1950)/Part 5/Integration of Major States
Integration of Major States
146. It had been declared by the Government of India that the States which had individual representation on the Constituent Assembly of India would be treated as viable units. As, however, integration of smaller States proceeded, it was found that in some cases, smaller and bigger states were geographically so interlinked that the smaller States by themselves could not constitute workable administrative units. The difficulty was inherent in the fact that the States as they were abruptly fossilized at a very fluid stage in India's history in the first quarter of the 19th century defied geography and most of them linguistically, ethnically and in other important respects, did not constitute self-contained natural units. The Rulers of Rewa, Indore, Gwalior and Patiala were the first to appreciate the imperative geographical and administrative considerations which operated against the continuance of their States as separate administrative units. Once these important States decided to pool their lot with their neighbours, the demand for subordinating local loyalties to the need of the re-alignment of States on more rational and natural basis became more insistent. The integration of other similarly placed major States followed as a necessary corollary. The Ruler of Mewar who had, in the first instance, declined to join the first Rajasthan Union now agreed to the integration of his State. The remaining Rajputana States followed suit as a direct consequence of the integration of the historic State of Mewar. Once the idea of a union of Rajasthan States with Mewar as its integral part took a concrete form, political and economic considerations, no less than the sentiments of the people, were, factors which could not be ignored by the rest of the Rajputana States. In the context of these developments, the States of Baroda, Kolhapur and Travancore could not stand by themselves. Inevitably, therefore, with the integration of some of the major States, the horizon of the people widened and a number of States, which had been recognised as viable units, were also affected by the process of integration.