Question

What was the role of the states' people's movement in the integration of indian states?

Answer 1

While the British territories in India were directly ruled by the British authorities, the rest of the country was

made up of a large number of princely states, referred to by the Britishers as Native States. These states varied

from very large to very small in area and population and were scattered all over the country interspersing the

British Indian areas. These areas were ruled indirectly by the British through the princes themselves. The

condition of the people in the princely states was much worse than that of those in the British governed

territories. Thought both the peoples were exploited to the maximum extent by their rulers, the people in the

British governed areas benefited indirectly from the process of modernization particularly in the fields of

education, transport, communication, industrialization etc. But the princes opposed the process of modernization

in their states, since it would threaten the very basis of their existence. The British also did not press for

modernization in the princely states since they did not want to incur the displeasure of the princes, whom they,

in fact, wanted to use as a bulwark against rising Nationalism.