Independence Day 2024: Earlier, the British were going to leave India by June 1948, but before that Mountbatten had announced that partition and independence would be achieved in just 72 days. Independence was certain to come sooner or later, but with the declaration of independence on 15 August 1947, a big question arose. Independence was meaningless without finding the answer to this question.
The question was how many countries were getting independence, two or 565? On 15 August 1947, two countries (India and Pakistan) got independence. Just a few days before the independence of the country, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel were faced with two problems. First, how to stop communal violence and second, how to stop the beautiful face of India from getting spoiled?
This worry was haunting me
The second reason for worry for Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel was ‘lapse of paramountcy’. In fact, there were about 565 princely states in British India, small, medium and big. These princely states were under indirect rule of the British. These kings had their own army, police, law and some even had their own currency.
What is ‘Lapse of Paramountcy’?
These princely states had accepted slavery to the British throne, which was called ‘paramountcy’. Now when the British were leaving, they said that paramountcy would also end and all the princely states would be completely free to decide their own future.
There used to be a princely state of Sirohi in Rajasthan. Raghuveer Singh, the heir of the princely state of Sirohi, mentioned the events of 1947 while talking to the media. He said, ‘I appreciate one thing. Although they were foreigners, when the British Parliament passed the ‘Indian Independence Act’, it was said that our treaty rights with the Indian states have ended and they will return to the situation they had before signing the treaty with us.