Revision summary
Patel and V. P. Menon ran the States Department from July 1947. The Instrument of Accession covered defence, external affairs, and communications. Most rulers were persuaded with privy purses and Rajpramukh rank; unions preceded 1950. Junagadh was settled by plebiscite; Hyderabad by Operation Polo in September 1948. Administrative merger of armies, currency, and services made accession real.
Model answer
Introduction
On 15 August 1947 India inherited not one polity but a mosaic of British provinces and some 562 Princely States. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of States, with V. P. Menon as secretary, turned that mosaic into the Union by accession, merger, and, where persuasion failed, limited force.
Body
Accession machinery and persuasion
- The States Department, created in July 1947, offered every ruler an Instrument of Accession covering defence, external affairs, and communications, plus a Standstill Agreement that kept existing administrative links until a new bargain was signed.
- Patel’s method was personal pressure mixed with the promise of privy purses, gun salutes, and Rajpramukh rank: Travancore, Bhopal, Jodhpur, and Indore were brought in before or just after 15 August rather than left as pockets of independence.
- He insisted that lapse of Paramountcy did not create a third Dominion; geography, communal peace, and the Indian Army’s logistics made isolation of a State a threat to the new republic.
- The early unions — Saurashtra, Matsya, Rajasthan, Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh, PEPSU — were Patel–Menon constructs that folded dozens of thikanas into viable units before the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950.
Stubborn cases and administrative close
- Junagadh’s Nawab acceded to Pakistan against a Hindu-majority population; Patel backed a provisional government, a blockade, and the February 1948 plebiscite that confirmed union with India.
- Hyderabad under the Nizam and the Razakars refused accession; after months of negotiation, Operation Polo in September 1948 ended the stand-off and placed the State under a military governor pending merger.
- Jammu and Kashmir’s accession of 26 October 1947 was received in a war setting; Patel’s larger map-work was the rest of the peninsula, while the Kashmir file remained a Cabinet and UN problem.
- Merger covenants, the abolition of separate State armies and currencies, and the extension of all-India services completed political accession with administrative integration, so that the First Schedule of the Constitution could list a single India.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD L[Lapse of Paramountcy] --> I[Instrument of Accession] I --> U[State unions PEPSU Rajasthan] I --> J[Junagadh plebiscite] I --> H[Hyderabad Operation Polo] U --> C[Constitution First Schedule] J --> C H --> C
Conclusion
Patel’s role was to convert lapse of Paramountcy into accession, then accession into merger, using the Instrument, privy-purse bargains, and, in Junagadh and Hyderabad, decisive State power. Without that States Department labour, 15 August would have left a Balkanised hinterland around the provinces.
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Next question in the 2018 paper (Q2). View answer →
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Did Patel integrate Kashmir in the same way as Hyderabad?
No. Kashmir acceded during invasion and became a UN and Cabinet file. Patel’s typical method — Instrument plus merger unions — applied to the bulk of the 562 States, with force reserved for Junagadh and Hyderabad.
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Was accession the same as merger?
Accession first tied a State to the Dominion on three subjects. Merger covenants and later Part A/B/C classification abolished separate armies, currencies, and courts.
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