Page:White Paper on Indian States (1950).pdf/118



215. The new Constitution of India accords to the States their rightful place with the Provinces of India, as full-fledged constituent units of the Indian Union. With the inauguration of the Constitution of India the process of bringing the States to the Provincial level both in respect of their internal constitutional set-up and their relationship with the Centre, which started with the accession of the States on the three subjects of Defence, External Affairs and Communications, has run virtually the whole of its gamut. So rapid has been the process of sitting the States in the new mould that the framers of the new Constitution were constantly outpaced by the events in States and it became necessary to table, right at the very final phase of the Constitution-making, a whole set of amendments which radically altered the position of the States under the new Constitution.

216. When the States entered the Constituent Assembly of India it was envisaged that the Constitution of States would not form part of the Constitution of India. It was also clearly understood that unlike the Provinces the accession of the States to the Indian Union would not be automatic but would be by means of some process of ratification of the Constitution. In the context of these commitments and the conditions then obtaining the framers of the Draft Constitution made provisions which placed the States, in certain important respects, on a footing different from that of the Provinces.

217. As a result of the policy of integration and democratisation of States pursued by the Government of India since December 1947, the internal and external set-up of the States underwent a complete transformation. This greatly accelerated the process of what might be described as the 'unionisation' of States and in consequence it became possible to review the position of the States under the new Constitution and to remove from it all vestiges of anomalies and disparties [sic] which crept into the original draft as a legacy from the past.

218. When the Covenants establishing the various Unions of States were entered into it was contemplated that the Constitutions of the various Unions would be framed by their respective Constituent Assemblies within the framework of the Covenants and the Constitution of India. These provisions were made in the Covenants at a time when