Page:White Paper on Indian States (1950).pdf/152

 ﻿would have only proved a menace to world peace. Public opinion in India viewed this contingency with grave concern.

In justification of the decision for the lapse of paramountcy it was stated that the main purpose of this decision was to strengthen the bargaining capacity of the Rulers. Without doubt this bargaining had to be at the expense of either the basic rights of the people of the States or the collective interests of the Indian people as a whole. Be that as it may, the long-awaited Independence came to India associated with a threat of imminent chaos as a result of partition and the contemplated lapse of Central authority over a third of India.  

263. The basic feature of the whole paramountcy structure was not that the British possessed paramountcy rights and were, therefore, paramount, but that they were paramount and had, therefore, paramountcy rights. The position taken by the British was that paramountcy was not merely the sum of a number of separate rights, specifically ceded or acquired, but that the exercise of various paramountcy rights was one of the evidences of British Paramountcy. The whole basis of the doctrine was that internally as well as externally the States were under the protection of the supreme power in India. The unavoidable consequence of such complete dependence was the acknowledged supremacy of the protecting power; a corollary of this relationship was the assumption by the supreme power of rights arising out of its obligations in relation to dependent States.

264. The British Government made it clear in various authoritative pronouncements that paramountcy rights were not governed by the terms of treaties. To quote from Lord Reading's famous letter (Appendix I) to the Nizam, "the sovereignty of British Crown in supreme in India ......... Its supremacy is not based only upon treaties and engagements but exists independently of them and quite apart from its prerogative in matters relating to foreign power and policies, it is the right and duty of the British Government......... to preserve peace and good order throughout India. The consequences of that theory are so well known."

265. The British established themselves as the dominant power in India in 1818. But their de jure paramountcy over the States dates from the disappearance of the Moghul Emperor from the Indian scene. It was claimed on behalf of the British that with the disappearance of the Moghul Emperor, it automatically succeeded to all his authority and prero-