Page:White Paper on Indian States (1950).pdf/22

 have been the considerations underlying the policy of annexation, it had a clear and distinct objective, viz., the extension of the Company's dominion by absorbing "the mischievous anomalies" represented by the "yellow patches" on the map of India.

 

18. The Mutiny and great revolt of 1857 demonstrated the value of the "yellow patches" to the British Government. Except for some minor defections, the Indian Princes not only remained aloof from the rising but, in certain cases, extended effective assistance to the British to suppress it. Canning gratefully acknowledged the role of the States as "breakwaters in the storm which would have swept over us in one great wave". "Where should we have been now", wrote Elphinstone with his characteristic frankness, "if Scindia, the Nizam and the Sikh chiefs, etc., had been annexed, the subordinate Presidencies abolished, the whole army thrown into one and the revenue system brought into one mould". It was now realised that the States could play a most helpful role as a bulwark against the forces of Indian nationalism. This led to a radical change in the British policy towards the States. The new policy found expression in 1858; Queen Victoria's proclamation promised, "We shall respect the rights, dignity and honour of native Princes as our own". In 1861, Sanads were issued which guaranteed the Princes, big and small, their status and acknowledged their right of adoption. These sanads were intended to remove mistrust and suspicion and "to reassure and knit the naive sovereigns to paramount power". No more was heard of annexation as the only means of granting the "blessings" of civilised government to "the suffering millions". Under the new system described as that of "subordinate union", the supreme power accepted its moral responsibility for a minimum of good government, security, law and order within the territories of the Indian States. The system basically differed but little from the earlier system of subordinate isolation. However, the policy of "cutting the knot which the political practice had failed to untie" so vigorously pursued by Dalhousie, now gave way to a policy of mere window dressing.

 

14. The new policy aimed at consolidating not the territories but the powers of the British Government. This involved a process of infiltration into the States, mainly in the economic field, without annexing their territories. Some projects could be undertaken only on a national scale. The lines of communications, the railways and posts could develop only