Many if not all of us do not know or might not be aware that, the British from whom we gained Independence were ruling only 60% of present day India. Remaining 40% were ruled by 600+ Princely States, who were granted full freedom by the British to govern their lands, have their own Constitution, Army, etc, in return for annual payments to the British. Our freedom fighters were the Freedom Fighters of only that 60% of present day India.
Not once did any of these Freedom Fighters talk about the plight of people under the Princely States while talking about Freedom from the British. Specifically Gandhi & Nehru. It was as if these people never or did not exist for them.
The Freedom Struggle which we have read in our History Books and still being dished out to our kids is only of this 60% area. The lives of people under these 600+ Princely States is actually a mystery, and totally undocumented. Since the British maintained History only of those areas which they were governing. The rulers themselves who were ruling those lands since Centuries never taking care to document the history of the lands they governed, due to obvious reasons.
The largest of this Princely State being Nizam’s Dominion also called as the Hyderabad State, which in those days was the largest Muslim Country in the World.
It was under the sole initiative of Sardar Patel that, he started integrating all these Princely States one by one, by talk or by force into the Indian Union after Independence. It is only after this Integration into the Indian Union that, the sorry state of affairs of the general population under these Playboy Kings & Queens were revealed. Most of whom were Hindus themselves. In some cases if the ruler was Muslim he governed his people through his Hindu Vassals. Like in the case of Nizam’s Dominion.
Nehru preferred to give the Rulers of these Princely States their veto and in case integrated into the Union their freedom in governing their lands same as they were doing with the British. But, Sardar Patel did not agree for anything less than total Integration under one Indian Union and One Constitution.
The irony is not lost that, most, if not all the rulers of these Princely States became Congress MPs or Governors one time or the other on the encouragement of Nehru and much against Sardar’s resistance.
It was akin to an arrangement between Sardar & Nehru, with Nehru putting the condition that, if you want to have your way in total Integration, I want to have these rulers rehabilitated into the Congress. That way their sins are washed away. Nehru being a make-believe king himself reveled in being surrounded by these kings.
Additionally, the Congress under Nehru totally blanked out any mention of the struggle of people under the Princely States in the History Books to protect the ex-Rulers who were mostly all integrated into the Congress. Lest there will be an outcry against these ex-rulers which would be detrimental to the Congress.
Does anyone know the History of Hyderabad, Junagarh, Awadh/Oudh, Kashmir, Bhopal, Gwalior, etc. before Independence? No one knows. All of us know about Kashmir after 1947. But before 1947? No one knows.
It is no surprise that KCR, present CM of Telangana whose family ruled a certain part of Telengana under the Nizam, and who also lead the Telangana Movement for a separate state has gone on record by praising the Nizam time and again and claiming that, ‘Telangana region of Andhra’ was much better off under the Nizam rather than part of Andhra. Indirectly hinting that Telangana was much better off under Nizam rather than under Indian Rule. Since Andhra is actually part of India.
His daughter Kavita (Nizamabad MP) has gone one step further by equating Telangana with Kashmir. She has gone on record saying that ‘Telangana like Kashmir’ was never part of India and both have been forcibly annexed.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…/articlesh…/40062322.cms
http://www.dnaindia.com/…/report-bjp-pulls-up-telangana-cm-…
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…/articlesh…/45720082.cms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_integration_of_India
https://en.wikipedia.org/w…/List_of_princely_states_of_India
