Description

In August 1947, the British left the Indian Subcontinent after
partitioning the Indian subcontinent into two independent nation
states, India and Pakistan on religious communal lines. There
were 562 "princely states" in British Indian Empire. Maharajas,
Rajas and Nawabs ruled over these territories under the
sovereignty of the British Crown. On the lapse of British
Paramountacy, these rulers were "legally" free to decide whether
to join either of the two new states or remain independent.
However, this legal choice of independence was essentially a
hypothetical one as the religious composition of the subjects and
the geographical location of these princely states dictated the
merger with the newly emerged successors nation states of India
and Pakistan. No princely state could become independent.