Rajpramukh

The British Indian Empire, which included most of present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, was made up of two types of political units.

At the time of the proclamation of Queen Victoria as Empress of India in 1875, more than 700 Indian princely states and territories enjoyed treaty relations with the British Crown.

Most of the rulers of the princely states worked closely with a British political agent who was responsible to the governor of a British province, but the four largest princely states, Hyderabad, Gwalior, Baroda, Mysore, and Jammu and Kashmir, had Residents directly under the authority of the viceroy.

However by 16 May 1947, the Cabinet Mission Plan had failed to evolve a constitution for India acceptable to all contending parties.

Three Indian states namely Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, and Junagadh, failed to accede to either of the dominions.

Jammu together with parts of Kashmir was incorporated into India after the Maharaja Hari Singh was forced to seek Indian military intervention against the marauding Pakistani sponsored tribal lords (Afridis).

But as the drafting of the constitution progressed and the idea of forming a republic took concrete shape, it was decided that all the princely states/covenanting states would merge with the Republic of India, and all the Maharajas would be provided with a Privy Purse and privileges as enjoyed by them on 15 August 1947 by constitutional guarantees.

In accordance with constitutional provisions all the Maharajas entered into another agreement with the Governor-General of India to provide for the specific privy purse amount, the right to their personal properties (as distinct from state properties), and the right to succession in accordance with the practice in their territories.

But many influential Maharajahs and Maharanis were not content with being mere nominal title holders enjoying privileges.

Growing popularity and success of many of the former royalty in the hustings particularly Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur and Rajmata of Gwalior, Vijaya Raje Scindia among others was not to the liking of Mrs. Indira Gandhi who had become prime Minister by 1966.

Congress (R) was headed by Mrs. Indira Gandhi and to score public support she coined slogans like Garibi Hatao (Stop Poverty) which included promise to abolish the royal order.

Eventually, the government by the 26th Amendment of the Constitution of India was successful in abolishing the Princely order.

Former royals like Captain Amarinder Singh - Maharaja of Patiala, Maharani Vasundhara Raje Scindia of Dholpur even rose to post of Chief Ministers of Punjab and Rajasthan respectively till recently.