The Indian Princes and Their States

Author: Barbara N Ramusack
Publisher: Cambridge University press
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 324
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0-521-67047-0

Description

Although the princes of India have been caricatured as Oriental despots and British stooges, Barbara Ramusack’s study argues that the British did not create the princes. On the contrary, many were consummate politicians who exercised considerable degrees of autonomy until the disintegration of the princely states after independence.

Ramusack’s synthesis has a broad temporal span, tracing the evolution of the Indian kings from their pre-colonial origins to their roles as clients in the British colonial system. The book breaks new ground in its integration of political and economic developments in the major princely states with the shifting relationships between the princes and the British.

It represents a major contribution, both to British imperial history in its analysis of the theory and practice of indirect rule, and to modern South Asian history, as a portrait of the princes as politicians and patrons of the arts.

Contents

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

GENERAL EDITOR’S PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

MAP

Introduction-Indian princes and British imperialism
Princely states prior to 1800
The British construction of indirect rule
The theory and experience of indirect rule in colonial India
Princes as men, women, rulers, patrons, and Oriental stereotypes
Princely states-administrative and economic structures
Princely states-society and politics
Federation or integration?
Epilogue

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

GLOSSARY

INDEX