RAJASTHAN DAY

1. Context

2. Key Points

• The story of Rajasthan's foundation is intriguing. At the time of Independence, Rajasthan was almost wholly contained in the Rajputana Agency, a political office of the British Indian Empire.
• It consisted of 22 princely states and estates. Less than 22 months after independence, all 22 had assimilated to form what would become India's largest state. However, the story of the state's foundation did not end there.
• Modifications were made to the boundaries after the State Reorganisation Act 1956, giving Rajasthan its present shape.

3. The question of princely states

• Upon attaining independence from British rule, India faced multiple challenges. One of the most pressing ones was regarding princely states. 
• The outgoing British administration handed over only 60 per cent of India's land to the Indian government. The rest was in the hands of rulers of 565 princely states.
• The British Empire administered India using two parallel systems direct rule in the provinces and indirect rule in the Princely states.
• Rulers of these states had a degree of autonomy about their domestic administration but accepted the suzerainty of the British Crown.

• This was a major problem for nascent India as each ruler had to be individually or collectively convinced to join the new Union of India.
• Especially in the aftermath of the Partition, it was of utmost importance to integrate these princely states into the union to maintain India's territorial integrity.
• Thus, the States Ministry, headed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel with VP Menon as secretary, was launched with the task of merging princely states into the Indian Union.

4. The Rajputana Agency

• The Rajputana Agency spanned roughly 330,330 sq. km with an agent under the Governor General in charge, residing at Mount Abu.
• All the princely states and estates in the agency (22 in total) were ruled by Hindu rulers except Tonk (which had a Muslim ruler).
• Most rulers were Rajput with the exception being Bharatpur and Dholpur which had Jat rulers.
• Since they largely remained loyal to the British during the revolt of 1857, there were no major administrative changes made in these areas during British rule.
• After independence, these states were slowly integrated into the Indian Union, in stages.

5. The Matsya Union

• The States Ministry believed that four princely states Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karauli at the eastern edge of the erstwhile Rajputana Agency had "natural, racial and economic affinities" with each other, as per VP Menon's The Story of the Integration of Indian States (1956). Thus, the Matsya Union was inaugurated on March 18, 1948.
• At the time, it was understood that this would be a temporary formation and eventually, the Matsya Union would be merged either with the United Provinces or with the upcoming Rajasthan.

6. The Rajasthan Union in south-east Rajputana

• Almost parallelly, the idea of the state of Rajasthan began to take shape in the southeast of the erstwhile Rajputana Agency.
• Ten princely states, with Udaipur (also known as Mewar) being the largest, wanted to form a union.
• An idea to merge these into Madhya Bharat (roughly today's Madhya Pradesh) was also floated, but that did not go through.
• Another idea to merge these states into the much larger Udaipur was proposed by the Maharana of Udaipur, Bhupal Singh Bahadur.
• However, this was not agreeable to the other princely states. Hence, on March 25, 1948, the nine other states came together to form the Rajasthan Union. Within three days after its formation, Udaipur decided to join this union.
• After renewed discussions, the second Rajasthan Union was inaugurated by PM Jawaharlal Nehru on April 18, 1948.

7. Greater Rajasthan

• However, while the Matsya Union and the Rajasthan Union accounted for much of the east and south-east of the erstwhile Agency, the four largest princely states Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer remained independent.
• The latter three also shared a border with Pakistan, making their swift integration into the Indian Union even more important.
• VP Menon suggested that these three, in addition to the other border state of Kutch (currently in Northern Gujarat) should be unified and put under the direct rule of the Centre.
• However, this move did not receive many backers. The alternative, backed by Patel was to merge all four states into the newly formed Rajasthan Union.
• Discussions to this effect bore fruit and on January 14, 1949, Sardar Patel announced "the impending reality of Greater Rajasthan".
• Greater Rajasthan was officially inaugurated by Patel on March 30, 1949, the date still celebrated as Rajasthan Day.
• The capital of the new Union was picked as Jaipur with the 36-year-old Maharaja of Jaipur, Sawai Man Singh II, selected as the Rajpramukh.
• On May 15, 1949, the Matsya Union merged with Greateer Rajasthan to create a single, unified state of Rajasthan.

8. Modifications made by the State Reorganisation Commission

• After demands for states based on linguistic lines emerged in various parts of India after Independence, the State Reorganisation Commission (SRC) was formed in 1953 to recommend new state boundaries to the government.
• The commission's recommendations, with some modifications, were implemented in the State Reorganisation Act of November 1, 1956. For the state of Rajasthan, this brought some minor changes as well.
• Ajmer had continued to exist as a small, independent "Class C" state (under the direct control of the Centre) within the boundaries of central Rajasthan.
• It was formed in 1950 out of the former province of Ajmer-Merwara which, unlike the rest of Rajasthan, was under British administrative control.
• Given Ajmer's linguistic, cultural and geographical links to Rajasthan, the SRC deemed that "there was no reason for it to continue existing as an independent state". Thus. Ajmer was integrated into Rajasthan as a district.
• Also integrated was the Abu Road Taluk. In 1950, this taluk of the Sirohi district of Souther Rajasthan was sliced and included in the Bombay State.
• This had always been contested by Rajasthan and the SRC returned the taluk to the state.
• Finally, the enclave of Sunel in Rajasthan's southeastern edge was received from Madhya Pradesh in exchange for the enclave of Sironj, due to administrative reasons.

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