Rajasthan Day : How India’s largest state took shape in stages?

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Updated : March 31, 2023
5:30 pm

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Rajasthan Day : How India’s largest state took shape in stages?

Context- Festivities celebrating Rajasthan Day are undergoing across the state today (March 30). Rajasthan Day marks the date of the state’s creation, unifying a motley group of princely states and chiefships.

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.

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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 had 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 with regards to their domestic administration but accepted the suzerainty of the British Crown.
When the British left, the Crown’s suzerainty lapsed. Thus, the ruler of every princely state had three options: join India, join Pakistan or remain independent.
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 in order 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.

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 with the exception of 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.

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.

The Rajasthan Union in south-east Rajputana

Almost parallelly, the idea of the state of Rajasthan began to take shape in the south-east of the erstwhile Rajputana Agency.
Ten princely states, with Udaipur (also known as Mewar) being the largest, wanted to form an 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.

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 – still remained independent.
The latter three also shared a border with Pakistan, making their swift integration into the Indian Union even more important.
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 Greater Rajasthan to create a single, unified state of Rajasthan.

Modifications made by the State Reorganisation Commission

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.

Conclusion- State reorganization Act broadly agreed to carve out states based on linguistic homogeneity for administrative convenience and effective governance.