The princely states and the British

By the early nineteenth century, the Rajput states that had once defied emperors were exhausted. For decades, Maratha armies — the Sindhias and Holkars — had extracted tribute from them, and bands of Pindari raiders plundered the countryside. Their treasuries were empty and their nobles divided. When the East India Company, under Lord Hastings, offered protection in return for accepting its supremacy, most of them signed. Between 1817 and 1818, Rajputana passed under British paramountcy, and remained so until independence.

Why the rulers signed

The treaties of 1817–18

Most Rajputana states signed treaties with the Company in 1817–1818, with Charles Metcalfe playing a key role in negotiations. Karauli is often cited as the first state to sign (1817), and Sirohi (1823) as the last.

The typical terms:

• The states accepted British protection and paramountcy.
• They gave up the right to conduct foreign relations or make alliances with other states without British consent.
• Many agreed to pay an annual tribute (khiraj) to the Company — often the tribute previously paid to the Marathas.
• In return, the rulers retained internal autonomy, at least in principle.

How British control worked

In practice, "internal autonomy" was often limited. Political agents intervened in successions, minorities (when a ruler was a child), administrative reforms and disputes between rulers and nobles.

Social reforms

Under British pressure — and with support from some rulers and reformers — practices such as the following were prohibited or discouraged in the nineteenth century:

• Sati — widow immolation;
• female infanticide;
• slavery and the sale of girls;
• witch-hunting (dakan pratha) — Mewar prohibited it in the 1850s;
• samadhi (self-burial);
• excessive marriage and funeral expenses.

The Walter Krit Rajputra Hitkarini Sabha (1888), named after AGG Colonel Walter, set limits on marriage expenses and age of marriage among Rajputs, to reduce the debt that drove female infanticide.

Modern institutions

• Mayo College, Ajmer (1875) — founded to educate the sons of Rajput rulers and nobles in a British public-school style.
• Railways from the 1870s–80s, linking Rajputana to Bombay, Delhi and Agra.
• Modern schools, hospitals and municipal institutions in some states — Jaipur under Sawai Ram Singh II, Alwar, Bikaner under Ganga Singh (who built the Ganga Canal, completed in 1927).

Famines

Rajputana suffered severe famines under British rule. The worst was the famine of 1899–1900, remembered as the Chhappaniya Akal because it occurred in Vikram Samvat 1956. Large numbers of people and livestock died, and the famine exposed the weakness of relief systems in the princely states.

Consequences of British paramountcy

The combination of princely autocracy and British paramountcy shaped the peasant, tribal and political movements of the twentieth century (see our posts on those movements and on the Praja Mandals).

Practice

Prelims-style:

1. In which years did most Rajputana states sign treaties with the East India Company?
2. Which state is often cited as the first to sign?
3. Where were the headquarters of the AGG for Rajputana?
4. When was the Walter Krit Rajputra Hitkarini Sabha formed?
5. Why is the 1899–1900 famine called Chhappaniya Akal?

Mains-style (50 words): What was the position of Ajmer-Merwara under British rule?

Mains-style (100 words): Examine the causes and consequences of the treaties of 1817–18 for Rajputana.