Sam Dalrymple

A Hindu Cromwell courteously decapitates hundreds of maharajas

Through a mix of charm, diplomacy and coercion, Sardar Patel, Nehru’s uncompromising deputy, ensured that 565 princely states vanished from the map of India in 1947

Sir Shivajirao Holkar, 12th Maharaja of Indore, in 1877. [Getty Images] 
issue 28 October 2023

On 25 July 1947, in the searing heat, almost 100 princes bedecked in jewels gathered in a circular room in New Delhi. Some of them ruled over principalities of less than a square mile; others over an area larger than Korea. All of them had been Britain’s close allies for more than a century and, now that the British were leaving India, many looked forward to regaining their states’ independence.

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