INDIAN PRINCES SEEKING GREATER INDEPENDENCE

Shannon News, 1 February 1929, Page 2

INDIAN PRINCES SEEKING GREATER INDEPENDENCE

CALCUTTA.

Public attention is focusing upon the position of the independent princes of India. Briefly, the position *ot princes like the Maharajas of Patiala and Bikanir, and of the.larger number of independent rulers who follow their lead, is that no changes which may be effected in the Constitution of British India can influence their position, They insist that they are not hostile to any reforms which may be introduced into British India, but that they must bo left the judges as to how far any reforms can be introduced into the states.

The ludian Nationalists profess to see in the attitude of the independent states an act of treason against Swaraj. They maintain that, the Gov ernment of India stands in loco regis to the states and has the right to define their status and position vis-a-vis the reforms. Moreover, they hold that the princes are not entitled to speak for their peoples; that the people of the states should also be consulted. It is hinted that if this could be done, this attitude would be found to be quite different from that of their rulers.

The situation is complicated by the fact that some of the more important states have not thrown in their lot with the movement headed by the rulers of Patiala and Bikanir. Recently Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Iver, late Law Member of the Madras Govern ment, came out with an explicit statement on the subject. “I have the highest authority for saying,”, he said, “that Hyderabad, Baroda, My sore, Travancoro and Cochin- havi‘ nothing to do with the scheme propounded by Sir Leslie Scott. The total population of thCse states is about 30,000,000, which is nearly half ihc population of all the Indian states put together. ’ ’

Pour out of these five states ore the largest states in India, and their abstention from the movement would deprive it of much of its authority.