UPSC Mains 2021 GS Paper 1 Q3: model answer
Assess the main administrative issues and socio-cultural problems in the integration process of Indian Princely States.
What the question wants
Administrative and socio-cultural problems, then an assessment.
How to structure it
Assess: identify the issues, then judge how serious they were and how well they were handled.
- Context of integration
- Administrative issues
- Socio-cultural problems
- Assessment
How to think it through
Imagine V.P. Menon's desk in July 1947: more than 560 rulers, each with different laws, armies and revenue systems, and only weeks before the British leave. Split the problem into two baskets the question gives you. Administrative: how to bring them in and then merge them. Socio-cultural: loyalty, religion, identity. Then assess: largely peaceful, with three hard cases.
Model answer
At independence, over 560 princely states covered about two-fifths of the subcontinent. Integrating them was handled by the States De- partment under Sardar Patel, with V.P. Menon as secretary.
Administrative issues
- Accession: rulers were persuaded to sign the Instrument of Accession (defence, external affairs, communications) and standstill agreements before 15 August 1947.
- Holdouts: Junagadh (plebiscite, February 1948), Hyderabad (police action, Operation Polo, September 1948), and Kashmir (accession on 26 October 1947 amid a tribal invasion).
- Merger: small states joined provinces or unions (Saurashtra, PEPSU), which became Part B states in 1950.
Socio-cultural problems
- Loyalty of subjects to ruling families, and rulers' fear for their status, eased by privy purses.
- Communal tension, most acutely in Hyderabad with the Razakars.
- Tribal and regional identities, as in Manipur and Tripura, where merger left lasting grievances.
Assessment
Integration was largely peaceful, through diplomacy, incentives and, rarely, force. Privy purses ended with the 26th Amendment (1971).
Conclusion
The integration of princely states was the first great act of nation-building: a political map unified within two years, with socio-cultural integration continuing much longer.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
Instrument of Accession.
Where most answers lose marks
- Only praising Patel. 'Assess' needs problems.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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