INDIAN PRINCES SEEKING GREATER INDEPENDENCE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6803, 5 January 1929, Page 11

INDIAN PRINCES SEEKING GREATER INDEPENDENCE

MAHARAJAS OF PATIALA AND BIKANIR AFFIRM THEY WILL JUDGE OF REFORMS., CALCUTTA. Public attention is focusing upon the position of the independent princes of India. Briefly, the position ,of i princes like tho 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 ini rod need into British India, but that - left the judges as to how far any reforms can be introduced ,„o states. Tho Indian Nationalists profess to see in the attitude of the independent states an aet of treason against Swaraj. They maintain that tho Government of India stands in loco regis to the states and has tho right to i 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 tho 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. Tbe situation is complicated by tho 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, lata I,aw Member of the Madras Government, came out .with an explicit statement on the subject. "I have the highest authority for saying,” hs said, "that Hyderabad, Baroda, Mysore, Travancorc and Cochin have nothing to do with the scheme propounded by Sir Leslie Scott. The total population of these states is about 30,000,000, which is nearly half the population of -all the Indian states put together.” Four out of these five states are the largest states in India, and their abstention from the movement would deprive it of much of its authority.