Book Review: A Princely Affair: The Accession and Integration of the Princely States of Pakistan, 1947-1955 by Yaqoob Khan Bangash

Bangash's book covers a very important but often neglected phase of Pakistan's history. The complicated process of integration, the postcolonial transition and the ways in which it affected the nature of the state is also covered.

There are certain details which are new to me, so I mention them in the review. General Muhammad Ayub Khan married his daughter to the son of Wali-e-Swat. Kalat and Bahawalpur states gave money to Chief's (later Aitchison) College of Lahore (p. 23). In 1897, Muhammad Sharif Khan of Dir was granted the title of Nawab by the British (p. 34). Quoting Biddulph, Bangash says that the rulers of Hunza and Nagar were locally called Soori (p. 40). Although today, locally there is no evidence for this claim.

Even before the partition India, Mountbatten was already acting pro-Congress (p. 54). Bangash quotes Jinnah who said 'Neither the British government nor the British Parliament nor any other power or body can compel them to do anything contrary to their free will and accord' (p. 58). Bangash says that Jinnah had personally taken on the responsibility of the princely states but barely had time to respond to the states which were interested in joining Pakistan (p. 61). Jinnah was preoccupied with 'more important matters' (p. 61). The Mehtar of Chitral died in a plane crash in 1954.

Sir Shah Nawaz was Dewan of the Junagadh state. Junagadh had already acceded to Pakistan. Menon wanted the Nawab to give full authority to the Dewan to decide the future of the state, which he did by calling upon the government of India to take over the administration of the state (p. 69).

The politics of the Khairpur state, Bahawalpur state, Kalat state and many other states are discussed in great detail. Sir Richard Crofton was the Prime Minister of Bahawalpur since 1942, Gurmani became the Prime Minister of Bahawalpur in April 1947. For some time the Prime Minister of Kalat was Edward Wakefield. Nawabzada Muhammad Aslam Khan was the Prime Minister of Kalat and a relative of the Nawab of Amb. He was a member of the Pakistan Civil Service.

The government of Pakistan had officially sanctioned that no popular representatives of the princely states were to take part in the all-important constitution-making process in Pakistan (p. 139).In 1950, there was not a single princely state in India where people did not have full democratic rights (p. 190). In Pakistan, because the government had no clear policy on accession, and Jinnah was too preoccupied with other state matters (and after February 1948 too annoyed to deal with Kalat), policy formulation became the responsibility of the bureaucrats (p. 222).

While reading the book I was wondering when would such perspectives be taught in schools and colleges? History is not something fixed. In fact, history writing should give rise to new questions and debates.