Q1.
Let’s go back to the map of the British Indian Empire in Part 1 of this textbook (Fig. 4.16). Observe the different colours; recall that the red and pink territories are those directly under British administration, while the yellow ones are the princely states.
Answer
The map shows two Indias under one empire.
| Colour on the map | What it marks | Who actually ruled there |
|---|---|---|
| Red and pink | British India — the presidencies and provinces | The Crown, through the Secretary of State for India in London and the Viceroy (also called Governor General) in India, with British officials, British courts and British law |
| Yellow | The princely states — some 560 of them | Indian princes, in name. In practice a British ‘Resident’ or ‘Political Agent’ was posted in almost every one and “very often interfered in the government and administration” |
What to notice about the pattern. The red and pink are not scattered at random. They follow the coasts and the great river valleys — the ports and the fertile, revenue-rich plains that the East India Company had taken first. The yellow states are largely inland, in the drier and hillier interior. That is a map of an empire built for trade and revenue.
Why this matters for 1858: The royal proclamation promised to respect “the rights, dignity and honour of native Princes”. The map shows what that promise was worth in practice: the princes kept their palaces and titles, but under British paramountcy — their supposed autonomy was “reduced to a symbolic one”. Keeping 560 friendly rulers in place was cheaper and safer for Britain than governing all of India directly, especially after 1857.
Look ahead: Those same yellow patches become a problem again in 1947, when the princely states are given the option to join India or Pakistan — or, in theory, to stay independent. Sardar Patel’s task of integrating them (p. 78) is the last chapter of this map’s story.