Throw light on the nature of 'Instrument of Accession' and 'Standstill Agreement' signed by the Princely States with the Indian Union.

Answer:

With the lapse of paramountcy in 1947 the 565 princely states became technically independent. The Instrument of Accession and the Standstill Agreement were the two legal devices through which Sardar Patel and V.P. Menon secured their integration into the Indian Union.

The Instrument of Accession

• It was executed by the ruler acceding to either India or Pakistan.
• It transferred only three subjects: defence, external affairs and communications.
• The state retained internal autonomy in all other matters at that stage.
• It was the same instrument used under the Government of India Act of 1935.
• By 15 August 1947 all but Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir had signed.

The Standstill Agreement

• It continued existing administrative arrangements pending a final settlement.
• Trade, posts, telegraph, customs and railways carried on as before.
• It prevented dislocation during the transition and could be signed independently of accession.

Completing integration

• Junagadh acceded to Pakistan but was secured for India after a plebiscite.
• Hyderabad was integrated by police action in 1948 after a standstill agreement failed.
• Kashmir acceded in October 1947 following the tribal invasion.
• Merger agreements and the reorganisation of 1956 completed full integration.

Assessment

• Patel and V.P. Menon combined persuasion with the privy purse and firmness.
• The scale of the achievement, 565 states integrated within two years, was remarkable.
• Privy purses were abolished in 1971, completing the process.

These two instruments were therefore transitional devices of great political skill, securing accession by asking rulers to surrender only what they could not exercise anyway. As V.P. Menon's account shows, the limited initial demand made accession acceptable, after which merger and democratic integration followed within a few years.