THE STORY OF THE INTEGRATION OF THE INDIAN STATES AUTHORED BY MR. V.P MENON

Abstract

As set out in the preface, Menon undertakes the endeavour of writing this book apropos a promise he had made to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, regarding the former’s role as a faithful raconteur of the events leading up to India’s independence and the subsequent process by which the numerous native states were unified with the erstwhile British provinces. Accordingly, he explains the plan of the book, and uses the first five chapters to establish a background to India’s hitherto socio-political scenario, through an engaging narrative spanning since the Mauryan days of yore. He underlines the political heterogeneity of India, despite the geographical unity and contiguity of the subcontinent. In many ways, this foreshadows the problems that are narrated over the course of the book, in relation to the integration of states with extremely heterogeneous manners of operation. In a milieu of historic struggle for supremacy vis-à-vis several competing empires, Menon elucidates how invasive forces of Ghazni and Ghori made in-roads within our country. The second part of the book expansively deals with a detailed description of how individual regions and states were inveigled to join the Indian Union, sometimes through pecuniary promises, and at other times through the invocation of threats, veiled or otherwise. Finally, the last part of the book (chapters 22-25) deals with the costs of administrative, constitutional and financial changes, before a brief concluding chapter on Menon’s own views on the question of integration.