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Mountbatten as Viceroy and Crown Representative addresses the Princes

The Indian princes were gathered in Delhi to speak with Viceroy Mountbatten, the representative of the British Crown. The creation of India and Pakistan would require the princely states to come to an agreement on their future with the two new nations.

Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, Hari Singh Bahadur, 1944
Source: Bassano Ltd., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mountbatten explicitly reiterated the end of British paramountcy over the princely states that had been established by Warren Hastings in the early 19th century. Most of the princes saw accession to either India or Pakistan as the most realistic option available given the authority vested in the Interim Government of India and the British reluctance to champion the cause of princely sovereignty after the transfer of power.

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