“AMBEDKAR . . . . . . . . . JOIN INDIAN UNION 537
The announcement by Travancore and Hyderabad that they will declare themselves Independent Sovereign States on 15th August 1947, when India becomes a Dominion and the inclination shown by other States to follow their example has created a new problem which may trun out to be worse than the Hindu-Muslim problem as it is sure to result in the further Balkanization of India.
Basis of Claim
The basis of the claim made by the States for a right to declare themselves Independent lies in the statement of 12th May 1946 issued by the Cabinet Mission in which they say that the British Government could not and will not in any circumstances transfer Paramountcy to an Indian Government which means that the rights of the States which follow from their relationship to the Crown will no longer exist and that all the rights surrendered by the States to the Paramount power will return to the States.
The statement of the Cabinet Mission that the Crown could not transfer Paramountcy is obviously not a statement of political policy. It is statement of law the question is : Is this a correct statement of the Law as it applied to the States ?
“There is nothing original in the proposition set out by the Cabinet Mission. It is a mere repetition of the view propounded by the Butler Committee appointed in 1929 to examine the relationship between the Crown and the Indian States.”
The doctrine that Paramountcy cannot be transferred to an Indian Government is a most mischievous doctrine and is based upon an utter misunderstanding of the issues involved.
Paramountcy Defined
The case against the position taken by the Cabinet Mission in regard to Paramountcy can be stated in the following propositions :
(I) Much of the mystery which surrounds paramountcy is due to the fact that most people do not understand what it stands for. Paramountcy merely is another name for what is called the