A Princely Affair: The Accession and Integration of the Princely States of Pakistan, 1947–1955

Description

West Pakistan, on 15 August 1947, was less than half its present size. Nearly a year of negotiations, arguments, threats, and even chance, brought nine princely states into the Pakistani fold. Thereafter followed a long and staggered process of integration.

Using hitherto unused and inaccessible primary sources, this path-breaking book completes the story of the creation of Pakistan. In charting the accession and integration of the princely states, this book shows, for the first time in detail, the complicated and often botched processes of the early consolidation of Pakistan. The problems emanating from this early period, haphazard constitutional integration, weak local political forces, the insurgency in Balochistan since 1948, and a weak sense of national identity and citizenship remain with Pakistan today.

Review

‘While there is a considerable body of literature on the accession and integration of the princely states to the Indian Union, hardly anything comparable exists on the Pakistani side of the story. Rectifying this imbalance in South Asian historiography, Yaqoob Khan Bangash makes a welcome contribution to the literature on state formation in Pakistan with significant comparative insights on why it differed so markedly from the Indian experience. Based on hitherto unused archival sources, he tells the important but untold story of Pakistan’s former princely states with clarity and rare insights. A solid piece of historical research, the book is must reading for anyone interested in how Pakistan negotiated the postcolonial transition and the ways in which this affected the nature of the state and its relations with the different constituent units, and especially the former princely states.’

– Ayesha Jalal
Mary Richardson Professor of History, Tufts University

Author Biography

Yaqoob Khan Bangash completed his BA from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, and his DPhil from the University of Oxford. His current research interests lie in the emergence of Pakistan as a post-colonial state, with broader interests in decolonisation, modern state formation, formation of identities, and the emergence of ethnic and identity-based conflicts in South Asia. Dr Bangash has received several grants and honours including a Research Excellence Fellowship at the Central European University (2019), the Chevening Fellowship to the University of Oxford (2019), and a British Academy Visiting Fellowship at Royal Holloway, University of London (2018).

He writes regularly for The News, Daily Times, The Express Tribune, and other news media. He is a current Fulbright Fellow for 2022–3 at the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University.