The Chamber of Princes (''Narendra Mandal'') was an institution established in 1920 by a

royal proclamation A proclamation (Lat. ''proclamare'', to make public by announcement) is an official declaration issued by a person of authority to make certain announcements known. Proclamations are currently used within the governing framework of some nations ...

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

to provide a forum in which the rulers of the princely states of India could voice their needs and aspirations to the colonial government of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. It survived until the end of the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

in 1947.

Overview

The Chamber of Princes was established in 1920, by King-Emperor George V's proclamation on 23 December 1919, after the

Government of India Act 1919 The Government of India Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5 c. 101) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was passed to expand participation of Indians in the government of India. The Act embodied the reforms recommended in the report o ...

was given

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...

. The creation of the chamber followed the abandonment by the British of their long-established policy of isolating the Indian rulers from each other and also from the rest of the world.Barbara N. Ramusack, ''The Princes of India in the Twilight of Empire: Dissolution of a Patron-client System, 1914–1939'' (Ohio State University Press, 1978) p. xix The Chamber first met on 8 February 1921 and initially consisted of 120 members. Of those, 108 from the more significant states were members in their own right, while the remaining twelve seats were for the representation of a further 127 states. That left 327 minor states, which were unrepresented. Also, some of the more important rulers like the

Maratha The Marathi people ( Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as ...

-ruled states of Baroda State,

Gwalior State Gwalior state was a semi-autonomous Maratha state. It was centred in modern-day Madhya Pradesh, arising due to the rise of the Maratha Empire and fragmentation of the Mughal Empire. It was ruled by the Scindia, House of Scindia (anglicized fro ...

and Holkar State declined to join it .John Allan, Wolseley Haig, Henry Dodwell, ''The Cambridge Shorter History of India'' (1969), p. 1065 The Chamber of Princes usually met only once a year, with the

Viceroy of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...

presiding, but it appointed a Standing Committee which met more often. The full Chamber elected from its princely ranks a permanent officer styled the Chancellor, who chaired the Standing Committee. The chamber convened at the Parliament House. Today the hall is used as the parliament's library.

Concerns about post-independence constitution

Lord Mountbatten addressing the Chamber of Princes

On 12 March 1940, the Chamber resolved:

Chancellors

British Indian Empire 1909 Imperial Gazetteer of India

References

External links

{{commonscat-inline
Image of the chamber in session
1920 establishments in British India 1947 disestablishments in British India Legislatures of British India Defunct upper houses Historical legislatures in India Princely states of India

Overview

Concerns about post-independence constitution

Chancellors

See also

References

Further reading

External links