The States Department, later States Ministry, was a department of the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

headed by the Minister of States. Its responsibility was to deal with the princely states and manage their relationship with independent

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The department was formed in June 1947 to replace the Political Department of the British Government, which had administered relations between the British Crown and British India on the one side and the princely states on the other. The Political Department had exercised its power on the basis of

paramountcy A suzerain (, from Old French "above" + "supreme, chief") is a person, state (polity)">state or polity who has supremacy and dominant influence over the foreign policy and economic relations of another subordinate party or polity, but allows i ...

. Lord Mountbatten of Burma, the last Viceroy of India, proposed that a department that would replace the Political Department avoid that name, and instead call itself the States Department.

Vallabhbhai Patel Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (; ''Vallabhbhāī Jhāverbhāī Paṭel''; 31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950), commonly known as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was an Indian independence activist and statesman who served as the first Deputy Prime ...

, who was to be the first home minister of India, was also made Minister of States.

V.P. Menon Vappala Pangunni Menon (30 September 1893 – 31 December 1965) was an Indian civil servant who served as Secretary to the Government of India in the States Department, Ministry of the States, under Sardar Patel. By appointment from Governor-Gen ...

was appointed the administrative head of the department. The States Department had principal responsibility for bringing about the

political integration of India Before it gained independence in 1947, India (also called the Indian Empire) was divided into two sets of territories, one under direct British rule (British India), and the other consisting of princely states under the suzerainty of the Briti ...

by securing the accession of the princely states to India. Subsequently, it supervised the conduct of their affairs, their democratisation, and their administrative integration into India. References

Bibliography

* * Constitutional history of India {{india-gov-stub