title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: York was arrested in May 2002, and in 2003 he pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse after being indicted on 197 counts of child molestation, including charges of sex trafficking of minors across state lines. These minors were as young as 8 years old. He was imprisoned. In 2004, he was convicted to a 135-year sentence for transporting minors across state lines in the course of sexually molesting them, racketeering, and financial reporting charges. His convictions were upheld on appeal. York's case was reported as the largest prosecution for child molestation ever directed at a single person in the history of the United States, both in terms of number of victims and number of incidents. The case was described in the book "Ungodly: A True Story of Unprecedented Evil" (2007) by Bill Osinski, a reporter who had covered the Nuwaubians in Georgia during the late 1990s.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: Some factions of the Black supremacist subculture in the United States appeared to continue to support York as of 2010, portraying his conviction as a conspiracy by the "White Power Structure". Malik Zulu Shabazz, chairman of the New Black Panther Party and York's lawyer, described York as "a great leader of our people [… and] victim of an open conspiracy by our enemy."


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: During the 1970s, the group set up bookstores and chapters in Trinidad; Baltimore, Maryland; and Washington, D.C. According to former follower Saadik Redd, York had between 2,000 and 3,000 followers during the 1970s. Its headquarters was in Bushwick, Brooklyn, until 1983. A portion of the community moved to Sullivan County, New York, to a site they called Camp Jazzir Abba. More people stayed in Brooklyn until about 1991.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: A Muslim cleric, Bilal Philips, published "The Ansar Cult in America" in 1988, denouncing the movement as un-Islamic. Phillips relied heavily on testimonies of former adherents in describing the group's beliefs and practices.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: In the late 1980s, York borrowed from numerous religious and esoteric traditions beyond Islam, creating the "Nuwaubian" movement. York styled his movement in a mixture of Ancient Egypt and Native American themes. He legally changed his name again, from "Issa Al Haadi Al Mahdi" to "Malachi York," effective March 12, 1993.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: After moving to Georgia, York and his followers claimed affiliation with Masons and with the Jewish, Christian and Egyptian faiths.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: "Once he started changing religious ideas, the older followers became skeptical and left the group," Rohan said. "That was what happened to me."


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: Among its themes, the Nuwaubians borrowed a claim to indigenous ancestry, perhaps from the Washitaw Nation (a Louisiana Black separatist group led by an eccentric 'empress'). They claimed to be indigenous people, named Yamasee (claiming affiliation with the confederation of Muscogee (Creek) Native American nations in the Georgia area) as well as "Moors." They claimed a prehistoric migration to America "before the continents drifted apart". At this point, the group called itself "Yamassee Native American Moors of the Creek Nation". During the early 2000s, York presided at Tama-Re styled as "Our Own Pharoah NETER A'aferti Atum-Re", leader and chief mystagogue of "The Ancient Egiptian Order."


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: Initially the Nuwaubians were considered eccentric but tolerable. Tensions began to increase locally when the group distributed leaflets attacking whites and claiming racial persecution in a zoning conflict. They had set up a nightclub in a warehouse on their property. They alienated many residents of the area, both black and white. In 1998, the county sought an injunction against construction and uses that violated zoning. At the same time, the Nuwaubian community increased its leafletting of Eatonton and surrounding areas, charging white officials with racial discrimination and striving to increase opposition to them. Threats mounted and an eviscerated dog carcass was left at the home of the county attorney.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: Within Putnam County, the Nuwaubians lost black support, in part by trying to take over the NAACP chapter. But outside, they appealed to national activists, claiming to be racially persecuted in the county. In 1999, Al Sharpton visited Tama-Re to express his support for the Nuwaubians. During this period, the group maintained Holy Tabernacle stores "in more than a dozen cities in the U.S., the United Kingdom and Trinidad," and continued to gain revenues from them. York purchased a $557,000 mansion for his own use in Athens, Georgia, about 60 miles away, where the University of Georgia is located.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: In 2001, the group put up their own candidates, associated with the Republican Party, for public office, including sheriff. Their candidates were defeated.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: In conjunction with a Nuwaubian Nation parade held in Augusta, Georgia, in February 2001, the office of Augusta mayor Bob Young (1999–2005) published a proclamation written by the Nuwaubian organization, stating the group's beliefs. Quotes include "the Nuwbuns were the dark, brown-to-black-skin, wooly-hair original Eygyptians." "[T]he Black race's greatness has been accepted in America and many books as people of Timbuktu Africa or the Olmecians from Uganda, Africa, who migrated and walked here to North and South America to set up colonies way before the continental drift."


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: In an interview with a reporter from "The Augusta Chronicle", Mayor Young said that he had not personally read the statement prior to its release. He explained that his office customarily releases proclamations drafted and submitted for publication by civic groups without subjecting them to substantial content review. He suggested that such proclamations do not constitute official positions of the mayor's office or statements of the mayor's views.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: On May 8, 2002, Tama-Re was raided by a joint force of FBI and ATF agents, state police, and local law enforcement. Although there were fears that the raid would end in violence, no shots were fired during the operation, although tear gas was used by the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: York, along with his wife, was arrested outside of the property the same day on federal charges of child molestation and racketeering, including transport of minors for sexual use. He was convicted in 2004 by a jury in federal court and sentenced to 135 years in federal prison. His appeal failed, and the US Supreme Court declined to hear the last appeal. Tama-Re was sold in asset forfeiture under the verdict, and the new owners demolished the structures. With the revelations of York's conduct, most followers abandoned the group, although some factions of the Nuwaubian Nation still exist.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: York is currently incarcerated in ADX Florence, a maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado. He will be eligible for parole in 2122.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: In 2004, seven officers of the Macon, Georgia, police department resigned from their jobs in protest against the prosecution of York. Five of those officers were later hired by the Clarke County, Georgia, jail as guards. Four of them were fired in 2006 (the fifth resigned) in the wake of charges that they were smuggling Nuwaubianist literature into the jail, corresponding with the prisoner York, encouraging inmates to rebel against white guards, and showing favoritism to Nuwaubian prisoners. The jail commander was fired after he began an investigation of Nuwaubianist influence at the jail. He has said he believes that he was fired because he undertook this investigation.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: As "Dr. York," the movement leader was active as a vocalist and music producer in Brooklyn before leaving the area. During this time, his Nuwaubian teachings had an effect upon hip hop and Black culture in New York. Journalist Adam Heimlich of the "New York Press" suggested the following were influenced by York: Jaz-O, Doug E. Fresh, Afrika Bambaataa, Posdnuos from De La Soul, Prodigy from Mobb Deep, and MF Doom/KMD.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: In his article on York's cult, Heimlich reviewed some of the leader's published works. He wrote that York had borrowed from a variety of sources for his ideas:


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: Among the indie hip hop ranks, there are Nuwaubians who perform what they call Nu-wop, such as Daddi Kuwsh, Twinity, Nefu Amun Hotep, 9thScientist, Scienz of Life, Ntelek, Jedi Mind Tricks, Aslaam Mahdi, 720 Pure Sufi, Tos El Bashir and The Lost Children of Babylon. On Where Light's "Swords of Malachai", Rasul lets loose: 'When my tongue swings in the form of a double-edged sword, it brings forth Nuwaubu, which is right Knowledge, wisdom and understanding.'"


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: In an article for "Honor Nation," A. L. JakeAl Reum speculated that the controversial Native American kitsch costumes and props from OutKast's 46th Annual Grammy Awards performance in 2004 were inspired by the Nuwaubian belief about the Native Americans being "Moors" in origin.


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: Southern Poverty Law Center described the Nuwaubianism belief system as "mix[ing] black supremacist ideas with worship of the Egyptians and their pyramids, a belief in UFOs and various conspiracies related to the Illuminati and the Bilderbergers" and quoted York's letter dated Nov. 10, 2004 as: "The Caucasian has not been chosen to lead the world. They lack true emotions in their creation. We never intended them to be peaceful. They were bred to be killers, with low reproduction levels and a short life span." Another explanation has Caucasians descend from Cain: "Adam and Eve were sent to the Aegean Islands between Asia and Europe, where they started having children, and each couple's first born child was an Albino and those Albinos are called Cain in the Bible, and Cain is short for Caucasian."


title: Nuwaubian Nation

text: In 1994 Ghazi Y. Khankan, director of the New York office of the Council on American–Islamic Relations, commented about York and his group based on their history in Brooklyn. He said, "It's a cult, in my opinion, and in Islam there are no cults. They consider their leader a prophet, which means they have deviated from the Islamic way." The superficial similarity of York's beliefs to those of the Heaven's Gate cult led to some worried newspaper articles after that group's mass suicide during the appearance of Comet Hale–Bopp in 1997, in which the cult was reported to have said that a spacecraft was following the comet.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Yi Jianlian ( ; born October 27, 1987) is a Chinese professional basketball player for the Guangdong Southern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He has also played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Milwaukee Bucks, the New Jersey Nets, the Washington Wizards, and the Dallas Mavericks.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Yi joined the Guangdong Southern Tigers for the 2002–03 CBA season, and subsequently won the CBA Rookie of the Year award. In his first five years with Guangdong, the team won three CBA titles. In the 2007 NBA draft, he was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the sixth overall pick. Initially, Yi declined to sign with Milwaukee for several months before agreeing to a contract with them in August 2007. He later played for three other NBA teams until returning to the Guangdong Southern Tigers in 2012.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Yi also plays for the Chinese national team, having represented his country at the Olympics in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016, as well as the 2006 and 2010 FIBA World Championships. Yi played in the 2004 Olympics.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: As a child, Yi's parents did not allow him to join a sports school, which is designed for children predicted to be future professional athletes. However, a sports school's basketball coach who noticed Yi's potential in playing street basketball persuaded Yi's family to allow him to train professionally. Hoping to sign Yi to an endorsement deal, Adidas invited him to attend the company's ABCD Camp in New Jersey in 2002, where he competed against all-American high school players.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: In 2004, Yi was listed as being born in 1984 during the Four Nation Tournament, but Chinese officials said that it was probably a typographical error. Two years later, Fran Blinebury of "The Houston Chronicle" reported that Yi told Shane Battier he was 24 years old in an exhibition game before the 2006 FIBA World Championship, but the story was refuted by both Yi and Battier. Yi is not the first Chinese basketball player to come under scrutiny for age discrepancy, as former NBA player Wang Zhizhi had been listed as being born in both 1977 and 1979. In 2006, a senior Chinese official admitted that past youth squads had included players above the permitted age.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: In 2007 and 2008, Yi's date of birth was further scrutinized as being 27 October 1984, including a Chinese reporter discovering a high school enrollment form from 1997 that listed Yi as being born on 27 October 1984.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: After returning to China in 2002, Yi signed a professional contract with Chinese Basketball Association side Guangdong Southern Tigers and averaged 3.5 points and 1.9 rebounds per game in his first season. He also averaged 7.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in four games during the playoffs, and won the Rookie of the Year award. Yi was featured in "TIME"s August 2003 article titled "The Next Yao Ming". In each of his next three seasons, Yi led Guangdong to the CBA championship and he was awarded the CBA finals' most valuable player honor in 2006. In Yi's final season in the Chinese Basketball Association before he entered the 2007 NBA draft, he averaged a career-high 24.9 points and 11.5 rebounds per game, but his team lost to the Bayi Rockets in the playoff finals.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Yi was not expected to enter the NBA draft until 2009 because the Chinese Basketball Association ruled that players are not allowed to leave for foreign leagues until they turned 22. In early 2006, however, Yi announced that he would enter the 2006 NBA draft although he eventually decided to withdraw, saying he was "not good enough to compete in the NBA and needed more experience." Later that year, the Guangdong Southern Tigers announced that Yi would enter the 2007 NBA draft.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Yi chose Dan Fegan as his agent to represent him in the NBA draft and flew to Los Angeles to participate in pre-NBA draft camps. Before the draft, Yi was predicted by many to be picked anywhere from third to twelfth. On 28 June 2007, Yi was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the sixth overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft, despite Fegan warning the Milwaukee Bucks not to pick Yi and not allowing them to be one of the teams invited to Yi's pre-draft private workouts in Los Angeles. Fegan did not want Milwaukee to select Yi because the city of Milwaukee did not have a large Asian-American community. However, Milwaukee's general manager Larry Harris said they had only drafted the best player available to them. Yi and Sun Yue together marked the first time in NBA draft history where two Chinese born players were selected in the same draft, which was a feat that would not be repeated again until 2016.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: After the draft, Milwaukee attempted to convince Yi to sign with the team and on 2 July 2007, the owner of the Bucks franchise, Herb Kohl, wrote a letter to Yi and his representatives, hoping to persuade Yi to sign with the team. Three days later, head coach Larry Krystkowiak and Harris met with Yi, attempting to influence him to play for Milwaukee, however, Yi's representatives requested that the team trade Yi to another team with a city that had a large Chinese presence. Chinese officials also required that any team Yi played for would have to give him sufficient playing time for him to improve for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Kohl made a special trip to Hong Kong to appeal to Yi personally and he assured Chinese officials that Yi would have sufficient playing time. On 29 August 2007, the Milwaukee Bucks and Yi agreed to a standard, multi-year rookie contract.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Yi was named to Milwaukee's starting lineup by head coach Larry Krystkowiak in place of Charlie Villanueva to begin the 2007–08 season. He recorded nine points and three rebounds in a debut loss to the Orlando Magic. He played his first home game in Milwaukee three days later and scored 16 points while grabbing eight rebounds in a 78–72 win over the Chicago Bulls. The game was also Yi's first game to be televised nationally in China, where it was watched by an estimated 100 million viewers. Yao Ming praised Yi's play in his first few games, saying, "If you compare us in our third NBA games, you will see that Yi's statistics are far better than mine."


title: Yi Jianlian

text: On 9 November 2007, Yi played against Yao Ming for the first time when the Houston Rockets hosted Milwaukee in a 104–88 loss. Yi recorded 19 points and nine rebounds, including two three-pointers, while Yao recorded 28 points and nine rebounds. The game between the two was watched by over 200 million people in China, making it one of the most-watched games in NBA history. After the game, Yao called Yi's talent "unbelievable" and Tracy McGrady said that Yi had a "tremendous upside in this league". Del Harris, the former head coach of the Chinese national basketball team, also described Yi as the "most athletic 7-footer in the NBA."


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Yi was named the NBA Rookie of the Month for December 2007 after averaging 12.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game that month, while scoring a career-high 29 points on 14-of-17 shooting in a win over the Charlotte Bobcats on December 22. On 30 January 2008, he was selected for the rookie team in the Rookie Challenge at the 2008 NBA All-Star Game. On 2 February 2008, Yi faced Yao for the second time when Milwaukee played at home against Houston, which Krystkowiak dubbed the "Chinese Super Bowl." However, both players struggled during Houston's 91–83 victory over Milwaukee. Yao scored 12 points while Yi injured his shoulder during the game, finishing with just six points.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: On 2 April 2008, it was announced that Yi would miss the rest of the season with a knee injury. Having already missed eight games with other injuries, Yi managed 66 out of a possible 82 games in his rookie season, averaging 8.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. One of Milwaukee's assistant coaches, Brian James, later said that "the injuries he had bothered him more than people realized, and he couldn't play through them."


title: Yi Jianlian

text: On 26 June 2008, Yi was traded by the Milwaukee Bucks along with Bobby Simmons to the New Jersey Nets in exchange for Richard Jefferson. New Jersey's team president Rod Thorn said that "we feel strongly he's going to be a real good player," and the team's chief executive Brett Yormark said "it opens up a truly new fan base for us." Yi stated that he didn't expect to be traded, but that it was "an honor to join the Nets."


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Through his first 37 games with New Jersey, Yi averaged 10.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game while shooting 39% from behind the three-point line, which was well above his average from the previous season. But on 9 January 2009, Yi broke the pinkie on his right hand and was expected to miss four to six weeks. Thorn called it "lousy timing" because "he'd been playing well," but Yi said "(I'll) just take my time. I'll come back." In voting for the 2009 NBA All-Star Game, Yi finished third in total votes for forwards in the Eastern Conference, ahead of players such as Paul Pierce and Chris Bosh.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Yi made his return from injury after the 2009 NBA All-Star Game in a loss to the Houston Rockets on 17 February 2009. However, after averaging only six points on 36% shooting after his return, Yi was removed from the team's starting lineup. His final averages for the season were 8.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, as well as a 38% shooting percentage from the field and 34% on three-point field goals. After New Jersey finished the season outside of the playoffs, Yi's agent Dan Fegan suggested New Jersey played better when Yi played more minutes and took more shots, and asks "who's accountable?" New Jersey's head coach Lawrence Frank said that "you have to be patient. He's only 21", and Yi assessed his season by saying he was "still too much up and down."


title: Yi Jianlian

text: In the 2009–10 season, Yi returned to the starting lineup for New Jersey. Starting in every game he played but one, Yi suffered several injuries during the season which made him miss 30 games. He sprained his medial collateral ligament on 4 November 2009, had a laceration on his upper lip on 8 December 2009, and sprained his left ankle on 8 March 2010. His final averages for the season were 12 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, as well as a 40% shooting percentage from the field and 37% on three-point field goals.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: On 29 June 2010, Yi was traded to the Washington Wizards along with $3 million in cash considerations for Quinton Ross. Yi ended the 2010–11 season averaging 5.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. Washington had until 30 June 2011 to extend Yi's contract but decided not to do so.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: During the 2011 NBA lockout, Yi signed a one-year contract to return to the Guangdong Southern Tigers. Unlike most NBA players who went to the Chinese Basketball Association during that time, he received an option to return to the NBA once the lockout had been resolved.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: On 6 January 2012, Yi signed with the Dallas Mavericks to a one-year contract after starting the season with the Guangdong Southern Tigers. He was immediately assigned to Dallas' D-League affiliate team, the Texas Legends. Yi benefited from the new collective bargaining agreement rules which allowed players with more than two years of NBA experience to be assigned to the D-League with the players' consent. On 9 January 2012, after playing two games for the Texas Legends, averaging 23 points and 12 rebounds per game, he was recalled by Dallas. The team faced the Oklahoma City Thunder in the playoffs and in Game 3 of the playoff series, Yi played in his first NBA playoffs game, where he scored two points for the team in five minutes.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Yi re-joined the Guangdong Southern Tigers for the 2012–13 CBA season and went on to win a fourth championship that season.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: On August 22, 2016, Yi signed a one-year, $8 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, returning to the NBA for the first time since 2012. Lakers head coach Luke Walton considered Yi to be the team's best-shooting big man during the preseason, but did not provide Yi with much of a role. Yi averaged 3.0 points and 2.5 rebounds in 10.7 minutes per game over six contests with the Lakers during the preseason. Feeling he would have better opportunities elsewhere, Yi requested a release from the Lakers prior to the start of the regular season. The Lakers waived him on October 24, 2016.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: On August 15, 2020, Yi helped the Guangdong Southern Tigers in winning their 10th CBA Championship after a 123–115 win in Game 3 of the CBA Finals over the Liaoning Flying Leopards, but Yi had suffered a ruptured Achilles' tendon during the game and was expected to miss a major part of 2020–21 CBA season due to rehabilitation.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Yi's first major international experience came at the 2003 FIBA Under-19 World Championship in which he averaged 18.9 points and 11.5 rebounds per game. He made his debut with the Chinese national basketball team during the 2004 Summer Olympics and averaged 6 points and 6 rebounds per game at the 2006 FIBA World Championship. His performance impressed coaches on the Chinese national team as well as the coaches from other countries.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: In 2008, Yi was once again selected to play for the Chinese national team at the 2008 Summer Olympics. In China's first two group stage matches, Yi scored 9 and 4 points respectively, and China lost both their games against the United States and Spain. But in a win against Angola, Yi recorded a double-double, and in a win against Germany, Yi recorded 9 points and 11 rebounds, and hit the crucial shot with 28 seconds left to help China advance to the quarter-finals. However, Lithuania ended China's run by beating them 94–68, as Yi scored 11 points for his side.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Yi, along with former NBA player Sun Yue, was a member of the Chinese national team that played at the 2009 FIBA Asia Championship and the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship. Yi was named the most valuable player of the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship, averaging 16.6 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. Yi also played for the Chinese national team during the 2012 Summer Olympics, ranking first in rebounds per game with 10.2 per game and ranking second in blocks with 2.2 per game. He also played at the 2016 Summer Olympics. During 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. Yi was still the leader in the Chinese national team , averaging 17.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists. In the match with Nigeria, he played the best performance of the national team in recent years. Yi got 27 points and Player efficiency is 26.


title: Yi Jianlian

text: Yi is fluent in both Mandarin and his native tongue of Cantonese. He was ranked fourth on "Forbes"' China Celebrity 100 in income and popularity in 2008. In 2008, Yi donated 100,000 yuan to support the 2008 Sichuan earthquake victims and also participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics' torch relay by carrying the torch during the Hainan leg of the relay.


title: Pandur II

text: The Pandur II is an improved modular all-wheel-drive version of the Pandur 6x6 APC wheeled armoured vehicle. It was developed as a private venture by the Austrian company Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeuge. Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeuge is part of General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems, which is also the parent company of MOWAG of Switzerland and Santa Bárbara Sistemas of Spain.


title: Pandur II

text: The Pandur II has an all-welded steel body with optional armour upgrades. The basic armour package is designed to protect against armour-piercing rounds (customers may choose the armour thickness). The vehicle is designed to be transportable in a Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. The driver is seated on the left at the front and the engine is to the right. The driver is provided with a single piece hatch cover as well as three-way periscopes, one of which can be replaced by a passive periscope for night missions. The vehicle is designed to take a number of turret systems (such as the SP 30 turret also mounted on the ASCOD AFV of the Spanish and Austrian Armies), or it can be used as a standard APC with a mounted machine gun. With the turret the vehicle can carry 6 infantry. Without the turret, it can carry 12.


title: Pandur II

text: The Pandur II is an armoured off-road vehicle (APC) intended for military use. It is available in two versions, a 6x6 and an 8x8 version; both versions are designed to be as offroad capable as possible whilst providing sophisticated protection for their occupants, which also includes protection against mines. The Pandur II can be used in cold (arctic) and hot (desert) climates, in urban regions, impassable terrain, as well as in waters such as rivers, lakes, and coast waters. In order to reduce the unit cost, many industrial-grade off-the-shelf components (e. g. an industrial diesel engine) were used for the Pandur II. The following description primarily describes the 8x8 variant.


title: Pandur II

text: The body is made of highest-tenacity steel plates that are welded together. Thus, the body is rigid and does not allow torsion. The wheels are coil-sprung and have hydraulic shock absorbers, the suspension is similar to the MacPherson strut system. Each wheel has two control arms, a lower transverse control arm, and an upper longitudinal control arm. The coil springs are designed to have progressive characteristics, which is achieved with additional rubber springs. The control arms (as well as other suspension parts that do not warm up) are made of a chemically pure steel that does neither contain phosphorus nor sulphur (30CMo6). Therefore, the steel retains its mechanical properties at temperatures as low as -45 °C (228 K) – regular steel typically embrittles at temperatures below -20 °C (253 K).


title: Pandur II

text: The Pandur II's first two pairs of wheels are steered, the last two pairs of wheels are not. The front pair of wheels' steering trapezes are mechanically connected and use the Ackermann steering principle; the normals' point of intersection lies in between the rear axles. The steering system itself is a hydraulically assisted dual-circuit power steering system that is located within the Pandur II's protective body. The Pandur II is also fitted with a steering brake system that reduces its turning radius. In order to improve the Pandur II's off-road capabilities, it has a tyre-pressure regulation-system that allows manipulating the tyre pressure for each pair of wheels individually or for all wheels at once. All tyres are also fitted with stiff-rubber running-elements that allow them to maintain their basic tyre characteristics even when they are completely deflated. This includes fixing the tyre on the rim.


title: Pandur II

text: The Pandur II is powered by a Cummins ISLe HPCR industrial diesel engine. This engine is a straight-six, common-rail injected turbodiesel with a variable turbine geometry turbocharger, intercooler, and heavy-duty water cooler; the water cooler is designed for outside air temperatures of up to 52 °C (325 K). The engine displaces 8.9 litres and is rated 335 kW at 2100/min, with a maximum torque of 1621 N·m at 1200…1800/min. For tactical reasons, the engine is not fitted with an exhaust gas treatment system (such as a lean NO trap or SCR catalyst). Therefore, only the combustion itself combined with exhaust gas recirculation are used for emissions control – the Pandur II complies with the Euro III emissions standard.


title: Pandur II

text: The main gearbox is an automatic ZF 6HP602c six-speed gearbox that has a hydrodynamic torque converter, planetary gears, and a hydrodynamic retarder. The gearbox as well as the diesel engine, radiator, generator, hydraulic system, and the compressed air system are all put into a quick-coupling module, the so-called Powerpack. The Powerpack can be uninstalled from the Pandur II within 20 minutes. The engine can run when the Powerpack is not installed in the Pandur II (for maintenance purposes). Reinstalling the Powerpack takes another 20 minutes.


title: Pandur II

text: The automatic gearbox is connected to the drivetrain with a system of spiral bevel gears that allows quick coupling. The torque is sent from the gearbox through a two-speed transfer gearbox, four differentials with reduction gearboxes, and the drive shafts to the wheels. In the on-road drive mode, 30 % of the torque is sent to the first pair of wheels, 21 % to the second pair of wheels, and 49 % to the fourth pair of wheels; the third pair of wheels does not receive any torque (8×6). The wheel slip is measured by a system called the "Automatic Drivetrain Management" (ADM). Depending upon the position of the gear selector, the ADM automatically splits the fourth pair of wheels' torque evenly between the fourth and third pair of wheels (i. e. it engages or disengages all-wheel drive), it also engages or disengages the transfer case's reduction gear, and it engages the pair of wheels' differentials in an escalating fashion. The differentials are jaw clutches with a 100 % locking rate; thus, they do not allow wheel slip. A few seconds after differential lock engagement, the ADM already turns off the differential lock. A coil spring then disengages the differential lock, which is mechanically prevented if there is still differential torque (this means that, the differential lock remains engaged even though it is "turned off", if one wheel would otherwise spin rather freely; only if both wheels have "grip", the differential lock mechanically disengages). This allows the Pandur II to keep its differentials unlocked most of the time, which drastically reduces the reactive torque within the drivetrain – with all differential locks engaged, one wheel can receive all the torque. The Pandur II's drivetrain can transmit up to 20 kN·m of torque to a single wheel; irreversible deformation occurs at torques of around 30 kN·m.


title: Pandur II

text: The Pandur II has an 80 kN hydraulic winch. The APC had a fording depth of up to 1500 mm – through deeper waters, the Pandur II can swim. For this purpose, the Pandur II has a trim vane, an additional water-water-cooler (without a radiator), a snorkel, and a bilge pump. The two water jet propulsion units are installed in the Pandur II's back; they are mechanically driven through the drivetrain. When the water jet propulsion system is active, the wheels are not driven – this is because they would induce too much drag without providing sufficient propulsion. Compared against a conventional propeller, the water jet propulsion system is less efficient, but more durable and offers better manoeuvrability. The top speed when swimming in calm waters is ≤11 km/h; the Pandur II has a sea state rating of 1–2.


title: Pandur II

text: The Pandur 8x8 APC is manufactured in Austria while export versions are also built in the Czech Republic and licensed versions in Barreiro, Portugal.


title: Pandur II

text: In 2005, the Portuguese government signed a deal worth 364 million euros to acquire 260 Pandur II armoured vehicles, with an option for further 33 worth 140 million euros, to equip the Portuguese Intervention Brigade of the Portuguese Army and the marines of the Portuguese Navy. Portugal was the first country to buy the Pandur II. The sale of Pandur II to Portugal includes an associated offset agreement for a value of 516 million euro. The Pandur II ("Viatura Blindada de Rodas") for the Portuguese Army is fitted with Steyr add-on armour that provides Level 4 protection according to STANAG 4569. The vehicles for the marines are equipped with Level 3 armour and have a cargo ramp instead of the original doors.


title: Pandur II

text: In 2002, the Portuguese Ministry of Defence decided that they would need new 8×8 APCs. After they had requested for tender on 14 August 2003, three companies – (Finnish arms maker Patria Oyj, Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeuge (now part of General Dynamics), and MOWAG (also part of General Dynamics)) – made their offers. In December 2004, Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeuge's Pandur II was chosen; the Portuguese Ministry of Defence signed a 365 million Euro contract about the purchase of 260 units of the Pandur II with General Dynamics on 15 February 2005. The contract also included an option of additional 33 units. The first 260 units of the Pandur II were supposed to be built by General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems in Austria (41 units) and by Fabrequipa in Portugal (219 units), from 2006 to 2009; on 27 January 2007, production at Fabrequipa commenced. In March 2009 General Dynamics announced that they intended to move the production from Portugal to Czechia. On 8 May 2010, the Portuguese Minister of Defence announced that the Ministry of Defence would charge General Dynamics with breach of contract, because they had failed to deliver all 260 units. The contract with General Dynamics was terminated by the Ministry of Defence in October 2012 – until that date, 166 units had been built. Then began a process of negotiation leading to an agreement in September 2014 – General Dynamics agreed upon delivering 22 more units of the Pandur II until August 2015. The additional 33 units option was never used.


title: Pandur II

text: In January 2005, General Defence's competitor Patria Oyj accused General Dynamics of "misconducts during the tender and contract formation procedures". Thus, Patria Oyj called for the legal suspension of the contract awarding to General Dynamics at the Public Attorney's Office of the Administrative Court in Lisbon. Patria Oyj's appeal was rejected by Lisbon's Court in February 2005. After General Dynamics had failed to deliver all units of the Pandur II, the Portuguese Public Prosecutor announced on 20 August 2010 that he would investigate corruption charges regarding the Pandur II contract awarding to General Dynamics. However, a case was never mounted against General Dynamics, and no further action was taken.


title: Pandur II

text: The KOV "Krpan" ("Kolesno Oklepno Vozilo", "Wheeled Armoured Vehicle") from Sistemska Tehnika Armas is the Slovenian license version of the Pandur II with a number of improvements and with 55% of its components and subsystems produced locally. This APC was proposed to the Slovenian Army but was not bought, because the Army decided to buy the Patria AMV instead.


title: Pandur II

text: The Sabrah Light Tank wheeled version is a new variant developed and offered by Elbit Systems for the Philippine Army's Light Tank Acquisition Project. It uses the Pandur II 8x8 platform fitted with a new turret armed with a 105 mm gun developed by Elbit in partnership with Denel Land Systems. The Notice of Award (NOA) for the project was issued to Elbit Systems Land by the Department of National Defense in September 2020.


title: 2021–22 Swiss Super League

text: The 2021–22 Swiss Super League (referred to as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsoring reasons) was the 125th season of top-tier competitive football in Switzerland and the 19th under its current name and format.


title: 2021–22 Swiss Super League

text: A total of ten teams competed in the league: the eight best teams from the 2020–21 season, the 2020–21 Swiss Challenge League champions Grasshopper Club Zürich and relegation play-off winners Sion. Young Boys were the four-time defending champions.


title: 2021–22 Swiss Super League

text: The ninth-placed team of the Super League played the runners-up of the Challenge League. The games were held on 26 and 29 May 2022, respectively. The runner-up of the Challenge League hosted the first game.


title: 2021–22 Swiss Super League

text: FC Schaffhausen was confirmed as the runner-up of the Challenge League on 21 May 2022. On 22 May, FC Luzern was confirmed as their opponent.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: Dido and Aeneas (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was composed no later than July 1688, and had been performed at Josias Priest's girls' school in London by the end of 1689. Some scholars argue for a date of composition as early as 1683. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's "Aeneid". It recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. A monumental work in Baroque opera, "Dido and Aeneas" is remembered as one of Purcell's foremost theatrical works. It was also Purcell's only true opera, as well as his only all-sung dramatic work. One of the earliest known English operas, it owes much to John Blow's "Venus and Adonis", both in structure and in overall effect.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: The influence of Cavalli's opera "Didone" is also apparent. Both works use the prologue/three acts format and there are similarities between, for instance, Mercury's solo in Didone and the solo "Come away fellow sailors" in Purcell's work.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: Before "Dido and Aeneas," Purcell had composed music for several stage works, including nine pieces for Nathaniel Lee's "Theodosius, or The Force of Love" (1680) and eight songs for Thomas d'Urfey's "A Fool's Preferment" (1688). He also composed songs for two plays by Nahum Tate (later the librettist of Dido and Aeneas), "The Sicilian Usurper" (1680) and "Cuckold's Haven" (1685). "Dido and Aeneas" was Purcell's first (and only) all-sung opera and derives from the English masque tradition.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: Originally based on Nahum Tate's play "Brutus of Alba, or The Enchanted Lovers" (1678), the opera is likely, at least to some extent, to be allegorical. The prologue refers to the joy of a marriage between two monarchs, which could refer to the marriage between William and Mary. In a poem of about 1686, Tate alluded to James II as Aeneas, who is misled by the evil machinations of the Sorceress and her witches (representing Roman Catholicism, a common metaphor at the time) into abandoning Dido, who symbolises the British people. The same symbolism may apply to the opera. This explains the addition of the characters of the Sorceress and the witches, which do not appear in the original "Aeneid". It would be noble, or at least acceptable, for Aeneas to follow the decree of the Gods, but not so acceptable for him to be tricked by ill-meaning spirits.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: Although the opera is a tragedy, there are numerous seemingly lighter scenes, such as the First Sailor's song, "Take a boozy short leave of your nymphs on the shore, and silence their mourning with vows of returning, though never intending to visit them more." Musicologist Ellen T. Harris considers the callousness and cynicism of the song to underline the "moral" of the story, that young women should not succumb to the advances and promises of ardent young men.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: No score in Purcell's hand is extant, and the only seventeenth-century source is a libretto, possibly from the original performance. The earliest extant score, held in the Bodleian Library, was copied no earlier than 1750, well over sixty years after the opera was composed. No later sources follow the act divisions of the libretto, and the music to the prologue is lost. The prologue, the end of the act 2 'Grove' scene, and several dances, were almost certainly lost when the opera was divided into parts to be performed as interludes between the acts of spoken plays in the first decade of the eighteenth century.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: The first of the arias to be published separately was "Ah, Belinda" in "Orpheus Britannicus". The most famous aria of the work is "When I am laid in earth", popularly known as "Dido's Lament". Both arias are formed on a lamento ground bass. "Dido's Lament" has been performed or recorded by artists far from the typical operatic school, such as Klaus Nomi (as "Death"), Ane Brun and Jeff Buckley. It has also been transcribed or used in many scores, including the soundtrack to the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" (renamed "Nixon's Walk"). It is played annually by a military band at the Cenotaph remembrance ceremony, which takes place on the Sunday nearest to 11 November (Armistice Day) in London's Whitehall. The music is sometimes thought to be too simple for Purcell in 1689, but this may simply reflect that the intended performers were schoolchildren. The work is scored for four-part strings and continuo. The fact that the libretto from the Chelsea School performance indicates two dances for guitar, the "Dance Gittars Chacony" in act 1, and the "Gittar Ground a Dance" in the 'Grove' scene of act 2, has led one scholar to suggest that Purcell envisaged a guitar as a primary member of the continuo group for the opera. Music for neither of these dances is extant, and it seems likely that Purcell did not compose them, but rather left them to be improvised by the guitarist. Several editions of the opera have been made and have been provided with a continuo realisation; a notable, if rather idiosyncratic edition being that made by Imogen Holst and Benjamin Britten. There are a number of editions with realisations, and the opera's accessibility to amateur performers is a feature that has greatly abetted the growth of its popularity in the latter half of the twentieth century. While the Prologue's music has been lost and has not been reconstructed, several realisations of the opera include a solution to the missing "ritornello" at the end of the second act. Known to have been part of the score, it is now performed as a dance taken from other, similar works by Purcell, or invented outright in the same vein, to keep the integrity and continuity of the performance.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: A letter from the Levant merchant Rowland Sherman associates "Dido and Aeneas" with Josias Priest's girls' school in Chelsea, London no later than the summer of 1688. The first performance may have taken place as early as 1 December 1687, and evidence suggests that the opera was performed at the school again in 1689. Several scholars have argued that the work was composed for the English court, either for Charles II (and perhaps as early as 1684) or for James II. Following the Chelsea performances, the opera was not staged again in Purcell's lifetime. Its next performance was in 1700 as a "masque" incorporated into "Beauty the Best Advocate", an adapted version of Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" at Thomas Betterton's theatre in London.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: After 1705 it disappeared as a staged work, with only sporadic concert performances, until 1895 when the first staged version in modern times was performed by students of the Royal College of Music at London's Lyceum Theatre to mark the bicentenary of Purcell's death. "Dido and Aeneas" received its first performance outside England on 14 December 1895 in a concert version at the University Society in Dublin.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: "Dido and Aeneas" premiered in the United States at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on 10 February 1923 performed by the girls of the Rosemary School, although "The New York Times" noted that "considerable liberties" had been taken with the score. A concert version with professional musicians organised by the Society of Friends of Music took place on 13 January 1924 at the New York City Town Hall, using a score edited by Artur Bodanzky, who also conducted the performance.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: As new critical editions of the score appeared, and with the revival of interest in Baroque music, the number of productions steadily increased. After Jonathan Miller's visit to Bornholm, Denmark, "Dido" was performed in 2007 at the Rønne Theatre, which had been built in 1823. Kevin Duggan conducted. Amongst the new productions of the opera in 2009, the 350th anniversary of Purcell's birth, were those staged by the De Nederlandse Opera, the Royal Opera, London, the Divertimento Baroque Opera Company, and Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, New York. The Royal Opera production, which featured contemporary dance by Wayne McGregor Random Dance and animated effects by Mark Hatchard, formed part of a double bill with Handel's "Acis and Galatea". In 2011 the opera was revived by City Wall Productions and set during World War II. A new Opera North production of the opera opened at Leeds Grand Theatre in February 2013. Opera Up Close performed a truncated version in 2011, setting it in an American high school in the 1950s.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: A version of the opera adapted to modern dance was choreographed by the American Mark Morris, who originally danced both the roles of Dido and the Sorceress. It premiered on 11 March 1989 at the Théâtre Varia in Brussels. It has since been performed many times and was filmed in 1995 by Canadian director Barbara Willis Sweete, with Morris in the roles of Dido and the Sorceress. The production was subsequently seen at the Grand Théâtre in Luxembourg, Opéra national de Montpellier, and Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. In both the Morris and the Waltz adaptations, the characters are each portrayed by both a singer and a dancer, with the dancers onstage and the singers performing from the side of the stage or the orchestra pit.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: The opera opens with Dido in her court with her attendants. Belinda is trying to cheer up Dido, but Dido is full of sorrow, saying 'Peace and I are strangers grown'. Belinda believes the source of this grief to be the Trojan Aeneas, and suggests that Carthage's troubles could be resolved by a marriage between the two. Dido and Belinda talk for a time: Dido fears that her love will make her a weak monarch, but Belinda and the Second Woman reassure her that "The hero loves as well." Aeneas enters the court, and is at first received coldly by Dido, but she eventually accepts his proposal of marriage.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: The Sorceress/Sorcerer is plotting the destruction of Carthage and its queen, and summons companions to help with evil plans. The plan is to send her "trusted elf" disguised as Mercury, someone to whom Aeneas will surely listen, to tempt him to leave Dido and sail to Italy. This would leave Dido heartbroken, and she would surely die. The chorus join in with terrible laughter, and the Enchantresses decide to conjure up a storm to make Dido and her train leave the grove and return to the palace. When the spell is prepared, the witches vanish in a thunderclap.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: Dido and Aeneas are accompanied by their train. They stop at the grove to take in its beauty. A lot of action is going on, with attendants carrying goods from the hunt and a picnic possibly taking place, and Dido and Aeneas are together within the activity. This is all stopped when Dido hears distant thunder, prompting Belinda to tell the servants to prepare for a return to shelter as soon as possible. As every other character leaves the stage, Aeneas is stopped by the Sorceress's elf, who is disguised as Mercury. This pretend Mercury brings the command of Jove that Aeneas is to wait no longer in beginning his task of creating a new Troy on Latin soil. Aeneas consents to the wishes of what he believes are the gods, but is heart-broken that he will have to leave Dido. He then goes off-stage to prepare for his departure from Carthage.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: Preparations are being made for the departure of the Trojan fleet. The sailors sing a song, which is followed shortly by the Sorceress and her companions' sudden appearance. The group is pleased at how well their plan has worked, and the Sorceress sings a solo describing her further plans for the destruction of Aeneas "on the ocean". All the characters begin to clear the stage after a dance in three sections, and then disperse.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: Dido and Belinda enter, shocked at Aeneas’ disappearance. Dido is distraught and Belinda comforts her. Suddenly Aeneas returns, but Dido is full of fear before Aeneas speaks, and his words only serve to confirm her suspicions. She derides his reasons for leaving, and even when Aeneas says he will defy the gods and not leave Carthage, Dido rejects him for having once thought of leaving her. After Dido forces Aeneas to leave, she states that "Death must come when he is gone." The opera and Dido's life both slowly come to a conclusion, as the Queen of Carthage sings her last aria, "When I am laid in Earth", also known as "Dido's Lament." The chorus and orchestra then conclude the opera once Dido is dead by ordering the "cupids to scatter roses on her tomb, soft and gentle as her heart. Keep here your watch, and never, never part."


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: The first complete recording of the opera was made by Decca Records in 1935 with Nancy Evans as Dido and Roy Henderson as Aeneas, followed in 1945 by HMV's release with Joan Hammond and Dennis Noble. Kirsten Flagstad, who had sung the role at the Mermaid Theatre in London, recorded it in 1951 for EMI with Thomas Hemsley as Aeneas. "Dido and Aeneas" has been recorded many times since the 1960s with Dido sung by mezzo-sopranos such as Janet Baker (1961), Tatiana Troyanos (1968), Teresa Berganza (1986), Anne Sofie von Otter (1989) and Susan Graham (2003). In addition to Joan Hammond and Kirsten Flagstad, sopranos who have recorded the role include Victoria de los Ángeles (1965), Emma Kirkby (1981), Jessye Norman (1986), Catherine Bott (1992), Lynne Dawson (1998), and Evelyn Tubb (2004).


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: Beginning with two pioneering recordings of the work with original instruments: Joel Cohen's 1979 recording with the Boston Camerata, on Harmonia Mundi, and Andrew Parrott's 1981 recording for Chandos with the Taverner Consort and Players, there was an increasing preference for a more genuine period sound. Further recordings by conductors and ensembles using this approach include those by Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants (1986); Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert (1989); René Jacobs and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (1998); Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d'Astrée (2003); and Predrag Gosta and New Trinity Baroque (2004). The Haïm recording with Susan Graham as Dido and Ian Bostridge as Aeneas was nominated for the Best Opera Recording in the 2005 Grammy Awards. Another notable recording dates from 1994, with The Scholars Baroque Ensemble and Kym Amps as Dido.


title: Dido and Aeneas

text: Several performances of the opera have been filmed and are available on DVD, most recently the 2008 performance at the Opéra-Comique in Paris conducted by William Christie and directed by Deborah Warner (FRA Musica FRA001) and the 2009 performance at London's Royal Opera House conducted by Christopher Hogwood and directed by Wayne McGregor (OpusArte OA1018D). The Mark Morris dance version of the opera is also preserved on DVD (recorded 1995, Image Entertainment 8741) as is the dance version by Sasha Waltz (recorded 2005, Arthaus Musik 101311). Leopold Stokowski made a string orchestra arrangement of "Dido's Lament". Others who have recorded it include Matthias Bamert, José Serebrier, Richard Egarr and Iona Brown.


title: Political integration of India

text: At the time of Indian independence in 1947, India was divided into two sets of territories, one under direct British rule, and the other under the suzerainty of the British Crown, with control over their internal affairs remaining in the hands of their hereditary rulers. The latter included 562 princely states, having different types of revenue sharing arrangements with the British, often depending on their size, population and local conditions. In addition, there were several colonial enclaves controlled by France and Portugal. The political integration of these territories into India was a declared objective of the Indian National Congress, and the Government of India pursued this over the next decade. Through a combination of factors, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and V. P. Menon coerced and coalesced the rulers of the various princely states to accede to India. Having secured their accession, they then proceeded, in a step-by-step process, to secure and extend the union government's authority over these states and transform their administrations until, by 1956, there was little difference between the territories that had been part of British India and those that had been princely states. Simultaneously, the Government of India, through a combination of military and diplomatic means, acquired "de facto" and "de jure" control over the remaining colonial enclaves, which too were integrated into India.


title: Political integration of India

text: Although this process successfully integrated the vast majority of princely states into India, it was not as successful for a few, notably the former princely states of Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur, where active secessionist and separatist insurgencies continued to exist due to various reasons.


title: Political integration of India

text: The early history of British expansion in India was characterised by the co-existence of two approaches towards the existing princely states. The first was a policy of annexation, where the British sought to forcibly absorb the Indian princely states into the provinces which constituted their Empire in India. The second was a policy of indirect rule, where the British assumed paramountcy over princely states, but conceded to them sovereignty and varying degrees of internal self-government. During the early part of the 19th century, the policy of the British tended towards annexation, but the Indian Rebellion of 1857 forced a change in this approach, by demonstrating both the difficulty of absorbing and subduing annexed states, and the usefulness of princely states as a source of support. In 1858, the policy of annexation was formally renounced, and British relations with the remaining princely states thereafter were based on subsidiary alliances, whereby the British exercised paramountcy over all princely states, with the British crown as ultimate suzerain, but at the same time respected and protected them as allies, taking control of their external relations. The exact relations between the British and each princely state were regulated by individual treaties and varied widely, with some states having complete internal self-government, others being subject to significant control in their internal affairs, and some rulers being in effect little more than the owners of landed estates, with little autonomy.


title: Political integration of India

text: During the 20th century, the British made several attempts to integrate the princely states more closely with British India, in 1921 creating the Chamber of Princes as a consultative and advisory body, and in 1936 transferring the responsibility for the supervision of smaller states from the provinces to the centre and creating direct relations between the Government of India and the larger princely states, superseding political agents. A more ambitious aim was a scheme of federation contained in the Government of India Act 1935, which envisaged the princely states and British India being united under a federal government. This scheme came close to success, but was abandoned in 1939 as a result of the outbreak of the Second World War. As a result, in the 1940s the relationship between the princely states and the crown remained regulated by the principle of paramountcy and by the various treaties between the British crown and the states.


title: Political integration of India

text: Neither paramountcy nor the subsidiary alliances could continue after Indian independence. The British took the view that because they had been established directly between the British crown and the princely states, they could not be transferred to the newly independent dominions of India and Pakistan. At the same time, the alliances imposed obligations on Britain that it was not prepared to continue to carry out, such as the obligation to maintain troops in India for the defence of the princely states. The British government therefore decided that paramountcy, together with all treaties between them and the princely states, would come to an end upon the British departure from India.


title: Political integration of India

text: The termination of paramountcy meant that all rights flowing from the states' relationship with the British crown would return to them, leaving them free to negotiate relationships with the new states of India and Pakistan "on a basis of complete freedom". Early British plans for the transfer of power, such as the offer produced by the Cripps Mission, recognised the possibility that some princely states might choose to stand out of independent India. This was unacceptable to the Indian National Congress, which regarded the independence of princely states as a denial of the course of Indian history, and consequently regarded this scheme as a "Balkanisation" of India. The Congress had traditionally been less active in the princely states because of their limited resources which restricted their ability to organise there and their focus on the goal of independence from the British, and because Congress leaders, in particular Mohandas Gandhi, were sympathetic to the more progressive princes as examples of the capacity of Indians to rule themselves. This changed in the 1930s as a result of the federation scheme contained in the Government of India Act 1935 and the rise of socialist Congress leaders such as Jayaprakash Narayan, and the Congress began to actively engage with popular political and labour activity in the princely states. By 1939, the Congress's formal stance was that the states must enter independent India, on the same terms and with the same autonomy as the provinces of British India, and with their people granted responsible government. As a result, it attempted to insist on the incorporation of the princely states into India in its negotiations with the British, but the British took the view that this was not in their power to grant.


title: Political integration of India

text: A few British leaders, particularly Lord Mountbatten, the last British viceroy of India, were also uncomfortable with breaking links between independent India and the princely states. The development of trade, commerce and communications during the 19th and 20th centuries had bound the princely states to the British India through a complex network of interests. Agreements relating to railways, customs, irrigation, use of ports, and other similar agreements would get terminated, posing a serious threat to the economic life of the subcontinent. Mountbatten was also persuaded by the argument of Indian officials such as V. P. Menon that the integration of the princely states into independent India would, to some extent, assuage the wounds of partition. The result was that Mountbatten personally favoured and worked towards the accession of princely states to India following the transfer of power, as proposed by the Congress.


title: Political integration of India

text: The rulers of the princely states were not uniformly enthusiastic about integrating their domains into independent India. The Jamkhandi State integrated first with Independent India. Some, such as the rulers of Bikaner and Jawhar, were motivated to join India out of ideological and patriotic considerations, but others insisted that they had the right to join either India or Pakistan, to remain independent, or form a union of their own. Bhopal, Travancore and Hyderabad announced that they did not intend to join either dominion. Hyderabad went as far as to appoint trade representatives in European countries and commencing negotiations with the Portuguese to lease or buy Goa to give it access to the sea, and Travancore pointed to the strategic importance to Western countries of its thorium reserves while asking for recognition. Some states proposed a subcontinent-wide confederation of princely states, as a third entity in addition to India and Pakistan. Bhopal attempted to build an alliance between the princely states and the Muslim League to counter the pressure being put on rulers by the Congress.


title: Political integration of India

text: A number of factors contributed to the collapse of this initial resistance and to nearly all non-Muslim majority princely states agreeing to accede to India. An important factor was the lack of unity among the princes. The smaller states did not trust the larger states to protect their interests, and many Hindu rulers did not trust Muslim princes, in particular Hamidullah Khan, the Nawab of Bhopal and a leading proponent of independence, whom they viewed as an agent for Pakistan. Others, believing integration to be inevitable, sought to build bridges with the Congress, hoping thereby to gain a say in shaping the final settlement. The resultant inability to present a united front or agree on a common position significantly reduced their bargaining power in negotiations with the Congress. The decision by the Muslim League to stay out of the Constituent Assembly was also fatal to the princes' plan to build an alliance with it to counter the Congress, and attempts to boycott the Constituent Assembly altogether failed on 28 April 1947, when the states of Baroda, Bikaner, Cochin, Gwalior, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Patiala and Rewa took their seats in the Assembly.


title: Political integration of India

text: Many princes were also pressured by popular sentiment favouring integration with India, which meant their plans for independence had little support from their subjects. The Maharaja of Travancore, for example, definitively abandoned his plans for independence after the attempted assassination of his dewan, Sir C. P. Ramaswami Iyer. In a few states, the chief ministers or dewans played a significant role in convincing the princes to accede to India. The key factors that led the states to accept integration into India were, however, the efforts of Lord Mountbatten, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and V. P. Menon. The latter two were respectively the political and administrative heads of the States Department, which was in charge of relations with the princely states.


title: Political integration of India

text: Mountbatten believed that securing the states' accession to India was crucial to reaching a negotiated settlement with the Congress for the transfer of power. As a relative of the British King, he was trusted by most of the princes and was a personal friend of many, especially the Nawab of Bhopal, Hamidullah Khan. The princes also believed that he would be in a position to ensure that independent India adhered to any terms that might be agreed upon, because Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Patel had asked him to become the first Governor General of the Dominion of India.


title: Political integration of India

text: Mountbatten used his influence with the princes to push them towards accession. He declared that the British Government would not grant dominion status to any of the princely states, nor would it accept them into the British Commonwealth, which meant that the British Crown would sever all connections with the states unless they joined either India or Pakistan. He pointed out that the Indian subcontinent was one economic entity, and that the states would suffer most if the link were broken. He also pointed to the difficulties that princes would face maintaining order in the face of threats such as the rise of communal violence and communist movements.


title: Political integration of India

text: Mountbatten stressed that he would act as the trustee of the princes' commitment, as he would be serving as India's head of state well into 1948. He engaged in a personal dialogue with reluctant princes, such as the Nawab of Bhopal, who he asked through a confidential letter to sign the Instrument of Accession making Bhopal part of India, which Mountbatten would keep locked up in his safe. It would be handed to the States Department on 15 August only if the Nawab did not change his mind before then, which he was free to do. The Nawab agreed, and did not renege over the deal.


title: Political integration of India

text: At the time, several princes complained that they were being betrayed by Britain, who they regarded as an ally, and Sir Conrad Corfield resigned his position as head of the Political Department in protest at Mountbatten's policies. Mountbatten's policies were also criticised by the opposition Conservative Party. Winston Churchill compared the language used by the Indian government with that used by Adolf Hitler before the invasion of Austria. Modern historians such as Lumby and Moore, however, take the view that Mountbatten played a crucial role in ensuring that the princely states agreed to accede to India.


title: Political integration of India

text: By far the most significant factor that led to the princes' decision to accede to India was the policy of the Congress and, in particular, of Patel and Menon. The Congress' stated position was that the princely states were not sovereign entities, and as such could not opt to be independent notwithstanding the end of paramountcy. The princely states must therefore accede to either India or Pakistan. In July 1946, Nehru pointedly observed that no princely state could prevail militarily against the army of independent India. In January 1947, he said that independent India would not accept the divine right of kings, and in May 1947, he declared that any princely state which refused to join the Constituent Assembly would be treated as an enemy state. Other Congress leaders, such as C. Rajagopalachari, argued that as paramountcy "came into being as a fact and not by agreement", it would necessarily pass to the government of independent India, as the successor of the British.


title: Political integration of India

text: Patel and Menon, who were charged with the actual job of negotiating with the princes, took a more conciliatory approach than Nehru. The official policy statement of the Government of India made by Patel on 5 July 1947 made no threats. Instead, it emphasised the unity of India and the common interests of the princes and independent India, reassured them about the Congress' intentions, and invited them to join independent India "to make laws sitting together as friends than to make treaties as aliens". He reiterated that the States Department would not attempt to establish a relationship of domination over the princely states. Unlike the Political Department of the British Government, it would not be an instrument of paramountcy, but a medium whereby business could be conducted between the states and India as equals.


title: Political integration of India

text: Patel and Menon backed up their diplomatic efforts by producing treaties that were designed to be attractive to rulers of princely states. Two key documents were produced. The first was the Standstill Agreement, which confirmed the continuance of the pre-existing agreements and administrative practices. The second was the Instrument of Accession, by which the ruler of the princely state in question agreed to the accession of his kingdom to independent India, granting the latter control over specified subject matters. The nature of the subject matters varied depending on the acceding state. The states which had internal autonomy under the British signed an Instrument of Accession which only ceded three subjects to the government of India—defence, external affairs, and communications, each defined in accordance with List 1 to Schedule VII of the Government of India Act 1935. Rulers of states which were in effect estates or talukas, where substantial administrative powers were exercised by the Crown, signed a different Instrument of Accession, which vested all residuary powers and jurisdiction in the Government of India. Rulers of states which had an intermediate status signed a third type of Instrument, which preserved the degree of power they had under the British.


title: Political integration of India

text: The Instruments of Accession implemented a number of other safeguards. Clause 7 provided that the princes would not be bound to the Indian constitution as and when it was drafted. Clause 8 guaranteed their autonomy in all areas that were not ceded to the Government of India. This was supplemented by a number of promises. Rulers who agreed to accede would receive guarantees that their extra-territorial rights, such as immunity from prosecution in Indian courts and exemption from customs duty, would be protected, that they would be allowed to democratise slowly, that none of the eighteen major states would be forced to merge, and that they would remain eligible for British honours and decorations. In discussions, Lord Mountbatten reinforced the statements of Patel and Menon by emphasising that the documents gave the princes all the "practical independence" they needed. Mountbatten, Patel and Menon also sought to give princes the impression that if they did not accept the terms put to them then, they might subsequently need to accede on substantially less favourable terms. The Standstill Agreement was also used as a negotiating tool, as the States Department categorically ruled out signing a Standstill Agreement with princely states that did not sign an Instrument of Accession.


title: Political integration of India

text: The limited scope of the Instruments of Accession and the promise of a wide-ranging autonomy and the other guarantees they offered, gave sufficient comfort to many rulers, who saw this as the best deal they could strike given the lack of support from the British, and popular internal pressures. Between May 1947 and the transfer of power on 15 August 1947, the vast majority of states signed Instruments of Accession. A few, however, held out. Some simply delayed signing the Instrument of Accession. Piploda, a small state in central India, did not accede until March 1948. The biggest problems, however, arose with a few border states, such as Jodhpur, which tried to negotiate better deals with Pakistan, with Junagadh, which actually did accede to Pakistan, and with Hyderabad and Kashmir, which decided to remain independent.


title: Political integration of India

text: The ruler of Jodhpur, Hanwant Singh, was antipathetic to the Congress, and did not see much future in India for him or the lifestyle he wished to lead. Along with the ruler of Jaisalmer, he entered into negotiations with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who was the designated head of state for Pakistan. Jinnah was keen to attract some of the larger border states, hoping thereby to attract other Rajput states to Pakistan and compensate for the loss of half of Bengal and Punjab. He offered to permit Jodhpur and Jaisalmer to accede to Pakistan on any terms they chose, giving their rulers blank sheets of paper and asking them to write down their terms, which he would sign. Jaisalmer refused, arguing that it would be difficult for him to side with Muslims against Hindus in the event of communal problems. Hanwant Singh came close to signing. However, the atmosphere in Jodhpur was in general hostile to accession to Pakistan. Mountbatten also pointed out that the accession of a predominantly Hindu state to Pakistan would violate the principle of the two-nation theory on which Pakistan was based, and was likely to cause communal violence in the State. Hanwant Singh was persuaded by these arguments, and somewhat reluctantly agreed to accede to India.


title: Political integration of India

text: In the northeast India, the border states of Manipur and Tripura acceded to India on 11 August and 13 August respectively


title: Political integration of India

text: Although the states were in theory free to choose whether they wished to accede to India or Pakistan, Mountbatten had pointed out that "geographic compulsions" meant that most of them must choose India. In effect, he took the position that only the states that shared a border with Pakistan could choose to accede to it.


title: Political integration of India

text: The Nawab of Junagadh, a princely state located on the south-western end of Gujarat and having no common border with Pakistan, chose to accede to Pakistan ignoring Mountbatten's views, arguing that it could be reached from Pakistan by sea. The rulers of two states that were subject to the suzerainty of Junagadh—Mangrol and Babariawad—reacted to this by declaring their independence from Junagadh and acceding to India. In response, the Nawab of Junagadh militarily occupied the states. The rulers of neighbouring states reacted angrily, sending their troops to the Junagadh frontier and appealed to the Government of India for assistance. A group of Junagadhi people, led by Samaldas Gandhi, formed a government-in-exile, the "Aarzi Hukumat" ("provisional government").


title: Political integration of India

text: India believed that if Junagadh was permitted to go to Pakistan, the communal tension already simmering in Gujarat would worsen, and refused to accept the accession. The government pointed out that the state was 80% Hindu, and called for a referendum to decide the question of accession. Simultaneously, they cut off supplies of fuel and coal to Junagadh, severed air and postal links, sent troops to the frontier, and reoccupied the principalities of Mangrol and Babariawad that had acceded to India. Pakistan agreed to discuss a plebiscite, subject to the withdrawal of Indian troops, a condition India rejected. On 26 October, the Nawab and his family fled to Pakistan following clashes with Indian troops. On 7 November, Junagadh's court, facing collapse, invited the Government of India to take over the State's administration. The Government of India agreed. A plebiscite was conducted in February 1948, which went almost unanimously in favour of accession to India.


title: Political integration of India

text: At the time of the transfer of power, the state of Jammu and Kashmir (widely called "Kashmir") was ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh, a Hindu, although the state itself had a Muslim majority. Hari Singh was equally hesitant about acceding to either India or Pakistan, as either would have provoked adverse reactions in parts of his kingdom. He signed a Standstill Agreement with Pakistan and proposed one with India as well, but announced that Kashmir intended to remain independent. However, his rule was opposed by Sheikh Abdullah, the popular leader of Kashmir's largest political party, the National Conference, who demanded his abdication.


title: Political integration of India

text: Pakistan, attempting to force the issue of Kashmir's accession, cut off supplies and transport links. Its transport links with India were tenuous and flooded during the rainy season. Thus Kashmir's only links with the two dominions was by air. Rumours about atrocities against the Muslim population of Poonch by the Maharajah's forces circulated in Pakistan. Shortly thereafter, Pathan tribesmen from the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan crossed the border and entered Kashmir. The invaders made rapid progress towards Srinagar. The Maharaja of Kashmir wrote to India, asking for military assistance. India required the signing of an Instrument of Accession and setting up an interim government headed by Sheikh Abdullah in return. The Maharaja complied, but Nehru declared that it would have to be confirmed by a plebiscite, although there was no legal requirement to seek such confirmation.


title: Political integration of India

text: Indian troops secured Jammu, Srinagar and the valley itself during the First Kashmir War, but the intense fighting flagged with the onset of winter, which made much of the state impassable. Prime Minister Nehru, recognising the degree of international attention brought to bear on the dispute, declared a ceasefire and sought UN arbitration, arguing that India would otherwise have to invade Pakistan itself, in view of its failure to stop the tribal incursions. The plebiscite was never held, and on 26 January 1950, the Constitution of India came into force in Kashmir, but with special provisions made for the state. India did not, however, secure administrative control over all of Kashmir. The northern and western portions of Kashmir came under Pakistan's control in 1947, and are today Pakistan-administered Kashmir. In the 1962 Sino-Indian War, China occupied Aksai Chin, the north-eastern region bordering Ladakh, which it continues to control and administer.


title: Political integration of India

text: Hyderabad was a landlocked state that stretched over 82,000 square miles (over 212,000 square kilometres) in southeastern India. While 87% of its 17 million people were Hindu, its ruler Nizam Osman Ali Khan was a Muslim, and its politics were dominated by a Muslim elite. The Muslim nobility and the Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, a powerful pro-Nizam Muslim party, insisted Hyderabad remain independent and stand on an equal footing to India and Pakistan. Accordingly, the Nizam in June 1947 issued a "firman" announcing that on the transfer of power, his state would be resuming independence. The Government of India rejected the firman, terming it a "legalistic claim of doubtful validity". It argued that the strategic location of Hyderabad, which lay astride the main lines of communication between northern and southern India, meant it could easily be used by "foreign interests" to threaten India, and that in consequence, the issue involved national-security concerns. It also pointed out that the state's people, history and location made it unquestionably Indian, and that its own "common interests" therefore mandated its integration into India.


title: Political integration of India

text: The Nizam was prepared to enter into a limited treaty with India, which gave Hyderabad safeguards not provided for in the standard Instrument of Accession, such as a provision guaranteeing Hyderabad's neutrality in the event of a conflict between India and Pakistan. India rejected this proposal, arguing that other states would demand similar concessions. A temporary Standstill Agreement was signed as a stopgap measure, even though Hyderabad had not yet agreed to accede to India. By December 1947, however, India was accusing Hyderabad of repeatedly violating the Agreement, while the Nizam alleged that India was blockading his state, a charge India denied.


title: Political integration of India

text: The Nizam was also beset by the Telangana Rebellion, led by communists, which started in 1946 as a peasant revolt against feudal elements; and one which the Nizam was not able to subjugate. The situation deteriorated further in 1948. The Razakars ("volunteers"), a militia affiliated to the Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen and set up under the influence of Muslim radical Qasim Razvi, assumed the role of supporting the Muslim ruling class against upsurges by the Hindu populace, and began intensifying its activities and was accused of attempting to intimidate villages. The Hyderabad State Congress Party, affiliated to the Indian National Congress, launched a political agitation. Matters were made worse by communist groups, which had originally supported the Congress but now switched sides and began attacking Congress groups. Attempts by Mountbatten to find a negotiated solution failed and, in August, the Nizam, claiming that he feared an imminent invasion, attempted to approach the UN Security Council and the International Court of Justice. Patel now insisted that if Hyderabad was allowed to continue its independence, the prestige of the Government would be tarnished and then neither Hindus nor Muslims would feel secure in its realm.


title: Political integration of India

text: On 13 September 1948, the Indian Army was sent into Hyderabad under Operation Polo on the grounds that the law and order situation there threatened the peace of South India. The troops met little resistance by the Razakars and between 13 and 18 September took complete control of the state. The operation led to massive communal violence with estimates of deaths ranging from the official one of 27,000–40,000 to scholarly ones of 200,000 or more. The Nizam was retained as the head of state in the same manner as the other princes who acceded to India. He thereupon disavowed the complaints that had been made to the UN and, despite vehement protests from Pakistan and strong criticism from other countries, the Security Council did not deal further with the question, and Hyderabad was absorbed into India.


title: Political integration of India

text: The Instruments of Accession were limited, transferring control of only three matters to India, and would by themselves have produced a rather loose federation, with significant differences in administration and governance across the various states. Full political integration, in contrast, would require a process whereby the political actors in the various states were "persuaded to shift their loyalties, expectations, and political activities towards a new center", namely, the Republic of India. This was not an easy task. While some princely states such as Mysore had legislative systems of governance that were based on a broad franchise and not significantly different from those of British India, in others, political decision-making took place in small, limited aristocratic circles and governance was, as a result, at best paternalistic and at worst the result of courtly intrigue. Having secured the accession of the princely states, the Government of India between 1948 and 1950 turned to the task of welding the states and the former British provinces into one polity under a single republican constitution.


title: Political integration of India

text: The first step in this process, carried out between 1947 and 1949, was to merge the smaller states that were not seen by the Government of India to be viable administrative units either into neighbouring provinces, or with other princely states to create a "princely union". This policy was contentious, since it involved the dissolution of the very states whose existence India had only recently guaranteed in the Instruments of Accession. Patel and Menon emphasised that without integration, the economies of states would collapse, and anarchy would arise if the princes were unable to provide democracy and govern properly. They pointed out that many of the smaller states were very small and lacked resources to sustain their economies and support their growing populations. Many also imposed tax rules and other restrictions that impeded free trade, and which had to be dismantled in a united India.


title: Political integration of India

text: Given that merger involved the breach of guarantees personally given by Mountbatten, initially Patel and Nehru intended to wait until after his term as Governor-General ended. An adivasi uprising in Orissa in late 1947, however, forced their hand. In December 1947, princes from the Eastern India Agency and Chhattisgarh Agency were summoned to an all-night meeting with Menon, where they were persuaded to sign Merger Agreements integrating their states into Orissa, the Central Provinces and Bihar with effect from 1 January 1948. Later that year, 66 states in Gujarat and the Deccan were merged into Bombay, including the large states of Kolhapur and Baroda. Other small states were merged into Madras, East Punjab, West Bengal, the United Provinces and Assam. Not all states that signed Merger Agreements were integrated into provinces, however. Thirty states of the former Punjab Hill States Agency which lay near the international border and had signed Merger Agreements were integrated into Himachal Pradesh, a distinct entity which was administered directly by the centre as a Chief Commissioner's Province, for reasons of security.


title: Political integration of India

text: The Merger Agreements required rulers to cede "full and exclusive jurisdiction and powers for and in relation to governance" of their state to the Dominion of India. In return for their agreement to entirely cede their states, it gave princes a large number of guarantees. Princes would receive an annual payment from the Indian government in the form of a privy purse as compensation for the surrender of their powers and the dissolution of their states. While state property would be taken over, their private property would be protected, as would all personal privileges, dignities and titles. Succession was also guaranteed according to custom. In addition, the provincial administration was obliged to take on the staff of the princely states with guarantees of equal pay and treatment.


title: Political integration of India

text: A second kind of 'merger' agreements were demanded from larger states along sensitive border areas: Kutch in western India, and Tripura and Manipur in Northeast India. They were not merged into other states but retained as Chief Commissioners' Provinces under the central government control. Bhopal, whose ruler was proud of the efficiency of his administration and feared that it would lose its identity if merged with the Maratha states that were its neighbours, also became a directly administered Chief Commissioner's Province, as did Bilaspur, much of which was likely to be flooded on completion of the Bhakra dam.


title: Political integration of India

text: The bulk of the larger states, and some groups of small states, were integrated through a different, four-step process. The first step in this process was to convince adjacent large states and a large number of adjacent small states to combine to form a "princely union" through the execution by their rulers of Covenants of Merger. Under the Covenants of Merger, all rulers lost their ruling powers, save one who became the Rajpramukh of the new union. The other rulers were associated with two bodies—the council of rulers, whose members were the rulers of salute states, and a presidium, one or more of whose members were elected by the rulers of non-salute states, with the rest elected by the council. The Rajpramukh and his deputy "Uprajpramukh" were chosen by the council from among the members of the presidium. The Covenants made provision for the creation of a constituent assembly for the new union which would be charged with framing its constitution. In return for agreeing to the extinction of their states as discrete entities, the rulers were given a privy purse and guarantees similar to those provided under the Merger Agreements.


title: Political integration of India

text: Through this process, Patel obtained the unification of 222 states in the Kathiawar peninsula of his native Gujarat into the princely union of Saurashtra in January 1948, with six more states joining the union the following year. Madhya Bharat emerged on 28 May 1948 from a union of Gwalior, Indore and eighteen smaller states. In Punjab, the Patiala and East Punjab States Union was formed on 15 July 1948 from Patiala, Kapurthala, Jind, Nabha, Faridkot, Malerkotla, Nalargarh, and Kalsia. The United State of Rajasthan was formed as the result of a series of mergers, the last of which was completed on 15 May 1949. Travancore and Cochin were merged in the middle of 1949 to form the princely union of Travancore-Cochin. The only princely states which signed neither Covenants of Merger nor Merger Agreements were Kashmir, Mysore and Hyderabad.


title: Political integration of India

text: Merging the administrative machineries of each state and integrating them into one political and administrative entity was not easy, particularly as many of the merged states had a history of rivalry. In the former Central India Agency, whose princely states had initially been merged into a princely union called Vindhya Pradesh, the rivalry between two groups of states became so bad that the Government of India persuaded the rulers to sign a Merger Agreement abrogating the old Covenants of Merger, and took direct control of the state as a Chief Commissioner's State. As such, the mergers did not meet the expectations of the Government of India or the States Department. In December 1947, Menon suggested requiring the rulers of states to take "practical steps towards the establishment of popular government". The States Department accepted his suggestion, and implemented it through a special covenant signed by the rajpramukhs of the merged princely unions, binding them to act as constitutional monarchs. This meant that their powers were "de facto" no different from those of the Governors of the former British provinces, thus giving the people of their territories the same measure of responsible government as the people of the rest of India.


title: Political integration of India

text: The result of this process has been described as being, in effect, an assertion of paramountcy by the Government of India over the states in a more pervasive form. While this contradicted the British statement that paramountcy would lapse on the transfer of power, the Congress position had always been that independent India would inherit the position of being the paramount power.


title: Political integration of India

text: Democratisation still left open one important distinction between the former princely states and the former British provinces, namely, that since the princely states had signed limited Instruments of Accession covering only three subjects, they were insulated from government policies in other areas. The Congress viewed this as hampering its ability to frame policies that brought about social justice and national development. Consequently, they sought to secure to the central government the same degree of powers over the former princely states as it had over the former British provinces. In May 1948, at the initiative of V. P. Menon, a meeting was held in Delhi between the Rajpramukhs of the princely unions and the States Department, at the end of which the Rajpramukhs signed new Instruments of Accession which gave the Government of India the power to pass laws in respect of all matters that fell within the seventh schedule of the Government of India Act 1935. Subsequently, each of the princely unions, as well as Mysore and Hyderabad, agreed to adopt the Constitution of India as the constitution of that state, thus ensuring that they were placed in exactly the same legal position vis-à-vis the central government as the former British provinces. The only exception was Kashmir, whose relationship with India continued to be governed by the original Instrument of Accession, and the constitution produced by the state's Constituent Assembly.


title: Political integration of India

text: Effective from 1950, the Constitution of India classified the constituent units of India into three classes—Part A, B, and C states. The former British provinces, together with the princely states that had been merged into them, were the Part A states. The princely unions, plus Mysore and Hyderabad, were the Part B states. The former Chief Commissioners' Provinces and other centrally administered areas, except the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, were the Part C states. The only practical difference between the Part A states and the Part B states was that the constitutional heads of the Part B states were the Rajpramukhs appointed under the terms of the Covenants of Merger, rather than Governors appointed by the central government. In addition, Constitution gave the central government a significant range of powers over the former princely states, providing amongst other things that "their governance shall be under the general control of, and comply with such particular directions, if any, as may from time to time be given by, the President". Apart from that, the form of government in both was identical.


title: Political integration of India

text: The distinction between Part A and Part B states was only intended to last for a brief, transitional period. In 1956, the States Reorganisation Act reorganised the former British provinces and princely states on the basis of language. Simultaneously, the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution removed the distinction between Part A and Part B states, both of which were now treated only as "states", with Part C states being renamed "union territories". The Rajpramukhs lost their authority, and were replaced as the constitutional heads of state by Governors, who were appointed by the central government. These changes finally brought the princely order to an end. In both legal and practical terms, the territories that had been part of the princely states were now fully integrated into India and did not differ in any way from those that had been part of British India. The personal privileges of the princes—the privy purse, the exemption from customs duty, and customary dignities—survived, only to be abolished in 1971.


title: Political integration of India

text: Although the progressive integration of the princely states into India was largely peaceful, not all princes were happy with the outcome. Many had expected the Instruments of Accession to be permanent, and were unhappy about losing the autonomy and the guaranteed continued existence of their states they had expected to gain. Some felt uneasy about the disappearance of states that generations of their family had controlled, while others were unhappy about the disappearance of administrative structures they had worked hard to build up and which they believed to be efficient. The majority, however, despite the "strain and tension" of adapting to life as private citizens, were content to retire on the generous pension provided by the privy purse. Several took advantage of their eligibility to hold public offices under the central government. The Maharaja of Bhavnagar, Col. Krishna Kumarasingh Bhavasingh Gohil, for example, became the Governor of Madras State, and several others were appointed to diplomatic posts overseas.


title: Political integration of India

text: The integration of the princely states raised the question of the future of the remaining colonial enclaves in India. At independence, the regions of Pondicherry, Karaikal, Yanam, Mahe and Chandernagore were still colonies of France, and Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Goa remained colonies of Portugal. An agreement between France and India in 1948 provided for an election in France's remaining Indian possessions to choose their political future. A plebiscite held in Chandernagore on 19 June 1949 resulted in a vote of 7,463 to 114 in favour of being integrated with India. It was ceded to India on a "de facto" basis on 14 August 1949 and "de jure" on 2 May 1950. In the other enclaves, however, the pro-French camp, led by Edouard Goubert, used the administrative machinery to suppress the pro-merger groups. Popular discontent rose, and in 1954 demonstrations in Yanam and Mahe resulted in pro-merger groups assuming power. A referendum in Pondicherry and Karaikal in October 1954 resulted in a vote in favour of merger, and on 1 November 1954, de facto control over all four enclaves was transferred to the Republic of India. A treaty of cession was signed in May 1956, and following ratification by the French National Assembly in May 1962, "de jure" control of the enclaves was also transferred.