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{
    "localId": "486500287",
    "label": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, India-Pakistan, Situation Report 21",
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    "id": "486500287",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, India-Pakistan, Situation Report 21",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500287",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 16,
            "logicalDate": "1948-09-16",
            "month": 9,
            "year": 1948
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{
    "seq": 13,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875508/875508-01-013.tif",
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    "ocrText": "the Congress insisted that all states join one of the new dominions, and Pandit Nehru,\nthe Congress leader and Prime Minister of India, even went so far as to announce that\nIndia would consider foreign recognition of any state as an unfriendly act. Congress\nalso insisted that accessions should represent the will of the people. The Moslem\nLeague, on the other hand, never indicated hostility to the princely governments. Mo-\nhammed Ali Jinnah, the Moslem League leader, declared officially as Governor-General\nof Pakistan that its government considered any state free to establish itself as an in-\ndependent country if it did not wish to accede to either dominion and added that\nPakistan would gladly form an alliance with any state which might decide to maintain\nits independence. Pakistan has, however, put pressure for accession on some states.\nFears that a large number of states would refuse to accede to either dominion and\nthus bring about a Balkanization of India were soon dispelled, however, with most states\nacceding to either India or Pakistan even before the transfer of power on 15 August.\nIn general, accessions have followed the lines suggested by both the religious loyalties\nof the princes and geography: states with Hindu rulers, or SO situated geographically as\nto fall naturally within the sphere of the Dominion of India, have acceded to that do-\nminion, while the Moslem-ruled states adjacent to Pakistan have acceded to the latter.\nThis usually meant that states with predominantly Hindu populations acceded to India\nand Moslem-majority states acceded to Pakistan.\nThat the great majority of rulers were willing to accede to the new Dominion of\nIndia, despite the traditional hostility of its dominant political party, resulted in part\nfrom realization by the princes that, shorn of British support, most of them were open\nto economic and military sanctions which would compel their eventual accession in\nIndia on far from favorable terms. Another factor was the unusual attitude of com-\npromise manifested toward the princes by the Congress Party, which apparently realized\nthat earlier failure to agree to certain minimum concessions to the Moslem League, as\nprovided in the British Cabinet Mission's Plan, had resulted in the creation of Pakistan.\nAccordingly, India usually permitted acceding states to retain control of local affairs,\nsurrendering to the central government only their powers over external affairs, defense\n(but not internal security), and communications.* The rulers, on their part, infor-\nmally indicated a willingness to hasten constitutional reforms within their domains and\npromised that one-half of their states' representatives to the Constituent Assembly\nbe elected by popular vote.\nStates acceding to Pakistan similarly retained autonomy in local matters, relin-\nquishing only the external powers which had been held by the Crown under the prin-\nciple of paramountcy.\nThus the status of acceding states differed little from their former position under\nBritish rule, although the powers of many princes were later curtailed by India. Hy-\nderabad, the most powerful of the states, is the only one which has still refused to ac-\ncede to either dominion. Surrounded by Indian territory, Hyderabad's Moslem Nizam\n* In recent months the Dominion of India has completely absorbed a great many minor\nPrincely States which had acceded to it although allowing the princes concerned to retain their\ntitles and honors.\nSECRET\nI-6"
}