Title: The Indian princes and their states
Description: "Although the princes of India have been caricatured as Oriental despots and British stooges, Barbara Ramusack's study argues that the British did not create the princes. On the contrary, many were consummate politicians who exercised considerable degrees of autonomy until the integration of the princely states after independence. Ramusack's synthesis has a broad temporal span, tracing the evolution of the Indian kings from their precolonial origins to their roles as clients in the British colonial system. The book breaks new ground in its integration of political and economic developments in the major princely states with the shifting relationships between the princes and the British. It represents a significant contribution, both to British imperial history in its analysis of the theory and practice of indirect rule, and to modern South Asian history, as a portrait of the princes as politicians and patrons of the arts."--Jacket.
Subjects: History, Politics and government, Kings and rulers, India, history, History of asia, Kings and rulers--history, Ds436 .r256 2004, 954.03
Places: India
Time periods: 1765-1947, British occupation, 1765-1947