White Paper on Indian States (1950)/Part 1/Evils of Subsidiary System

by Ministry of States, Government of India

Evils of Subsidiary System

8. The Subsidiary System of alliance which guaranteed to the Rulers their position and their possessions not only against external aggression but also against rebellion, revolution or opposition on the part of their subjects, removed all incentive for good government. Insured against the consequences of misrule, the Princes no longer found it necessary to cultivate the goodwill of the people or to maintain efficiency of administration. On the evils of the Subsidiary System, Thomas Munroe wrote as follows:—

"It is the natural tendency to render the Government of every country in which it exists, weak and too oppressive; to extinguish all honourable spirit amongst higher classes of society, to degrade and impoverish the whole people. The usual remedy of a bad Government in India is a quiet revolution in the palace, or a violent one by rebellion. But the presence of the British Force cuts off every chance of remedy by supporting the Prince on the throne against any foreign and domestic enemy. It renders him indolent by teaching him to trust to strangers for his security; cruel and avaricious by showing him that he has nothing to fear from the hatred of his subjects. Wherever the subsidiary system is introduced, the country will soon bear the mark of it in the decaying villages, a decreasing population".

9. In every State which came under subsidiary alliance, its influence had the same baneful effect. The situation deteriorated to such an extent that the London Times in a leading article described it thus in 1853:—

"We have emancipated these pale and ineffectual pageants of royalty from the ordinary fate that awaits oriental despotism.........This advantage (of securing able and vigorous Princes through rebellion) we have taken away from the inhabitants of the States of India still governed by Native Princes. It has been well said that we give these Princes power without responsibility. Our hand of iron maintains them on the throne despite their imbecility, their vices and their crimes. The result is, in most of the States, a chronic anarchy, under which the revenues of the States are dissipated between the mercenaries of the camp and the minions of the Court. The heavy and arbitrary taxes levied on the miserable raiyats serve only to feed the meanest and the most degraded of mankind. The theory seams in fact admitted that the Government is not for the people but the people for the King, and that so long as we secure the King, his sinecure royalty, we discharge all the duty that we, as Sovereigns of India, owe to his subjects who are virtually ours".

10. During the period following the retirement of Lord Hastings, the influence of the Company over the internal administration of the States rapidly increased, and the Company's Residents got gradually "transformed from diplomatic agents representing a foreign power into executive and controlling officers of a superior Government". The Residents assumed so much of authority that Colonel Macaulay wrote to the Raja of Cochin:

"The Resident will be glad to learn that on his arrival near Cochin, the Raja will find it convenient to wait on him".

Yet in spite of the increasing interference by the Company in the internal affairs of the States, little was done to mitigate the evils of the Subsidiary System and the political system based on it. Conscientious statesmen viewed the corruption and tyranny which the Subsidiary System brought in its wake with concern. Mill from his detached position in the India Office advocated the abolition of States. To unscrupulous political adventurers the system provided a happy hunting ground for exercising "power without responsibility" end playing havoc with public funds. There were others who looked upon the States as a safety valve for the 'ignoble elements' of the Indian population, and tolerated with cynicism this scandalous state of affairs.