PRINCESTAN

In the run-up to independence, a vile plan was devised by a handful of powerful princes to not join either India or Pakistan. The plan was led by the chancellor of the chamber of princes, Nawab of Bhopal, who was operating under the patronage of Mohd. Ali Jinnah, Lord Wavell and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The idea was to create a Third Dominion called Princestan where the 565 princely states would stay outside the ambit of the two free states and retain paramountcy under the aegis of the departing British. The success of such a malevolent plan would have made the newly independent nation unstable and vulnerable.