Eastern States Union

Union of princely states of the Dominion of India

←

1947–1948

→

Capital

Raipur

History

•

Independence of India

1947

•

Failure of the union

1948

Today part of

Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand

The Eastern States Union was a short-lived (1947-48) union of princely states in newly-independent India that gathered most of the princely states of the former Orissa Tributary States and Chhattisgarh States Agency in order to fill the vacuum of power created after the departure of the British and the wrapping up of the British Raj.

The union was formed right after the British Parliament decided to grant independence to India and Pakistan on 15 August 1947, following which the princely states became de facto independent as well. In the transitional period the provincial Congress Party governments refused assistance to the princely states for they were hostile to the traditional princes and in fact were involved in popular agitations against them. In face of the situation of insecurity and continuous disturbances of the public order, the rulers of the states of the former Eastern States Agency formally founded the Eastern States Union in the Raj Kumar College building in Raipur. The goal was to establish a unit that would be large enough to exist as a state within the Indian Union, as well as to share the cost of maintenance of an adequate security and military force in order to restore law and order.

The Eastern States Union had a Premier, a Chief Secretary, a joint police force and a court of appeal, but it had no legislature. The union selected Raipur as its capital and quickly took the cause of building a dam on the Indravati River in Kalahandi. However, some of the larger states such as Mayurbhanj and Bastar, as well as some minor ones, opted not to join the common effort.

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Wikipedia