Role of the British Government in the Administration of Justice in the Princely States of India

Abstract

Until recent decades, Rajasthan’s princely states were governed under the feudal rule and traditional political systems. In the early 19th century, the British East India Company entered into subsidiary alliances with these princely states, through which they effectively gained political control. After these agreements, the princely states of Rajasthan remained nominally independent but, in reality, came under British influence. This process preserved the old feudal framework while introducing a new dimension of communalism.

Following these arrangements, the British government began implementing modern administrative institutions—such as legal systems, revenue departments, police, and courts. However, the establishment of this modern communalism was merely a superficial change; its control remained in the hands of the same feudal elites whose primary aim was to safeguard their own interests rather than work for the welfare of the common people.

This research examines the socio-political structures that emerged in Rajasthan’s princely states after the subsidiary alliances made by the British East India Company in the 19th century. Through these arrangements, the British government, while not directly annexing the princely states, succeeded in establishing political and economic dominance over them. Although the British introduced the concept of modern communalism, the actual political order remained under the authority of the feudal elite, which not only maintained social inequality but also reinforced it in institutional form.