PROF GR Abhyankar, who presided over the sixth session of the Deccan States Subjects’ Conference held at Poona on May 22, delivered a very learned and thoughtful address which deserves consideration by the Government of India and the people generally. He discussed the important question of the future of the Indian states, their constitution and development under the new conditions in India and their relationship with the future self-governing India. For a long time, the satisfactory progress of Indian states has been neglected and even the spread of education has not received the attention in the states it deserves. The people of the states, who constitute nearly a fifth of the total population of India, have not advanced along with those of British India with whom they have close relations in all spheres of life and activity. This unequal development is very deplorable and introduces serious difficulties in future. When responsible government was recognised as the goal of Indian policy, nothing was done in this direction in the case of the Indian states. During the last six years, the development and spread of democratic ideals in British India have seriously affected internal administration of the states, whose subjects have refused to bear the old autocratic and sometimes unbearable methods of personal monarchy. Serious troubles have arisen in several states where people have refused to pay unjust taxes or submit to arbitrary orders and demanded a higher standard of justice and rights prevailing in the neighbouring British provinces. This is perfectly natural and the trouble is the direct result of the inharmonious development of India.
