British India ruled directly. The princely states did not, bound instead by a vague concept called “paramountcy.” In 1927, a committee set out to finally define what that actually meant.
Sir Harcourt Butler, c. 1934, who chaired the 1927 Indian States Committee. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
MCQ QuestionsModHist0337 · The Butler Committee, 1927
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The committee’s object was clarifying Britain’s undefined authority over princely states
Chaired by Sir Harcourt Butler, appointed 1927.
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Princely states the committee visited before reporting
Indian States Committee
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Year the committee submitted its final report
Butler Committee Report
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Butler, William Holdsworth, and Sidney Peel made up the committee
Committee Membership
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States couldn’t be transferred to a new government without their consent
Committee Recommendation
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Year the consent principle became relevant again, at independence
Princely State Integration
✊ Must Know
Clarifying a Vague Relationship
- Its real object The Butler Committee's object was to improve the relationship between the Government of India and the Indian (princely) States.
- Also called It is also known as the Indian States Committee, appointed by the British government in 1927.
- Who chaired it Sir Harcourt Butler chaired the committee. Its other two members were William Searle Holdsworth and Sidney Peel.
📘 Good to Know
What the Committee Actually Found
- Why it was needed "Paramountcy," Britain's claimed superior authority over the princely states, had never been clearly defined. Princely states increasingly demanded clarity.
- Field visits The committee visited 16 princely states, before submitting its report in 1929.
- Reaffirmed, not ended The 1929 report reaffirmed the paramountcy doctrine itself. It gave guidelines for how paramountcy should actually be applied, rather than removing it.
Test Yourself
🌟 Great to Know
A Principle With a Long Afterlife
- A fairness principle The report called for the financial relationship between the Raj and the States to be fair. This addressed a real source of princely grievance.
- Consent before transfer It also recommended that States should not be transferred, without their own consent, to a new government responsible to an Indian legislature.
- A principle that outlived the committee That "no transfer without consent" idea stayed relevant right up to 1947. The princely states finally had to choose which new nation to join.
📝 Previous Year Questions
What Was the Butler Committee Actually For?
- Answer: (d) The Butler Committee's object was to improve the relationship between the Government of India and the Indian States.
- Not the other options It did not define central-provincial jurisdiction, define the Secretary of State's powers, or impose press censorship — those belong to separate reforms and committees.
- View this question on the full 2017 paper →
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