• Merging the 554 princely states with the Indian state was one of the most structurally monumental tasks that the Indian administration faced after Independence.
• V. P. Menon worked closely with Sardar Patel to help integrate the princely states with India.
• The book details the negotiations he carried out with each of these states.
• He has taken up the case of each state and shown how they were persuaded to sign the Instrument of Accession which made them a part of the Indian union.
• He also shows how various states were grouped together to form new administrative units.
• This reissue of the volume has a new Introduction that contextualises it for contemporary readers. It gives us a brief account of the author, the book and the background in which it was written. It tells us how the process of carving out states from the jigsaw puzzle that India was after Independence is something that continues.

V. P. Menon was Secretary, States Ministry after Independence. He played a crucial role in integrating the princely states with the Indian union.

List of Photographs, Cartoons and Maps
Preface
Introduction

1. Setting the Stage
2. Spokes in the Wheel
3. The Parting Gift
4. Prelude to Chaos
5. Stopping the Gap
6. Junagadh
7. The Orissa and Chattisgarh States
8. Saurashtra
9. The Deccan and Gujarat States
10. Vindhya Pradesh
11. Madhya Bharat
12. Patiala and East Punjab States Union
13. Rajasthan
14. Travancore-Cochin
15. Mysore
16. A Miscellany of States
17. Hyderabad I
18. Hyderabad II
19. Hyderabad III
20. Jammu And Kashmir State
21. Baroda
22. I Administrative Consolidation
II Incorporation of the States Forces into the Indian Army
23. Financial Integration
24. Organic Unification
25. The Cost of Integration
26. Retrospect and Prospect

Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III
Appendix IV

Photographs, Cartoons and Maps
References