From Sanad to Statehood: Graded Sovereignty, Forced Labour and the Integration of the Western Himalaya, 1815–1971

Abstract

Between 1815 and 1971 the western Himalaya moved from a patchwork of some thirty tributary chiefships to a single Indian state. This article argues that terrain alone does not account for the region’s marginality, which was an administrative product. Colonial rule worked through graded sovereignty: annexation in Kangra after 1846, sanad-based paramountcy elsewhere. Because the small states taxed labour rather than land, popular politics took shape around begar, and praja mandal movements demanded inclusion rather than autonomy. Integration then proceeded in five constitutional steps between 1948 and 1971. The case complicates arguments that treat uplands as zones of evasion.