KLF Bhava Samvada hosts author Sandeep Bamzai on ‘Princestan’

New Delhi, Jan 10 : Kalinga Literary Festival’s virtual platform KLF Bhava Samvad hosted author Sandeep Bamzai who conversed on his latest book ‘Princestan’.
The session took place with moderator Pallavi Rebbapragada, a journalist.
Beginning with the session, Pallavi said, “Gandhi in 2nd round table conference told that ‘You shouldn’t toe the British line and you should make Independence easier for the country’. Gandhiji never wanted any sort of revolt from any section of the society. His methods were more towards assimilating whether the princely states or the different castes or Hindus and Muslims together in one battle.” In response to this, Bamzai quoted, “This was how Princestan was formed. How a section of diabolical princes actually to a large extent managed to stay out of the ambiente of Hindustan and Pakistan till brought to heal by Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel and Lord Mountbatten in what I believed was a relay run. The princes never wanted independence.” He further continued with, “The Nizam of Hyderabad convinced the British to be called His Exalted Highness. In Unified India, you couldn’t merely have the princely states who were outside the ambiente, it included all 565 princely states. The princes together representing the British Monarchy in India actually had something called Narender Mandal which was the chamber of princes and the Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes was the Nawab of Bhopal Hamidullah Khan.” “Mountbatten lambasted the princes and told them that you have to sign a standstill agreement with either India or Pakistan as the Dominion is formed. There was a record which says that says Princes and particularly the Nawab of Bhopal has been sold out by the decoloniser called Mountbatten.”