Eastern States Union
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Odisha
Jharkhand
| Eastern States Union | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Union of princely states of the Dominion of India | |||||||||||||
| 1947–1948 | |||||||||||||
| Capital | Raipur | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
| 1947 | |||||||||||||
• Failure of the union | 1948 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Today part of | Chhattisgarh Odisha Jharkhand | ||||||||||||
The Eastern States Union was a short-lived (1947–48) union of princely states in newly independent India that gathered most of the princely states of the former Orissa Tributary States and Chhattisgarh States Agency in order to fill the vacuum of power created after the departure of the British and the wrapping up of the British Raj.[1]
The union was formed right after the British Parliament decided to grant independence to India and Pakistan on 15 August 1947, following which the princely states became de facto independent as well.[2] In the transitional period the provincial Congress Party governments refused assistance to the princely states for they were hostile to the traditional princes and in fact were involved in popular agitations against them. In face of the situation of insecurity and continuous disturbances of the public order, the rulers of the states of the former Eastern States Agency formally founded the Eastern States Union in the Raj Kumar College building in Raipur. The goal was to establish a unit that would be large enough to exist as a state within the Indian Union,[3] as well as to share the cost of maintenance of an adequate security and military force in order to restore law and order.[4]