India had to face many problems after getting independence. One of these problems was of local kingdoms. They were 562 jp number and were ruled by Indian kings or rulers. According to Act of 1947 A.D., these kingdoms were free to keep their own freedom or were free to be included in the countries of either India or Pakistan. That’s why many local kingdoms liked to remain free. But first Home Minister of free India Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel handled the matter with great intelligence and asked the rulers of local kingdoms to become a part of Indian union. Small kingdoms were included into provinces.

Some kingdoms were sharing cultural values and even they were sharing common boundries. They were joined and made state. For example kingdoms of Kathiawar were included in Saurashtra and the kingdoms of Patiala, Nabha, Faridkot, Jind and Malerkotla were joined to make Pepsu state. Now only three kingdoms remained which were not ready to be included in India and these were Hyderabad, Junagarh and Kashmir.

Hyderabad: Nizam of the kingdom of Hyderabad Usman Ah Khan refused to merge his kingdom into union of India. So Indian police was sent to Hyderabad on 13th September 1948 A.D. and on 17th September 1948 A.D. kingdom of Hyderabad was merged into union of India.

Junagarh:. Nawab of Junagarh wanted to go with Pakistan. But plebiscite (Public Survey) took place in Junagarh on 20th February 1948 A.D. and public wished to be merged in Union of India. Therefore Junagarh was merged into union of India.

Kashmir: Ruler of Kashmir Maharaja Hari Singh also wanted to remain free. But Pakistan wanted to control kingdom of kashmir. So ruler of Kashmir called for Indian help and proposed to merge his state into Indian Union. Indian government accepted the request of ruler of Kashmir and send its army to Kashmir. War started between India and Pakistan but a large part of Kashmir was occupied by Pakistan.

Other Kingdoms: Except these kingdoms, there were certain other small kingdoms which were included in the nearby states. Baroda was included in the province of Bombay. Unified state was founded by joining few small states. For example one union was made in March, 1948 by joining Bharatpur, Dholpur, Alwar and Karavli. After this Rajasthan union was formed in which kingdoms of Boondi, Talwara, Pratapgarh, Shahpur, Banswara, Kota, Kishangarh, etc. were included in it.