To give you an idea of the diversity of India, above are a few of the very many princely states (at least as many as 565 officially recognized at the time of Indian Independence) that composed much of the Indian subcontinent.┬а A princely state was a vassal state (with the British Raj as overlord) with some self-governance - or at least with a nominal indigenous leader.┬а Which helps go to show that Indian Independence was by no means a unilateral sort of thing, and a few of the princely states (like some of the other vestigial colonial territories) did not just up and swear allegiance to the Republic in 1947 (Hyderabad was a holdout) (and of course, a number of the princely states ended up under the sovereignty of Pakistan after Partition) (one of which, Kalat, is still involved in the unrest in Balochistan).┬а It was not until 1971 that the Indian Constitution was amended to withdraw recognition of all symbols of the princely states.
Stamp details: Issued: 1869-1950 From: Alwar, Bahawalpur, Bamra, Barwani, Bhopal, Bhor, Bijawar, Bundi, Bussahir, Charkari, Cochin, Datia, Dhar, Dungarpur, Holkar, Hyderabad, Idar, Indore, Jaipur, Jasdan, Jhalawar, Junagadh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kishangarh, Las Bela, Morvi, Nandgaon, Nawanagar, Orcha, Poonch, Rajpipla, Saurashtra, Sirmoor, Soruth, Travancore, Travancore-Cochin, Wadhwan
Recognized as a sovereign state by the UN: No Claimed by: Republic of India; Islamic Republic of Pakistan Member of the Universal Postal Union: No
