'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [‎45r] (89/156)

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front. Though I never learnt why my posting had been changed, I suspected that my
late chief, Sir Arthur Lothian, had been good enough to intercede on my behalf. I
think that he felt I would be more usefully employed and was more politically quali
fied to continue to serve in Indian States than outside India on the Foreign side of
our service.
At all events, I left the family in Ooty for the time being and travelled alone to
Rajkot via Madras and Bombay, arriving there on the 14th May, 1944. The post of
Secretary to the Resident was graded amongst the ’Superior Posts' of the service, •
which carried with them the promises of future promotion to the rank of Resident.
This was not the case of Consul Bushire, which was purely a war-time appointment.
My first Resident in Rajkot was Lt. Colonel P. Gainsford, C.I.E. (later Sir Philip).
The States of Western India all lay in Kathiawar (now called Saurashthra), the name
then given to the peninsular land mass which juts out into the Indian ocean north of
the Bombay Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. . The political set-up of this group of states was exceptionally
complicated, and I cannot do better than quote the following extracts from Sir Terence
Craigh-Coen's book entitled 'The Indian Political Service The branch of the British Government of India with responsibility for managing political relations between British-ruled India and its surrounding states, and by extension the Gulf, during the period 1937-47. '. Sir Terence was himself
a distinguished Political Officer, and his book was published in 1971. He writes:
"Between 1924 and 1944, the set-up in western India was as follows. A first
class Resident was stationed at Rajkot, and was in direct relations with
seventeen Salute States and one non-Salute State. The three Political Agents for
Western Kathiawar, Eastern Kathiawar and Sabar Kantha, were in relations with
those of the above large states which geographically adjoined for only a few
routine purposes, such as boundary disputes, passport extraditions,
marriages and trials of European British subjects, etc. The Political
Agents, whose Headquarters were respectively Rajkot, Wadhwan and Sadra,
were in full relations with a number of non-Salute States (37, 15 & 32
respectively) which enjoyed limited jurisdiction, and a large number of
non-jurisdictional estates grouped into Thanas. An estate owned jointly by
two shareholdersjwere by no means exceptional; and it was above all this area
with its ridiculously fragmented map, that was responsible for the size of
the officially approved figure (562) of Indian States. Indeed, almost any
figure could be produced with good arguments - it depends on how many share
holders are included.
In 1944 (the year I arrived) a radical re-organisation of this political
charge and of its neighbour, Baroda and the Gujerat States Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , took
place. The second class Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. of Baroda was abolished and
merged into that of l/estern India, with dual headquarters at Baroda and at