| Whereas great stress
has been laid on old treaties between the British power and the States
and attempts have been made to use these treaties to perpetuate autocracy
and the semi-feudal order which so long prevailed in the States and obstruct
the progress of the people, it is necessary to point out the real character
of these treaties, the manner and circumstances under which they were made,
the person who made them, and the interpretations placed on them in later
years. Out of 552 States in India only forty have such treaties and, these
were usually made after a conflict between the officers and agents of the
East India Company and persons who had no status of independence, but who
had come to exercise authority over part of the country, after the collapse
of the central authority in India, which resulted from the fall of the
Mughal empire. The treaties were made without any reference to or regard
for the people and applied to then existing circumstances. Gradually, as
these circumstances changed they ceased to have any importance, and many
of them were ignored or even completely abrogated long ago by the practice
of the Political Department of the Government of India, which varied and
developed with the changing policy of the Paramount Power. In any event
the treaties made over a century ago cannot be considered binding on the
people of the States at a time when conditions have entirely changed. The
treaties are now used by the Paramount Power to intervene in the struggle
for freedom in the States in favour of the Rulers, and the obligations
of this power to protect the people from misrule and oppression is ignored.
This conference strongly of opinion
that these treaties should be forthwith ended as being completely out of
date and inapplicable to present conditions, and it calls upon the Paramount
Power to refuse help to misrule and who attempt to crush the movement for
freedom in these States. |