The Period of Annexation and inclusion of Princely States.

Sardar Patel and his Secretary V. P. Menon with the Maharaja of Cochin.

The Nation was then Divided into many small pieces of Rule and Religion, now it was the time to arrange all of them into a Whole-nation India.
The Cabinet Mission of 1946 proposed the two plans for transfer of power, The plan of 16th May which proposed the loose federation with extensive provincial autonomy and the "grouping" of provinces based on religious majority. It made the 565 princely states to choose to join India, Pakistan or Remain Independent.

Nehru was against the independence of the Princely states, but the officials of the Political department led the princes to believe that once the independence they can stake their claims. The princes did even feared Nehru, the aftermath of the work of annexing the states was then given to Sardar Patel. He was great in organizing and also received the title of "Sardar" during his leadership during the Bardoli movements of the peasants. Along with him V.P.Menon was also appointed as his secretary. Menon was also the reforms advisors to previous viceroys, though the positions demand an elite ICS officer he rose thoughts the ranks starting from a clerk.

Sardar Patel and V. P. Menon took charge to integrate all the Princely states with India and often he was compared to Otto von bismark who just like him unified the German states in 1871. One of the first princes to come over Patel's side was the Maharaja of Bikaner. Also many princely states feared the Forces of Nationalism amongst their subjects, as the Air was soo devoted towards the motherland after an around the two-century rule of British. In the first week of April itself the Bikaner issues a public appeal to other princes to join the Constituent Assembly and stated that their mother country is above all patriotic and worthy states of India. Following the Bikaner, many other princely states too followed. Although the States were given three options to either merge with India or Pakistan or Remain Independent, Patel feared them as by remaining independent or choosing Pakistan would lead to Anarchy and chaos between their citizens as now the nationalism was running in their veins after fighting the independence with the imperialistic forces.

Congress also made Mountbatten deliver their demands from him. He was also made an indirect advisor to the Princely states, he advised them to forge relations with the nation closest with them and they cannot run from the Dominion if they care about their subjects. The Instrument of Accession was to be signed and the powers will be divided between the States and the Central.
On 6th May 1947, Patel began lobbying the Princes and making them join the Dominion. He threw parties and many times sat with the princes, asking them to join and thinking about the future of their citizens. Though the power came into the hands of the central government then, to cope up with the royal needs and their demands they were paid "Privy purse" ranging from 5,000 to Millions depending on the States. Hyderabad state in the initial period got around 42,00,000 per annum.

By August 1947, the process of integration of princely states was almost complete except for a few states like Jodhpur who decided to join hands with Pakistan as Jinnah gave him a plain paper to write as much demand he wants to be fulfilled, but later Sardar Patel insisted that a Hindu majority state joining with Pakistan was not a decision and it would affect the Hindu population. The Junagadh which was then ruled by a Muslim ruler also wanted to join with Pakistan, he also signed the instrument of the annexation of Pakistan, but as it was having Hindu majority and was only connected with Pakistan by the sea- Sardar Patel and Mountbatten refused as it would escalate the Communal tension and it is against the two-nation theory of Muslims and Hindus. Sardar Patel offered Pakistan to refuse the annexation and hold a plebiscite before then the Nawab fled to Pakistan and formed a provisional government in Junagadh. Due to that, there was no option rather than forced annexation and after that a plebiscite was held and around 99.3 % choose India over Pakistan.

Hyderabad under the rule of Osman Ali Khan choose to remain independent, as he wanted to join Pakistan but it was in a sort of middle part of India. Sardar Patel requested him to join India but he declared the state Independent on August 15, 1947. In 1948, Mountbatten gave him the status of autonomous under the dominion of India but he refused to sign as he wanted complete independence. This led to chaos in the state and then India decided to annex forcefully under the name of Operation Polo.

The Kashmir was handled by Nehru and Mountbatten, as it was the most difficult and controversial topic nowadays. The Current Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his speech of October 31, 2019 cited that "Sardar Patel would've resolved Kashmir issue timely" also blamed Nehru for the ruckus in Kashmir. But the thing was that Kashmir was the last state of the annex with India and it would probably an Independent State if Pakistan never tried to capture it. Also, another problem was the Jammu and Kashmir were having a Muslim majority but their ruler was a Hindu. But when Pakistan tried to capture the state the ruler took the help of Indian forces and with certain agreements it came into a part of India. But in the upcoming years, due to the insurgency and presence of Pakistani separatist powers it gave rise to more chaos and this led to the blaming of the Nehru for not doing his duty properly by some opposition groups.