Sardar Patel Jayanti (October 31) honours Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first Home Minister, who with V.P. Menon negotiated the accession of more than 560 princel…
On 5 July 1947, six weeks before independence, Sardar Patel takes charge of a new States Department, with V.P. Menon as secretary, to negotiate the princely states into…
By Independence Day, the overwhelming majority of princely rulers have signed the Instrument of Accession, joining India on defence, external affairs and communications.
Despite a Hindu-majority population and territory surrounded by India, Junagadh's Nawab chooses Pakistan. Unrest grows and India takes over the administration.
After a tribal invasion from Pakistan, Maharaja Hari Singh signs the Instrument of Accession to India on 26 October. Indian troops are airlifted in; the first India-Paki…
A Standstill Agreement keeps services running while Hyderabad's Nizam holds out for independent status. Talks stall as Razakar-linked violence rises through 1948.
Months after India assumes administration, a February 1948 plebiscite in Junagadh produces an overwhelming vote to join India, closing the state's first crisis.
With negotiations exhausted, Indian forces enter Hyderabad in Operation Polo. The Nizam's forces surrender within days and the state joins the Union.
Hundreds of smaller princely states are merged into new administrative unions — Saurashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Bharat and PEPSU — well after accession itself.
India becomes a sovereign democratic Republic. Former princely territories are now inside one constitutional Union rather than a patchwork of accession agreements.
The 182-metre Statue of Unity opens on Patel's birth anniversary in 2018. Since 2014, October 31 has been marked nationwide as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, National Unity Day.
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