So another words... It was a loose confederacy with autonomous states.
not necessarily. There is no indication that it was loose or tight. The emperors were interested in two things: acknlowdgement of superiority by the vassals and payment of tributes (money). And they got both.
The reason they did this according to you, was because it was convenient to give autonomy. Implying that without this autonomy, rule would be far more difficult. I assume because states would be less amiable to direct rule.
In some cases adminsitrative convenience with two flavors - one the emperor appointed / crowned a close servant or friend as the king of the vassal state. In other cases the local leader/king was so crowned.
So basically, it was important to give states autonomy because central rule would have made things far more complicated. I suppose many of those states would not hace accepted central rule.
Whether majority of states accept or not, in those days there was were no trains cars and planes.Even small distances by today';s standards were very long journeys. In that scenario, control is only possible by presence. There was no choice. That is why ever civilized empire had to so organize - I gave you the exampel of Romans.
Now Pakistan could have been created within India under the Cabinet Mission Plan. Thus not disimilar to the traditional relationship between the center and the provinces or states, where the states had a level of autonomy in their affairs.
Originally agreed upon by both parties, the deal was nose dived on the part of Nehru.
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sure that could have been. Nehru and Jinnah did not get along and both made mistakes
So if the Congress itself had no respect for the traditional form of governance in India, why then should the states be beholden to centralized rule, which contradicted tradition?
I don't know what you mean by 'traditional form of governance in India'. DO you mean they should have taken us back to emperor and vassal states with kings? No thank you.
Patel did a yeoman job in pulling the states together; the constitution defined very clear center/state/concurrent lists (of authority & responsibilty).
By the way did you know that the archietct of Indian constitution was Babasaheb Ambedkar was a dalit?
The point I am trying to make is that there always was India, it was not a hodgepodge of states.