“It is scarcely possible,” he said, “to imagine circumstances more different than those of the Indian chiefs now and what they were at the time Queen Victoria came to the throne.  Now their sympathies have expanded with their knowledge and their sense of responsibility; with the degree of confidence reposed in them.  They recognize their obligations to their own states and their duty to the imperial throne.  The British crown is no longer an impersonal abstraction, but a concrete and inspiring force.  The political system of India is neither feudalism nor federation.  It is embodied in no constitution; it does not rest upon treaty, and it bears no resemblance to a league.  It represents a series of relationships that have grown up between the crown and Indian princes under widely different historical conditions, but which in process of time have gradually conformed to a single type.  The sovereignty of the crown is everywhere unchallenged.  Conversely, the duties and the services of the state are implicitly recognized, and, as a rule, faithfully discharged.  It is this happy blend of authority with free will, of sentiment with self-interest, of duties with rights, that distinguishes the Indian Empire under the British crown from any other dominion of which we read in history.  The princes have gained prestige instead of losing it.  Their rank is not diminished, and their privileges have become more secure.  They have to do more for the protection they enjoy, but they also derive more from it; for they are no longer detached appendages of empire, but its participators and instruments.  They have ceased to be architectural adornments of the imperial edifice, and have become the pillars that help to sustain the main roof.”

At the same time Lord Curzon has kept a tight rein upon the rajahs and maharajas lest they forget the authority that stands behind them.  He does not allow them to spend the taxes of the people for jewels or waste it in riotous living, and has the right to depose any of them for crime, disloyalty, misgovernment or any other cause he deems sufficient.  The supreme authority of the British government has become a fact which no native state or ruler would for a moment think of disputing or doubting.  No native chief fails to understand that his conduct is under scrutiny, and that if he committed a crime he would be tried and punished by the courts as promptly and as impartially as the humblest of his subjects.  At the same time they feel secure in their authority and in the exercise of their religion, and when a native prince has no direct heir he has the right to select his successor by adoption.  He may choose any child or young man among his subjects and if the person selected is of sound mind and respectable character, the choice is promptly ratified by the central government.  There is no interference with the exercise of authority or the transaction of business unless the welfare of the people plainly requires it, and in such cases, the intervention has been swift and sure.