Three separate states
Patiala, Jind and Nabha were separate states collectively described as Phulkian in the gazetteer prepared for the Punjab government. The volume is labelled 1904 and was printed at Lahore in 1909. Its introductory geography records an order of princely states, with territories organised differently from present districts. The shared group name identified several political units; the state of Patiala also extended beyond the city bearing its name.[1]
A dated geography
The introduction describes a substantial group of territories interrupted by British enclaves and Malerkotla, and notes outlying villages held within British territory. It also describes each state’s possessions as scattered among those of the other two. This is a political geography of intermingled holdings, rather than three contiguous blocks. Its population reference is explicitly the 1901 census. The geographical and statistical description belongs to that dated survey, not an unchanged administrative map.[1]
The 1948 union
The three Phulkian states later joined the Patiala and East Punjab States Union, a larger body including Kapurthala, Faridkot, Malerkotla, Kalsia and Nalagarh. The Ministry of States’ 1950 White Paper dates the covenant’s signing to 5 May 1948 and the union’s inauguration to 15 July. Agreement by the rulers preceded inauguration. The union’s membership extended beyond the original Phulkian trio and brought several separately governed territories into a new institutional framework.[2]
Appendix XXXIX reproduces a covenant providing for a common executive, legislature and judiciary. It called for state administration to be transferred by 20 August 1948, and for state assets, liabilities and military forces to pass to the union. The appended text notes that it incorporates a supplementary covenant executed in April 1949. Its terms therefore belong to the arrangement reproduced in 1950; the original signing and later amendment remain distinct stages.[2]
Sources & notes
Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.
- Punjab Government; undated Haryana Gazetteers Organisation reprint. Punjab States Gazetteers XVII-A: Phulkian States (Patiala, Jind and Nabha), 1904 ↗dated administrative gazetteer in a partial government-hosted reprint file · Source date: 1909; reprint year not established · Locator: Reprint preface PDF p. 3 and original title PDF p. 6 establish the 1904 volume’s printing in 1909. Introduction printed pp. i–ii / PDF pp. 18–19, especially p. i, the three-state grouping and intermingled/outlying holdings. Actual delivered file has 81 PDF pages. Accessed 2026-11-02.The file is a partial reprint. Its frontmatter and introduction were inspected; unseen state chapters are not cited.Return to Three separate states, paragraph 1 ↑Return to A dated geography, paragraph 1 ↑
- Ministry of States, Government of India. White Paper on Indian States: Patiala and East Punjab States Union, and Appendix XXXIX ↗government account and reproduced covenant, read in Wikisource transcription · Source date: 1950 · Locator: Formation of Unions, paragraphs 131–133 (printed pp. 50–51 in the book contents); appended Appendix XXXIX, articles II and VI, schedule I and concluding amendment note. Actual full relevant transcription read; no original signatures inspected. Accessed 2026-11-02.The chapter and appended covenant were read in transcription, rather than from original signatures.Return to The 1948 union, paragraph 1 ↑Return to The 1948 union, paragraph 2 ↑
Record PH-HIS-0074 · English edition · human review not performed