Empire by Agreement: Treaties and Sovereignty in the Indian Princely States

Abstract

Treaties were one of the central legal and political foundations of the British Indian Empire.¹ Unlike in precolonial India, where formal bilateral treaties were rare and not generally used as a means of diplomatic negotiations, the East India Company (hereinafter the EIC) made extensive and strategic use of treaty-making. These agreements were not mere diplomatic formalities, rather, they served as tools of empowerment and legitimacy through which the EIC channelled its imperial scheme in colonial India.

The period from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century marked a profound political transformation across the Indian subcontinent. The decline of Mughal authority inspired ambitious political projects in which regional polities sought to preserve autonomy alongside military campaigns and diplomatic negotiations. It was within this volatile environment that the EIC expanded its influence. Through a combination of military success and treaty-based arrangements modelled on European diplomatic practices, the Company inserted itself into the internal and external affairs of Indian states. These treaties were basically descriptive texts detailing the rights and obligations of the state parties involved, as we will examine later, and contained an inbuilt asymmetry in which the EIC (and the British government) held the supreme position. In bilateral relations, these arrangements served not only as evidence of the legality of states but also as recognition and permission for them to continue as such.

Dhaka University Law Journal, 2026, 37 (1), 51-69