ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the overarching themes and debates that have emerged in the study of the Indian princely states from the 1970s to the present. The overview of these territories under indirect British control unfolds along three central questions that have defined the historiography on the princely states in the past decades: their origins and the nature of British control in these territories; the pursuits of Indian rulers and their subjects; and the connections that linked the states with the political, social, and cultural world beyond their borders.
