India Takes Over Princely Regime, Associated Press, NY Times, Feb. 8, 1948.

Maharajah, Premier to Be Kept Out of Alwar State While Gandhi Inquiry Goes On

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NEW DELHI, India, Feb. 7-The investigation of the assassination of Mohandas K. Gandhi began reaching into high places today.

The Government of India suppressed the administration of the Princely State of Alwar and called its Prince and Prime Minister to a hearing.

The Sikh Prince, Maharajah Tej Singhji, and the Alwar Prime Minister, Dr. N. B. Khare, already were in New Delhi and were ordered to stay here for at least a month while the investigation proceeded.

An announcement said that this drastic step was necessary to pursue without any obstruction an investigation into the administration’s alleged “support or connivance” in activities of the outlawed RSS (National Volunteer Corps), and “its possible complicity in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and other serious crimes.”

The Government of India took over rule of the state of 1,000,000 persons and named C. S. Venkatachar, Regional Commissioner of Indore, as temporary administrator.

The Maharajah, who claims descent from Kush, eldest son of Rama, favorite deity of Mr. Gandhi, acquiesced in the Government’s action in a written direction to the civil and military services of Alwar to cooperate fully with the Indian administration.

Personal notification of the action was given to the Maharajah by V. P. Menon, Secretary of the Indian Ministry of States, in the presence of the Governor General, Earl Mountbatten, and Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhal Patel.

All available members of the Negotiating Committee representing India’s Princely States in the Constituent Assembly were consulted before the action was taken. They were reported to have concurred in the view that there were prima facie grounds for taking the step.

Alwar has an area of 3,158 square miles and its capital of the same name is seventy-five miles southwest of New Delhi. It is in the predominantly Hindu Agency of Rajputana and the Maharajah has a fifteen-gun salute.

The 64-year-old Premier, Dr. Khare, was the first Premier of the Central Provinces and has had a distinguished career.

The Government of India took over rule of the state of 1,000,000 persons and named C. S. Venkatachar, Regional Commissioner of Indore, as temporary administrator.

The Maharajah, who claims descent from Kush, eldest son of Rama, favorite deity of Mr. Gandhi, acquiesced in the Government’s action in a written direction to the civil and military services of Alwar to cooperate fully with the Indian administration.

Personal notification of the action was given to the Maharajah by V. P. Menon, Secretary of the Indian Ministry of States, in the presence of the Governor General, Earl Mountbatten, and Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

All available members of the Negotiating Committee representing India’s Princely States in the Constituent Assembly were consulted before the action was taken. They were reported to have concurred in the view that there were prima facie grounds for taking the step.

Alwar has an area of 3,158 square miles and its capital of the same name is seventy-five miles southwest of New Delhi. It is in the predominantly Hindu Agency of Rajputana and the Maharajah has a fifteen-gun salute.

The 64-year-old Premier, Dr. Khare, was the first Premier of the Central Provinces and has had a distinguished career.

Support Is Suspected

The RSS (Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh), which the Alwar administration is suspected of having supported, was ordered banned by the Indian Government on Wednesday on the ground that its “cult of violence.” already had claimed many victims, including Mr. Gandhi.

The RSS is a militant organization unsympathetic to Mr. Gandhi’s tents of non-violence, and it has advocated a nall-Hindu India and ejection of the Moslems. Its foes have charged that it is the “private army” of the Mahasabha, Hindu party.

The police search into high places as well as the underworld for clues to the assassination of Mr. Gandhi on Jan. 30 was reported today to have resulted in the arrest of about 1,200 persons throughout India. Most of these were rounded up in raids on RSS headquarters and seizure of RSS members.

Police sources said that all the ramifications of the assassination were not yet clearly understood, but “the story is beginning to take form.” They said it might be two or three weeks before the plot could be so clarified that formal charges could be brought against the conspirators.