India Environment Portal Knowledge for change

Landless monarchs

• 14/06/1995

It is an anomaly: the privy purse was abolished 24 years ago, yet, here, in the Dangs, they still exist. The British ruled in the Dangs under the foreign territories regulations. In 1947 it acceeded to India by default. So when the privy was abolished for the former states, the Dangs were not specifically mentioned in the annexures to the Act. The officials even today refer to it as "privy purse, though, when querried, they correct themselves and call it "political pension". More than Rs 9 lakhs is distributed as privy purses to the kings and their relatives every year.