borys68 wrote:
If by the the Pushtun North you mean the North-West Territory, then it is a bunch of stone age savages with rifles. Politically they are nothing and the best course would be to dump them on Afganistan, where they belong. Or at least most of the NWP.
Baluchistan is another poorly populated backwater - as 2/3rds of the Agency is a Princely State, spinning them off should be easy and painless.
Neither is perceived as part of India proper, I believe, with the NWP speaking Persian and Bacluchistan speaking Baluchi, also an Iranian language.
I do not know enough to pronounce on Punjub (although I believe it was dominated by the non-denominational Union Party) or Sindh. Would federalism by enough to appease Mussulman politicos?
Borys
First NW frontier - no to spinning it off to Afghanistan. for one thing "ceding territory" would be seen as a threat to British prestige (already battered by the events of the early part of the war). Also we fought a war in 1919 to protect them against an Afghan Invasion (questions in the House "Does the Minister mean to stand there and tell the House that he will tamely cede to the Afghan territory for which we paid a blood price to retain barely twenty five years ago?") Plus the precident of ceding part of Empire - any part of Empire, no matter how small - for "convenience" would be seen as fatal to the cohesiveness of Empire as a whole. If an area wants Indipendence and opts for it themselves thats one thing, but simply shoving them aside and abandoning people who "stone age savages" or not are when all is said and done Imperial citizensd to the merch of the Afghans - thats a huge No.

If thayt wasn't enouggh, its damn good recruiting ground for tough, hardy infantry - and there are plenty of Frontier men in the Indian Army. Are you really going to try and sell the idea that "These men joined the colours, fought and bled for Empire, many died for it - so we're going to dump their familys and abandon them to the tender mercy of the Afghan."

As for the Princely states - you'd want to keep them (because having the Princes - hereditory Nobles - in the second Chamber (Indian House of Lords) acts as a balence against the socialists in Congress).