Appointed on 16th December, 1927, the Harcourt Butler Committee or Butler Committee was a three member commission headed by Harcourt Butler to examine the relationship between the paramount power and the princely states of India. The committee fully endorsed that the viceroy, not the governor general should remain the Crown agent in dealing with the native states. The Butler Committee visited 16 states and submitted its report in 1929, which was subsequently supported by the Simon Commission.

Recommendations of Butler Committee
Discussed below are some of the important recommendations of the Butler Committee:

Paramountcy must remain supreme and must fulfil its obligations, adopting and defining itself according to the shifting necessities of time amid progressive development of the states.

The states were bound by treaties with the British Crown. The sovereignty of the states should not be handed over without the ruler’s prior consent to an Indian Government in British India responsible to an Indian Legislature.

The Viceroy, not the Governor- General in council was to be the Crown agent in dealing with states.

Thus, the Butler Committee was formed to inquire into the relationship between the Indian states and the paramount power. The committee suggested ways and means for more satisfactory adjustments of the existing relations between them and British India.

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