BharatNotes Accession
noun; also verb (transitive, technical — to record an item in a library or museum collection)Usage in a UPSC answer
The accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian Union in October 1947, effected through the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh, remains a watershed in the constitutional integration of the princely states.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
accede (v), acceding (v pres.p), acceded (v past), accession (n), accessional (adj)
Root
Latin ad- = to + cedere = to go/yield → accedere = to approach; accessio = a going to
Etymology
From Latin accessionem (nominative accessio, "a going to, joining, increase"), from the past participle stem of accedere ("to approach, to go to"), from ad- ("to") + cedere ("to go, to yield").
Memory Hook
ACCESSION = gaining ACCESS — a ruler gains access to the throne; a state gains access to a union. Contrast its mirror-opposite: SEcession (going apart) vs ACcession (coming to join).
How This Word Works in UPSC Writing
The act by which a princely state joined a dominion. The precise point, and the one most often blurred, is how limited the Instrument of Accession was: it ceded only three subjects, defence, external affairs and communications, and nothing more, while a Standstill Agreement continued existing administrative arrangements in the meantime. Full integration came afterwards and by separate steps, through merger agreements, the absorption of small states into neighbouring provinces or new unions, and eventually the reorganisation of 1956. Accession, integration and merger are therefore three distinct stages rather than synonyms. Three cases resisted the pattern: Junagadh, whose ruler acceded to Pakistan against the wishes of a largely Hindu population and which came to India after a plebiscite; Hyderabad, brought in by military action in September 1948; and Jammu and Kashmir, where Hari Singh signed on 26 October 1947 and Mountbatten accepted the following day.
Don’t Confuse It With
Accession is the initial act of joining a dominion on limited terms, while integration is the fuller constitutional absorption that followed and merger the combining of states into larger units, so the three name successive stages. A Standstill Agreement preserved existing arrangements pending a decision and was not itself accession. Secession is the reverse, a withdrawal from the union. The Instrument of Accession is the legal document, distinct from the political process of persuasion that preceded it.
Hindi Meaning
विलय (vilay) for merger; अधिमिलन (adhimilan) or परिग्रहण for accession.
Common Questions
- What did a princely state give up by acceding?
- Only three subjects, defence, external affairs and communications; everything else remained with the ruler at that stage, with fuller integration following later.
- How did Jammu and Kashmir accede?
- Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947 and Lord Mountbatten accepted it the following day.
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