Doctrine of Lapse

It was customary in India for a king to adopt children from other royal families if he had no children and raise them. However, the British used their power to implement another law. The law was that if the ruler of a princely state died without heirs, that country would come under British rule! The Doctrine of Lapse was implemented when Lord Dalhousie was the Governor General (1848 - 56). This meant that a princely state without an heir had no right to adopt children. Thus, the princely state without heirs was annexed to British India. Through this law, the British annexed many small states to their empire. Thus, the first princely state to be annexed by the British was Satara (1848). Jaipur, Sambalpur (1849), Bhagat (1850), Chhota Udaipur (1852), Jhansi (1853), and Nagpur (1854) were also annexed to British India in this manner.