The last nizam decamped several decades later, after independence abolished the princely states and tax liens, and family feuds, embezzlement, and general ineptitude evaporated the fortune.

FORBES: Photograph: Andre Fanthome (RAAS)

Correspondents say that while most tiger hunting was carried out on elephant-back, some Indian maharajahs, or "great kings" of princely states took things to the extreme.

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Originally, like other princely states which joined India after the partition of the subcontinent, Kashmir ceded control of defence, communications and foreign affairs to Delhi, while keeping a tight hold on its domestic financial and legal affairs.

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These feudal rulers, like the princely states of India, were given identity, power, recognition and land by Britain to run the subcontinent and were bestowed with the same privileges and undemocratic methods that, as you mention, they still retain.

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The demand for a referendum will be legal, say the kings, because unlike India's other former princely states, these hill kingdoms -- actually nothing more than a collection of hamlets -- did not sign a merger agreement with the Indian union in 1947.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | A Royal Tribe Under Threat