Junagadh was a princely state of the British Raj, located in what is now Gujarat, outside but under the suzerainty of British India. In the independence and partition of British India of 1947, the 565 princely states were given a choice to either join the new Dominion of India or the newly formed state of Pakistan. Scholars have observed that India annexed Junagadh through force with scholars viewing the annexation as part of a wider programme by the Indian state of getting the rulers of princely states to accede into a unified post colonial India.