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How did the Quit India Movement involve residents of India's princely states?

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Mahatma Gandhi, holding a walking stick, walks beside Sarojini Naidu during the Salt March protest in 1930, with several men following behind them. — Indian National Congress Indian National Congress leaders Mahatma Gandhi (left) and Sarojini Naidu (right) on the Salt March in western India, March 1930.

Residents of India's princely states formally joined the broader Independence Movement in 1942 when they participated in the Quit India Movement.1

Prior to this, political activity in the princely states was largely organized through local praja mandals (people’s councils), which sought civil liberties and political reforms within their respective states. While these groups were initially discouraged from aligning with the Indian National Congress, their goals eventually converged with the Congress Party’s demand for self-determination. By 1939, the Congress Party had removed its previous prohibitions regarding political activity in the states, and the praja mandals had coalesced into the All India States Peoples’ Conference (AISPC), which was led by Jawaharlal Nehru. This alignment paved the way for residents of the princely states to engage in the mass anti-colonial protests of 1942.1