Lord Dalhousie had implemented the 'Doctrine of Lapse' policy in India, who was the Governor General for the East India Company in India between 1848 and 1856. According to the doctrine, any princely state or territory under the direct influence (paramountacy) of the British East India Company (the dominant imperial power in the subcontinent), as a vassal state under the British subsidiary system, would automatically be annexed if the ruler was either "manifestly incompetent or died without a male heir".