degree of autonomy in practice. In 1947, the Maharaja Chogyal and his people decided against accession to India and chose to maintain Sikkim's internal sovereignty. The state formally became a protectorate of India in 1950. Following the death of the Maharaja Chogyal in 1963 and his succession by his unpopular son, Palden Thondup Namgyal, popular demands for increased individual rights grew more frequent. After Sikkim's first free general elections in 1974, the Indian Army placed the Chogyal under house arrest. Under military supervision, a controversial referendum was held in 1975, which approved the state's merger with India and the abolition of the monarchy. Sikkim was formally merged into India as its 22nd state on 26 April 1975. Middle East and Persian Gulf Middle East Protectorates - Aden Protectorate (until 1917) The following were constituent states of the Aden Protectorate from the late 19th century until their independence and merger with South Yemen in 1967 when the states were abolished. The protectorate was under the British Raj and governed as part of the Bombay Presidency until 1917 when the protectorate was transferred to the control of the British Foreign Office. Middle East Protectorates - Persian Gulf Residency The Persian Gulf Residency was established in 1822 during the time of the East India Company, though the company had established a residency at Bushehr in 1763. It was made subordinate to the Governor of Bombay until 1873. As with the rest of British India, it came under the control of the British Crown in 1858. In 1873, the residency came under the direct control of the British Raj and the India Office. In 1892, it officially assumed a protectorate status over the states of Muscat and Oman, Bahrain and the Trucial States, followed by Kuwait in 1914 and Qatar in 1916. In 1920, the Treaty of Seeb recognised the de jure independence of Oman. The residency was transferred to the charge of the British Foreign Office from the India Office in 1947, shortly before Indian independence. In 1961, Kuwait became the first of the Gulf States to terminate its protectorate and become fully independent, with Muscat and Oman being recognised by Britain as an independent, protected state the following year. With the increasing costs of maintaining an overseas presence, Britain announced in January 1968 that it would end its protectorate over the remaining Gulf states in 1971. The protectorates were finally terminated in