Punjab States Agency

This article is about a historical group of states in British India. For other uses of the name, see Punjab (disambiguation).

British Residency

1933–1947

Coat of arms

Map of the British Punjab in 1909.

Historical era

New Imperialism

•

Established

1933

•

British withdrawal from India

1947

Princely state
Salute state Chamber of Princes Doctrine of lapse Privy Purse British paramountcy Instrument of Accession
Individual residencies
Hyderabad Jammu and Kashmir Travancore Sikkim
Agencies
Bagelkhand Baluchistan Baroda and Gujarat States Baroda, Western India and Gujarat States Bhopawar Bundelkhand Central India Deccan States Eastern States Gwalior Madras States Mahi Kantha Malwa North-West Frontier Palanpur Punjab States Rajputana Rewa Kantha Western India States
Lists
States by region States by name

The Punjab States Agency was a political office of the British Indian Empire. The agency was created in the 1930s, on the model of the Central India Agency and Rajputana Agency, and dealt with forty princely states in northwest India formerly dealt with by the British province of the Punjab.^[1] ^[2]

After 1947, most of the states chose to accede to the Union of India, the rest to the Dominion of Pakistan.

History

The princely states had come under British suzerainty after the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16 became the Punjab Native States and the Simla Hill States. They later came under the authority of the British province of Punjab, with the exception of Tehri Garhwal State, which had been under the authority of the United Provinces.^[3]

The Punjab States Agency was established in 1933 out of the previous Punjab Native States, which had been under the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab Province, and the Simla Hill States, under the Deputy Commissioner of Simla district.^[4] The agency was created under the direct authority of the Governor General of India with its headquarters in Shimla.^[5]

After Indian Independence in 1947, the states acceded to the Government of India, most of the states became the new state of Himachal Pradesh, with Tehri Garhwal State becoming part of Uttar Pradesh. In 2000, the northern portion of Uttar Pradesh, including the former state of Tehri-Garhwal, became the new state of Uttarakhand.

Princely states