The Districts of British India were administrative units of the Government of the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

or Indian Empire. Districts were generally

subdivisions Subdivision may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Subdivision (metre), in music * ''Subdivision'' (film), 2009 * "Subdivision", an episode of ''Prison Break'' (season 2) * ''Subdivisions'' (EP), by Sinch, 2005 * "Subdivisions" (song), by Rush ...

of the

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

and

divisions of British India The Divisions of British India were Subdivisions of British India, administrative units of the Government of the British Raj or Indian Empire.''Imperial Gazetteer of India''. Published under the authority of His Majesty's Secretary of State for I ...

History

Districts, often known as '' zillas'' in

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

, were established as

of the

(''praanths'' in vernacular) and

that were under one of the three Presidencies. ''

Imperial Gazetteer of India ''The Imperial Gazetteer of India'' was a gazetteer of the British Indian Empire, and is now a historical reference work. It was first published in 1881. Sir William Wilson Hunter made the original plans of the book, starting in 1869.< ...

'', vol. V, 1908 Most of the districts that were created during the British Raj became

Districts of India A district ('' zila'') is an administrative division of an Indian state or territory. In some cases, districts are further subdivided into sub-divisions, and in others directly into ''tehsils'' or ''talukas''. , there are a total of 766 dist ...

after the

independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

Historical districts

The following list includes only districts of British India that became extinguished or that saw major changes in their history:

Districts in the
Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

Anantapur district Anantapur district officially: Anantapuramu district is one of the eight districts in the Rayalaseema region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The district headquarters is located at Anantapur city. It is one of the driest places in So ...

* Bellary district (including parts of Present-day Kurnool district) *

Chingleput District Kancheepuram district is one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. The area comprising the present day Kancheepuram district was earlier a part of Chingleput district. The original Chingleput district was split in 1997 into ...

Coimbatore District (Madras Presidency) Coimbatore District was one of the districts of the erstwhile Madras Presidency of British India. It covered the areas of the present-day districts of Coimbatore, Erode and Tirupur and the Kollegal taluk of present-day Karnataka. It covered ...

Cuddapah district Kadapa district (officially: YSR district; formerly: Cuddapah district) is one of the twenty six districts in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. On 19 August 2005 nomenclature of “Cuddapah” has been changed as “Kadapa” by the Governm ...

* Ganjam district (including present-day

Gajapati district Gajapati district is a district of Odisha State in India. It was created from Ganjam District on 2 October, 1992. Gajapati district was named after Krushna Chandra Gajapati, Krushna Chandra Gajapati Narayan Deb, the King of the Paralakhemundi Est ...

and parts of

Srikakulam district Srikakulam district is one of the twenty-six districts of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, located in the Uttarandhra region of the state, with its headquarters located at Srikakulam. It is one of the si ...

) *

Godavari District Godavari District was a district in Madras Presidency in British India created in 1859, which was formerly within the Rajahmundry (Rajamahendravaram) District created in 1823. In 1859, Rajahmundry district, along with Masulipatnam and Guntur di ...

Krishna district Krishna district is district in the coastal Andhra Region in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with Machilipatnam as its administrative headquarters. It is the coastal district of Andhra Pradesh. Machilipatnam is the most populated city in the di ...

(including

Guntur district Guntur district is one of the twenty six districts in the Coastal Andhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The administrative seat of the district is located at Guntur, the largest city of the district in terms of area and with a po ...

) * Kurnool district (including parts of present-day

Prakasam district Prakasam district is one of the thirteen districts in the coastal Andhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It was formed in 1970 and reorganised in 2022 on April 4. The headquarters of the district is Ongole. It is located on the weste ...

) *

Madura District (Madras Presidency) Madurai District was one of the districts of the Madras Presidency of British India. It covered the present-day districts of Madurai, Dindigul, Theni, Ramanathapuram, Sivagangai and parts of Virudhunagar District in the Indian state of Tamil Nad ...

Malabar District Malabar District, also known as Malayalam District, was an administrative district on the southwestern Malabar Coast of Bombay Presidency (1792-1800) and Madras Presidency (1800-1947) in British India, and independent India's Madras State (19 ...

* Nellore district (including parts of present-day Prakasam and

Tiruvallur Tiruvallur is a Grade I municipality and a fast developing city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of Coovum river about from downtown Chennai (Madras) and just 5 km from megacity border, in the western p ...

districts) *

North Arcot North Arcot was a former district in Madras Presidency, acquired by the annexation of the Arcot State in 1855 when its Nawab died without issue. It had Chittoor as its headquarters (currently in Andhra pradesh). On 1 April 1911, the Chittoor ...

*Salem District * South Arcot District *

South Canara South Canara was a district of the Madras Presidency of British India, located at . It comprised the towns of Kassergode and Udipi and adjacent villages, with the capital in Mangalore city. South Canara was one of the most heterogeneous areas o ...

Tanjore District Thanjavur District is one of the Districts of Tamil Nadu, 38 districts of the States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu, in southeastern India. Its headquarters is Thanjavur. The district is located in the delta of the Cauvery River ...

* Tinnevely District *

Trichinopoly District The Trichinopoly district was a district of the erstwhile Madras Presidency of British India. It covered the present-day districts of Tiruchirappalli, Karur, Ariyalur and Perambalur in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The administrative headquar ...

Vizagapatam district Vizagapatam District was a district in the Madras Presidency of British India. Covering an area of and sub-divided into 22 taluks. History During the British rule in India, Vizagapatam emerged as a district. It is one of the largest distric ...

(including

Vizianagaram district Vizianagaram district is one of the six districts in the Uttarandhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh with its headquarters located at Vizianagaram. The district was once the part of ancient Kalinga.Saripilli Dibbilingeswara temple ...

)

Districts in the
Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

Bakerganj District Backergunge, Backergunje, Bakarganj, or Bakerganj was a former district of British India. It was the southernmost district of the Dacca Division. The district was located in the swampy lowlands of the vast delta of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra ...

* Bassein District *

Champaran District Champaran District was a district of British India. In 1917, Mohandas Gandhi did his first Satyagraha movement in India at this district against European landowners and British government . History It was created in 1866. On 1 December 1 ...

* Garo Hills district *

Jungle Mahals Jungle Mahals, ( jungle estates) was a district formed by British possessions and some independent chiefdoms lying between Birbhum, Bankura, Midnapore and the hilly country of Chota Nagpur in what is now the Indian state of West Bengal.O’Malle ...

Jungle Terry Jungle Terry or Jungleterry, from hi, जंगल तराई ''jangal tarāi'', meaning 'jungle lowland', was a term applied in the 18th century to an area bordering Bengal and Bihar that included large tracts of Bhagalpur and Monghyr distri ...

Khasi and Jaintia Hills The Khasi and Jaintia Hills are a mountainous region that was mainly part of Assam and Meghalaya. This area is now part of the present Indian constitutive state of Meghalaya (formerly part of Assam), which includes the present districts of East ...

* Lushai Hills District *

Manbhum District Manbhum District was one of the districts of the East India during the British Raj. After India's independence, the district became a part of Bihar State. Upon re-organisation of the Indian states in the mid-1950s, present Purulia district was ca ...

* Naga Hills District *

Purnia District Purnia District is one of the thirty-eight districts of the Indian state of Bihar. The city of Purnia is the administrative headquarters of this district. The city of Purnia has continued its tradition of hoisting the national flag at 12:07 am o ...

Shahabad district Shahabad district or Arrah district, headquartered at Arrah (now part of Bhojpur District, Bihar) was a Bhojpuri speaking district in western Bihar, India, making the western border of Bihar with Uttar Pradesh. In 1972, the district was split in ...

Singhbhum District Singhbhum was a district of India during the British Raj, part of the Chota Nagpur Division of the Bengal Presidency. It was located in the present-day Indian state of Jharkhand. Chaibasa was the district headquarters. Located in the southern l ...

* Tipperah District

Districts in the
Bombay Presidency The Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainl ...

* East Khandesh * Kaladgi District * Khandesh District *

Upper Sind Frontier District Upper Sind Frontier District was a district of the Bombay Presidency during British Rule in colonial India. The district was the northernmost portion of Sind and lay between 27°56' and 28° 27' N. and 68° and 69° 44' E., with an area of . It ...

* West Khandesh

Other districts

Bhilsa District Vidisha (विदिशा, formerly known as Bhelsa and known as Besnagar in ancient times) is a city in central Madhya Pradesh, India. It is located 62.5 km northeast of the state capital, Bhopal. The name "Vidisha" is derived from th ...

Chanderi District Chanderi District was a former administrative district of British India. It covered most of present-day Lalitpur District of Uttar Pradesh state and the eastern portion of Ashoknagar District of Madhya Pradesh state. History Before 1811, the d ...

* Delhi District *

Ellichpur District Ellichpur District is a former district of British India. It encompassed the western portion of present-day Amravati District in Maharashtra state. Ellichpur (Achalpur) was the administrative headquarters of the district. Ellichpur District ha ...

Garhwal District Garhwal District is a former district in Kumaon of British India of the United Provinces, and had an area of . It later became a part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, today it is part of the Indian state Uttarakhand. History The first dyn ...

Hazara District Hazara District was a district of Peshawar Division in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. It existed until 1976, when it was split into the districts of Abbottabad and Mansehra, with the new district of Haripur subsequently splitting of ...

* Isagarh District *

Kumaon District Kumaon (; Kumaoni: ''Kumāū''; ; historically romanized as KemāonJames Prinsep (Editor)John McClelland ) is a revenue and administrative division in the Indian State of Uttarakhand. It spans over the eastern half of the state and is bounded ...

Lyallpur District Faisalabad District (Lyallpur District until 1979) (Punjabi and ur, ) is one of the districts of Punjab province, Pakistan. According to the 1998 census of Pakistan it had a population of 3,029,547 of which almost 42% were in Faisalabad City. ...

* Merwara District *

Montgomery District Montgomery District was an administrative district of the former Punjab Province of British India, in what is now Pakistan. Named after Sir Robert Montgomery, it lay in the Bari Doab, or the tract between the Sutlej and the Ravi rivers, extendi ...

* Muhamdi District * Nimar District * North Bareilly District * Quetta-Pishin District *

Shahpur District Shahpur District was a district in current day Pakistan from 1893, during the British Raj, till 1960. From 1893 to 1914 Shahpur was the district headquarters. In 1914 the district headquarters were moved from Shahpur to Sargodha, although the dis ...

* Sironj District * Thal-Chotiali * Wun District * Neemuch District *

Peshawar District Peshawar District ( ps, پېښور ولسوالۍ, hnd, , ur, ) is a district in Peshawar Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It is located about 160 km west of the Pakistan's capital Islamabad. The district headquarter is ...

References

External links

Pamphlets issued by the India office and by other British and Indian governmental agencies, relating to the government of India, and to various political, economic, and social questions concerning it and Burma
{{india-hist-stub

History

Historical districts

Districts in the Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

Districts in the Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...