Kurwai State was a

princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj, British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

under the

Bhopal Agency The Bhopal Agency was a section of British India's colonial Central India Agency, a British political unit which managed the relations of the British with a number of autonomous princely states existing outside British India.Great Britain India ...

and centered around

Kurwai Kurwai is a town and a Nagar Panchayat in Vidisha district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. History The town of Kurwai was founded by mohm. Diler khan in 1715 of Kurwai State Kurwai was formerly a Muslim princely state of British India. ...

town. The town of

was founded by Mohammed Diler Khan in 1715. The state was 368 km² in area and had a population of 30,631 in 1892.

History

Kurwai State was founded in 1713 by Mohammed Diler Khan, an Afghan soldier in the Mughal army. The state came under the Maratha suzerainty in the 1730s. Kurwai later became a British protectorate in 1818, following the British victory in the

Third Anglo-Maratha War The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1819) was the final and decisive conflict between the English East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. The war left the Company in control of most of India. It began with an invasion of Maratha te ...

. Its last ruler acceded to the

Dominion of India The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India,* Quote: “The first collective use (of the word "dominion") occurred at the Colonial Conference (April to May 1907) when the title was conferred upon Canada and Australia. New Zealand and N ...

on 15 June 1948.

Rulers

The ruling house of Kurwai was founded by Muhammad Diler Khan, an

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

from the

Orakzai The Orakzai are a Pashtun tribe native to the Orakzai Agency and parts of Kurram Agency located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. They speak the language Pashto. Location The Orakzai belong to the Tirah valley located in FATA or wha ...

tribe as a feudal state. Diler Khan was a contemporary and cousin of Nawab Dost Muhammad Khan of

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...

. In 1737 Following the victory of the Marathas, Bhopal came under the suzerainty of the

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Shi ...

as a semi-autonomous state and remained so until the

in 1818. In the 1740s, Kurwai, then a feudal state, came under the direct rule of the

Peshwa The Peshwa (Pronunciation: e(ː)ʃʋaː was the appointed (later becoming hereditary) prime minister of the Maratha Empire of the Indian subcontinent. Originally, the Peshwas served as subordinates to the Chhatrapati (the Maratha king); later, ...

s of the

. Source
/ref> In 1761, Diler Khan's son Izzat Khan formed an alliance with the

Marathas The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...

, and fought for them at the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. The Marathas suffered a defeat in the battle, and Diler Khan was badly wounded in action. He was rescued by his maternal uncle. After recovering, Izzat Khan joined enemy camp, and received high commands, titles and territories from

Ahmad Shah Abdali Ahmad Shāh Durrānī ( ps, احمد شاه دراني; prs, احمد شاه درانی), also known as Ahmad Shāh Abdālī (), was the founder of the Durrani Empire and is regarded as the founder of the modern Afghanistan. In July 1747, Ahm ...

. He died of the battle injuries after returning to Kurwai. Izzat Khan's son Hurmut Khan was imprisoned by the

for three years. He was freed after he ceded several villages to them, and agreed to an

indemnity In contract law, an indemnity is a contractual obligation of one party (the ''indemnitor'') to compensate the loss incurred by another party (the ''indemnitee'') due to the relevant acts of the indemnitor or any other party. The duty to indemni ...

of 3 lakhs

rupees Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

to the Marathas. Hurmut Khan' son Akbar Mohammad Khan formed an alliance with the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

in hopes of gaining back his territory from the Marathas, but following the

Second Anglo-Maratha War } The Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805) was the second conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. Background The British had supported the "fugitive" Peshwa Raghunathrao in the First Anglo-Maratha War, ...

, the British annexed the recovered lands for themselves and Kurwai became a princely state under the British suzerainty. Hurmut Khan's successors ruled the state until 1887, when Najaf Khan died without any male heir; his elder brother Muzaffar Khan had also died without heir. After a brief struggle with the Nawab of

Basoda Ganj Basoda, called Basoda, city and municipality in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Ganj Basoda is one of the eleven tehsils of Vidisha district and is 39 kms from Vidisha. History Earlier there was an oil and flour mill named "Standard ...

, Najaf Khan's maternal grandson Munawar Ali Khan became the ruler of the princely state. After Munawar Khan died without issue, his younger brother Yaqub 'Ali Khan became the Nawab of Kurwai. Yaqub married Munawar's wife Umar un-nisa. Their four-year-old son Sarwar Ali Khan became the Nawab after Yaqub's death in an accident at Bhopal.

Sarwar Ali Khan

When Sarwar Ali Khan was young, the state was ruled by a

regency council A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state ''pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy, ...

headed by Umar un-nisa, who came to be known as "Sarkar Amma" (Mother Governor). She established several institutions for welfare of the citizens, including a rural bank that provided interest-free loans. Sarwar Ali Khan and his sisters were the first generation in the family to receive English education. He studied at the

Daly College The Daly College is a co-educational residential and day boarding school located in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. It was founded by Sir Henry Daly of the British Indian Army during India's colonial British Raj, following an English public sch ...

(

Indore Indore () is the largest and most populous Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of both Indore District and Indore Division. It is also considered as an education hub of the state and is t ...

Mayo College Mayo College (informally Mayo) is a boys-only independent boarding school in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India. It was founded in 1875 by Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, who was the Viceroy of India from 1869 to 1872. This makes it one of the oldest Pub ...

(

Ajmer Ajmer is one of the major and oldest cities in the Indian state of Rajasthan and the centre of the eponymous Ajmer District. It is located at the centre of Rajasthan. It is also known as heart of Rajasthan. The city was established as "''Aj ...

) and the

Sandhurst Military Academy The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town of ...

. After graduating from Sandhurst in 1921, he severed with the Worcestershires until 1923. During this stint, he guarded

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

in the British custody. In 1926, he married

Abida Sultan Princess Suraya Jah, Nawab Gowhar-i-Taj, Abida Sultan Begum Sahiba (28 August 1913 – 11 May 2002) was the eldest daughter of Hamidullah Khan, the last Nawab of the Bhopal state, and his wife Begum Maimoona Sultan. Life and family Sultan is th ...

, the eldest daughter and heiress presumptive of the

Nawab of Bhopal The Nawabs of Bhopal were the Muslim rulers of Bhopal, now part of Madhya Pradesh, India. The nawabs first ruled under the Mughal Empire from 1707 to 1737, under the Maratha Empire from 1737 to 1818, then under British rule from 1818 to 1947, an ...

. Their only son,

Shaharyar Khan Shahryar Mohammad Khan ( ur, شہریار محمد خان; born 12 March 1934) is a former career Pakistan diplomat who became Foreign Secretary of Pakistan in 1990, and remained so until his retirement from service in 1994. He later served as ...

, was born in 1934. The marriage eventually failed, and Sarwar Ali later married other women. Abida Sultan gave up her right to the throne of

and opted for the Muslim nation

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in 1950, eventually entering that country's Foreign service. Later, Shaharyar Khan became the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan and then the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board. Sarwar Ali Khan's second wife was Ayesha, daughter of the Nawab of Wai. They had three children: Kaiser Zaman, Zafar Ali Khan and Munawar Ali Khan. During Sarwar Ali Khan's reign, Kurwai saw development of modern infrastructure including roads, telephone network, sanitary facilities, bridges, schools, courts, police station, civil hospital government offices, a power station and a Legislative Assembly. The power was transferred to the Government of newly independent India in 1947. On 15 June 1948, Kurwai State officially acceded to the Indian Government. Kurwai became part of the newly created state of

Madhya Bharat Madhya Bharat, also known as Malwa Union, was an Indian state in west-central India, created on 28 May 1948 from twenty-five princely states which until 1947 had been part of the Central India Agency, with Jiwajirao Scindia as its Rajpramukh. ...

, and was added to Vidisha District. Madhya Bharat was merged into

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

on 1 November 1956. Sarwar Ali Khan continued to be involved in the political process. A friend of the

Harijan Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming a ...

leader Jagjeevan Ram, he encouraged the emancipation of the lower

castes Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

, and also campaigned against the

dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment b ...

system and

forced marriage Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later force ...

. After his death in 1986, the title Nawab of Kurwai passed on to his son Zafar Ali Khan. Sawar Ali's daughter Kaiser Zaman studied English at Somerville College, Oxford University. She later founded the

All Saints School Bhopal All Saints' School, Bhopal is an English medium school located at Idgah Hills Bhopal, India. It was founded in 1980 by Iris Cynthia Philomene Auer. Miss Auer came to India after she retired as principal of a school in England. From seven pupils ...

and the All Saints College of Science & Commerce.

List of Nawabs

Rulers of Kurwai State bore the title of '

Nawab Nawab (Balochi language, Balochi: نواب; ar, نواب; bn, নবাব/নওয়াব; hi, नवाब; Punjabi language, Punjabi : ਨਵਾਬ; Persian language, Persian, Punjabi language, Punjabi , Sindhi language, Sindhi, Urd ...

'. The rulers of

and Mohammadgarh states were part of the same dynasty: *1713 – 12 Oct 1722 Mohammad Diler Khan (b. c.1670 - d. 1722) *12 Oct 1722 - 1762 Mohammad `Izzat Khan (d. 1762) *1722 – 1727 Mohammad Ahsanullah Khan -Regent *1762 – 1792 Mohammed Hormat Khan (d. 1792) *1792 - 1839 Akbar Mohammad Khan (d. 1839) *1839 – 11 Aug 1858 Mohammad Mozaffar Khan (d. 1858) *11 Aug 1858 – 15 Jan 1887 Mohammad Najaf Khan (b. 1822 – d. 1887) *15 Jan 1887 – 10 Sep 1896 Monawar `Ali Khan (b. 1869 - d. 1896) *15 Jan 1887 – 1892 Mian Mazhar `Ali Khan -Regent *10 Sep 1896 - 1 Oct 1906 Mohammad Ya`qub `Ali Khan (b. 1876 - d. 1906) * 1 Oct 1906 – 15 Aug 1947 Mohammad Sarwar `Ali Khan (b. 1901 - d. 1986) * 1 Oct 1906 – 9 Apr 1923 Umar un-nisa Begum (f) -Regent (d. 1963)

References

{{MP Princely States Pashtun dynasties Muslim princely states of India Vidisha district 1713 establishments in Asia ca:Kurwai

History

Rulers

Sarwar Ali Khan

List of Nawabs

See also

References