Tonk 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, ...

of India at the time of the British Raj. The town of Tonk, which was the capital of the state, had a population of 273,201 in 1901. The town was surrounded by a wall and boasted a mud fort. It had a high school, the Walter hospital for women, under a matron, and a separate hospital for men. It has a bridge on river Banas. Amir Khan was originally enlisted by the Holkar dynasty in 1806. Tonk and the surrounding regions were captured from

Jaipur State Jaipur State was a princely state in India during East India Company rule and thereafter under the British Raj. It signed a treaty creating a subsidiary alliance with the Company in 1818, after the Third Anglo-Maratha War. It acceded ...

and rewarded to Amir Khan for his services. In 1817 the British acknowledged Amir Khan as the ruler of Tonk on the condition that he disbanded his army. The army of Amir Khan consisted of 52 battalions of infantry, 15,000 Pashtun cavalry and 150 artillery. Amir Khan surrendered on the condition that the British enlist his men and buy his artillery. Rampura and Aligarh were presented as gift by the British to Amir Khan for his cooperation. It was the only princely state of Rajasthan with a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

ruling dynasty.

Geography

The state was formed of several enclaves located in an area covered by the alluvium of the Bands, and from this, a few rocky hills composed of schists of the Aravalli Range protrude, together with scattered outliers of the Alwar quartzites. Nimbahera is for the most part covered by shales, limestone, and sandstone belonging to the Lower Vindhyan group, while the Central India districts lie in the Deccan trap area, and present all the features common to that formation. Besides the usual small game, antelope or ravine deer, and nilgai ''(Boselaphus tragocamelus)'' used to be common in the plains, and

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

sambar deer The sambar (''Rusa unicolor'') is a large deer native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia that is listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List since 2008. Populations have declined substantially due to severe hunting, local ins ...

''(Cervus unicolor)'', and wild hog were found in many of the hills. Formerly an occasional tiger was met in the south-east of Aligarh, the north-east- of Nimbahera, and parts of

Pirawa Pirawa is a city and a municipality in Jhalawar district in the India. Geography Pirawa is located at . It has an average elevation of 370 metres (1213 feet). Demographics India census A census is the procedure of systematically ac ...

and

Sironj Sironj is a town and a municipality in Vidisha district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Demographics India census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a g ...

. The total area of the

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, ...

was 2553 sq. mi, with a total population in 1901 of 273,201. By treaty Tonk became a British protectorate in 1817. Following 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 ...

, Tonk acceded to the newly independent dominion of India on 7 April 1949. It was located in the region bordering present-day Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh states that are now the Tonk district.

History

The founder of the state was Nawab Muhammad Amir Khan (1769–1834), an adventurer and military leader of Pashtun descent. Amir Khan rose to be a military commander in the service of Yashwantrao Holkar of the Maratha Empire in 1798. In 1806, Khan received the state of Tonk from Yashwantrao Holkar. In 1817, after the Third Anglo-Maratha War, Amir Khan submitted to the British British East India Company. As a result, he kept his territory of Tonk and received the title of Nawab. While retaining internal autonomy and remaining outside British India, the state came under the supervision of the Rajputana Agency and consisted of six isolated districts. Three of these were under the Rajputana Agency, namely, Tonk, Aligarh (formerly Rampura) and Nimbahera. The other three, Chhabra,

and

were in the Central India Agency. The Haraoti-Tonk Agency, with headquarters at Deoli, dealt with the states of Tonk and Bundi, as well as with the state of Shahpura.''Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. IV'' (1907), The Indian Empire, Administrative, Published under the authority of His Majesty's Secretary of State for India in Council, Oxford at the Clarendon Press. Pp. xxx, 1 map, 552 A former minister of Tonk state, Sahibzada Obeidullah Khan, was deputed on political duty to Peshawar during the Tirah campaign of 1897. In 1899–1900, the state suffered much distress due to drought. The princely state enjoyed an estimated revenue of £128,546 in 1883–84; however, no tribute was payable to the government of British India. Grain, cotton, opium and hides were the chief products and exports of the state. Two of the outlying tracts of the state were served by two different railways. Nawab Sir Muhammad Ibrahim Ali Khan GCIE (ruled 1867–1930) was one of few chiefs to attend both

Lord Lytton Earl of Lytton, in the County of Derby, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1880 for the diplomat and poet Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Baron Lytton. He was Viceroy of India from 1876 to 1880 and British Ambassad ...

's Durbar in 1877 and the

Delhi Durbar The Delhi Durbar ( lit. "Court of Delhi") was an Indian imperial-style mass assembly organized by the British at Coronation Park, Delhi, India, to mark the succession of an Emperor or Empress of India. Also known as the Imperial Durbar, it was ...

of 1903 as ruler. In 1947, on the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

whereby India and Pakistan gained independence, the Nawab of Tonk decided to join India. Subsequently, most of the area of the state of Tonk was integrated into Rajasthan state, while some of its eastern enclaves became part of Madhya Pradesh. The foundation of the principality of Tonk led to the creation of a large Rajasthani Pathan community.

Rulers

The rulers of the state, the Salarzai Nawabs of Tonk, belonged to a Pashtun Tarkani tribe. They were entitled to a 17- gun salute by the British authorities. The last ruler before Indian independence, Nawab Muhammad Ismail Ali Khan, has no issue.

Nawabs

* Muhammad Amir Khan (1806–1834) * Muhammad Wazir Khan (1834–1864) * Nawab Muhammad Ali Khan (1864–1867) * Nawab Muhammad Ibrahim Ali Khan (186723 June 1930) * Nawab Muhammad Saadat Ali Khan (23 June 193031 May 1947) * Nawab Muhammad Faruq Ali Khan (1947–1948)

Titular Nawabs

* Nawab Muhammad Ismail Ali Khan (1948–1974) * Nawab Masoom Ali Khan (1974–1994) * Nawab Aftab Ali Khan (1994–)

References

External links

* {{coord, 26.17, N, 75.78, E, source:kolossus-cawiki, display=title Princely states of Rajasthan States and territories established in 1817 Muslim princely states of India Tonk district States and territories disestablished in 1949 1806 establishments in India 1817 establishments in India 1949 disestablishments in India Pashtun dynasties