The United Provinces (UP) was a

province 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 out ...

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 ...

and, subsequently,

independent India Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

History

It came into existence on 1 April 1937 as a result of the shortening of "

United Provinces of Agra and Oudh The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was a province of India under the British Raj, which existed from 1902 to 1921; the official name was shortened by the Government of India Act 1935 to United Provinces (UP), by which the province had been ...

". It corresponded approximately to the combined regions of the present-day Indian states of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 195 ...

and

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

Provincial autonomy

The

Government of India Act 1935 The Government of India Act, 1935 was an Act adapted from the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It originally received royal assent in August 1935. It was the longest Act of (British) Parliament ever enacted until the Greater London Authority ...

enlarged the elected provincial legislature and expanded provincial autonomy vis-a-vis the central government. In the elections held in 1937, the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

won the majority seats, but declined to form a government. Therefore, on 1 April 1937, and the

Nawab of Chhatari Lieutenant Colonel Saeed ul-Mulk Nawab Sir Muhammad Ahmad Said Khan, Nawab of Chhatari also generally referred to as Nawab of Chhatari (12 December 1888 – 1982) was Governor of the United Provinces, Chief Minister of United Provinces, P ...

, the leader of the National Agriculturist Parties, was invited to form a minority provisional government. The Congress reversed its decision and resolved to accept office in July 1937. Therefore, the Governor Sir Harry Graham Haig invited Govind Ballabh Pant to form the government. In 1939, all of the Congress ministries in British Indian provinces resigned and the United Provinces were placed under the Governor's rule. In 1945, the British Labour government ordered new elections to the Provincial legislatures. The Congress won a majority in the 1946 elections in the United Provinces and Pant was again the Premier, continuing even after India's

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...

in 1947.

Post-independence

Following independence in 1947, the

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

of Rampur, Banares and Tehri-Garwal were merged into the United Provinces. On 25 January 1950, this unit was renamed as

. In 2000, the separate state of Uttaranchal, now known as

, was carved out of Uttar Pradesh.

References

External links

The interesting story on how United Province became Uttar Pradesh
at ''Business Standard'' {{DEFAULTSORT:United Provinces (1937-1950) 1937 establishments in British India 1950 disestablishments in India Provinces of British India Historical Indian regions British administration in Uttar Pradesh

History

Provincial autonomy

Post-independence

See also

References

External links