HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

An agency of British India was an internally autonomous or semi-autonomous subdivision of
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
whose external affairs were governed by an agent designated by the
Viceroy of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...
.Great Britain India Office. '' The Imperial Gazetteer of India''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908.


Description

The agencies varied in character from fully autonomous self-governing dependencies such as
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 ...
, where the agent functioned mainly as a representative of the Viceroy, to tribal tracts which were integral parts of the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
and where the agent was completely in charge of law and order. The agent of a protected tract or princely state usually lived outside the territory in his charge, as opposed to a Resident who usually lived within his confines and was frequently the
District Collector A District Collector-cum-District Magistrate (also known as Deputy Commissioner in some states) is an All India Service officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre who is responsible for ''land revenue collection'', ''canal revenu ...
of the adjoining British district. Civil and criminal justice in agencies were usually administered through locally made laws, and the
Indian Penal Code The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established ...
was not applicable by default in these agencies.


List of agencies in 1947


Former Agencies before 1947

*Aden Agency (1839 – 1859) *
Bagelkhand Agency The Bagelkhand Agency was a British political unit which managed the relations of the British with a number of autonomous princely states existing outside British India, namely Rewa and 11 minor states, of which the most prominent were Maihar, Na ...
March 1871 / 1933 *
Banas Kantha Agency Palanpur Agency, also spelled Pahlunpore Agency, was a political agency or collection of princely states in British India, within the Gujarat Division of Bombay Presidency. In 1933, the native states of the Mahi Kantha Agency, except for Danta, we ...
*
Baroda Agency Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...
*Baroda and Gujarat Agency *
Bengal States Agency The Eastern States Agency was an agency or grouping of princely states in eastern India, during the latter years of the Indian Empire. It was created in 1933, by the unification of the former Chhattisgarh States Agency and the Orissa States Agen ...
*
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 ...
1818 / 1947-08-15 * Bhopawar Agency 1882 / 1925 (merged with Malwa to form Malwa and Bhopawar Agency) *
Bundelkhand Agency The Bundelkhand Agency was a political agency of the British Raj, managing the relations of the British government with the protected princely states of the Bundelkhand region. History Historical background The Marathas ceded parts of Bu ...
1811 *Chhattisgarh Agency *
Cutch Agency The Cutch Agency was one of the agencies of British India. The appointed Political Agent looked after only one territory, that of the princely state of Cutch, which had a surface of , not including the Rann of Kutch. The agency's headquarters ...
*
Ganjam Hill Tracts Agency Ganjam Hill Tracts Agency was an agency in the Ganjam district of the erstwhile Madras Presidency, British India. It was created by the Act XXIV of 1839 from the ' Maliahs' or Highlands, the tribal lands inhabited by the Khonds and the Soras. Th ...
(Madras Presidency) *Haraoti Agency * Kaira Agency *
Kathiawar Agency The Kathiawar Agency, on the Kathiawar peninsula in the western part of the Indian subcontinent, was a political unit of some 200 small princely states under the suzerainty of the Bombay Presidency of British India. The agency's headquarters we ...
(Bombay Presidency) * Kolaba Agency *Kolhapur Agency *
Mahi Kantha Agency Mahi Kantha was a political agency or collection of princely states in British India, within the Gujarat Division of Bombay Presidency. In 1933, the states of the Mahi Kantha Agency, except for Danta, were included in the Western India States Ag ...
(Bombay Presidency) *Malwa and Bhopawar Agency 1925 / 1927 rename to Malwa and Southern States Agency *Malwa and Southern States Agency 1927 renamed from Malwa and Bhopawar Agency / 1934 renamed to Malwa *
Nasik Agency Surgana State was a princely state of the Bombay Presidency during the era of the British Raj. It was the only state belonging to the Nasik Agency. Its capital was Surgana in Nashik District of present-day Maharashtra. It was ruled by Kolis of ...
*Orissa Agency 1905 *
Palanpur Agency Palanpur Agency, also spelled Pahlunpore Agency, was a political agency or collection of princely states in British India, within the Gujarat Division of Bombay Presidency. In 1933, the native states of the Mahi Kantha Agency, except for Danta, we ...
1819 (belong to Bombay Presidency, merged 10 October 1924 in WISA) * Rewa Kantha Agency (Bombay Presidency) *
Sabar Kantha Agency The Kathiawar Agency, on the Kathiawar peninsula in the western part of the Indian subcontinent, was a political unit of some 200 small princely states under the suzerainty of the Bombay Presidency of British India. The agency's headquarters w ...
*
Surat Agency The Surat Agency was one of the agencies of British India in the Bombay Presidency. History This agency was formed in the 19th century as the Khandesh Agency, after the region of Khandesh, becoming the Surat Agency in 1880.''The Indian Year Bo ...
*
Thana Agency The Jawhar State was a princely state in India. As a princely state, it became a part of Bombay Presidency during the British Raj. It was the only state belonging to the Thana Agency. The last Koli Ruler of Jawhar at Indian independence w ...
* Vizagapatam Hill Tracts Agency (Madras Presidency) *
Western India States Agency The Western India States Agency (WISA) was one of the agencies of British India. This agency was formed on 10 October 1924 as a part of the implementation of the Montague Chelmsford report on constitutional reforms. It was formed by merging the ...
(WISA)


See also

*
Indian Political Service The Indian Political Department (IPD), formerly known as the Foreign and Political Department of the Government of India, was a government department in British India. It originated in a resolution passed on 13 September 1783 by the board of direc ...
(IPS) *
Subdivisions of British India For administrative purposes British India was subdivided into the following units: Main administrative units *Provinces of British India *Presidencies of British India *Divisions of British India *Districts of British India Political units While ...


References


Sources and external links


IPS Index, First Edition – Princely States Report
Subdivisions of British India {{India-hist-stub