For administrative purposes
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 ...
was subdivided into the following units:
Main administrative units
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Provinces of British India
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 ...
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Presidencies of 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 ...
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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 ...
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Districts of British India
Political units
While British India did administratively not include the
princely states, which remained nominally outside 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;
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* it is also called Crown rule in India,
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*
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or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was him ...
, under the administration of their own rulers, the relationship of the British with these states was managed by:
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Agencies of British India
An agency of British India was an internally autonomous or semi-autonomous subdivision of India whose external affairs were governed by an agent designated by the Viceroy of India.Great Britain India Office. '' The Imperial Gazetteer of India' ...
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Residencies of British India
The Residencies of British India were political offices, each managed by a Resident, who dealt with the relations between the Government of India and one or a territorial set of princely states.
History
The Residency system has its origins in ...
Still, the British authorities recurred to the
doctrine of lapse
The doctrine of lapse was a policy of annexation initiated by the East India Company in the Indian subcontinent about the princely states, and applied until the year 1858, the year after Company rule was succeeded by the British Raj under the ...
when they decided to interfere in the internal matters of a princely state.
[William Cooke Taylor, ''A Popular History of British India'']
See also
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Territorial evolution of the British Empire
The territorial evolution of the British Empire is considered to have begun with the foundation of the English colonial empire in the late 16th century. Since then, many territories around the world have been under the control of the United ...
References
{{Pakistan-hist-stub