United Provinces of Agra and Oudh | |||||||||
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Province of British India | |||||||||
1902–1937 | |||||||||
![]() Map of the United Provinces, c. 1909 | |||||||||
Capital | Allahabad | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
• Established | 1902 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1937 | ||||||||
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Today part of | India |
The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was a province of India under the British Raj, which existed from 22 March 1902 to 1937; the official name was shortened by the Government of India Act 1935 to United Provinces (UP), by which the province had been commonly known, and by which name it was also a province of independent India until 1950. [1]
It corresponded approximately to the present-day Indian states of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Uttarakhand. Allahabad served as the administrative headquarters and the capital of the province. Two years after the annexation of Oudh State in 1856, i.e. after 1858 and until 1902, the region had existed as North-Western Provinces and Oudh, Oudh being a Chief Commissionership.
Lucknow became its capital some time after 1921. Nainital was the summer capital of the province.[ citation needed ]
By the 18th century, the once vast Mughal Empire was collapsing, undone by internal dissension and by expansion of the Marathas from the Deccan, the British from Bengal, and the Afghans from Afghanistan. By the middle of the century, present-day Uttar Pradesh was divided between several states: Oudh in the centre and east, ruled by a Nawab who owed allegiance to the Mughal Emperor but was de facto independent; Rohilkhand in the north, ruled by Afghans; the Marathas, who controlled the Bundelkhand region in the south, and the Mughal Empire, which controlled the entire Doab (the tongue of land between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers) as well as the Delhi region.
In 1765, the combined forces of Awadh and the Mughal Emperor met the British at the Battle of Buxar. The British won, but they did not take any territory; the whole of Awadh was restored to the Nawab, and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam was restored the subahs of Allahabad and Kora in the lower Doab, with a British garrison in the fort of Allahabad. Governor-General Warren Hastings later augmented the territory of Awadh by lending the nawab a British army to conquer Rohilkhand in the Rohilla War, and by giving Allahabad and Kora to Awadh on the ground that Shah Alam had placed himself in the power of the Marathas. At the same time the British received the province of Benares from Awadh.
Subsequently, no great change took place until the arrival of Lord Wellesley (Governor-General 1797–1805) who acquired a very large accession of territory in two instalments. In 1801 he obtained from the Nawab of Oudh the cession of Rohilkhand, the lower Doab, and the Gorakhpur Division, thus enclosing Awadh on all sides except the north. In 1804, as the result of Lord Lake's victories in the Second Anglo-Maratha War, part of Bundelkhand and the rest of the Doab, including Agra and the guardianship of the old and blind emperor, Shah Alam, at Delhi, were obtained from Scindia. In 1815 the Kumaon Division was acquired after the Gurkha War, and a further portion of Bundelkhand from the Maratha Peshwa in 1817. These new acquisitions, known as the ceded and conquered provinces, continued to be administered by the governor-general as part of Bengal. In 1833 an act of Parliament was passed to constitute a new presidency (province), with its capital at Agra. But this scheme was never fully carried out, and in 1835 another statute authorised the appointment of a lieutenant-governor for the North-Western Provinces, as they were then known.
The North-Western Provinces included the Delhi and Gurgaon territories, transferred later, after the Revolt of 1857 to the Punjab; and also (after 1853) the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories, which in 1861 became part of the Central Provinces. Awadh remained under its nawab, who was permitted to assume the title of king in 1819. Awadh was annexed in 1856 and constituted a separate chief commissionership. Then followed the Revolt of 1857, when all signs of British rule were for a time swept away throughout the greater part of the two provinces. The lieutenant-governor died when shut up in the fort at Agra, and Oudh was only reconquered after several campaigns lasting for eighteen months.
In 1877 the offices of Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces and Chief Commissioner of Oudh were combined in the same person; the formula was common in British imperial administration, and was known as 'double-hatting'. In 1902, when the new name of United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was introduced, the title of chief commissioner was dropped, though Oudh still retained some marks of its former independence. In 1935, the official name of the province was shortened to the United Provinces (UP). [1]
The United Provinces became a province of the newly independent India in 1947. After the political integration of India and upon the coming into force of the new Constitution of India on 26 January 1950, three former princely states, Rampur, Benares, and Tehri Garhwal was added to it and it was renamed Uttar Pradesh. [1]
The provinces were bounded on the north by Tibet, and on the north-east by Nepal; on the east and south-east by the Champaran, Saran, Shahabad, and Palamau Districts of Bengal; on the south by two of the Chota Nagpur States in the Central Provinces, Rewah and some small States in the Central India kanpur technical augor District in the Central Provinces; on the west by the States of Gwalior, Dholpur, and Bharatpur, the Districts of Gurgaon, Delhi, Karnal, and Ambala in the Punjab, and the Punjab States of Sirmur and Jubbal. The Jumna river formed part of the western boundary, the Ganges part of the southern, and the Gandak part of the eastern; other boundaries are artificial. According to the District surveys the areas of the two Provinces are, in square miles: Agra, 83,198; Oudh, 23,966; total, 107,164.9044 Including some river-beds which form District boundaries and are excluded from the District details, 041 the total area amounts to 107,494 square miles (278,410 km2). The area of the two Native States in the Provinces (Rampur and Tehri) is 5,079 square miles (13,150 km2) more. A Presidency of Agra was first formed in 1834, up to which date the area then separated had been included in the Presidency of Bengal, being sometimes called the Western Provinces. The United Provinces included four distinct tracts of country namely, portions of the Himalayas, the sub-Himalayan tracts, the great Gangetic plain, and portions of the hill systems of Central India. [2]
The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh included 10 divisions with 48 districts.
The Government of India Act 1919 expanded the United Provinces Legislative Council to 123 seats, including more elected Indian members. The reforms also introduced the principle of diarchy, whereby certain responsibilities such as agriculture, health, education, and local government, were transferred to elected ministers. However, the important portfolios like finance, police and irrigation were reserved with members of the Governor's Executive Council. Some of the prominent members and ministers in the United Provinces were Mohammad Ali Mohammad Khan (Home Member), C. Y. Chintamani (Minister of Education and Industries) and Jagat Narain Mulla (Minister of Local & Self Government). [3]
Awadh, known in British historical texts as Avadh or Oudh, is a historical region in northern India, now constituting the northeastern portion of Uttar Pradesh. It is roughly synonymous with the ancient Kosala region of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain scriptures.
Rohilkhand is a region in the northwestern part of Uttar Pradesh, India, that is centered on the Bareilly and Moradabad divisions. It is part of the upper Ganges Plain, and is named after the Rohilla tribe of Afghans. The region was called Madhyadesh and Panchala in the Sanskrit epics Mahabharata and Ramayana. During the colonial era in India, the region was governed by the Royal House of Rampur.
Nawab Muhammad Amir Khan (1769–1834) was a military general in the service of Yashwantrao Holkar of the Maratha Empire and later became the first ruler of the princely state of Tonk. Amir Khan was a Hindustani Pathan and a North Indian Muslim. Born and bred in Sambhal, Amir Khan was the son of a Zamindar in Uttar Pradesh, Hayat Khan, while his grandfather Taleh Khan was a Pashtun from the Salarzai tribe of District Buner in modern-day Pakistan who had migrated to and acquired land in Rohilkhand.
Rohillas are a mixed Indian community of Pashtun heritage, historically found in Rohilkhand, a region in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It forms the largest Pashtun diaspora community in India, and has given its name to the Rohilkhand region. The Rohilla military chiefs settled in this region of northern India in the 1720s, the first of whom was Ali Mohammed Khan.
The Bareilly district belongs to the state Uttar Pradesh in northern India. Its capital is Bareilly city and it is divided in six administrative division or tehsils: Aonla, Baheri, Bareilly city, Faridpur, Mirganj, and Nawabganj. The Bareilly district is a part of the Bareilly Division and occupies an area of 4120 km2 with a population of 4,448,359 people according to the census of 2011.
Bijnor district is one of the 75 districts in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. Bijnor city is the district headquarters. The government of Uttar Pradesh seeks its inclusion in National Capital Region (NCR) due to its close proximity to NCT of Delhi.
Varanasi division is one of the 18 administrative geographical units of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Varanasi city is the administrative headquarters of the division. The division consists of 4 districts, i.e. Varanasi, Chandauli, Ghazipur, and Jaunpur and is loosely equivalent to the Benares State.
The North-Western Provinces was an administrative region in British India. The North-Western Provinces were established in 1836, through merging the administrative divisions of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces. In 1858, the Nawab-ruled kingdom of Oudh was annexed and merged with the North-Western Provinces to form the renamed North-Western Provinces and Oudh. In 1902, this province was reorganized to form the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. Allahabad served as its capital from 1858, when it also became the capital of India for a day.
Farrukhabad district is a district of Uttar Pradesh state of India. The town of Fatehgarh is the district headquarters. The district is part of Kanpur Division.
The United Provinces (UP) was a province of British India and, subsequently, independent India.
Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad or Allahabad in an anglicized version in Roman script, and anciently Prayag, is a city situated on an inland peninsula, surrounded by the rivers Ganges and Yamuna on three sides, with only one side connected to the mainland Doab region, of which it is a part. This position is of importance in Hindu scriptures for it is situated at the confluence, known as Triveni Sangam, of the holy rivers. As per Rigveda the Sarasvati River was part of the three river confluence in ancient times. It is one of four sites of the Kumbh Mela, an important mass Hindu pilgrimage.
Hafiz Rahmat Khan was the Regent of Rohilkhand in North India, from 1749 to 1774. He was a Pashtun by background, ruling over Rohillas. Hafiz Rahmat Khan had served honorably throughout the reign of three Mughal Emperors: Ahmad Shah Bahadur, Alamgir II and Shah Alam II. He was also a mentor of Prince Mirza Jawan Bakht.
The Ceded and Conquered Provinces constituted a region in northern India that was ruled by the British East India Company from 1805 to 1834; it corresponded approximately—in present-day India—to all regions in Uttar Pradesh state with the exception of the Lucknow and Faizabad divisions of Awadh; in addition, it included the Delhi territory and, after 1816, the Kumaun division and a large part of the Garhwal division of present-day Uttarakhand state. In 1836, the region became the North-Western Provinces, and in 1904, the Agra Province within the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.
According to the epic Mahābhārata, Bareilly region (Panchala) is said to be the birthplace of Draupadi, who was also referred to as 'Panchali' by Kṛṣṇā. When Yudhishthira becomes the king of Hastinapura at the end of the Mahābhārata, Draupadi becomes his queen. The folklore says that Gautama Buddha had once visited the ancient fortress city of Ahicchattra in Bareilly. The Jain Tirthankara Parshva is said to have attained Kaivalya at Ahichhatra.
The Second Rohilla War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Awadh and East India Company, and the Rohillas of Rampur State in 1794.
The Oudh State was a Mughal subah, then an independent kingdom, and lastly a princely state in the Awadh region of North India until its annexation by the British in 1856. The name Oudh, now obsolete, was once the anglicized name of the state, also written historically as Oudhe.
The Emblem of Uttar Pradesh is the official seal of the government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The emblem was originally designed in 1916 for the then United Provinces of Agra and Oudh and continued in use following Indian Independence in 1947.
The Kingdom of Rohilkhand was a late modern Indian kingdom under nominal Mughal suzerainty, that rose under the declining Mughal Empire in 1721 and continued to exist until 1774 when it was defeated by Oudh the British transformed its significantly reduced borders into the princely state of Rampur. Nawab Ali Mohammed Khan became the first Nawab of Rohilkhand, having been previously elected as overlord by various Afghan chiefs at the age of fourteen. He would carve out the future kingdom from the collapsing Mughal Empire and go on to the found the Rohilla dynasty. The crown would go on being held by the Rohillas until the kingdom came to an end in 1774, and thereafter the same dynasty would rule over Rampur.
In 1902 the name 'United Provinces of Agra and Oudh' came into use, shorted to 'United Provinces' in 1935. After independence the territory was enlarged by the addition of the small states of Rampur, Banaras and Tehri-Garhwal. In 1950 the Provinces became the state of Uttar Pradesh.