Punjab States Agency | |||||
British Residency | |||||
|
|||||
Coat of arms |
|||||
Map of the British Punjab in 1909. | |||||
Historical era | New Imperialism | ||||
• | Established | 1933 | |||
• | British withdrawal from India | 1947 |
Coat of arms
The Punjab States Agency was a political office of the British Indian Empire. The agency was created in the 1930s, on the model of the Central India Agency and Rajputana Agency, and dealt with forty princely states in northwest India formerly dealt with by the British province of the Punjab.
After 1947, most of the states chose to accede to the Union of India, the rest to the Dominion of Pakistan.
The princely states had come under British suzerainty after the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16 became the Punjab Native States and the Simla Hill States. They later came under the authority of the British province of Punjab, with the exception of Tehri Garhwal State, which had been under the authority of the United Provinces.
The Punjab States Agency was established in 1933 out of the previous Punjab Native States, which had been under the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab Province, and the Simla Hill States, under the Deputy Commissioner of Simla district. The agency was created under the direct authority of the Governor General of India with its headquarters in Shimla.