United Provinces of Agra and Oudh

Province of India under the British Raj

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1902–1921

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Map of the United Provinces, 1909

Capital

Allahabad

History

•

Established

1902

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Disestablished

1921

Today part of

Uttar Pradesh
Uttarakhand

The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was a province of India under the British Raj, which existed from 1902 to 1947; the official name was shortened by the Government of India Act 1935 to United Provinces, by which the province had been commonly known, and by which name it was also a province of independent India until 1950. It corresponded approximately to the present-day Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. From 1856 to 1902, the region existed as two separate provinces, North-Western Provinces and Oudh. Allahabad became its capital in 1902 and continued until 1920.Lucknow was not made the capital until after 1921.

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: Awadh (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.

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