| Northern Circars | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division ofBritish India | |||||||||
| 1823–1947 | |||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||
 The Northern Circars shortly after their occupation by the British | |||||||||
| Capital | Eluru | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| • Coordinates | 17°27′N83°00′E / 17.45°N 83.00°E /17.45; 83.00 | ||||||||
• | 78,000 km2 (30,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
| • Type | British Colonial Government | ||||||||
| Historical era | 20th century | ||||||||
• The British buy the rights over the Circars | 1823 | ||||||||
| 1947 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of |  India | ||||||||
TheNorthern Circars (also speltSarkars) was a division ofBritish India'sMadras Presidency. It consisted of a narrow slip of territory lying along the western side of theBay of Bengal from 15° 40′ to 20° 17′ north latitude,[1] in the present-day Indian states ofAndhra Pradesh andOdisha. The Subah of Deccan (Hyderabad/Golconda) consisted of 22 circars. These northern circars were five in number and the most prominent ones in the Subah.[2]
They became British in a protracted piecemeal process lasting from 1758 to 1823, involving diplomacy and financial settlements rather than military conquest. The annexation by the British of the Northern Circars deprivedHyderabad State, theNizam's dominion, of the considerable coastline it formerly had, assuming the shape it is now remembered for - that of alandlockedprincely state with territories inCentral Deccan, bounded on all sides byBritish India.[3]
Circar was an English spelling ofsarkar, a Mughal term for district (a subdivision of asubah or province), which had been in use since the time ofSher Shah Suri (1486–1545).[1][4][5] "Northern Circars" meant the northern districts of the Nizam's dominion.
Eventually "Circar" also acquired the meaning of "British Sarkar", i.e., the British government.[6] Hence, "Sarkar districts" could also be understood as the districts under the administration of the British government. In British maps, the area might just be labelled "Circars".[7]
The Northern Circars were five in number: Chicacole (Srikakulam), Rajmandri (Rajahmundry), Ellore (Eluru), Mustaphanagar (Kondapalli) and Murtuzanagar (Guntur). These covered a total area of about 30,000 square miles (78,000 km2)[1] when Nizam initially lost control of them to the European Colonizers.[8]
The region at various points of time corresponded to the northern and the central parts ofCoastal Andhra region of Andhra Pradesh, including the whole of present-day districts ofGuntur,Bapatla,Palnadu,NTR district,Krishna,Eluru,East Godavari,West Godavari,Konaseema,Kakinada,Alluri Sitharama Raju,Anakapalli,Visakhapatnam,Vizianagaram,Parvathipuram Manyam andSrikakulam. It also included parts of the present dayPrakasam district of Andhra Pradesh,Ganjam,Gajapati,Rayagada,Koraput,Nabarangapur andMalkangiri districts of Odisha and parts of theMulugu andKothagudem districts of Telangana.
The region was invaded by theBahmani Sultanate in 1471; in 1541 theQutb Shahi conquered and extended their conquests over the Guntur andMasulipatnam districts. They appear to have acquired only an imperfect possession of the country, as it was again wrested from Balram Dev I, the ruling Jeypore king and his several feudal lords. The conquest was finally completed in 1571, during the reign ofIbrahim Quli Qutb Shah ofGolconda andHyderabad.[1]
In 1674, Vishwambhar Dev ofJeypore kingdom defeated theFaujdar ofChicacole, appointed by the Qutb Shahi Sultans and claimed an independent semi-monarchy over the Circars.[9] Aurangzeb conquered Golconda in 1687 and the Circars along with the Qutb Shahi Sultanate were annexed to the extensive empire ofAurangzeb.[1] However, the first two Faujdars appointed by the Mughals were defeated and slain in the battlefield by the Maharaja of Jeypore, Raghunath Krishna Dev, who continued to rule claiming independent control over the region until he died in 1708.[10] The successor of Raghunath Krishna proved to be an inefficient ruler and as a result lost a vast territory of the Circars. However, the kings of Jeypore continued to rule their decreased kingdom independently until the advent of the British in 1777. The British destroyed the fort of Jeypore and granted them a demoted status of aZamindari.[9]
In 1724,Mir Qamar-ud-din Khan was appointed the governor of Hyderabad, with the titleNizam al Mulk. He came to be known as theNizam of Hyderabad, itsde facto ruler. The fourth NizamSalabat Jang, a son of the Nizam al Mulk, who was indebted for his elevation to the throne to theFrench East India Company, granted the district ofKondavid (in the Guntur district) to the French in return for their services, and soon afterwards granted the other circars as well. In 1759, through the conquest of the fortress ofMasulipatnam, the maritime provinces from the riverGundlakamma to theChilka Lake were transferred from the French to theBritish. But the British left them under the administration of theNizam, except Masulipatnam, a valuable port, which was retained by the British.[1]
In 1765, LordRobert Clive obtained from the Mughal emperorShah Alam II a grant of the five Circars. The fort of Kondapalli was seized by the British as an opening move. On 12 November 1766, a treaty of alliance was signed withNizam Ali Khan by which the British undertook to maintain troops for Nizam's assistance. By a second treaty, often referred to as theTreaty of Masulipatnam, signed on 1 March 1768, the Nizam acknowledged the validity of Shah Alam's grant and resigned the Circars to the British East India Company, receiving as a mark of friendship an annuity of £50,000. Guntur, as the personal estate of the Nizam's brother Basalat Jang, was excepted from British rule during his lifetime under both treaties. He died in 1782, but it was not till 1788 that Guntur came under British administration. Finally, in 1823, the claims of the Nizam over the Northern Circars were bought outright by the company, and they became a British possession.[1][11]
The Northern Circars were governed as part ofMadras Presidency until India's independence in 1947, after which the presidency became India's Madras State. The northern,Telugu-speaking portion of Madras state, including the Northern Circars, was detached in 1953 to form a new 'Andhra State'. The Andhra State was merged with the Telugu-speaking parts ofHyderabad State in 1956 to form a unitedAndhra Pradesh. The two were bifurcated again in 2014 asAndhra Pradesh andTelangana.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Circar".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 380.
