| United Provinces of Agra and Oudh | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province ofBritish India | |||||||||
| 1902–1937 | |||||||||
 Flag  Coat of arms | |||||||||
.jpg) Map of the United Provinces,c. 1909 | |||||||||
| Capital | Allahabad | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1902 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1937 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | India | ||||||||
TheUnited Provinces of Agra and Oudh was aprovince of India under theBritish Raj, which existed from 22 March 1902 to 1937; the official name was shortened by theGovernment of India Act 1935 toUnited Provinces (UP), by which the province had been commonly known, and by which name it was also a province of independentIndia until 1950.[1]
It corresponded approximately to the present-day Indianstates ofUttar Pradesh (UP) andUttarakhand.Allahabad served as the administrative headquarters and the capital of the province. Two years after the annexation ofOudh State in 1856,i.e. after 1858 and until 1902, the region had existed asNorth-Western Provinces and Oudh, Oudh being a Chief Commissionership.
Lucknow became its capital some time after 1921.Nainital was the summer capital of theprovince.[citation needed]
By the 18th century, the once vastMughal Empire was collapsing, undone by internal dissension and by expansion of theMarathas from the Deccan, theBritish fromBengal, and theAfghans fromAfghanistan. By the middle of the century, present-day Uttar Pradesh was divided between several states:Oudh in the centre and east, ruled by aNawab who owed allegiance to the Mughal Emperor but wasde facto independent;Rohilkhand in the north, ruled by Afghans; the Marathas, who controlled theBundelkhand region in the south, and the Mughal Empire, which controlled the entireDoab (the tongue of land between theGanges andYamuna rivers) as well as theDelhi region.
In 1765, the combined forces of Awadh and the Mughal Emperor met the British at theBattle 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 thesubahs ofAllahabad and Kora in the lower Doab, with a British garrison in the fort of Allahabad. Governor-GeneralWarren Hastings later augmented the territory of Awadh by lending the nawab a British army to conquerRohilkhand in theRohilla 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 ofBenares from Awadh.
Subsequently, no great change took place until the arrival ofLord Wellesley (Governor-General 1797–1805) who acquired a very large accession of territory in two instalments. In 1801 he obtained from theNawab of Oudh the cession of Rohilkhand, the lower Doab, and theGorakhpur division, thus enclosing Awadh on all sides except the north. In 1804, as the result ofLord Lake's victories in theSecond Anglo-Maratha War, part of Bundelkhand and the rest of the Doab, includingAgra and the guardianship of the old and blind emperor, Shah Alam, at Delhi, were obtained fromScindia. In 1815 theKumaon division was acquired after theGurkha War, and a further portion of Bundelkhand from the MarathaPeshwa in 1817. These new acquisitions, known as the ceded and conquered provinces, continued to be administered by the governor-general as part ofBengal. In 1833 an act ofParliament 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 andGurgaon territories, transferred later, after theRevolt of 1857 to thePunjab; and also (after 1853) theSaugor and Nerbudda Territories, which in 1861 became part of theCentral 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 theRevolt 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 reconquered only 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. On 1 April 1937, the official name of the province was shortened to the United Provinces (UP).[1]
The United Provinces became a province of the newly independentIndia in 1947. After thepolitical integration of India, and upon the coming into force of the newConstitution of India on 26 January 1950, three formerprincely states,Rampur,Benares, andTehri Garhwal, were added to it, and it was renamedUttar Pradesh.[1]
The provinces were bounded on the north by Tibet, and on the north-east byNepal; on the east and south-east by the Champaran, Saran, Shahabad, and PalamauDistricts 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, 107,164.9044Including 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, and the area had until then separated had been included in the Presidency of Bengal, 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 9divisions with 48 districts.
TheGovernment of India Act 1919 expanded the United Provinces Legislative Council to 123 seats, including more elected Indian members. The reforms also introduced the principle ofdiarchy, 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 wereMohammad Ali Mohammad Khan (Home Member),C. Y. Chintamani (Minister of Education and Industries) andJagat Narain Mulla (Minister of Local & Self Government).[3]
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 smallstates of Rampur, Banaras and Tehri-Garhwal. In 1950 the Provinces became the state of Uttar Pradesh.
