Bhopawar Agency was a sub-agency of the

Central India Agency The Central India Agency was created in 1854, by amalgamating the Western Malwa Agency with other smaller political offices which formerly reported to the Governor-General of India. The agency was overseen by a political agent who maintained ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

with the headquarters at the town of Bhopawar, so the name. Bhopawar Agency was created in 1882 from a number of princely states in the Western

Nimar Nimar or Nimad is the southwestern region of Madhya Pradesh state in west-central India. This region includes sub-regions such as Khargone, Khandwa, Barwani, Burhanpur, and the southern parts of Dhar. The region lies south of the Vindhya R ...

and Southern

Malwa Malwa () is a historical region, historical list of regions in India, region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic plateau, volcanic upland north of the ...

regions of

Central India Central India refers to a geographical region of India that generally includes the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. The Central Zonal Council, established by the Government of India, includes these states as well as Uttar Prades ...

belonging to the former Bhil Agency and Bhil Sub-agency with the capitals at Bhopawar and Manpur. The agency was named after Bhopawar, a village in Sardarpur

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

Dhar District Dhar district () is a districts of Madhya Pradesh, district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. The historic town of Dhar is administrative headquarters of the district. The district has an area 8,153 km2. It is bounded by the distri ...

of present-day

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

state. Manpur remained a strictly British territory. The other chief towns of this region were: Badnawar,

Kukshi Kukshi is a town in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh state, India. Kukshi has population of around 37,482 making it a Tier-3 city and a Semi-Urban centre. It is a Nagar Parishad. Kukshi is famous for the business of cotton, chilli, gold and silv ...

Manawar Manawar is a town with tehsil in Dhar district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The name Manawar came from name of river Maan River that flows at southern edge of the town. Pin code of Manawar is 454446. Geography Manawar is located at . ...

and Sardarpur, Chadawad Estate, Dattigaon. The mighty

Vindhya The Vindhya Range (also known as Vindhyachal) () is a complex, discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, hill ranges, highlands and plateau escarpments in west-central India. Technically, the Vindhyas do not form a single mountain range in the ...

and

Satpura The Satpura Range, formerly also known as the Seeonee Hills, is a range of hills in central India. The range rises in eastern Gujarat running east through the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and ends in Chhattisgarh. The range paral ...

ranges crossed the territory of the agency roughly from east to west, with the fertile valley of the

Narmada River The Narmada River, previously also known as ''Narbada'' or anglicised as ''Nerbudda'', is the 5th longest river in India and overall the longest west-flowing river in the country. It is also the largest flowing river in the state of Madhya Prade ...

lying between them. The agency also included the "Bhil Country", inhabited by the

Bhil people Bhil or Bheel refer to the various indigenous groups inhabiting western India, including parts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and are also found in distant places such as Bengal and Tripura. Though they now speak the Bhili language, an Indo-A ...

.Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 8, p. 145.
/ref>

History

At the time of its 1882 establishment, the agency had a total area of , and its population was 547,546 according to the 1901 census. In 1904 certain districts were transferred from this agency to the Indore Residency, created in 1899, and the area of Bhopawar was thus reduced by . In 1925 Bhopawar Agency was merged into

Malwa Agency Malwa Agency was an administrative section of British India's Central India Agency. The headquarters of the political agent was at Neemuch (Nimach). The other chief towns of the region were : Ratlam and Jaora. History The Malwa Agency was ...

, and in 1927 the agency was renamed the Malwa-Bhopawar States Agency, which was renamed again as the Malwa Agency in 1934. After Indian Independence in 1947, the rulers of the princely states within Malwa-Bhopawar Agency acceded to the Union of India, and the region became part of the new state of

Madhya Bharat Madhya Bharat, also known as Malwa Union, was an Indian state in west-central India, created on 28 May 1948 from twenty-five princely states which until 1947 had been part of the Central India Agency, with Jiwajirao Scindia as its Rajpramuk ...

. Madhya Bharat was merged into

on 1 November 1956.

Princely states and their feudatory estates

Salute States

Salute state A salute is usually a formal hand gesture or other action used to display respect in military situations. Salutes are primarily associated with the military and law enforcement, but many civilian organizations, such as Girl Guides, Scouting ...

s in the agency, by precedence, with their feudatories : #

Dhar Dhar is a city located in Dhar district of the Malwa region in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of the Dhar district. Before Indian independence from Great Britain, it was the capital of the Dhar ...

, title Maharaja, Hereditary salute of 15-guns #

Alirajpur Alirajpur is a city in the Alirajpur tehsil in Alirajpur district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. Alirajpur State was formerly a princely state of India, under the Bhopawar Agency in Central India. It lay in the Malwa region of Madhya ...

, title Raja, Hereditary salute of 11-guns #* including the extinct State of Phulmaal, which was incorporated into it earlier as well as Fiefs (Jagirs) ## Ondhwa ## Sondhwa. #

Barwani Barwani or Badwani () is a municipality, municipal town in Barwani district of Madhya Pradesh, India, that is situated near the left bank of the Narmada River. It is the administrative headquarters of Barwani district and has also served as th ...

, title Maharana, Hereditary salute of 11-guns #

Jhabua Jhabua is a town and a municipality in Jhabua district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Jhabua District. Recently the district has got international recognition because of its endemic hen species ...

, title Raja, Hereditary salute of 11-guns (till 1927, later shifted to (

)

Non-salute states

Minor and petty Princely states in the agency included (alphabetically, with their feudatories) : # Amjhera, title Rao # Bakhatgarh # Chhadawad, title Rao # Jobat, title Raja # Kathiwara, title Thakur # Mathwar, title Rana # Multhan. # Ratanmal, title Thakur. # in

Indore State Indore State was a kingdom within the Maratha Confederacy ruled by the Maratha Holkar, Holkar dynasty. After 1857, Indore became a 19-Salute state, gun salute princely state within the Central India Agency of the Indian Empire (1876–1947), Ind ...

Territory's few enclaves like - Petlawad

Tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

, Dahi Jagir etc. # also including around about seventeen

Feudal lords Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring societ ...

( Jagirdars) who paid direct

tribute A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of lands which the state con ...

to Indore Durbar . Further estates, not named above, include : *

References

External links and Sources

Dictionaries of South Asia Library, Chicago University
{{coord, 22, 55, N, 75, 15, E, source:kolossus-cawiki, display=title Agencies of British India Historical Indian regions History of Madhya Pradesh 1882 establishments in India 1947 disestablishments in India de:Central India Agency#Bhopawar Agency