The Chota Nagpur Division was one of the administrative divisions established under British rule. Under Act XX of 1854, the
South West Frontier Agency was renamed a Commissionary, with the Political Agent becoming the Commissioner and the Assistant Political Agent designated as the Deputy Commissioner. As a result, the head of the Agency became the Commissioner of Chota Nagpur Division, shaping its colonial administration.
History
Background
Chota Nagpur division was a hilly and forested area. Part of
Nagpur State
The Kingdom of Nagpur was a kingdom within the Maratha Confederacy in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was ruled by the Maratha Bhonsles of Nagpur, Bhonsle dynasty in the mid-18th century. The city of Nagpur was the capital of the state.
After ...
in
Maratha Empire
The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...
. The region came under the control of the British in the 18th and 19th centuries, and was annexed to the
Bengal Presidency
The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...
, the largest province of British India. After the
Kol rebellion of 1831-2, the division was exempted by Regulation XIII of 1833 from the general laws and regulations governing Bengal, and every branch of the administration was vested in an officer appointed by the supreme Government and called the Agent to the
Governor-General of India
The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the emperor o ...
for the South-West Frontier.
The Period of Commissionership (1854-1912)
In 1854, under Act XX of 1854, the districts of the
Agency were reorganized into a
Non-Regulation Division under the authority of a Commissioner.
During this period, the South-West Frontier Agency was designated as the Commissioner, and the Principal Assistant Agents became Principal Assistant Commissioners. Other Assistant Agents were re-designated as Senior Assistant Commissioners.
The 31 rules, approved by the Government in Notification No. 615 of June 6, 1837, remained in effect as the governing laws for the division until they were gradually replaced by new legislative enactments.
This reorganization also granted the Deputy Commissioner full executive and judicial powers, significantly enhancing the role’s authority. The region was formally restructured as the Chota Nagpur Division, with Ranchi as its headquarters and Hazaribagh, Chaibasa, and Purulia serving as subordinate district centers. These administrative changes played a pivotal role in shaping the governance of the region under British rule.
Judicial Administration of Singhbhum
Until March 8, 1910, Singhbhum was under the jurisdiction of the Sessions Judge of Bankura, who was appointed as Additional Sessions Judge for Chota Nagpur in 1904. He presided over Sessions Cases and Criminal Appeals from Singhbhum and Manbhum, with trials conducted at Purulia and appeals heard at Purulia or Bankura for faster resolution. The local Criminal Courts consisted of a Deputy Magistrate and four Honorary Magistrates, with three based in Chaibasa and one in Chakardharpur. Additionally, a Subordinate Judge oversaw both Singhbhum and Manbhum, while a Munsif handled cases for Purulia. The Deputy Commissioner also served as a Subordinate Judge.
In 1910, the Manbhum-Sambalpur Judgeship was established, comprising Sambalpur, Singhbhum, and Manbhum. Under this new judicial system, cases from Singhbhum and Manbhum were heard at Purulia, while those from Sambalpur were handled at Sambalpur. This reorganization streamlined the judicial process, improving legal administration in the region.
Reorganization and judicial reforms
Chota Nagpur Division became part of the new province of
Bihar and Orissa when it was created in 1912 to 1936. In 1936, the province was divided into two separate entities:
Bihar
Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...
and
Orissa
Odisha (), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is a state located in Eastern India. It is the eighth-largest state by area, and the eleventh-largest by population, with over 41 million inhabitants. The state also has the thir ...
. Following this division, Sambalpur district was incorporated into Orissa, while Manbhum district remained in Bihar. As a result, a new judicial division, the Manbhum-Singhbhum Judgeship, was established to oversee legal matters in the region, with court sittings held at Purulia for cases from Manbhum and Singhbhum, ensuring efficient judicial administration.
Administration
The administrative headquarters of the division was at
Ranchi. The total area of the division was 27,101 square miles (70,161 km
2.), and the population was 4,900,429 in 1901. In 1901
Hindus
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
constituted 68.5% of the total population,
animists 22.7%,
Muslims
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
5.7%,
Christians
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...
2.9%, and 853
Jains. The
Chota Nagpur States, a group of
princely states, was under the political authority of the division's commissioner.
[Hunter, William Wilson, Sir, et al. (1908). '' Imperial Gazetteer of India'', Volume 12. 1908-1931; Clarendon Press, Oxford.]
Gallery
File:BengalPartition1905 Map.png, Chota Nagpur area in 1905
File:Chota Nagpur area-IGI.jpg, Chota Nagpur Plateau
The Chota Nagpur Plateau () is a plateau in eastern India, which covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar. The Indo-Gangetic plain lies to the north and east of the plateau, and th ...
area. Political Divisions. 1909 Imperial Gazetteer of India map section.
See also
*
Chota Nagpur Tributary States
References
* Goswami Prodipto, Untold Story of Chota Nagpur: Its Journey with the Colonial Army 1767-1947, Chennai: Notion Press (2020)
External links
*
{{Districts of Jharkhand
Divisions of British India
History of Jharkhand
1854 establishments in British India