Indore State was a kingdom within the

Maratha Confederacy The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent Maratha states under the nominal leadership of the former. ...

ruled by the

Maratha The Marathi people (; Marathi: , ''Marāṭhī lōk'') or Marathis (Marathi: मराठी, ''Marāṭhī'') are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are native to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-A ...

Holkar dynasty. After 1857,

Indore Indore (; ISO 15919, ISO: , ) is the largest and most populous Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The commercial capital of the state, it has been declared as the List of cleanest cities in India, cleanest city of In ...

became a 19-

gun salute A gun salute or cannon salute is the use of a piece of artillery to fire shots, often 21 in number (''21-gun salute''), with the aim of marking an honor or celebrating a joyful event. It is a tradition in many countries around the world. Histo ...

princely state within the Central India Agency of the Indian Empire under British protection. Indore State was located in the present-day Indian state of

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 ...

, with its capital at the city of

. The state had an area of 24,605 km² and a population of 1,325,089 in 1931. Other important towns besides Indore were Rampura, Khargone, Maheshwar, Mehidpur, Barwaha, and Bhanpura; there were a total of 3,368 villages. Yashwant Rao Holkar and Ranjit Singh in 1805

Yashwant Rao Holkar and Ranjit Singh in 1805

History

By 1720, the headquarters of the local

pargana Pargana or parganah, also spelt pergunnah, equivalent to Mohallah as a subunit of Subah (Suba), was a type of former administrative division in the Indian subcontinent during the time of the Delhi Sultanate, Mughal and British Colonial empire ...

was transferred from Kampel to Indore due to the increasing commercial activity in the city. On 18 May 1724, the ''Nizam'' accepted the rights of the Maratha Peshwa

Baji Rao I Bajirao I (né Visaji, ; 18 August 1700 – 28 April 1740) was the 7th Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. He was appointed Peshwa at the age of nineteen by Shahu I, following the death of his father, Balaji Vishwanath. He is credited with establi ...

to collect

chauth Chauth (from ) was a regular tax or tribute imposed from the early 18th century by the Maratha Empire in the Indian subcontinent. It was an annual tax nominally levied at 25% on revenue or produce, hence the name, on lands that were under nominal M ...

(taxes) from the area. In 1733, the

Peshwa The Peshwa was the second highest office in the Maratha Empire, next in rank and prestige only to that of the Chhatrapati. Initially serving as the appointed prime minister in the Maratha Kingdom, the office became hereditary when Shahu gave t ...

assumed full control of Malwa and appointed his commander

Malhar Rao Holkar Malhar Rao Holkar (16 March 1693 – 20 May 1766) was a noble subedar of the Maratha Empire, in present-day India. He was one of the early officers along with Ranoji Scindia, appointed by Peshwa Bajirao I to help spread the Maratha rule to nort ...

as the

subahdar Subahdar, also known as Nazim, was one of the designations of a governor of a Subah (province) during the Khalji dynasty of Bengal, Mamluk dynasty, Khalji dynasty, Tughlaq dynasty, and the Mughal era who was alternately designated as Sahib- ...

of the province. On 29 July 1732, Bajirao Peshwa-I granted Holkar State by granting 28 and a half parganas to Malhar Rao Holkar, the founding ruler of the Holkar dynasty. His daughter-in-law Ahilyabai Holkar moved the state's capital to Maheshwar in 1767, but Indore remained an important commercial and military centre. After the defeat of the Holkar rulers in the

Third Anglo-Maratha War The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1819) was the final and decisive conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire, Maratha Confederacy in India. The war left the Company in control of most of India. It began with an in ...

, an agreement was signed on 6 January 1818 with the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

and the Indore State became a

British protectorate British protectorates were protectorates under the jurisdiction of the British government. Many territories which became British protectorates already had local rulers with whom the Crown negotiated through treaty, acknowledging their status wh ...

. The Holkar dynasty was able to continue to rule Indore as a princely state mainly owing to the efforts of

Dewan ''Dewan'' (also known as ''diwan'', sometimes spelled ''devan'' or ''divan'') designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A ''dewan'' was the head of a state institution of the same name (see Divan). Diwans belonged to the el ...

Tatya Jog. The capital was moved from Maheshwar to Indore on 3 November 1818 and the Indore Residency, a political residency with a British resident, was established in the city. Later, Indore would be established as the headquarters of the British Central India Agency. In 1906, electrical infrastructure was installed in the city while a fire brigade was established in 1909. By 1918, the first master plan of the city was drawn by architect and town planner Patrick Geddes. During the period of Maharaja Tukoji Rao Holkar II (1852–86), efforts were made for the planned development and industrial development of Indore. During the reigns of Maharaja Shivaji Rao Holkar, Maharaja Tukoji Rao Holkar III, and Maharaja Yeshwant Rao Holkar, business flourished thanks to the railways that had been introduced in the state in 1875. In 1926, Maharaja Tukoji Rao III Holkar XIII abdicated after being implicated in a murder case involving a court dancer who had tried to escape from his harem. After the

independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

in 1947, Indore State, along with a number of neighbouring princely states, acceded to India. Yashwant Rao Holkar II, the last ruler of the state, signed the

instrument of accession The Instrument of Accession was a legal document first introduced by the Government of India Act 1935 and used in 1947 to enable each of the rulers of the princely states under British paramountcy to join one of the new dominions of Dominion ...

to the Indian Union on 1 January 1950. The territories of the state became part of the new Indian 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 ...

List of Rulers

The kings of Indore held the title of '

Maharaja Maharaja (also spelled Maharajah or Maharaj; ; feminine: Maharani) is a royal title in Indian subcontinent, Indian subcontinent of Sanskrit origin. In modern India and Medieval India, medieval northern India, the title was equivalent to a pri ...

' Holkar. The rulers of the state were entitled to a 19

by the British authorities. The Holkar State Darbar (Court) was composed of many Jagirdars,

Sardar Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar (, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royal family, royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other Aristocracy (class), aristocrats. It ha ...

s, Istamuradars, Mankaris and

Zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

Maharajas

Diwans of Indore

*c. 1808 – 1811: Bala Ram Seth *1811 – December 1817: Ganpal Rao *1818 – April 1826: Tantia Jog (Tatya Jog) (died 1826) *April 1826 – 1827?: Raoji Trimbak *1827: Daji Bakhshi *1827? – 1829: Appa Rao Krishna *1829 – 1834?: Madhav Rao Phadnis *April 1834 – November 1836: Sardar Revaji Rao Phanse *1836 – 1839?: Abbaji Ballal (or Bhawani Bin) *1839? – 1840?: Bhao Rao Phanse (1st time) *1840? – October 1841: Narayan Rao Palshikar *1841 – 1842?: the ruler *1842? – 1848: Bhao Rao Phanse (2nd time) *1848 – 1849: Ram Rao Palshikar *1852 – 1872: Bhawani Singh Dube *1872 – 1875: Sir T. Madhava Rao (1828–1891) *1875 – 1881: R. Raghunatha Rao (1st time) (1831–1912) *1881? – 1884?: Shahamat Ali *1884 – 1886: Nana Moroji Trilokekar *1886 – 1888: R. Raghunatha Rao (2nd time) (s.a.) *c. 1890s: Balkrishna Atmaram Gupte *1890–1913: Sir Shri Rai Bhadhur Nanak Chand Ji Airen (as First Prime Minister Of State) *4 April 1913 – October 1914: Narayan Ganesh Chandravarkar *1914 – 1916: .... *1916 – 1921: Ram Prasad Dube (1st time. Nephew of Bhawani Singh Dube.) *November 1921 – 1923?: Chettur Sankaran Nair (1857–1934) *1923 – 1926: Ram Prasad Dube (2nd time)

Prime ministers

• 1879 -1884: Bakshi Khuman Singh (C.S.I.)

*1890–1913: Sir Shri Rai Bhadhur Nanak Chand Ji Airen *February 1926 – 1939: Siremal Bapna (s.a.) *1939 – 1942?: Sardar Dina Nath *1942 – 1947: Raja Gyannath Madan *1947: R.G. Horton * 1 September 1947 – 3 January 1948: E.P. Menon *January 1948: N.C. Mehta *26 January 1948 – March 1948: M.V. Bhide

British Residents

British Residents of the Indore Residency.Princely States of India
/ref> *1840–1844: Sir Claude Martin Wade (1794–1861) *1845–1859: Robert North Collie Hamilton (1802–1887) *1859–1861: Sir Richmond Campbell Shakespear (1812–1861) *1861–1869: Richard John Meade (1821–1899) *1869–1881: Henry D. Daly *1881–1888: Henry Lepel-Griffin (1838–1908) *1888–1890: P.F. Henvey *1890–1894: R.J. Crosthwaite *1894–1899: David W.K. Barr *1899–1902: Robert Henry Jennings *1902–1903: Francis Younghusband (1863–1942) *1903–1907: Oswald Vivian Bosanquet (1st time) (1866–1933) *1907–1909: James Levett Kaye (1861–1917) *1909–1910: Charles Beckford Luard *1910–1916: Charles Lennox Russell *1916–1919: Oswald Vivian Bosanquet (2nd time) (s.a.) *1919?–1921: Francis Granville Beville *1921–1924: Denys Brooke Blakeway (1870–1933) *1924–1929: Sir Reginald Glancy *March 1927 – October 1927: Edward Herbert Kealy (acting for Glancy) *1929–1930: H.R.N. Pritchard *1930–1931: Frederick Bailey *1931–1932: G.M. Ogilvie *1933 – 21 March 1935: Rawdon James MacNabb (1883–1935) *1935–1940: Kenneth Samuel Fitze (1887–1960) *1940–1942: Gerald Thomas Fisher *1942–1946: Walter F. Campbell *1946–1947: Henry Mortimer Poulton (b. 1898 – d. 1973)

British Agents

Agents to the Governor-General for the Central India Agency. The headquarters of the agent were at Indore. *1845–1854: Robert North Collie Hamilton (s.a.) *1854–1899: the British Residents in Indore *1899–1900: David W.K. Barr *Mar 1900–1905: Charles S. Bayley *1905–1910: Hugh Daly *1910–1912: Michael Francis O'Dwyer (1864–1910) *1912–1913: John B. Wood *1913–1916: Oswald Vivian Bosanquet (s.a.) *1916–1944: the British Residents in Indore *1944–1946: Walter Campbell *1946–1947: Henry Mortimer Poulton (1898–1973)

Orders of chivalry

The Royal House of Indore awards the Order of Ahilya Holkar Sultanat, which is awarded in three classes. It was founded on November 22, 1900 by Maharaja Sir Tukojirao III Holkar XIII.

References

External links

Santa Ana's Richest Resident, The Maharajah of Indore
.
Royal Family of Indore
{{Authority control 1732 establishments in India 1818 establishments in India 1950 disestablishments in India Former monarchies of Asia History of Indore Princely states of Madhya Pradesh Holkar Gun salute princely states