Princely states
The Princely, Native or Indian States are those States in India which remained nominally under the control of their traditional or hereditary rulers.
By treaty, the Indian Government maintained Army cantonments in many of these States. These cantonments appear to have been under direct British control, as part of one of the Bengal, Madras or Bombay Presidencies.
List of main states at Independence
- Baluchistan Agency
- Baroda
- Central India Agency , 148 states including Gwalior and Rewah
- Eastern States Agency
- Hyderabad, the Nizam's Dominions
- Kashmir and Jammu
- Mysore
- Punjab States Agency
- Rajputana Agency, 20 states including Jaipur and Jodhpur
- States of Western India
Records
British Library APAC records
- Baptisms, Marriages and Burials - Indian (Princely) States 1890-1946, N/5, which consists of two volumes only. The index to these records is a single, slim volume.
They are original records and the forms have been completed in a variety of different cramped handwriting and writing materials, making many of them very difficult to read. However, the amount of information provided, particularly in the case of death, is often considerably more detailed than that found in the usual presidency returns. These records are identified in the general Z/N series of indexes. There is also a name and date index from 1923-1950 to be found on LDS film 498603; and the entire set of records is contained on two films 527422 and 527423.
These records appear to be on the LDS Family Search website.
These records, including images, are also available online on the pay website findmypast.
External Links
- List of Indian Princely States - Wikipedia
Historical books online
- India and its native princes. Travels in Central India and in the presidencies of Bombay and Bengal by Louis Rousselet New edition 1882 Archive.org. First published 1876, relates to travels in c 1865-1866
- An Historical Sketch of the Native States of India in subsidiary alliance with the British Government by Colonel G B Malleson Bengal Staff Corps, Guardian of His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore 1875 Archive.org
- Indian States Register and Directory 1929 is available to download as a pdf on OUDL (Osmania University Digital Library). May only be available Indian office hours (IST 10 am to 6 pm), (IST = GMT+5:30). Note that the applicable pdf is file size 59.18Mb. Also available to read online on the Digital Library of India website, Index actual page 641, computer page 654.
- Sample pages: Indian States: A Biographical, Historical, and Administrative Survey edited by Arnold Wright 1922 Google Books