Hill States of India


The Hill States of India were princely states lying in the northern border regions of the British Indian Empire.

History

During the colonial Raj period, two groups of princely states in direct relations with the Province of British Punjab became part of the British Indian Empire later than most of the former Mughal Empire, in the context of two wars and an uprising.
For its princely rulers the informal term Hill Rajas has been coined. It does not apply to other native hill country princes such as the Rawat of Rajgarh.
After the independence and split-up of British India, the Hill States acceded to the new Dominion of India and were later divided between India's constituent states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

Simla Hills

28 princely states in the promontories of the western Himalaya were named after Shimla as the Simla Hill States. These states were ruled mainly by Hindu Rajputs.
Three quarters of the about, on both sides of the Sutlej river, was the territory of the Raja of Bashahr. The direct tributaries of Bashahr were :
Initially both Khaneti and Delath were feudatory of Kumharsain.
The other, all far smaller, princely states, including a few with some petty dependencies of their own, were further south, on the left bank of the Sutlej :
NB - For various of the entities above, the authentic title of the chieftain is missing. While some of the lowest ranking may have had none, for the princes that can merely be due to insufficient sources available''
The princely states of the Simla Hills all ultimately became part of the modern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

States of the Punjab Hills

Some nearby Hindu and Sikh states include :