Phulra


Phulra was a minor Muslim princely state in the days of British Raj and ruled by the Tanoli tribe of purportedly Pashtun Ghilji or Mughal Barlas confederation, located in the region of the North West Frontier to the east of the nearby parent princely state of Amb.
The territory covered by the state remains part of the present-day Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as a Union Council of the tehsil of Mansehra.

History

The state was founded in 1828, when Mir Painda Khan Tanoli, the ruler of Amb, granted the area of Phulra as a small principality to his brother, Madad Khan Tanoli. There is some uncertainty as to whether Phulra ranked as a full princely state of India before 1919, and until then it may have had the status of a feudatory landed estate or jagir, but it was given British imperial state recognition as Phulra was recognised as a princely state in 1919 and 1921, in the official Imperial Gazetteer of Indian Empire. Phulrah had been under suzerainty of the Raja of Kashmir until 1889, when it accepted a British protectorate, entering indirect rule.
In 1947, soon after the British had departed from the Indian subcontinent, the last ruler of Phulra signed an Instrument of Accession to the new Dominion of Pakistan, and Phulra was a princely state of Pakistan from then until September 1950, when it was incorporated into the North West Frontier Province following the death of its last ruler.

Dynasty

The state was ruled by a collateral line of the hereditary Tanoli Nawabs of Amb. Amb and Phulra together were sometimes referred to as "Feudal Tanawal".
TenureNawabs of Phulra
1809-1818Nawab Khan Tanoli

1828-1857

Khan Madad Khan Tanoli
1858-1890Khan Abdullah Khan Tanoli
1890-1908Khan Abdul Rahman Khan Tanoli
1908-1932Nawab Ata Muhammad Khan Tanoli
1932-1950Nawab Abdul Latif Khan Tanoli (b. 1907 – d. 1950
September 1950State of Phulra abolished

Descendants of Madad Khan

Madad Khan, the original Khan of Phulra, had two branches of offspring i.e. a senior branch and a junior branch. After the State of Phulra was abolished, both these branches continue to be represented in the area. The descendants of its last Nawab Khan Abdul Latif Khan Tanoli, remained in the area as private residents. The descendants of Abdul Latif Khan Tanoli were his sons, Nawabzada Muhammad Faridoon Khan Tanoli, and his grandson Nawabzada Ali Raza Khan Tanoli.. They comprised the senior branch of the former Phulra family.
Of the junior branch,Madad Khan Tanoli had two other surviving sons, Bahadar Khan Tanoli, whose descendants are still settled in Mangal Doga, Mahal and Masand villages; and Arsala Khan Tanoli who was born from a Gujjar woman and whose descendants still live in Gojra village. They are all private citizens today.