Rajputana Agency
The Rajputana Agency was a political office of the British Indian Empire dealing with a collection of native states in Rajputana (now in Rajasthan, northwestern India), under the political charge of an Agent reporting directly to the Governor-General of India and residing at Mount Abu in the Aravalli Range. The total area of the states falling within the Rajputana Agency was 127,541 square miles (330,330 km2), with eighteen states and two estates or chiefships.
Rajputana Agency
Indirect imperial rule over a group of hereditary monarchies
Abraham Locket
1817
1832
1845
1948
330,875 km2 (127,752 sq mi)
9,723,301
The small British province of Ajmer-Merwara was also included within the geographical area of Rajputana, but that was under direct British rule.
Population and dynasties[edit]
All of the princely states had Hindu rulers, except Tonk, which had a Muslim ruler, most being Rajputs, except two in Eastern Rajputana, Bharatpur State and Dholpur State, which had Jat rulers.
Although Rajputs ruled most of the states, they comprised a small minority of the population; in the 1901 census, of a total population of 9,723,301, only 620,229 were Rajputs, who were numerically strongest in the northern states and in Udaipur and Tarangagadh.
Other important castes and tribes of Rajputana were the Charans, known as poet-historians and administrators in princely states;[2] the Brahmins, who traditionally performed priestly functions, and were numerous and influential; the Bhats, who were the keepers of secular tradition and of the genealogies; the Hindu mercantile castes; Jains, who comprised the majority of the merchants; the agricultural groups, such as the Jats and the Gurjars, the tribal peoples, Bhils, Meenas and Meo. In the 1901 census, 7,035,093 persons, or more than 72% of the total population spoke one of the Rajasthani languages.