The Gwalior State was a state within the Maratha Empire, and, later, a princely state of the British Raj located in Central India. It was ruled by the House of Scindia (anglicized from Shinde), a Hindu Maratha dynasty. Following the dissolution of the Confederacy, it became part of the Central India Agency of the Indian Empire under British suzerainty.
The state was entitled to a 21-gun salute when it became a princely state of the India. It took its eventual name from the old town of Gwalior, which, although not its first capital, was an important place because of its strategic location and the strength of its fort; it became later its capital after Daulat Rao Sindhia built its palace in the village of Lashkar, near the fort. The state was founded in the early 18th century by Ranoji Sindhia, as part of the Maratha Confederacy. The administration of Ujjain was assigned by Peshwa Bajirao I to his faithful commander Ranoji Shinde and his Sarsenapati was Yasaji Rambhaji (Rege).
Under Mahadji Sindhia (1761–1794), Gwalior State became a leading power in Central India, and dominated the affairs of the confederacy. The Anglo-Maratha Wars brought Gwalior State under British suzerainty, such that it was reduced to a princely state of the Indian Empire. Gwalior was the largest state in the Central India Agency, under the political supervision of a Resident at Gwalior. During the 1857 Indian Rebellion, Jayajirao Scindia sided with the British, having "rendered us [British] considerable service", helping the East India Company suppress the rebellion using Gwalior troops.
In 1936, the Gwalior residency was separated from the Central India Agency, and made answerable directly to the Governor-General of India. After Indian Independence in 1947, the Scindia rulers acceded to the new Union of India, and Gwalior state was absorbed into the new Indian state of Madhya Bharat.
Geography
The state had a total area of 64,856 km2 (25,041 sq mi), and was composed of several detached portions, but was roughly divided into two, the Gwalior or Northern section, and the Malwa section. The northern section consisted of a compact block of territory with an area of 44,082 km2 (17,020 sq mi), lying between 24º10' and 26º 2' N and 74º38' and 79º8' E. It was bounded on the north, northeast, and northwest by the Chambal River, which separated it from the native states of Dholpur, Karauli, and Jaipur in the Rajputana Agency; on the east by the British districts of Jalaun and Jhansi in the United Provinces, and by Saugor District in the Central Provinces; on the south by the states of Bhopal, Khilchipur, and Rajgarh, and by the Sironj pargana of Tonk State; and on the west by the states of Jhalawar, Tonk, and Kotah in the Rajputana Agency.
The Malwa section, which included the city of Ujjain, had an area of 20,774 km2 (8,021 sq mi). It was made up of several detached districts, between which portions of other states were interposed, and which were themselves intermingled in bewildering intricacy.
In 1940, Gwalior State had 4,006,159 inhabitants.
History
The predecessor state of Gwalior was founded in the 10th century. In 1231 Iltutmish captured Gwalior and from then until 1398 it was a part of Delhi Sultanate.
In 1398, Gwalior came under the control of the Tomars. The most distinguished of the Tomar rulers was Man Singh Tomar, who commissioned several monuments within the Gwalior fort.
It came under the Mughals in 1528 and was a part of the empire until 1731.
The founder of the ruling house of Gwalior was Ranoji Sindhia, who belonged to the Shinde or Sindhia house which traced its descent from a family of which one branch held the hereditary post of patil in Kanherkhed, a village 16 miles (26 km) east of Satara.
In 1726, Ranoji along with Malhar Rao Holkar, the founder of the ruling house of Indore, and the Pawars (Dewas Junior & Dewas Senior), were authorized by the Peshwa Baji Rao I to collect chauth (25% of the revenues) and sardeshmukhi (10% over and above the chauth) in the Malwa districts, retaining for his own remuneration half the mokassa (or his remaining 65 percent). Ranoji fixed his headquarters in the ancient city of Ujjain, which ultimately became the capital of the Sindhia dominion, and on 19 July 1745 he died near Shujalpur, where his centotaph stands. He left three legitimate sons, Jayappa, Dattaji, and Jyotiba, and two illegitimate sons, Tukoji and Mahadji. Jayappa succeeded to the territories of Ranoji, but was killed at Nagaur in 1755. He was followed by his son Jankoji Rao Scindia, who was taken prisoner at the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 and put to death, and Mahadji succeeded.
Rulers
Mahadji Sindhia (1761–1794)
Madhavrao I, Mahadji, and his successor Daulatrao took a leading part in shaping the history of India during their rule. Mahadji returned from the Deccan to Malwa in 1764, and by 1769 reestablished his power there. In 1772 Madhavrao Peshwa died, and in the struggles which ensued Mahadji took an important part, and seized every chance of increasing his power and augmenting his possessions. In 1775 Raghoba Dada Peshwa threw himself on the protection of the British. The reverses which Sindhia's forces met with at the hands of Colonel Goddard after his famous march from Bengal to Gujarat (1778) the fall of Gwalior to Major Popham (1780), and the night attack by Major Camac, opened his eyes to the strength of the new power which had entered the arena of Indian politics. In 1782 the Treaty of Salbai was made with Sindhia, the chief stipulations being that he should withdraw to Ujjain, and the British north of the Yamuna, and that he should negotiate treaties with the other belligerents. The importance of the treaty can scarcely be exaggerated. It made the British arbiters of peace in India and virtually acknowledged their supremacy, while at the same time Sindhia was recognized as an independent chief and not as a vassal of the Peshwa. A resident, Mr. Anderson (who had negotiated the treaty) was at the same time appointed to Sindhia's court.
Between 1782 and December 1805 Dholpur State was annexed by Gwalior.
Sindhia took full advantage of the system of neutrality pursued by the British to establish his supremacy over Northern India. In this he was assisted by the genius of Benoît de Boigne, whose influence in consolidating the power of Mahadji Sindhia is seldom estimated at its true value. He was originally from the Duchy of Savoy, a native of Chambéry, who had served under Lord Clare in the famous Irish Brigade at Fontenoy and elsewhere and who after many vicissitudes, including imprisonment by the Turks, reached India and for a time held a commission in the 6th Madras Infantry. After resigning his commission he had proposed to travel overland to Russia, but was prevented by the loss of his possessions and papers, stolen, it appears, at the instigation of Mahadji, who was suspicious of his intentions. De Boigne finally entered Mahadji's service, and by his genius for organization and command in the field, was instrumental in establishing the Maratha supremacy. Commencing with two battalions of infantry, he ultimately increased Sindhia's regular forces to three brigades. With these troops Sindhia became a power in northern India.
In 1785 Sindhia reinstated the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II on his throne at Delhi, receiving in return the title of deputy Vakil-ul-Mutlak or vice-regent of the Empire, that of Vakil-ul-Mutlak being at his request conferred on Peshwa Madhavrao II, his master, as he was pleased to designate him. Many of the principal feudal lords of the empire refused to pay tribute to Sindhia. Sindhia launched an expedition against the Raja of Jaipur, but withdrew after the inconclusive Battle of Lalsot in 1787. On 17 June 1788 Sindhia's armies defeated Ismail Beg, a Mughal noble who resisted the Marathas. The Afghan chief Ghulam Kadir, Ismail Beg's ally, took over Delhi and deposed and blinded the Emperor Shah Alam, placing a puppet on the Delhi throne. Sindhia intervened, taking possession of Delhi on 2 October, restoring Shah Alam to the throne and acting as his protector. Mahadji sent de Boigne to crush the forces of Jaipur at Patan (20 June 1790) and the armies of Marwar at Merta on 10 September 1790. After the peace made with Tipu Sultan in 1792, Sindhia successfully exerted his influence to prevent the completion of a treaty between the British, the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the Peshwa, directed against Tipu. Mahadji Shinde's role was instrumental in establishing Maratha supremacy over North India . De Boigne defeated the forces of Tukaji Holkar at Lakheri on 1 June 1793. Mahadji was now at the zenith of his power, when all his schemes for further aggrandizement were cut short by his sudden death in 1794 at Wanowri near Pune. Mahadji's death was mystery.
Daulatrao Sindhia (1794–1827)
Mahadji left no heir, and was succeeded by Daulat Rao, a grandson of his brother Tukaji, who was scarcely 15 years of age at the time. Daulat Rao saw himself as the chief sovereign in India rather than as a member of the Maratha Confederacy. At this time the death of the young Peshwa, Madhav Rao II (1795), and the troubles which it occasioned, the demise of Tukaji Holkar and the rise of the Yashwantrao Holkar, together with the intrigues of Nana Fadnavis, threw the country into confusion and enabled Sindhia to gain the ascendancy. He also came under the influence of Sarje Rao Ghatke, whose daughter he had married (1798). Urged possibly by this adviser, Daulat Rao aimed at increasing his dominions at all costs, and seized territory from the Maratha Ponwars of Dhar and Dewas. The rising power of Yashwant Rao Holkar of Indore, however, alarmed him. In July 1801, Yashwant Rao appeared before Sindhia's capital of Ujjain, and after defeating some battalions under John Hessing, extorted a large sum from its inhabitants, but did not ravage the town. In October, however, Sarje Rao Ghatke took revenge by sacking Indore, razing it almost to the ground, and practicing every form of atrocity on its inhabitants. From this time dates the gardi-ka-wakt, or 'period of unrest', as it is still called, during which the whole of central India was overrun by the armies of Sindhia and Holkar and their attendant predatory Pindari bands, under Amir Khan and others. De Boigne had retired in 1796; his successor, Pierre Cuillier-Perron, was a man of a very different stamp, whose determined favouritism of French officers, ind defiance of all claims to promotion, produced discontent in the regular corps.
Finally, on 31 December 1802, the Peshwa signed the Treaty of Bassein, by which the British were recognized as the paramount power in India. The continual evasion shown by Sindhia in all attempts at negotiation brought him into conflict with the British, and his power was completely destroyed in both western and northern India by the British victories at Ahmadnagar, Assaye, Asirgarh, and Laswari. His famous brigades were annihilated and his military power irretrievably broken. On 30 December 1803, he signed the Treaty of Surji Anjangaon, by which he was obliged to give up his possessions between the Yamuna and the Ganges, the district of Bharuch, and other lands in the south of his dominions; and soon after by the Treaty of Burhanpur he agreed to maintain a subsidiary force to be paid for out of the revenues of territory ceded by the treaty. By the ninth article of the Treaty of Sarji Anjangaon he was deprived of the fortresses of Gwalior and Gohad. The discontent produced by the last condition almost caused a rupture, and did actually result in the plundering of the Resident's camp and detention of the Resident as a prisoner.
In 1805, under the new policy of Lord Cornwallis, Gohad and Gwalior were restored, and the Chambal River was made the northern boundary of the state, while certain claims on Rajput states were abolished, the British government at the same time binding itself to enter into no treaties with Udaipur, Jodhpur, Kotah, or any chief tributary to Sindhia in Malwa, Mewar, or Marwar. In 1811, Daulat Rao annexed the neighboring kingdom of Chanderi. In 1816 Sindhia was called on to assist in the suppression of the Pindaris. For some time it was doubtful what line he would take, but he ultimately signed the Treaty of Gwalior in 1817 by which he promised full cooperation. He did not, however, act up to his professions, and connived at the retention of the fort of Asirgarh, which had been ceded by the treaty. In 1818, after the Third Anglo-Maratha War, the rule of the Peshwa was formally ended. A fresh treaty effected a readjustment of boundaries, Ajmer and other lands being ceded.
Jankojirao II Sindhia (1827–1843)
In 1827 Daulat Rao died, leaving no son or adopted heir. His widow, Baiza Bai, adopted Mukut Rao, a boy of eleven belonging to a distant but legitimate branch of the family, who succeeded as Jankojirao Sindhia. Jankojirao was a weak ruler and feuds were constant at his court, while the army was in a chronic state of mutiny. Upon his succession, difficulties arose as to whether the Bai should ruler in her own right or as regent, and her behaviour towards the young king finally caused a rise in feeling in his favour which impelled the Bai to take refuge in British territory. She returned after an interval and lived at Gwalior until her death in 1862. The chief's maternal uncle, known as Mama Sahib, had meanwhile become minister. The most important event during this period was the readjustment of the terms for maintaining the contingent force raised under the treaty of 1817.