Punjab Hill States Agency

The Punjab Hill States Agency was an erstwhile political unit of the British Empire in India, which administered and supervised a collection of princely states of India that accepted the suzerainty of the British. The agency was formed during the 1936 and consisted of several princely states in British India, which are currently located in the states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, India. The Punjab Hill States Agency was formed out of the Punjab States Agency, which was founded in the year 1901. The Punjab States Agency was a political office of the British Government and was formed on the model of the Rajputana Agency and the Central India Agency. It was created entirely of princely states of India, which were controlled by native rulers and Indian princes. The agency was managed by a resident of British India, also known as political agent, who officially served as a diplomat but was also responsible for keeping the ruler to maintain the association and alliance with the British administration. The Resident influenced the princely states of the Governor General.

The Punjab States Agency administered around 40 Indian princely states in northwest India that was earlier under the control of the British province of the Punjab. In the year 1936, the Punjab Hill States Agency was formed out of the region. The native states were put under the suzerainty of the British East India Company after the Anglo Nepalese War of 1814- 1816. These were then renamed as the Shimla Hill States, which included a number of Princely States of India that were situated in the hilly regions during the reign of the British Empire in India. Later, the territory came under the control of the British province of Punjab, excluding the Tehri Garhwal region, as it under the control of the United Provinces.

After the country achieved independence and the partition of India in 1947, most of the princely states incorporated in the Punjab Hill States Agency was acceded to the Union of India, while the rest of the states acceded to the Dominion of Pakistan. Several of these states formed the new Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, while the territory of Tehri Garhwal was included as a part of Uttar Pradesh. In the year 2000, the northern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, which also included the erstwhile state of Tehri Garhwal, became the new Indian state of Uttarakhand.