Before 1947, India included over 565 nominally autonomous princely states, covering 40% of the land area and ruled by local monarchs (maharajas, nawabs, nizams) under British paramountcy. These states, including Hyderabad, Mysore, and Jammu & Kashmir, were not directly administered by the British, but through treaties.
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The British ruled India with two administrative systems: British Provinces and Indian "princely" states; about 60% of the territory of the Indian sub-continent were provinces and 40%
were princely states. Provinces were British territories directly administered by the colonial government of British India. Princely states were states with native rulers which had entered into treaty relations with the British by treaty (in case of the 40 important states, as of 1947) or by short declaration (sanad).
Except for some states that were extinguished by the middle of the 19th century (such as Arkat, Assam, Awadh, Jhansi, Kangra, Kannanur, Kodagu, Kozhikode, Kullu, Nagpur, Pañjab, Satara, Surat, Tanjur, Utkala), this record contains those Indian ("princely") states that existed after the end of the East India Company rule in 1858 and acceded to India with effective date on or after 15 Aug 1947. This list is selective, there were roughly 584 states when Britain granted the Indian independence on 15 Aug 1947; about 262 are listed here (not listed are most of the small Gujarat states). Rulers of 118 states (113 in modern India, 4 in Pakistan, plus Sikkim) were entitled to gun salutes. Number of guns indicated rank of the ruler (hereditary number of guns as of 1947 noted below under each state. The states continued after their accession to India until their "integration" (merger into larger provinces/states or in case of 9 states becoming provinces/states on their own) at various dates from Jan 1948 to Jan 1950 (Jammu and Kashmir in 1952). Personal privileges of former rulers were abolished in 1971.
However, only "states" are included; "estates" (jagir), "estate revenue grants" (thikana), and "land grants" (zamindari) are excluded, no matter how prominent and/or titled their their jagirdars, thakurs, or zamindars were. It appears though that before 1858 the British did not clearly distinguish between states and estates. An exception is made for eight estates in direct relations with the British as of 1947 that were not part of the British India provinces. Obsolete but once official English-language names of the polities are given in parentheses, i.e., Awadh (Oudh). The princely states of India entered into protectorate/tributary relations with Britain by the end of the 19th century, where exact dates are known they are noted. The phrase "British India" is used for U.K. colonial possessions even before 1858, for brevity.
British (and Indian) local political officers (residents, agents, commissioners) usually were in charge of multiple states, they are recorded under the state where they had their office or under one of largest states. The Residents and Agents to the Governor-General (AGGs) were political officers of the highest rank (almost all of them are recorded in this record), the Political Agents and others (their record is selective) ranked below the Residents and AGGs, and were subordinated to the Residents or AGGs or the provincial governors, representing the Governor-General.
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