Northern Circars

Coordinates: 17°27′N 83°00′E / 17.45°N 83.00°E / 17.45; 83.00
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Northern Circars
British India
1823–1947
Flag of Northern Circars
Flag

The Northern Circars shortly after their occupation by the British
CapitalEluru
Area
 • Coordinates17°27′N 83°00′E / 17.45°N 83.00°E / 17.45; 83.00
 
• 
78,000 km2 (30,000 sq mi)
 • TypeBritish Colonial Government
Historical era20th century
• The British buy the rights over the Circars
1823
• 
Independence of India
1947
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Mughal Empire
Hyderabad State
Republic of India
Today part of India

The Northern Circars (also spelt Sarkars) was a division of

British India's Madras Presidency. It consisted of a narrow slip of territory lying along the western side of the Bay of Bengal from 15° 40′ to 20° 17′ north latitude,[1] in the present-day Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The Subah of Deccan (Hyderabad/Golconda) consisted of 22 circars. These northern circars were five in number and the most prominent ones in the Subah.[2]

They became British in a protracted piecemeal process lasting from 1758 to 1823, involving diplomacy and financial settlements rather than military conquest. The annexation by the British of the Northern Circars deprived

British India.[3]

Etymology

Circar was an English spelling of

subah or province), which had been in use since the time of Sher Shah Suri (1486–1545).[1][4][5]
"Northern Circars" meant the northern districts of the Nizam's dominion.

Eventually "Circar" also acquired the meaning of "British Sarkar", i.e., the British government.[6] Hence, "Sarkar districts" could also be understood as the districts under the administration of the British government. In British maps, the area might just be labelled "Circars".[7]

Geography

The Northern Circars were five in number: Chicacole (Srikakulam), Rajmandri (Rajahmundry), Ellore (Eluru), Mustaphanagar (Kondapalli) and Murtuzanagar (Guntur), with a total area, was about 30,000 square miles (78,000 km2)[1] when Nizam initially lost control of them to the European Colonizers.[8]

In the main, the region at various points of time corresponded to the northern and the central parts of

West Godavari, Konaseema, Kakinada, Alluri Sitharama Raju, Anakapalli, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Parvathipuram Manyam and Srikakulam of Andhra Pradesh. It also included parts of the present day Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Nabarangapur and Malkangiri districts of Odisha and a few parts of the Mulugu and Kothagudem
districts of Telangana.

History

The region was invaded by the

Hyderabad.[1]

In 1674, Vishwambhar Dev of

Chicacole, appointed by the Qutb Shahi Sultans and claimed an independent semi-monarchy over the Circars.[9] Aurangzeb conquered Golconda in 1687 and the Circars along with the Qutb Shahi Sultanate were annexed to the extensive empire of Aurangzeb.[1] However, the first two Faujdars appointed by the Mughals were defeated and slain in the battlefield by the Maharaja of Jeypore, Raghunath Krishna Dev, who continued to rule claiming independent control over the region until he died in 1708.[10] The successor of Raghunath Krishna proved to be an inefficient ruler and as a result lost a vast territory of the Circars. However, the kings of Jeypore continued to rule their decreased kingdom independently until the advent of the British in 1777. The British destroyed the fort of Jeypore and granted them a demoted status of a Zamindari.[9]

In 1724,

Nizam, except Masulipatnam, a valuable port, which was retained by the British.[1]

The Northern Circars in 1909

In 1765, Lord

Nizam Ali Khan by which the British undertook to maintain troops for Nizam's assistance. By a second treaty, often referred to as the Treaty of Masulipatnam, signed on 1 March 1768, the Nizam acknowledged the validity of Shah Alam's grant and resigned the Circars to the British East India Company, receiving as a mark of friendship an annuity of £50,000. Guntur, as the personal estate of the Nizam's brother Basalat Jang, was excepted from British rule during his lifetime under both treaties. He died in 1782, but it was not till 1788 that Guntur came under British administration. Finally, in 1823, the claims of the Nizam over the Northern Circars were bought outright by the company, and they became a British possession.[1][11]

The Geohydrographic Draught of North Circars

The Northern Circars were governed as part of Madras Presidency until India's independence in 1947, after which the presidency became India's Madras State. The northern, Telugu-speaking portion of Madras state, including the Northern Circars, was detached in 1953 to form a new 'Andhra State'. The Andhra State was merged with the Telugu-speaking parts of Hyderabad State in 1956 to form a united Andhra Pradesh. The two were bifurcated again in 2014 as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

See also

  • Rajamundry Sarkar

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Circar". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 380.
  2. ^ "Madras District Gazetteers, Volume 1". Superintendent, Government Press. 1915. p. 235.
  3. ^ P. N. Chopra, B.N. Puri & M.N. Das, A Comprehensive History of India, Volume 3. pg. 298
  4. ISBN 978-1-108-02828-8
  5. ISBN 978-81-7022-195-1
  6. ^ A Collection of Treaties, Engagements, and Sunnuds Relating to India and Neighbouring Countries: States in Rajpootana, Central India, and the mediatized chiefs in Central India and Malwa, Re-printed at the Foreign Office Press, 1876, pp. 538–
  7. ^ As in this map in a popular atlas of 1907, in fact showing "India in 1795".
  8. ^ Great Britain India Office. The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908.
  9. ^ a b Senapati, N. (1966). "Orissa district gazetteers : Koraput". INDIAN CULTURE. pp. 66–69. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  10. ^ Deo Kumar Bidyadhar Singh (1961). Nandapur A Forsaken Kingdom Part-i (Second ed.). p. 69.
  11. ^ The History of Vizag
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