The Eastern States Agency was a political office of the British Indian Empire, created on 1 April 1933. This agency dealt with forty-two princely states in eastern India, located in the present-day Indian states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, and Tripura. Before the creation of the Eastern States Agency in 1933, twenty-three states of the former Orissa Tributary States and Chhota Nagpur States were under the suzerainty of the British provinces of Bihar and Orissa and sixteen were under that of the Central Provinces and Berar. Cooch Behar and Tripura were transferred from Bengal Province to the Eastern States Agency on 1 November 1936.
The Agent reported to the Governor General of India and two Political Agents under his supervision were posted at Sambalpur and Raipur.
On 1 December 1944 the status of this agency was raised to that of a first class residency. These states were grouped into three political agencies, under the "Resident" in Calcutta. The headquarters of the Orissa States Agency was at Sambalpur, the headquarters of the Chhattisgarh States Agency was at Raipur and the headquarters of the Bengal States Agency was at Calcutta. After the withdrawal of the British from India in 1947, the states acceded to the new Union of India and later were integrated into the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa. The eastern portion of Madhya Pradesh and the southern portion of Bihar became the states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, respectively, in November 2000.
Famous quotes containing the words eastern, states and/or agency:
“I open with a clock striking, to beget an awful attention in the audience—it also marks the time, which is four o’clock in the morning, and saves a description of the rising sun, and a great deal about gilding the eastern hemisphere.”
—Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816)
“It may be said that the elegant Swann’s simplicity was but another, more refined form of vanity and that, like other Israelites, my parents’ old friend could present, one by one, the succession of states through which had passed his race, from the most naive snobbishness to the worst coarseness to the finest politeness.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“It is possible that the telephone has been responsible for more business inefficiency than any other agency except laudanum.... In the old days when you wanted to get in touch with a man you wrote a note, sprinkled it with sand, and gave it to a man on horseback. It probably was delivered within half an hour, depending on how big a lunch the horse had had. But in these busy days of rush-rush-rush, it is sometimes a week before you can catch your man on the telephone.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)