Bikaner (state)
| Bikaner | |||||
| 1465-1949 | |||||
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| Capital | Bikaner | ||||
| Form of government | Princely State (17 rounds salute) | ||||
| surface | 60,389 km² | ||||
| population | 1,100,000 (1941) | ||||
| founding | 1465 | ||||
| resolution | April 7, 1949 | ||||
| State religion: Hinduism Dynasty: Rathore |
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Bikaner ( Hindi : बीकानेर , Bīkāner ) was one of the princely states of the Rajputs in what is now Rajasthan ( British India ). Rao Bika, a later-born son of the ruler of Jodhpur from the clan of the Rathore- Rajputs, and therefore not entitled to inheritance , founded the princely state in 1465 and the city of Bikaner on the edge of the Thar desert in 1488 . Raja Rai Singh became a vassal of the Grand Mogul Akbar I. Anup Singh (r. 1669–1698) accepted the title of Maharaja . After the fall of the Mughal Empire, Sujan Singh (r. 1700–1735) broke with the Sultan. As a result, Bikaner was in constant struggle with the neighboring state of Marwar . In 1818 Bikaner became a British protectorate .
Ganga Singhji Bahadur (r. 1887-1943) was major general in the British-Indian Army and was best known in Europe for the Bikaner Camel Corps, which fought for Great Britain against the Turks in World War I. He represented the Empire of India at the Imperial War Conference of 1917, in the War Cabinet of the British Empire and in 1919 at the Versailles Conference .
In 1941 the state had an area of 60,389 km² and 1.1 million inhabitants. He joined the Confederation of Rajasthan on March 30, 1949 , formally joined India on April 7, 1949 , and the Princely State was dissolved on November 1, 1956.
See also
literature
- William Barton: The princes of India . With a Chapter on Nepal. Nisbet, London 1934, (Reprinted edition. Cosmo, New Delhi 1983).
- Andreas Birken : Philatelic Atlas of British India. CD-ROM. Birken, Hamburg 2004.
- Ian Copland: The princes of India in the endgame of empire, 1917-1947 (= Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society. 2). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1997, ISBN 0-521-57179-0 .
- George B. Malleson: An historical sketch of the native states of India. Longmans, Green & Co., London 1875, ( digitized version ).
- Paul E. Roberts: India (= A Historical Geography of the British Dominions. Vol. 7, Part. 1-2). 2 volumes (Vol. 1: History to the End of the East India Company. Vol. 2: History under the Government of the Crown. ). Clarendon Press, Oxford 1916-1923, (Reprinted edition: Historical Geography of India. 2 volumes. Printwell, Jaipur 1995).
- Joseph E. Schwartzberg (Ed.): A historical atlas of South Asia (= Association for Asian Studies. Reference Series. 2). 2nd impression, with additional material. Oxford University Press, New York NY et al. 1992, ISBN 0-19-506869-6 .
