Savanur

History

Savanuru was one of the princely states of British India, under the Bombay Presidency, and later the Deccan States Agency. Its Muslim rulers, styled "Nawab" descended from Abdul Karim Khan, an Afghan in the service of the Mughal Empire, who received a grant near Delhi in 1672. His successors ruled over extensive territories almost independently for over a century. However, Savanuru was located between the increasing power of the Marathas and the equally powerful Nizam of Hyderabad, Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, which gradually eroded away Savanuru's territory. By the second half of the eighteenth century, more than half of Savanuru had been ceded to the Marathas. By the end of the century, Tipu Sultan had annexed the remainder. With the death of Tipu Sultan in 1799, independence returned to Savanuru with about a third of its original territory. Thereafter, Savanuru slowly drifted towards British suzerainty. After the destruction of the Maratha Confederacy in 1818, Savanuru accepted protection from British India. The final ruling Nawab of Savanuru, Abdul Majid Khan II, succeeded as a minor at the age of two years, and had been carefully raised and educated by his British overseers. He traveled widely and mixed with people in all walks of life in India and abroad. He returned to assume power determined to modernize his state, engaging in a furious program of building modern schools, dispensaries, government offices, courts, palaces, jails, irrigation tanks, and roads. In the short period of thirty-five years of his active rule, this little state advanced beyond anything achieved in the previous three centuries. The advent of Indian independence in 1947 and the withdrawal of the British caused the Nawab great sadness. Once the transfer formalities were completed, he retired…