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Indian Empire: (1876–1947) Official name for the collection of territories ruled by the British monarch in their right as the embodiment of the Crown of India, styled as the Emperor of India (and represented by the Governor-General of India) with the Government of India, consisting of British India under direct Crown rule and the many princely states of varying sizes under the suzerainty (indirect rule) of the Crown. Also called the Empire of India. (Existing from 1858 to 1947. De facto began on 1 November 1858. De jure on 1 May 1876. Proclamation of the Indian Empire happened on 1 January 1877.)
British Indian Empire: (1757–1947) An informal empire of [the presidencies of] British India along with its dependencies (protectorates, subsidiary alliances, paramountcy). Sometimes also used to refer to the Indian Empire, however it also includes territories not claimed by Britain as a part of the Indian Empire, such as the Persian gulf states. (Existing from 1757—Bengal Subah becoming a puppet state after the Battle of Plassey—to 1947)
India: Common name of the Indian Empire and the official short name used in British and Indian legislation.
British Raj or simply the Raj: Literally meaning, "British rule" from Hindi/Hindustani, an informal term refering to the 'Crown rule in India'[1], 'period of Crown rule in India'[2] and sometimes the 'British autocracy in India'[3] in the Government of India and the Civil Services. Any other definitions which might be claimed are unsourced - No reliable source explicitly defines the Raj to be that, which is required by Wikipedia.
References
^Dean, Reaz. Mapping the Great Game: Explorers, Spies and Maps in 19th-Century Asia. It led Parliament to hurriedly pass the India Act in August 1858, transferring all powers to rule on the subcontinent from the East India Company to the Crown, firmly putting imperial interests ahead of the Company's profits. This event marked the start of the British Raj, otherwise known as Crown rule in India, and the governor-general was given the additional title of viceroy of India.
^Hirst, Jacqueline Suthren; Zavros, John. Religious Traditions in Modern South Asia. By 1857, it had direct control over much of the region. The great rebellion of that year, however, demonstrated the limitations of this commercial company's ability to administer these vast territories, and in 1858 the Company was effectively nationalized, with the British Crown assuming administrative control. Hence began the period known as the British Raj, which ended in 1947 with the partition of the subcontinent into the independent nation-states of India and Pakistan.
^Morton-Jack, George. The Indian Empire At War. The Indian Empire was the region of South Asia now covered mainly by Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Burma, excluding Goa and other coastal enclaves that belonged to French or Portuguese India. Its isolated outposts stretched as far west as the Arabian Peninsula's port of Aden opposite Somalia, and eastwards to the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. The British shorthand for it all was 'India', and the Indian Army was its principal security force, based in its biggest sector - British India, the two thirds under the direct rule of the British autocracy nicknamed the Raj.
Administratively, the Indian Empire was divided into provinces, agencies and residencies. Provinces consisted of both British and princely territory, while agencies and residencies consisted only of states.
Provinces of India: A province was an administrative division of the Indian Empire, administered by a Governor and his Council (or before 1921, also a Lieutenant Governor). Many provinces also had some princely states within them, whose relations with the provincial government were managed by various British Residents, Political Agents, and minor Agents.
Chief Commissioner's Province: A minor province directly administered by the Government of India through a sole Chief Commissioner.
Agencies and residencies: An agency was a group of Indian states within the Indian Empire, to which an Agent to the Governor-General of India was stationed to manage the relations between the Supreme Government of India and the constituent states. Agencies were also divided into smaller sub-agencies and sub-residencies.
A residency consisted of usually a single very large and important state in the Empire, along with sometimes a few smaller neighbouring states, to which a Resident was appointed. Residencies could either be directly placed under the Supreme Government or within an Agency. Residents were however appointed outside of the Indian Empire too, such as Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, which were included in the informal "British Indian Empire", but not within the officially claimed "Indian Empire".
The Indian Empire was divided into two types of territory — British India, the territory directly ruled by the Crown and the Indian states and territory, indirectly ruled by the Crown through Indian princes under the Crown's suzerainty.
British India:(See above.) British India was the territory of the Indian Empire which was directly ruled by the Crown.
States of the Indian Empire: Officially called an Indian state, also called a native state or princely state, a state was a self governing entity of the Indian Empire, ruled over by a hereditary Indian prince under the suzerainty of the Crown. Administratively, they were placed within Provinces, Agencies or Residencies.
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