| Conventional Long Name: | Cis-Sutlej States |
| Common Name: | Cis-Sutlej |
| Nation: | British India |
| Subdivision: | Region |
| Year Start: | 1809 |
| Event Start: | British protectorate |
| Year End: | 1862 |
| Event End: | Merged into the Punjab Province (British India) |
| P1: | Maratha Empire |
| S1: | Company rule in India |
| Image Map Caption: | British and native states in the Cis-Sutlej Division between 1847–51, by Abdos Sobhan, 1858. The Cis-Sutlej states are visible south of the Sutlej river. |
The Cis-Sutlej states were a group of states in the contemporary Punjab and Haryana states of northern India during the 19th century, lying between the Sutlej River on the north, the Himalayas on the east, the Yamuna River and Delhi District on the south, and Sirsa District on the west. The small Punjabi kingdoms of the Cis-Sutlej states paid tributes to the Marathas, until the Second Anglo-Maratha War of 1803–1805, after which the Marathas lost this territory to the British.[1] [2] [3] [4]
The Maratha-Sikh treaty in 1785 made the small Cis-Sutlej states autonomous protectorates of the Scindia Dynasty of the Maratha Empire.[5]
Following the Second Anglo-Maratha War in 1806, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington drafted a treaty in 1809, granting independence to the Sikh clans east of the Sutlej River in exchange for their allegiance to the British General Gerard Lake, acting on his dispatch.[6] [7] At the conclusion of the war, the frontier of British India was extended to the Yamuna river.
The Cis-Sutlej states included Kalsia State, Kaithal State, Patiala State, Nabha State, Jind State, Thanesar, Malerkotla State, Ludhiana, Kapurthala State, Ladwa State, Ambala, Ferozpur and Faridkot State, among others.[8] Before 1846 the greater part of this territory was relatively independent, the chiefs being subject to supervision from a political officer stationed at Umballa, and styled the agent of the British Governor-General of India for the Cis-Sutlej states. A number of states were confiscated or acquired by Britain under the Doctrine of Lapse. After the First Anglo-Sikh War the full administration of the territory became vested in this officer. In 1849, the Punjab was annexed to British India, when the Cis-Sutlej states commissionership, comprising the districts of Ambala, Ferozepore, Ludhiana, Thanesar and Simla, was incorporated with the new Punjab Province. The name continued to be applied to this division until 1862, when—owing to Ferozepore having been transferred to Lahore Division and a part of Thanesar to Delhi Division—it ceased to be appropriate. The remaining tract became known as the Ambala Division. The princely states of Patiala, Jind, and Nabha were appointed a separate political agency in 1901. Excluding Bahawalpur (for which there was no political agent) and Chamba, the other states were grouped under the commissioners of Jullunder and Delhi, and the superintendent of the Simla Hill States. All native states, except Kaithal, would join PEPSU after India's independence.
The current 14 districts of East Punjab, Chandigarh, and the 4 districts of Haryana were present in the Cis-Sutlej States.
The rest of the Bist Doab including districts of Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, SBS Nagar, and Jalandhar were merged and made a new Trans-Sutlej States in 1846 after the First Anglo-Sikh War.