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 CHAPTER VI

The North-Western Provinces

To geographers the North-Western Provinces of to-day, as forming a component part of the Indian Empire, differ considerably from the North-Western Provinces of Thomason's time. At that time they comprised the Delhi territory, that is, the territorial appanage lying to the west of Delhi, the imperial city. In them were included the Narbadá territories, meaning the beautiful valley of the Narbadá lying between the mountainous ranges of the Vindhya and the Sátpura. But they did not include the valuable territory of Oudh, which was still a Native kingdom. Since that time, however, Oudh as a British province has been added to them; while the Delhi territory and the Narbadá territories have been taken away; the former having been incorporated in the Punjab, the latter in the Central Provinces. It will suffice here to take a bird's-eye view of the North-Western Provinces as they were in 1843, and as Thomason saw them when entering on his new duties as Lieutenant-Governor.

These Provinces still formed part of the Bengal Presi-