Princes who were styled Raas had ruled…

Princes who were styled Raas had ruled the Gilgit region before the establishment of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir by the Dogra rulers in the mid-nineteenth century,

The rulers of the neighboring Baltistan region used the Tibetan title of rGyal-po, having been founded as a western Tibetan kingdom in the thirteenth century.

Gilgit and Baltistan, together with their neighbors Hunza, Nagar and Ladakh, had become vassals of of Jammu and Kashmir, but have maintained considerable autonomy.

In order to guard against the advance of Russia, the British Government, acting as the suzerain power of Kashmir, establishes the Gilgit Agency, overseen by a political agent of the Governor-General of British India, in 1877.

The seat of the agent is Srinagar; he is to report on Russian activities as well as on developments in the nearby states of Hunza and Nagar.

After the formation of the Gilgit Agency, these territories—including the Wazarats of Gilgit and Ladakh, the State of Hunza and Nagar, the Punial Jagir; the Governorships of Yasin, Kuh-Ghizr and Ishkoman, and Chilas—are administered directly by the British, though the Princely state of Jammu and Kashmir retains sovereignty.