The area controlled by the East India…

The area controlled by the East India Company has expanded during the first three decades of the nineteenth century by two methods.

The first is the use of subsidiary agreements (sanad) between the British and the local rulers, under which control of foreign affairs, defense, and communications is transferred from the ruler to the company and the rulers are allowed to rule as they wish (up to a limit) on other matters

This development has created what come to be called the Native States, or Princely India, that is, the world of the maharaja and his Muslim counterpart, the nawab.

The second method is outright military conquest or direct annexation of territories; it is these areas that are properly called British India.

Most of northern India has been annexed by the British.