Bombay Presidency

The Bombay Presidency, also known as Bombay and Sind from 1843 to 1936 and the Bombay Province, is an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India.

Headquartered in the city of Bombay, at its greatest extent, the presidency includea the Konkan, Nashik and Pune divisions of the present-day Indian state of Maharashtra, Ahmedabad, Anand, Bharuch, Gandhinagar, Kheda, Panchmahal and Surat districts of the present-day state of Gujarat, Bagalkot, Belagavi, Bijapur, Dharwad, Gadag, and Uttara Kannada districts of the present-day state of Karnataka and the South Canara (Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district including Kasargod District of Kerala; the Sindh province of present-day Pakistan; the Aden Colony (part of present-day Yemen), and the Khuriya Muriya Islands (part of present-day Oman).

The Bombay Presidency is created when the city of Bombay is leased in fee tail to the East India Company by a Royal Charter from the King of Britain, Charles II, who had in turn acquired it on May 11, 1661, when his marriage treaty with Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, placed the islands of Bombay in possession of the English Empire, as part of Catherine's dowry to Charles.

The English East India Company transfera its Western India headquarters from Surat, its first colony in thia region, to Bombay in 1687.

The Presidency is brought under British Parliament control along with other parts of British India through Pitt's India Act.

Major territorial acquisitions are made during the Anglo-Maratha Wars when the whole of the Peshwa's dominions and much of the Gaekwad's sphere of influence are annexed to the Bombay Presidency in different stages until 1818.

Aden is annexed in 1839, while Sind is annexed by the Company in 1843 after defeating the Talpur dynasty in the Battle of Hyderabad and it is made a part of the Bombay Presidency.

At its greatest extent, the Bombay Presidency comprises the present-day state of Gujarat, the western two-thirds of Maharashtra state, including the regions of Konkan, Desh, and Kandesh, and northwestern Karnataka state of India; it also includes Pakistan's Sindh Province (1847–1935) and Aden in Yemen (1839–1932).

The districts and provinces of the presidency are directly under British rule, while the internal administration of the native or princely states is in the hands of local rulers.

The presidency, however, manages the defense of princely states and British relations with them through political agencies.

The Bombay Presidency, along with the Bengal Presidency and Madras Presidency, is one of the three major centrer of British power in India.