Bhopal State - Establishment

Establishment

The State of Bhopal was established by Dost Mohammad Khan (1672-1728), an Afghan soldier of Orakzai Pashtun ethnicity in the Mughal army. After the death of the emperor Aurangzeb, Khan started providing mercenary services to several local chieftains in the politically unstable Malwa region. In 1709, he took on the lease of the Berasia estate. Later, he usurped the Rajput principality of Mangalgarh and the Gond kingdom of Rani Kamlapati, after the death of their female rulers to whom he had been providing mercenary services. He also annexed several other territories in Malwa to his state.

During the early 1720s, Khan transformed the village of Bhopal into a fortified city and assumed the title of Nawab. Khan became close to the Sayyid Brothers, who had become highly influential king-makers in the Mughal court. Khan's support to the Sayyids earned him the enmity of the rival Mughal nobleman Nizam-ul-Mulk, who invaded Bhopal in March 1724, forcing Khan to cede much of his territory, give up his son as a hostage, and accept the Nizam's suzerainty.

Dost Mohammad Khan and his Pathan associates brought Islamic influence to the culture and architecture of Bhopal, the ruins of which can be found at Islamnagar near Bhopal. After Khan's death in 1728, the Bhopal state remained under the influence of the Nizam. The state also paid tribute to the Marathas, who defeated the Mughals at the Battle of Bhopal in 1737.

Nawab Faiz Muhammed Khan (1742–1777) moved the capital from Islamnagar to Bhopal. The state became a British protectorate in 1818 and was ruled by the descendents of Dost Mohammad Khan until 1949, when it was merged with the Republic of India. For two years after the departure of the British from India in 1947, Bhopal had survived as an independent state.