Northern Circars

Northern Circars
Division of British India
1823–1947
Flag
The Northern Circars shortly after their occupation by the British
Capital	Eluru
Area
• Coordinates	17°27′N 83°00′E / 17.45°N 83.00°E / 17.45; 83.00
•	78,000 km2 (30,000 sq mi)
• Type	British Colonial Government
Historical era	20th century
• The British buy the rights over the Circars	1823
• Independence of India	1947
Preceded by Succeeded by Mughal Empire Hyderabad State Republic of India
Today part of	India

The Northern Circars (also spelt Sarkars) was a division of British India's Madras Presidency. It consisted of a narrow slip of territory lying along the western side of the Bay of Bengal from 15° 40′ to 20° 17′ north latitude,^[1] in the present-day Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The Subah of Deccan (Hyderabad/Golconda) consisted of 22 circars. These northern circars were five in number and the most prominent ones in the Subah.^[2]

They became British in a protracted piecemeal process lasting from 1758 to 1823, involving diplomacy and financial settlements rather than military conquest. The annexation by the British of the Northern Circars deprived Hyderabad State, the Nizam's dominion, of the considerable coastline it formerly had, assuming the shape it is now remembered for that of a landlocked princely state with territories in Central Deccan, bounded on all sides by British India.^[3]