British Raj

The British Raj (rāj in Hindustani: राज, Urdu: راج, pronounced: /rɑːdʒ/, lit. "reign"[1]) is the name given to the period of British colonial rule in South Asia between 1858 and 1947;[2] it can also refer to the dominion itself and even the region under the rule.[3] The region, commonly called India in contemporary usage, included areas directly administered by Britain,[4] as well as the princely states ruled by individual rulers under the paramountcy of the British Crown. After 1876, the resulting political union was officially called the Indian Empire and issued passports under that name. As India, it was a founding member of the League of Nations, the United Nations, and a member nation of the Summer Olympics in 1900, 1920, 1928, 1932, and 1936.

The system of governance was instituted in 1858 when the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria (and who in 1876 was proclaimed Empress of India). It lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign dominion states: the Union of India (later the Republic of India) and the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the eastern half of which, still later, became the People's Republic of Bangladesh). The province of Burma in the eastern region of the Indian Empire was made a separate colony in 1937 and became independent in 1948.

Emperor of India: King Edward VII of Britain
Viceroy: Hector Gonzalez