Indian Empire

American  

noun

1. British India and the Indian states ruled by Indian princes but under indirect British control: dissolved in 1947 and absorbed into India and Pakistan.

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Indian Empire British  

noun

1. British India and the Indian states under indirect British control, which gained independence as India and Pakistan in 1947

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Etymology

Origin of Indian Empire

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

No arguments there; but there are certainly a few to be had with Mr. Dalrymple’s fourth so-called partition, that of Princely India—the nominally independent protectorates that constituted almost a third of the Indian empire.

From The Wall Street Journal

Although largely forgotten today, in the early 20th Century, nearly a third of the Arabian Peninsula was ruled as part of the British Indian Empire.

From BBC

Maps showing the full reach of the Indian Empire were only published in top secrecy, and the Arabian territories were left off public documents to avoid provoking the Ottomans or later the Saudis.

From BBC

In the words of Gulf scholar Paul Rich, this was "the Indian Empire's last redoubt, just as Goa was Portuguese India's last solitary vestige, or Pondicherry was the tag-end of French India".

From BBC

Today Dubai, once a minor outpost of the Indian Empire with no gun salute, is the glittering centre of the new Middle East.

From BBC