British India

American  

noun

1. a part of India, comprising 17 provinces, that prior to 1947 was subject to British law: now divided among India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

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British India British  

noun

1. the 17 provinces of India formerly governed by the British under the British sovereign: ceased to exist in 1947 when the independent states of India and Pakistan were created

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Example Sentences

Millions of Hindus and Muslims were forced from their homes at the partition of British India, and well into the Cold War mass expulsions and ethnic cleansing marred the records of countries like Burma, Egypt and the former British colonies in East Africa.

From The Wall Street Journal

In the first part of the 1800s, Ram Singh, Ravinder’s great-great-grandfather, farmed wheat and rice outside of Lahore, now in Pakistan but then part of British India.

From The Wall Street Journal

The first census of British India was conducted in 1871-72, 14 years after the shamefully bloody Sepoy Mutiny, and counted some 200 million Indian subjects.

From The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Mamdani, a professor of government and anthropology at Columbia University, is himself a Ugandan Asian, the term used to describe people from British India who had settled in the British protectorate of Uganda.

From The Wall Street Journal

Once the capital of British India, the city's fortunes have waned since independence.

From BBC