Capital Phulra Disestablished 1950 | Established 1828 Area 98 km (38 sq mi) | |
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Phulra was a minor Muslim princely state in the days of British India, located in the region of the North West Frontier to the east of the nearby parent princely state of Amb (Tanawal).
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Map of Phulra, Pakistan
The territory covered by the state remains part of the present-day Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as a Union Council of the tehsil of Mansehra.
History
The Pashtun state was founded in 1828, when Mir Painda Khan, the ruler of Amb, granted the area of Phulra as a small principality to his brother, Madad Khan. There is some uncertainty as to whether Phulra ranked as a full princely state of India before 1919, and until then it may have had the status of a feudatory landed estate or jagir, but it was given British imperial state recognition as Phulra was recognised as a princely state in 1919 and 1921, in the official Ipmerial Gazetteer of the Indian Empire. Phulrah had been under suzerainty of the Maharaja of Kashmir until 1889, when it accepted a British protectorate, entering indirect rule.
In 1947, soon after the British had departed from the South Asian subcontinent, the last ruler of Phulra signed an Instrument of Accession to the new Dominion of Pakistan, and Phulra was a princely state of Pakistan from then until September 1950, when it was incorporated into the North West Frontier Province following the death of its last Nawab.
Dynasty
The state was ruled by a collateral line of the hereditary Tanoli Nawabs (rulers) of Amb. Amb and Phulra together were sometimes referred to as "Feudal Tanawal".
Descendants of Madad Khan
Madad Khan, the original Khan of Phulra, had two branches of offspring i.e. a senior branch and a junior branch. After the State of Phulra was abolished, both these branches continue to be represented in the area. The descendants of its last Khan, Abdul Latif Khan, remained in the area as private residents. The descendants of Khan Abdul Latif Khan were his sons, Khan Muhammad Faridoon Khan, and his grandson Khanzada Ali Raza Khan.. They comprised the senior branch of the former Phulra family.
Of the junior branch, Madad Khan had two other surviving sons, Bahadar Khan (from a Tanoli woman), whose descendants are still settled in Mangal Doga, Mahal and Masand villages; and Arsala Khan who was born from a Gujjar woman and whose descendants still live in Gojra village. They are all private citizens today.