Residences of British India are political departments controlled by a resident and engaged in relations between British India and numerous indigenous principalities .
The system of residencies originates in the system of subsidiary treaties , invented by the British after the Battle of Plessis in 1757 to protect Bengal by deploying the troops of the Bengal army in the allied native principalities. Under this system, the Indian princes received guaranteed protection from internal and external enemies due to the deployment of British troops. In return, they were obliged to pay for the maintenance of these troops and also have a British resident at their court. The resident was a senior British official who was appointed to the capital of one of these principalities, formally a diplomat, but also responsible for maintaining the union with the state entrusted to him. This was seen as an indirect management system that was closely monitored by a British resident. His tasks included advising in the field of administration, intervening in disputes about inheritance and ensuring that the principalities did not contain other armed forces, except for internal patrols, and did not enter into diplomatic alliances with other principalities. Residents tried to modernize these states by promoting European ideas about progressive governance. The first principalities to conclude such subsidiary treaties included Arkot , Aud and Hyderabad . After the uprising of 1857, the British resident in Delhi played a more important role than all other residents, due to the tension between the Mughal empire and the growing East India Company. Even after the establishment of British rule in 1858, many of the local states ruled by Indian princes were granted relative autonomy in matters of political and administrative control, while the British administration was responsible for their external relations and defense issues. So, over two fifths of the territory of India was ruled by local princes.
The continuation of the rule of the princes allowed the British to concentrate their resources on more economically significant territories under their direct control, as well as to hide the actual loss of independence by these states, especially in the field of their external relations.
The resident served as a constant reminder of subsidiary agreements between local rulers and the British authorities. The direct manifestation of this was the residency itself, which was a complex of buildings and lands, changed according to the aesthetic values of the overlord state. In many cases, the local prince even paid for the construction of these residences, thereby expressing his support and loyalty to the British. Nawab Auda , one of the richest local princes, paid for and built a magnificent residency in Lucknow as part of a broader program to improve society.