Bantva-Manavadar was a princely state founded in 1760 on the Kathiawar peninsula in Gujarat, India. It had an area of approximately 574 km², and contained 26 primarily Muslim villages. Its ruler held the title of Khan Sahib.[1]
On 14 September 1947, following the independence of the British Raj, the Khan Sahib Ghulam Moinuddin Khanji acceded the state of Manavadar to the Dominion of Pakistan. This act was done at the same time as his neighbour, the Nawab of Junagadh. Indian police forces were subsequently sent into Manavadar on 22 October 1947, and the Khan Sahib was placed under house arrest at Songadh. An administrator was appointed to carry on the governance of the state, during which time the Government of India held an unsupervised and unattested plebiscite in his domain.[2] Participants voted in favour of union with India. The state was merged with the federated state of Saurashtra on 20 February 1949. [2]
The Khan Sahib remained imprisoned at Rajkot until the Indian authorities agreed to release him following the Liaquat Nehru Pact of 8 April 1950. He then left for Karachi in 1951, where he continued to be officially recognised and granted all the prerogatives of a royal prince, until his death in 2003.[2]