He did not surrender power even when his young charge Maharao Umaid Singh I came of age, and continued to rule the state, effortlessly dominating the rao of Kota and reducing him to the status of a virtual non-entity.

It is due above all to this influence with the British that it was resolved in the year 1838, with the grudging consent of the chief of Kota, to dismember the state and create a new principality, which would be ruled by the descendants of Zalim Singh.

The state of Jhalawar was created in this manner, and it received its name in honour of the fact that Zalim Singh belonged to the Jhala clan of Rajputs who were Chandravanshi or of the Lunar descent.

Owing to his maladministration, his relations with the British government became strained, and he was finally deposed in the year 1896, "on account of persistent misgovernment and proved unfitness for the powers of a ruling chief."

[2] After much consideration, the British resolved in 1897 to break up the state, restoring the greater part to Kota, but forming the two districts of Shahabad and the Chaumahla into a new state of area 810 square miles (2,100 km2), which came into existence in 1899, and of which Kunwar Bhawani Singh, a descendant of the original Zalim Singh I, was appointed chief.