From early on, the Tanawal area stayed mostly free from the influence of the Mughals and Sikhs and later had only limited contact with British. The people of Tanawal thus had little or no contact with other places for a long period and remained ignorant and backward. At most times, they would resist outside authority, preferring to be ruled by their own chiefs at a local level. Until the late-18th or early-19th centuries, Tanawal was not one state. It was rather an area where several important Tanoli chiefs had authority over an area of influence. The Hindwal section chiefs remained stronger than the other. In 1772, Mir Haibat Khan, the eldest son of Mir Gul Muhammad Khan, was declared to be the chief of Upper Tanawal. Later, his descendants were made as the Nawabs of Amb under the British Raj, and continued ruling over this territory until 1972.