Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 326

310
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(NOVEMBER, 1923
Holkar at Dig, Sindia at Assaye and Laswari, while Lake entered Delhi. Sindia had overrun most of the lands of the Rajputs and all the country between the Ganges and the Jumna and lost them all. As a result of this war, by 1805 British influence in India, except in the Punjab, extended indirectly as far as it does now, and avowedly no one paid any attention to the Delhi fainéant Emperor, handsomely pensioned by the British.
The Home Government did not like this policy of expansion and war, recalled Lord Wellesley and reversed it, only to create as one result much worse trouble and war later on. As another result the Sikhs had arisen in the Punjab as a formidable consolidated power under Ranjit Singh, which was kept at bay along the line of the river Sutlege (Satluj), partly by a garrison at Ludhiana and partly by that sagacious monarch's appreciation of British strength. As a third result the Pindaris, a horde of marauders in Central India, became very dangerous, as they worked hand in hand with the Maratha rulers. This gave rise to another Maratha War, including the brilliant victories of Kirkee, Sitabaldi and Mahidpur over the Peshwa, Bhonsle and Holkar respectively. The Peshwa disappeared as the pensioned Raja of Bithur near Cawnpore, where he was succeeded by his adopted son, the notorious Nana Sahib of the Mutiny. The Bhonsle's territories became the Central Provinces of British India, and the Pindaris and other marauders, including the Pathans of Amir Khan and Ghafur Khan, ceased to exist. All this had been achieved by 1818 under the brilliant administration of Lord Hastings. There was no question now as to which power was really ruling in India:—that of the Governor-General under the Crown of England, though nominally under the East India Company. Indeed, a little later (1826) in the days of Lord Amherst, British action in intervening in another local succession at Bharatpur near Delbi was a vowedly taken by the raramount power." By 1833 English was declared to be the official language of the country, and by the Charter Act of next year Parliament abolished the Company as a commercial body and used it only for administrative purposes, empowering the Government of India to pass laws, and throwing open official positions in its territories to English and Indians alike. The Crown thus deliberately assumed sovereign powers and no one could say it nay. The only independent powers now left were the Sikh rulers of the Punjab and the Amirs of Sind.
In 1937 fear of intrigue by the Russians, as successors of the Eastern policy of Napoleon brought about, with the assistance of Ranjit Singh of the Punjab, a mismanaged and dis. astrous war with Atghanistan, and as a consequence a war with the Amirs of Sind resulting in annexation, W..ile these operations were proceeding Ranjit Singh died and the usual dynastic intrigues followed, in the course of which the British frontier was crossed by the Sikns. Four hard tought battles in rapid succession at Mudki, Ferozeshah (Pherushahr) near Ferozepore, Aliwal near Ludhiana, and Sobraon crippled the Sikh power. The Sikhs were now under no effective government at all, and two more terrible battles at Chilianwala and Gujrat resulted in the annexation of the whole Punjab. British domination did not induce hatred in the Sikh soldiers, who rapidly became loyal supporters of their former antagonists.
By this time Lord Dalhousie was Governor-General and ruling vigorously, which in India means restlessly. He was much impressed by the misgovernment of too many of the rulers in subordinate alliance with the British power, and as a means of improving the position of the people, he steadily applied the old " doctrine of lanse", whereby the right of adoption was refused to childless Rajas and Nawabs and the sovereignty over their States passed to the paramount power, in this case the British. Failure to produce children is not uncommon among the highly self-indulgent, and many opportunities consequently arose of applying the doctrine. The Maratha chiefs were the principal sufferers :-amongst others