News that France had declared war on England arrived in August 1778, and within a few months the English seized Chandernagore and Pondicherry. Hastings set up the Amini Commission to determine the real value of land by examining past revenues. Eyre Coote joined the Council in 1779. When Hastings believed that Francis had violated their agreement by blocking a military decision, their quarrel escalated to a duel in which Francis was wounded. Francis objected to Bengal being governed by foreign traders and wanted the British monarch to have authority. During the Mysore war Hastings asked Benares raja Chait Singh to contribute an extra 500,000 rupees and two thousand cavalry. After he provided only 200,000 rupees, Hastings had him arrested. Chait Singh's armed retainers freed him, killing most of the sepoys, who for some unknown reason had no ammunition. Severed heads of English officers were paraded in villages. The Company sent more troops and deposed Chait Singh, who fled with his treasure. They installed his young nephew and nearly doubled the annual revenue payment to 4,000,000 rupees. The treasure was eventually captured but was divided among the troops to Hastings' consternation. His treatment of Chait Singh later became the most serious charge in the famous Hastings impeachment trial.
Hastings replaced the provincial councils with a revenue administration and local Indian diwans, but this made it difficult to find positions for young Englishmen in India. Francis promoted investigation of Hastings in the House of Commons, and in 1782 Hastings was censored; but the Court of Proprietors rescinded the Directors' recall order. Lack of rain caused famine in northern India. Hastings visited Lucknow (Lakhnau), where the Awadh nawab lived in luxury in a palace tended by 4,000 gardeners. He managed to collect half the debt the opium-eating Asaf-ud-daula owed by sending troops to take it by force from the rich Begams. Hastings lamented the encroaching spirit of the English that allowed and even protected licentious individuals. Hicky's Gazette began publishing sensational news, sarcasm, gossip, and scandals in 1780; but after it exposed Hastings' private life, he had Hicky arrested and deported. He welcomed orientalist William Jones and wrote an introduction to Wilkins' translation of the Bhagavad-gita. They founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal. After his council supporter Wheler died, Hastings handed his office over to Macpherson and left India in February 1785. His impeachment trial by Parliament began in 1788, but he was not acquitted on all charges until 1795. Even his detractor, the historian Macaulay, admitted that Hastings had been the most popular governor of India.
Marathas and Cornwallis Reforms 1784-1800
In England clause 34 of Pitt's India Act of 1784 enjoined the Company not to intervene in Indian politics, and Macpherson refused to join the Maratha alliance against Mysore unless the French were attacking them. To fight Tipu, Nana Fadnavis made an alliance with Nizam 'Ali and granted Garha-Mandla to Mudhoji Bhosle in exchange for 15,000 cavalry and 3,200,000 rupees; but he had to give Holkar a million rupees to pay his army. The Maratha army led by Hari Pant Fadke invaded Mysore in 1786. Tipu was in a strong position but feared British involvement and negotiated a treaty in March 1787, agreeing to pay six million rupees.
Lord Cornwallis was the Company's governor-general 1786-93 and was obligated to follow Pitt's India Act. Muhammad 'Ali was living in luxury in Madras, and the Company was paying his extravagant debts. Cornwallis made a treaty with him, promising to defend the whole Karnatak for a fee. Nizam 'Ali was supposed to give Guntur to the English when Basalat Jang died in 1782. Cornwallis finally got Guntur from Nizam 'Ali in 1788, and the next year he promised him two battalions of sepoys provided they were not used against the Company's allies, which did not include Mysore. Five months later Tipu attacked a line of defenses in Travancore that had been originally built by the Portuguese, captured by the Dutch in 1662, and sold to the Travancore raja. Cornwallis considered this a violation and arranged a triple alliance against Mysore. The Company's Charles Malet formalized it with Nana's Marathas at Puna, and John Kennaway did so with the Nizam at Hyderabad; each promised 10,000 cavalry. Tipu had a disciplined army of about 100,000, and they were much more mobile than the English, whose officers traveled with furniture.
Bombay governor Major-General Medows replaced the unprepared Madras governor Hollond and led 15,000 men, taking Coimbatore in July 1790. Tipu's large army forced Col. Floyd to retreat and ravaged the Karnatak; but outnumbered Col. Hartley defeated a Mysore army near Calicut on the west coast, and Bombay governor General Abercromby with a larger force landed and took over the Malabar province. Cornwallis joined Medows, and their combined army of 19,000 captured Bangalore in March 1791. Tipu retreated to his capital at Seringapatam while Cornwallis found his army bogged down by rain and starving bullocks; military stores and heavy guns had to be destroyed. Two Maratha armies brought supplies they sold, and eventually 28,000 bullocks were sent from the Karnatak. A Maratha army went off to plunder Bednor. Tipur still had 50,000 men but negotiated a surrender in March 1792. He ceded half his territory and promised to pay 33 million rupees; Cornwallis took two of his sons as hostages for two years until the indemnity was paid. The Nizam and the Peshwa split northern Mysore, and the English got Malabar with its spices for the Bombay presidency. The British restored the Karnatak to Muhammad 'Ali. Upon hearing news that England was at war with revolutionary France, Cornwallis took artillery to help Madras capture Pondicherry and then left for England in October 1793.
William Pitt's India Act of 1784 established a Board of Control that nullified the Company's Court of Proprietors but worked with the Directors to set policy. Pitt hoped this would guide politics in India with as little corrupt influence as possible. Both Macartney and Cornwallis refused to be governor-general unless they could control the council. Macpherson held the position for twenty months until Cornwallis was made commander-in-chief as well. Macpherson was criticized for making money for himself and his friends, but he managed to clear off military pay arrears. He offered the Nizam and the Marathas three battalions from Bombay to fight Tipu, but Cornwallis retracted that.
Pitt and Control Board chairman Henry Dundas wanted Cornwallis to institute reforms, and in his first three years peace allowed him to do so. Cornwallis suspended the Board of Trade and dismissed most of its members for irregularities. He stopped the selling of offices and enforced the ban on private trade by public servants by sending offenders home. He abolished sinecures and dismissed high officials, and he got the Company to reduce commissions and increase salaries so that honesty became practical. He did not trust Indians and confined them to inferior positions only. He cut back corruption in Awadh by reducing the seven million rupees paid for the troops to five million and stopped exempting Company servants from duties by making a commercial treaty with Awadh.
The British had been using the zamindari system in Bengal since 1765. Zamindars collected taxes in their districts, traditionally a third of the gross produce, keeping one-tenth of what they collected. Failure to pay the assessment was usually punished by fines, imprisonment, or flogging, not by confiscating. John Shore had been in charge of revenue for the last four years under Hastings, and his research was used for the ten-year settlement Cornwallis made in 1789. He persuaded Dundas to make the settlement permanent in 1793. Zamindars were considered landowners and still had to pay 90% of what they collected, and the cultivators were protected by the British collectors over them. Many of the new assessments were too high, and some zamindars had to sell to men with money in Calcutta. Personal connections between the zamindars and the peasants were often broken, and many landlords were absent. As improvements were made, the fixed settlement resulted in the zamindars becoming wealthy; but the peasants' status remained low, and they could be evicted for not paying their rent. The Board of Revenue was reorganized, reducing the districts from 35 to 23. Each collector had two European assistants, and his salary was increased from 1,200 rupees per month to 1,500 with a commission of one percent on revenue collected. This Permanent Settlement fixed land revenues; as time went on, some believed that the Bengal and Bihar governments suffered from inadequate revenues.
Cornwallis reformed civil law by instituting the English legal system for all but minor suits. By abolishing legal fees everyone could have access to the courts; but this resulted in a backlog, and it took many years to bring a case. Muslim law was modified to replace mutilation with fines and to abolish distinctions made between believers and infidels. In 1790 Cornwallis removed Muhammad Reza Khan so that the governor-general and his council had supreme authority with the advice of a qazi (chief judge) and two muftis on Islamic law. Initial appeals were made to provincial courts at Calcutta, Murshidabad, Dacca, and Patna. Zamindars had to give up their private police forces. Being a district police chief (darogha) was one powerful position an Indian could fill. The complete revision of the legal system became known as the Cornwallis Code in May 1793. Perhaps most important was that he applied the rule of law to the governors as well as the governed. Cornwallis wrote,
The collectors of revenue and their officers,
and indeed all the officers of Government,
shall be amenable to the courts
for acts done in their official capacities,
and Government itself, in cases in which
it may be a party with its subjects in matters of property
shall submit its rights to be tried in these courts
under the existing laws and regulations.2
In regard to the debts of nawabs such as Muhammad 'Ali, the Board of Control overruled the Directors and declared all debts were due; they were influenced by Benfield and others in Parliament who benefited from this. Thus Madras continued to drain wealth from the Company at Bengal.
Slave trafficking in India was abolished by proclamation in 1789; but rural slavery of peasant serfs continued in much of India, and the households of landlords often had domestic slaves in areas where Islamic law still prevailed. In the early 19th century Buchanan reported that the price of adult slaves varied between fifteen and twenty rupees while children cost an average of one rupee for each year of their age. Many men sold their children into slavery for bread during famines.
John Shore succeeded Cornwallis in 1793. He was a devoted Christian but also promoted the study of Indian culture as the third president of the Asiatic Society. Resident Jonathan Duncan established a Sanskrit College at Benares in 1792 and began a campaign to end infanticide. Baptist missionary William Carey came to Calcutta in 1793, set up schools, and translated the Bible into Bengali. William Duane began publishing Indian World in 1794, but he was arrested and deported the next year. During this European war Madras forces attacked Dutch settlements in Sri Lanka and the Spice Islands. Shore declined to defend Nizam 'Ali in a conflict with the Maratha confederacy that formed after Mahadji Sindia was succeeded by his nephew Daulat Rao Sindia. After a battle at Kharda with less than 200 casualties in March 1795, the Nizam's army dispersed; he ceded territory and agreed to pay the Marathas thirty million rupees. Nizam dismissed two battalions of the Company's sepoys but found he needed their aid when his son 'Ali Jah rebelled against him. Muhammad 'Ali died in 1795; but his son Umdut-ul-Umara would not modify the treaty, and the corruption continued. However, Alexander Read and Thomas Munro established a revenue administration in Madras that became the model for British India. After Peshwa Madhu Rao fell off a terrace and died in October 1795, the Marathas were divided over the succession of Raghunath's son Baji Rao II. The conflict enabled Nizam 'Ali to regain territory he lost at Kharda, but by December 1796 Baji Rao was recognized as the peshwa with Nana Fadnavis as chief minister. For a while Daulat Rao Sindia's father-in-law Sarza Rao Ghatge gained control at the Puna court and extorted wealth, arresting prominent persons. Mahadji's three widows protested but were defeated in 1798.
Company officers were upset about their poor pay and limited promotion opportunities compared to the King's officers; but Abercromby suggested modifying Shore's new regulations, and mutiny was averted. In 1797 Awadh nawab Asaf-ud-daula invited Shore to visit Lucknow. Shore hinted at a collective guilt when he commented on the succession struggle in Rohilkhand in which Ghulam Muhammad had killed the heir and then was defeated by his son.
No one can calculate the consequences
of the violation of a moral principle;
and there is some justice in your suspicion
that the inveteracy of the Rohillas
may be traced to the injustice of 1774.3
The Afghan Zaman Shah had recently invaded as far as Lahore, and Shore wanted concessions from the frightened Awadh nawab. Asaf-ud-daula agreed to pay more and replace a corrupt minister; when the threat faded, he declined to turn over the fortress of Allahabad. Asaf-ud-daula died six months later, and Shore replaced Vazir 'Ali, who was claiming to be the Nawab's son, with his brother Sa'adat 'Ali. The new Nawab then ceded Allahabad to the Company and raised the annual payment for its troops to 76 million rupees. Zaman Shah occupied Lahore again in 1798; but he returned to Afghanistan when he learned that his brother Shah Mahmud had invited the Persian shah to invade. Shore objected to the aggressive methods of Madras governor Hobart and annulled a treaty he made with the intimidated Tanjore raja. Hobart wrote to Dundas threatening to resign if Shore was not replaced; but the Directors recalled Hobart for having coerced the Karnatak nawab.
Richard Wellesley was not quite 38 years old when he became governor-general at Calcutta in May 1798. He believed in British imperialism and thought that Shore had been a weak governor. Because of the European war he exaggerated the threat of the French in India. In June he learned that the French governor Malartic of Mauritius was raising volunteers to fight for Tipu Sultan against the English. Only a hundred recruits joined him, but Wellesley used it as an excuse to bully Tipu. His brother Arthur Wellesley advised him to be patient and let Tipu explain. Richard Wellesley goaded Madras into preparing for war and got Nizam 'Ali to dismiss his French officers and support the English Company. In February 1799 the combined army of the Company had 40,000 men with more than 100,000 camp followers. Tipu had only about 37,000 men and used his mobility and a scorched-earth strategy. After being defeated on March 27 by Company commander George Harris, Tipu retreated to Seringapatam. General Baird, who had suffered 44 months imprisonment in a Seringapatam dungeon, wanted revenge and led the attack that stormed and plundered the Mysore capital. Tipu was killed, and Arthur Wellesley had to use flogging and hanging to restore order. More than half of the two million pounds of booty was claimed by the officers as prize money, Harris getting 143,000. Richard Wellesley was offered 100,000, which he declined.
Governor-General Wellesley had 14,000 European troops but declared 31,000 were needed. The Company reluctantly agreed to 21,000, but the number only reached about 18,000. Wellesley installed a five-year-old Hindu prince in the small traditional kingdom of Mysore. By a treaty in 1800 Nizam 'Ali gave up the Mysore territories he had gained in both wars to the Company for protection and an end to his paying an annual subsidy. His many troops were disbanded and caused local disorders for several years. The Company gained control of Tanjore when the raja Serfogi they had installed accepted a 40,000-pound annual pension in October 1799. Five months later Wellesley ordered the Company to take over the port of Surat as its nawab was given a pension. Wellesley believed that the English could govern better. After Muhammad 'Ali's son Umdat-ul-Umara died, the regents for his son rejected a pension agreement. So Wellesley offered one to Umdat-ul-Umara's nephew, and the Company took over the Karnatak in July 1801. The Directors approved the new treaty, because they believed the family of Muhammad 'Ali had forfeited its previous treaty rights by treasonable correspondence with Tipu.
More complicated machinations were used in regard to Awadh (Oudh). Vazir 'Ali resented having to live in Calcutta, escaped, and with several thousand armed men killed the Benares resident Cherry and other Englishmen in 1799. After Zaman Shah invaded from Afghanistan to Lahore again in the fall of 1798, Bombay governor Duncan and Wellesley sent envoys with gifts to urge the Persian shah to destabilize Afghanistan and oppose the French. In 1800 Zaman Shah was imprisoned and blinded by his half-brother Shah Mahmud. In 1799 Awadh's Sa'adat 'Ali had written to Wellesley that he would abdicate; but when he learned he could not choose his successor, he changed his mind. Wellesley ordered more troops into Awadh and told the Nawab he would have to pay for them. Sa'adat 'Ali objected that this violated the treaty; but in February 1800 he agreed to pay the Company and disband his own forces. The next year Wellesley demanded that the Awadh nawab cede at least half his territory to the Company, and the threat of force made him agree in November 1801. The ceded land of Rohilkhand and the Lower Doab bordering Bihar was most fertile. Sa'adat 'Ali was required to "act in conformity to the counsel of the officers of the Honourable Company." Wellesley named his brother Henry as president of the board of commissioners and lieutenant-governor of Awadh. This military and administrative control by the Company in exchange for subsidies in the name of a defensive alliance was called the "subsidiary alliance system."
In 1799 Richard Wellesley decreed that no newspaper could be published unless it had been previously inspected by the Government's Secretary, and the penalty for failure was deportation. He founded the College of Fort William in Calcutta to educate civil servants. The uninformed Directors objected, but they were overruled by Castlereagh on the Board of Control. In 1806 the Directors established Haileyburg College in England and reduced Fort William College to teaching Indian languages to Bengali civilians. Wellesley believed in free trade and arranged for 3,000 tons of shipping for private British traders so that they could compete with foreign merchants. Believing that the British could provide superior government, Wellesley made plans to improve drainage and roads in Calcutta and proposed experimental agriculture at Barrackpur. He encouraged missionaries, and the Bible was translated into Indian languages. He prohibited the sacrifice of children at Saugor Point by the Hughli River and tried to reduce the number of Hindu widows burned in sati.
Tukoji Holkar died in August 1797, and his sons fought over Malwa. Jaswant Rao Holkar emerged as regent and defended the Holkar House against the Maratha empire of Daulat Rao Sindia, who had 40,000 disciplined men under the French general Perron in his northern armies. The latter had Nana Fadnavis arrested on the last day of 1797, and Daulat's father-in-law Sarza Rao Ghatge terrorized Puna for three months to raise money. Nana was released in July 1798. That month the Company made a treaty with the Peshwa, who agreed to exclude the French from his army and pay the force from Bombay. This secret treaty was renewed annually three times. Meanwhile Lakhwa Dada led the war of Mahadji's widows against the tyranny of Daulat Rao Sindia that lasted four years. Young Peshwa Baji Rao II defeated the Kolhapur raja in 1799. Nana Fadnavis died in March 1800, and Daulat Rao became the Peshwa's chief minister. The civil war in Daulat's family ended when Lakhwa Dada and the widows were driven out of Seondha in May 1801.
British Conquest of Marathas 1800-18
Sikhs and North India 1767-1800
In the north Marathas led by Malhar Rao Holkar and Mahadji Sindia gradually fought back from the devastation of the Panipat disaster. After Ahmad Shah Abdali went back to Afghanistan, in December 1767 the Bhangi Sikhs crossed the Jamuna and invaded the Doab. They defeated Najib-ud-daula in March 1768 and again in December. Jawahir Singh was assassinated in June, and his brother Ratan Singh hired the Europeans Rene Madec and Walter Reinhard. When Ratan Singh was murdered by his Brahmin priest in 1769, Jat commander Dan Shah became regent for Ratan's son Kesari Singh; civil war weakened the Jats. The Peshwa sent more troops, and 30,000 Marathas ravaged Jat territory in 1770. The Sikhs plundered Panipat and reached Delhi in January 1770, followed by Najib's son Zabita Khan. Negotiations failed, and Zabita Khan retired to his Rohilla estate, enabling the Sikhs to enter the Doab. A Jat army pursued the Sikhs and defeated them in February. Hari Singh Bhangi died and was succeeded by Jhanda Singh, who made the Jammu and the Pathans of Kasur pay tribute. Jhanda also captured the citadel at Multan. Learning that Zabita Khan had succeeded his father Najib, the Sikhs plundered Panipat again.
Zabita Khan was defeated by the Marathas as Mahadji Sindia and Visaji Krishna occupied Delhi. They invited Shah 'Alam II to come from Allahabad. The Marathas defeated the Rohillas and captured Zabita Khan, causing other Rohilla chiefs to make a treaty with Awadh's Shuja-ud-daula in 1772. The Marathas controlled Emperor Shah 'Alam II and made him grant them Kora and Allahabad; Zabita Khan joined their side, and they wanted him appointed Mir Bakhshi. Emperor Shah Alam objected, but the Marathas defeated his imperial forces. Sirhind governor Mughal Ali Khan crossed the Jamuna but was attacked and defeated by Sikhs, who invaded the Doab again a year later. In 1773 the English and Awadh defended Rohilkhand from a Maratha attack, and in a treaty Awadh nawab Shuja received Kora and Allahabad in exchange for paying five million rupees for a British garrison. In 1774 Shuja-ud-daula and the English invaded Rohilkhand, driving out 20,000 Rohillas and annexing most of that province to Awadh. In Delhi the Persian adventurer Mirza Najaf Khan commanded the Mughal army for the Emperor from 1772 until he died in 1782, repelling the Sikhs, suppressing the Jats, recovering Agra, and holding off the Marathas.
In the Punjab the Sikhs could usually govern themselves and had much less violence, though in 1774 Jai Singh Kanhaya got Jhanda Singh assassinated and joined with Jassa Singh Ahluwalia to expel the carpenter Jassa Singh. When Afghanistan's Ahmad Shah Abdali died in 1772, his son Timur Shah was governing Herat. He rushed to Qandahar and was elected by the Durrani chiefs. Shah Vali Khan had tried to raise an army and was executed for treason. For two years Timur Shah was busy suppressing disorders in his kingdom, but his army crossed the Indus in January 1775 and defeated some Sikhs. Realizing he needed more men, he withdrew to Peshawar, where Faizullah Khan organized an assassination plot; but Timur hid in the tower until his guards were aroused and caused Faizullah to flee. In fury Timur ordered a massacre of about a third of the 6,000 men in Peshawar. He promised to forgive Faizullah; but when he surrendered, he was beheaded. Timur Shah invaded India again in 1779 and tried to get Multan back with diplomacy, but the Sikhs shot his envoy dead. Timur sent 18,000 men under Zangi Khan Durrani, and they killed several thousand Sikhs in the battle of Rohtas. After losing 2,000 more casualties at Shujabad, 7,000 Sikhs retreated into the fort at Multan; but they surrendered and were allowed to depart in February 1780. Timur Shah had forts built but returned to Afghanistan before the hot weather. In October 1780 Timur Shah invaded Bahawalpur; but when 20,000 Sikh horsemen attacked Multan, he asked for peace.
In 1774 the Sikhs ravaged the Doab, approached Delhi, and were bought off by the Emperor, who offered them the district of Shahbazpur for the service of 10,000 horsemen. In 1775 Zabita Khan incited the Sikhs to plunder imperial lands; but in July he was defeated by Najaf Khan, and the Sikhs went home. In March 1776 Zabita Khan and his Rohillas attacked and killed Mughal commander Abul Qasim, and in May the Sikhs led by Gajpat Singh defeated and killed Mulla Rahimdad Khan, gaining seven villages. Zabita Khan and the Sikhs went to Delhi the next month and were pardoned by the Emperor; but in the fall about 60,000 Sikhs plundered Delhi's neighbors. Zabita Khan and the Sikhs fought Najaf Khan's imperial army in 1777. When Zabita Khan was defeated, he fled to the Sikhs and converted to their religion. In 1778 they raided the Doab and stayed in Delhi for a month. The next year Abdul Ahad led the imperial army but had to retreat in October. The Sikhs did not attempt to win political power in the region but were intent on gaining plunder.
The Emperor's grand-nephew Mirza Shafi led several campaigns against the Sikhs and even recruited dissident Sikhs into his army. He imprisoned Gajpat Singh and three other Sikh chiefs and in 1781 took Sadhaura from the Sikhs. Despite the conflicts among the Sikhs, the Mughals were not able to defeat them because Najaf Khan could not provide Shafi's army with enough supplies. Najaf Khan tried to get Zabita Khan to help Shafi but could not pay his troops. The Sikhs used guerrilla warfare and ravaged the Doab. In June 1781 Zabita Khan mediated an agreement giving the Sikhs the right to collect taxes (rakhi) in the upper Doab, and the Sikhs promised to stop raiding imperial territory. Yet the Sikhs continued to ravage imperial lands. A week before he died in April 1782, Najaf Khan sent Shafi with 10,000 troops against the Sikhs. Najaf's slaves Afrasiyab Khan and Najaf Quli Khan struggled for power with Shafi Khan and Mughal officer Muhammad Beg Hamdani, but the Maratha chief Mahadji Sindia took power in Delhi. Lack of rain caused a devastating famine that destroyed about a third of the population in 1783. Many Sikhs moved from the Setluj territory to the upper Ganga Doab.
After raiding as far as the Ganges, Baghel Singh and Jassa Singh Ahluwalia led the Sikh army of 60,000 that plundered Delhi in March 1783. Reinhard's widow Begam Samru was invited to negotiate, and it was agreed that Baghel Singh would remain in the capital with 4,000 troops to keep order. Shafi was Mughal regent and with Afrasiyab tried to suppress the revolt of Hamdani, who assassinated Shafi in September. Afrasiyab became regent until he was murdered by Shafi's brother Zain-ul-Abidin Khan in November 1784. During this period of weakness Mahadji Sindia met with Emperor Shah Alam and represented the Marathas' Peshwa. In December 1784 the Sikhs plundered the suburbs of Delhi, alarming the English. Early in 1785 about 30,000 Sikhs, led by Baghel Singh, Gurdit Singh, and Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, crossed the Jamuna and ravaged the upper Doab. A subsidiary British force led by Awadh diwan Raja Jagan Nath skirmished with the Sikhs. Najaf Quli invited the Sikhs to approach Delhi, and they did so collecting tribute. Mahadji Sindia sent Ambaji Ingle to win over the Sikhs, and in March they agreed on a provisional treaty. The Sikh chiefs tried to form an alliance with the English by making a false accusation against Sindia but then concluded a treaty with him in May in which they would receive a million rupees income for 5,000 cavalry. The Sikhs quickly broke the treaty by collecting extra revenue in the Doab, and Dhar Rao Sindia led 10,000 troops to expel them. He was joined by Gajpat Singh and demanded money from Ghulam Qadir, who had succeeded his father Zabita Khan in January.
Jai Singh Kanhaya was paramount in the Punjab until about 1785 when Mahan Singh and Jassa Singh Ramgarhia defeated the Kanhayas. Mahan Singh was the most powerful Sikh in the Punjab until he died in 1792. In 1783 Murtaza Khan and Zaman Khan complained to Timur Shah that their brother Azad Khan had expelled them from Kashmir. The Afghan king gave them 30,000 troops, and at the Kishanganga River they killed 2,000 Kashmiris; but Azad Khan's cousin Pahalwan Khan rallied their troops and defeated the imperial army. At Srinagar the Afghan army was defeated again. Angered Timur Shah sent a larger force from Peshawar. Azad Khan fled, was imprisoned, and killed himself. On learning that Shah Murad of Balkh was preparing to invade Afghanistan, Timur Shah returned to Kabul in May 1786. On Timur Shah's fifth campaign into India he led an army of 120,000 and massacred the inhabitants of Bahawalpur in January 1789. He demanded four million rupees and 3,000 camel loads of water bags from the raja of Jodhpur; but Rae Dhanje promised Mahadji Sindia he would starve the Afghans in Kachh Bhuj. So Timur Shah went into Sind and collected six million rupees in tribute. News of disturbances by Shah Murad of Turan persuaded Timur to retreat again. For the next three years rumors abounded that Timur Shah was planning to capture Delhi, but he died at Kabul in 1793 and was succeeded by his son Shah Zaman.
The Sikhs continued their raiding, and in 1787 they plundered the territory of Ghulam Qadir and others. Ghulam Qadir joined forces with Ambaji for a while. Meanwhile Mahadji Sindia was defeating the Rajputs of Jaipur; Hamdani was killed, and the raja promised to pay 6,300,000 rupees. When Ambaji joined Sindia in Jaipur, Ghulam Qadir got Sikhs to join him in challenging the Marathas. In September 1785 Ghulam Qadir took power in Delhi while his ally Isma'il Beg occupied Agra. Begam Samru's battalions reached Delhi three days later. The Emperor named Ghulam regent, and he secured the fortress of Aligarh and took control of the Doab. Emperor Shah Alam II demanded tribute from Najaf Quli Khan; but the imperial forces were slaughtered by the Sikhs, and Begam Samru mediated a reconciliation. The Sikhs plundered the territory of Ghulam Qadir while he was fighting the Marathas and Jats near Bharatpur. Ghulam returned to Delhi in July 1788. His Rohillas stripped and raped princesses and ladies, letting many die of starvation while they searched for treasures, which his wife later estimated at 250 million rupees. When Shah Alam could not disclose more secrets, Ghulam Qadir blinded him. The Marathas attacked Delhi; Ghulam fled and was captured in December. Sindia had his body mutilated before putting him to death.
Mahadji Sindia put 'Ali Bahadur in charge, tried to conciliate Tukoji Holkar by giving him a million rupees worth of land, and went to Mathura in 1788. He granted the Sikhs feudal tenures in 1789, allowing a thousand Sikhs to collect taxes with Maratha officers; but the Sikhs plundered the Doab again in 1790. They captured the British commander Robert Stuart and held him at Thanesar for nearly ten months in 1791 before the English agreed to pay Bhanga Singh a ransom of six million rupees that was transferred by Begam Samru. Mahadji Sindia got Comte de Boigne to train his troops with European discipline, and by 1792 Sindia established Maratha supremacy over the Rajputs and Jats; but he had conflicts with 'Ali Bahadur and Holkar. In 1793 De Boigne's infantry attacked Holkar's troops near Ajmer. Mahadji Sindia died of illness in 1794; he was succeeded by his nephew's son Daulat Rao Sindia, who was only 14 and inept. He appointed the Shenvi Brahmin Lakhba Dada to govern northern India, which was ravaged so badly that land was hardly cultivated. The artillery of Begam's regiment forced the Sikhs to retreat to their own territory in 1794. An attempt to collect revenue in Karnal provoked a war with the Sikhs in 1795, and they invaded the upper Doab. The Sikhs were also torn apart by civil war, though Rae Singh Bhangi persuaded Gurdit Singh to leave the Maratha camp. Maratha chief Nana Rao entered Thanesar and was enticed to march toward Patiala to secure money; but fierce fighting by the Sikhs persuaded him to return to Delhi. In 1796 the Sikhs massacred and plundered pilgrims at Hardwar.
Afghanistan's Shah Zaman invaded India in 1794, plundering and burning Jhelum. He demanded revenue payments from chiefs of Bhakar, Multan, Sind, and Kashmir before returning to Peshawar, where he blinded his rebellious brother Humayun. Shah Zaman invaded again and captured Rohtas in November 1795; but an insurrection by Mahmud at Herat and an invasion by Persian shah Agha Muhammad Khan Qajar forced his quick return. He left Ahmad Khan Shahanchibashi in Rohtas and Bahadur Khan with 12,000 cavalry to conquer Gujrat, but the latter was defeated and killed by Sikhs led by Sahib Singh. Ranjit Singh got to Rohtas before Sahib and claimed it as Shahanchibashi fled to Peshawar.
In 1796 Shah Zaman tried to negotiate a safe passage through the Punjab. Some Sikhs agreed, but Ranjit Singh promised a battle. Shah Zaman divided his army under seven commanders with 12,000 men each. Ranjit Singh forced Pind Dadan Khan's men back at the Jhelum River. Shah Zaman ordered his men at Rohtas not to seize property or wrong people and to pay for grass and fuel. Sher Muhammad Khan Vazir entered Lahore on the last day of 1796, and Shahanchibashi proclaimed security of life and property in Kotwal. Shah Zaman even ordered the noses cut off of any Durranis who oppressed the people. When houses and shops were not illuminated, Shah Zaman ordered Hindus to pay a poll tax; but Muslims were exempted. Sikhs gathered 50,000 men at Amritsar and defeated the Afghan army on January 12, 1797, and 35,000 were reported killed in this battle. Shah Zaman retreated to Lahore, repaired the fort, and manufactured arms. The Taruna Dal Sikhs were defending their homeland, but the Budha Dal and Phulkian Sikhs across the Setluj River did not participate. Once again Shah Zaman returned to quell disturbances by his brother Mahmud at Herat. Before they left, troops collected 2,200,000 rupees from Lahore. Sind governor Shahanchibashi was killed by Sikhs fighting to recover their territory, and the Durranis fled.
Shah Zaman still had his own governors in Kashmir, Peshawar, Derajat, Multan, and Sind. On his fourth invasion he left Peshawar in October 1798 and defeated Sikhs at Attock. The Afghan shah appointed Wafadar Khan chief commander, but this was resented by vizier Sher Muhammad Khan, whose letters warning Sikh chiefs were found. The Sikhs were not united either and withdrew as the Afghan army advanced. Ranjit Singh gathered some men at Amritsar, and Shah Zaman sent 10,000 troops that battled 2,500 Sikhs, killing 500 on each side. As Shah Zaman entered Lahore, various bands of Sikhs cut off supplies from the Durrani army. Some Sikhs even surrendered to Shah Zaman by coming at night. When 4,000 Sikhs gathered by the Beas River, the Shah sent 24,000 troops, causing the Sikhs to disperse. Shah Zaman tried to negotiate, and early in 1799 some settlements were made. Meanwhile Bombay governor Duncan had sent Mehdi Ali Khan to urge the Persian Shah to invade Khurasan, while Mahmud was incited to revolt again. Zaman Shah decided to return to Kabul, and Ranjit Singh persuaded the Sikhs not to molest the retreating army. This was the last Afghan invasion of India.
The Irish George Thomas fell in love with Begam Samru and then married the slave girl Marie. In 1789 he had prevented the Emperor from being taken prisoner by helping to defeat Najaf Quli's attack on the imperial army. After Le Vaisseau married Begam, his intrigues caused Thomas to revolt in 1792. Thomas surrendered and was released. He served the Maratha chief Apa Khande Rao, and in 1795 he expelled Sikh raiders. When Begam Samru was imprisoned by Zafaryab Khan at Sardhana, Thomas defeated and imprisoned Zafaryab, restoring Begam to her position. When Comte de Boigne left India in 1796, he was succeeded by French general Perron. In 1798 Thomas led a Maratha attack on rebellious Sikhs in a bloody battle that killed 1500, but a peace treaty allowed the Sikhs to evacuate the place. Almas Beg let Thomas use Hansi as his headquarters, and for a while he governed and collected taxes from 253 villages. When Sikhs raided his territory, he pursued them to Patiala. The Sikhs fought in alliance with Shambu Nath against Ashraf Beg, who was aided by Perron. Using local Muslims, Perron invaded Karnal and signed a peace treaty with the Sikhs at Thanesar in March 1799 before being joined by Begam's four battalions. Perron led the Marathas, and he ordered Louis Bourquien with his 2,000 men to join 6,000 Sikhs against 5,000 men led by Thomas at Georgegarh in 1801. Each side lost 2,000 in battle, and then Thomas was besieged. Reduced to 700 men and lacking supplies, Thomas surrendered and was allowed to go to British territory.
Ranjit Singh was born November 13, 1780. His father died in 1792, and five years later he became chief of the Sikh misl Sukarchakia. At that time between the Indus and Setluj rivers were 27 Hindu states, 25 Muslim states, and 16 Sikh states. Ranjit Singh made political alliances by marrying a Kanahya princess in 1796 and a Nakai princess in 1798. The next year the citizens of Lahore invited Ranjit Singh to occupy their city, and Shah Zaman authorized him to govern it for the Afghans, enabling Ranjit Singh to take over Lahore with little resistance. In 1800 Governor-general Wellesley sent Yusaf Ali to persuade Ranjit Singh not to form an alliance with Shah Zaman. However, Shah Zaman was deposed and blinded by his brother Mahmud, who was overthrown by Shah Shuja in 1803.
Sikhs and North India 1800-18
Tibet and Nepal 1707-1800
Kashmir and Tibet 1526-1707
Jesuit missionaries had visited Tibet in the 17th century, and Capuchin fathers came in 1707 for four years. The Jesuit scholar Ippolito Desideri was at Lhasa 1716-21, learned Tibetan, and tried to refute their Buddhist teachings. The Capuchin mission left Lhasa in 1733, returning again in 1741; their proselytizing efforts failed, and their mission was abandoned in 1745.
Chinese emperor Kangxi (r. 1662-1722) collected tribute from Tibet. Lhazang Khan (r. 1705-17) used the military to try to conquer Bhutan in 1714, but the Tibetans were defeated. Dzungar Mongols invaded Tibet in 1717; they stormed the capital at Lhasa, killed Lhazang, deposed the Dali Lama he had appointed, and gained popularity by making a Tibetan prime minister (Desi). However, Kangxi got control of the child the Tibetans respected as the Dalai Lama, and the Dzungars were resented for persecuting the Nyingmapa lamas and attacking their monasteries, the Tibetans resisting this looting of their holy places. The Dzungars destroyed most of the first force sent by the Manchus before they reached Lhasa in 1718, and so the Emperor sent a larger force in 1720 that drove the Dzungars out of Tibet and installed the new Dalai Lama. The Manchu dynasty of China would dominate Tibet for nearly two centuries until their fall in 1911. Khangchennas was appointed chairman of the council and governed western Tibet. However, a Manchu military governor with a garrison of 2,000 troops was established.
When Yong Zheng (r. 1722-36) became emperor of China, he withdrew the unpopular Manchu troops in 1723 but left the military governor as an advisor. Pholhanas became a council minister in 1723 and was opposed by Khangchennas, Ngabo, and Lumpa for advocating an alliance with the Manchus. In 1726 Emperor Yong Zheng ordered the Nyingmapa sect persecuted, and Khangchennas began implementing that policy. Pholhanas offered his resignation, which was refused, and went home to Tsang. Ngabo, Lumpa, and Jaranas assassinated Khangchennas with knives. His two wives, secretary, and steward were also murdered along with two governors of northern Tibet who were friends of Khangchennas and Pholhanas. Pholhanas gathered troops in Tsang and there battled the invading force of Ngabo, Lumpa, and Jaranas, gaining the name Miwang Pholha. The Panchen Lama and a representative of the Dalai Lama mediated a truce in April 1728; but after some Tsang people were killed, Pholhanas marched 12,000 troops to Lhasa. The three ministers and fourteen supporters were tried and executed. The young Dalai Lama Kesang Gyatso and his father, who had provoked the civil war, were sent to Kham for seven years. Pholhanas gained the support of the Manchus, who re-installed a garrison with two Manchu officials called Ambans to represent the Emperor and report on events in Lhasa. Also in 1728 the Chinese promoted the leadership of the second Panchen Lama of the Gelugpa sect and gave him sovereignty in northern and western Tibet, though the Panchen Lama is supposed to remain in meditation and be above worldly concerns.
Pholhanas restored peace and governed in Lhasa so well that in 1740 he was proclaimed king of Tibet. That year the Bhutanese attacked Sikkim, and Pholhanas sent an administrator to help the minor ruler in Sikkim. Pholhanas died in 1747 and was succeeded by his younger son Gyumey Namgyal. He came into conflict with his older brother Gyumey Tseten, who had been governing western Tibet since 1729. Gyumey Tseten died mysteriously in 1750, the year Gyumey Namgyal persuaded the Emperor to reduce the Manchu garrison at Lhasa to one hundred men. Gyumey Namgyal secretly prepared to form an army and contacted the Dzungar Mongols. The two Ambans complained and killed Gyumey Namgyal and his attendants. Tibetans besieged the residence of the Ambans and killed them along with more than a hundred Chinese soldiers and civilians, burning the building. About two hundred Chinese took refuge in the Potala and were protected from the mob by the Dalai Lama. Despite posters calling for an end to violence, some continued to riot before fleeing toward Dzungaria. They were pursued, caught, and put on trial; thirteen were executed, and the rest were imprisoned.
In 1751 the seventh Dalai Lama Kesang Gyatso was put in charge of the government with a council (Kashag) of four which operated by consensus. The Kashag took over the army and required each landowning family to provide one soldier. The province of U had 1,000 troops, and Tsang had 2,000. Meanwhile Chien Long had sent another military force, and the Dalai Lama negotiated the withdrawal of all but a garrison of 1,500. The Dalai Lama also mediated a dispute between local lords on the border with Nepal. Upon his death in 1757 the Drepung monk Jampel Delek was appointed regent during the minority of the new Dalai Lama, and this tradition continued for more than a century. In 1762 Palden Yeshe (1738-80), the third Panchen Lama, gave the name Jampal Gyatso to the four-year-old eighth Dalai Lama.
Narbhupal Shah (r. 1716-42) was the tenth ruler of the Gurkhas west of the Nepal valley. He gathered a large force and attacked Nayakot in 1736, but he was defeated and retreated. His son Prithvi Narayan Shah succeeded him at the age of twelve. He attacked Nayakot in 1748, but the Kathmandu army of Jai Prakash Malla killed many of the Gurkhas. Prithvi Narayan escaped, and the Gurkha army withdrew from the valley again. However, in 1767 Prithvi Narayan led the siege of Kirtipur that exterminated the garrison; but the Gurkhas had to go defend Tarai in the south from the British expedition led by Captain Kinloch. In September 1768 the Gurkhas conquered Kathmandu, and Malla's army fled to Bhatgaon. There Prithvi Narayan knew the old king Ranjit Malla, who agreed to let the Gurkha king take over his kingdom as he retired to Benares. Thus in 1769 the Gurkhas replaced the Newari rulers and united the kingdom of Nepal. Three years later the Gurkhas had thousands killed fighting Tanbu, which was brought under their power.
In 1772 the Bhutanese led by Desi Shidariva invaded Cooch Bihar and took their raja prisoner. Bengal governor Warren Hastings sent an Indian force to drive them back into the foothills, and the third Panchen Lama mediated a friendship and commerce treaty between Bhutan and the British East India Company. In 1774 Hastings sent George Bogle, who reached Tashilhunpo the next year and married the Panchen Lama's sister. Lhasa would not let Bogle visit, but he secured the trade agreement with Bhutan and helped the Panchen Lama found a Buddhist temple at Calcutta. The regent Jampel Delek died in 1777; but the Dalai Lama declined to assume responsibility because he had not yet completed his training. Ngawang Tsultrim was appointed the second regent. The Panchen Lama traveled to visit the Manchu emperor, but he died of smallpox at Beijing in 1780. That year the Regent sent troops that took two years to suppress leaders in Kham trying to expand their territory. In 1781 the eighth Dalai Lama began governing, and he gave the name Tenpai Nyima to the fourth Panchen Lama. Captain Samuel Turner went to Tashilhunpo in 1783 but could not get to Lhasa either, and little could be accomplished with the infant Panchen Lama.
Tibetans informed Prithvi Narayan that the Nepalese silver coins had been debased with copper since 1751. Prithvi Narayan died in 1774 and was succeeded by his oldest son Singh Pratap Shah. His brother Bahadur Shah was imprisoned and then sent into exile. The Bhutanese incited the Gurkhas to invade Sikkim in 1775, and Singh Pratap waged war against the raja of Morung. Tibetans offered the Sikkimese aid, but they accepted only food; a treaty was made, but the Gurkhas resented the Tibetan intervention. When Singh Pratap died in 1778, Bahadur Shah returned and became regent for his infant nephew Ran Bahadur Shah; but after coming into conflict with his widowed sister-in-law, Bahadur Shah was forced into exile again. The young prince's mother, Rajendar Lakshmi, ruled until she died in 1786. Bahadur Shah returned again and called himself Fateh Bahadur. He appointed Swarup Singh commander of the army that invaded the Chaubisi principalities.
Two of the third Panchen Lama's brothers, Drungpa Trulku and Shamar Trulku, were claiming disputed property, and they urged the Gurkhas to invade Tibet on their behalf. The king of Nepal informed a Tibetan that their new silver coins meant that the old debased ones were devalued and that traded salt should not have any impurities. If these conditions were not accepted, Nepal would annex Nyanang, Rongshar, and Kyirong. Shamar Trulku was held hostage, and he asked the Dalai Lama to ransom him. The Tibetan Kashag would only agree to a slight reduction in the old coins' value, and they were not concerned about Shamar Trulku. A large Gurkha army invaded the three districts, defeating local Tibetan resistance. Then in 1788 they marched on Dzongka and Shekar. A Tibetan army occupied the fort at Shekar and drove out the Gurkhas. While Manchu forces were on their way from China, the Gurkhas attacked the winter palace in western Sikkim. Tibetans brought gunpowder, and the pillaging Gurkhas left Sikkim. Shamar Trulku proposed negotiation, and the Chinese generals persuaded the reluctant Tibetans to accept and pay the Nepalese an annual tribute of 50,000 rupees. Nepal agreed to withdraw from the four districts. The Garhwal ruler Pradhyuman Shah also agreed to pay Nepal an annual tribute of 25,000 rupees.
After one payment, the Dalai Lama had the districts investigated and requested a reduction in the tribute. He and the Kashag recalled the regent Ngawang Tsultrim from Beijing. The Regent criticized the Kashag for accepting the treaty, demoted the general who surrendered Dzongka, and sent some officials into exile. The Regent became angry at the delays in the negotiations but died of a heart attack in 1791. That year the Gurkhas abducted some Tibetan officials and killed others in fighting at the Nyanang fort. The Panchen Lama fled to Lhasa, and the Gurkhas captured and pillaged Shigatse until an epidemic forced them to retreat to Shekar and Dzongka. In 1792 while the Tibetans were driving the Gurkhas back, 13,000 imperial troops arrived under a Manchu general. He and the Tibetan generals told the Sikkimese ruler they could keep territory they captured. The Tibetan and Manchu armies defeated the Gurkhas and invaded Nepal. The Gurkhas appealed to the British, but Cornwallis did not want to fight their Chinese trading partner. Shamar Trulku poisoned himself. The Gurkhas were forced to return their loot and promised to send an envoy to China every five years. Emperor Qianlong promoted the Ambans to provincial governors, and the tax system and administrative organization of Tibet were reformed.
