Australian National University THESES SIS/LIBRARY TELEPHONE: +61 2 6125 4631 R.G. MENZIES LIBRARY BUILDING NO:2 FACSIMILE: +61 2 6125 4063 THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY EMAIL: [email protected] CANBERRA ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA USE OF THESES This copy is supplied for purposes of private study and research only. Passages from the thesis may not be copied or closely paraphrased without the written consent of the author. RETURN TO EMPIRE : THE SIKHS AND THE BRITISH IN THE PUNJAB, 183 9-1872 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ANDREW J. MAJOR The Australian National University, Canberra December 1981 ii DECLARATION This thesis is my own original work ANDREW J. MAJOR CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES xi MAPS xiii INTRODUCTION xvii CHAPTER ONE THE FRONTIER SOCIETY 1 Introduction 1 Region and subregion 3 Economic demography 5 Social organisation 11 Status and power 15 Residence and economic activity 25 Conclusion 30 CHAPTER TWO THE SIKH KINGDOM 31 Introduction 31 From misls to monarchy 32 The structure of Sikh government 40 Ranjit Singh and the chieftains 61 Conclusion 70 CHAPTER THREE THE COLLAPSE OF MONARCHICAL AUTHORITY, 1839-46 72 Introduction 72 The three crises of succession 74 A disrupted countryside 91 The first Anglo-Sikh war 98 Conclusion 114 CHAPTER FOUR THE BRITISH TAKEOVER'3 1846-49 124 Introduction 124 Informal control tested 130 Informal control extended 139 The supersession of the Sikhs 152 The general crisis of authority 162 Conclusion 179 iv CHAPTER FIVE TEE IMPERIAL EXPERIMENT, 1849-56 182 Introduction 182 Non-regulation administration 184 The renovation of "local" government 195 In search of a permanent pacification 203 The question of revenue assignments 210 Land revenue and peasant protection 235 Conclusion 252 CHAPTER SIX A TIME OF RECKONING, 1857-58 255 Introduction 255 The tuiming of the general crisis 259 The Murree and Gugera insurrections 268 The rewards of collaboration 280 Conclusion 283 CHAPTER SEVEN TEE RETREAT FROM TEE E X P E R I M E N T 1859-72 287 Introduction 287 The enlistment of "influence" 289 The tenant-right controversy 303 The origins of peasant indebtedness 310 The Kuka outbreak 313 Conclusion 323 CONCLUSION 324 GLOSSARY 333 BIBLIOGRAPHY 341 V ABSTRACT THE THESIS IS A STUDY OF THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE PUNJAB BETWEEN 1839 AND 1872. ITS PURPOSE IS TO ACCOUNT FOR, AND EXPLAIN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF, THE PUNJAB’S TRANSITION FROM SIKH KINGDOM TO BRITISH IMPERIAL PROVINCE. EARLY-NINETEENTH-CENTURY PUNJAB WAS ESSENTIALLY A FRONTIER SOCIETY, WITH VERTICAL, CLAN-BASED POLITICAL CLEAVAGES AND A PRONOUNCED MARTIAL SPIRIT. THE SIKH KINGDOM, WHICH EMERGED IN THE WAKE OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE'S COLLAPSE, WAS A MILITARY PATRONAGE STATE, WHOSE STRUCTURE REFLECTED THE NATURE OF PUNJABI SOCIETY, AND WHOSE STABILITY DEPENDED UPON SATISFACTION OF ITS CHIEFTAINS’ AMBITIONS THROUGH CONSTANT TERRITORIAL EXPANSION. WHEN EXPANSION STOPPED IN THE MID-1820s, TENSION ENSUED INTERNALLY, ESPECIALLY AFTER MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH’S DEATH IN 1839. THE BRITISH, WHO WERE IN THE PROCESS OF BUILDING A NEW SUBCONTINENTAL EMPIRE, EXPLOITED THESE TENSIONS, AND IN SO DOING, WERE DRAWN EVER DEEPER INTO THE KINGDOM’S DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. PUNJABI COLLABORATION AND RESISTANCE DETERMINED THE STAGES BY WHICH THIS PENETRATION PROCEEDED. A GENERAL CRISIS OF AUTHORITY IN 1848 RESULTED IN THE ANNEXATION OF THE PUNJAB A YEAR LATER. AFTER 1849 THE BRITISH SET ABOUT TRANSFORMING THE PUNJAB INTO A TRANQUIL AND PROSPEROUS TERRITORY. THE CORNERSTONE OF THEIR POLICY WAS THE DIMINUTION OF THE PRIVILEGES AND INFLUENCE OF THE OLD MILITARY AND LANDED ELITES - IN PARTICULAR, THE CHIEFTAINS. BUT THE IMPERIAL CRISIS OF 1857-58 COMPELLED THE BRITISH TO REVERSE THEIR POLITICAL STRATEGY. IN 1857 THE OLD, ELITIST MILITARY FORMATIONS WITHIN PUNJABI SOCIETY WERE QUICKLY REVIVED - FORTUNATELY FOR THE BRITISH, THESE FORMATIONS WERE NOT YET EXTINCT - AND PUNJABI COLLABORATION ENABLED THE BRITISH TO SURVIVE THE CRISIS. THE DECADE AFTER 1858 SAW THE INSTITUTIONALISATION OF THIS REVERSAL OF POLICY. THE ATTENTION OF THE OLD MILITARY AND LANDED ELITES, HAVING BEEN TURNED OUTWARDS ONCE AGAIN IN 1857, WAS PERMANENTLY DIVERTED TO THE ADVANTAGES OF COOPERATION WITH THE IMPERIAL STATE. BY THE EARLY 1870s, THE PUNJAB WAS IN MANY RESPECTS A CHANGED REGION; BUT, AS THE SUBSEQUENT POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE REGION SHOWS, THE OLD MILITARY AND LANDED ELITES HAD MANAGED TO ADAPT THEMSELVES REMARKABLY WELL TO THE CHANGED POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES. THE HISTORY OF THE PUNJAB BETWEEN 1839 AND 1872 IS THEREFORE ESSENTIALLY THE STORY OF THE CONTINUITY - DESPITE GREAT VICISSITUDES - OF AN INDIGENOUS, DOMINANT POWER STRUCTURE AND ITS SYSTEM OF VALUES INTO (AND, EVENTUALLY, BEYOND) THE PERIOD OF EUROPEAN, COLONIAL RULE. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis owes much to many people. I am especially grateful to my supervisor, Professor D.A. Low, for his patience, encouragement and advice. Professor Low's guidance has been an intellectually stimulating experience. I am also most grateful to the Australian National University for providing the research facilities and financial assistance without which the project could not have been undertaken. The staff at the National Archives of India and the Central Secretariat Library, New Delhi, and at the Punjab Secretariat Record Office and Library, Lahore, provided courteous assistance during my stay in India and Pakistan. I would also like to mention the kindness shown to me in Amritsar by Dr Indu Banga^ of the Department of History, Guru Nanak University, and in Lahore by my colleague, Dr Imran Ali, and his family. To all my friends in New Delhi, I am similarly grateful. My colleagues in the South Asia History Section, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, and the School of History, University of New South Wales, have helped in many ways. I hope they will forgive my not mentioning them all by name. But I must acknowledge my debt to Dr Michael Pearson, who read all the draft chapters with great promptness (and an encouraging degree of enthusiasm), and offered numerous helpful criticisms. I am also grateful to Ms Maria Giuffre, who typed the thesis and was - as were so many others - always a source of encouragement. ABBREVIATIONS Official Positions BOA Board of Administration C and S Commissioner and Superintendent CC Chief Commissioner COD Court of Directors DC Deputy Commissioner EAC Extra Assistant Commissioner FC Financial Commissioner GG Governor-General Go I Government of India GoP Government of the Punj ab JC Judicial Commissioner Offg Officiating SC Settlement Commissioner Secy Secretary SS Secretary of State for India Official Proceedings 1. National Archives of India FC Foreign Consultations FD Foreign Department FDP Foreign Department Proceedings FM Foreign Miscellaneous FP Foreign Proceedings ix FPC Foreign Political Consultations FPP Foreign Political Proceedings FSC Foreign Secret Consultations FSP Foreign Secret Proceedings NAI National Archives of India, New Delhi 2. Punjab Secretariat Record Office Bk Book GDP General Department Proceedings JDP Judicial Department Proceedings LRL Lahore Residency Letters PDP Political Department Proceedings PS Punjab Secretariat Record Office, Lahore RD Revenue Department RDP Revenue Department Proceedings WE Week Ending Official Reports and Publications "CKO" ’’Correspondence relating to the Kooka Outbreak" (Parliamentary Papers) DG District Gazetteer LPD Punjab Government Records: Lahore Political Diaries, 1847-1848 MRR Punjab Government Records: Mutiny Records: Reports PAR General Report on the Administration of the Punjab "Papers Relating to the Punjab, 1847-1849" (Parliamentary Papers) "Papers Relating to the Punjab Tenancy Act" (Parliamentary Papers) Settlement Report xi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Page Table 1:1 Annual rainfall, area, percentage of cultivation, population and population density by districts for region and subregion 7 Table 1:2 Distribution of religious communities as percentages of total population by districts for region and subregion 14 Table 1:3 General distribution of castes and tribes as percentages of total population for region and subregion 17 Fig. 2:1 Summary of the development of the rulership concept in the Sikh mist 34 Fig. 2:2 Principal offices in the two systems of Sikh government 45 Table 3:1 Chronology of important events, 1839-46 76 Table 4:1 Chronology of important events, 1846-49 129 Fig. 5:1 Principal offices in the British Government of the Punjab 185 Table 5:1 Disposition of jagir and cash grants held by two groups of regular army officers involved in the late rebellion 219 Table 5:2 Disposition of jagir and cash grants held by a group of irregular soldiers not involved in the late rebellion 221 Table 5:3 Disposition of jagir grants held by two groups of kardars and their families 223 Table 5:4 Disposition of jagir grants held by two groups of chieftains involved in the late rebellion 224 Table 5:5 Disposition of jagir grants held by four groups of chieftains not involved in the late rebellion 226 xii Table 5:6 Disposition of jagir and cash grants held by six members of the former Council of Regency not involved in the late rebellion 229 Table 6:1 Chronology of important events, 1857 258 Table 6:2 Agricultural prices in Gugera District, 1839-57 278 Table 6:3 Rewards to a group of chieftains who remained "loyal" 280 in 1857 Table 7:1 Perpetuity jagir increases sanctioned by Canning in 1862 297 xiii MAP 1 ©g Kabul lalalabad :'N ( / Baramulla KASHM IR -— sf .£ Shabkadar \ hatada '"v i ) HAZARA " -- p.. _ V S r in d j ir Jam^F7^-^USh^y oHaripur \ 'r p- K h y b trP a ss,^^ P fsW u r . e Hasan A bd u ll c P oo n ch X s Tarila'' D . 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