Tempo:
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CHAP. VIII
SUBMISSION OF GULAB SINGH
243
the levies of the mountain Rajputs were unequal to a i845. contest even with the Sikh soldiery. ^ The able Governor of Multan was assassinated in sawan Mai, the month of September 1844 by a man accused of °^ Muitan. marauding, and yet imprudently allowed a consider^a^teJ^'ge t ^^ able degree of liberty.^ Mulraj, the son of the Diwan, "344 had been appointed or permitted to succeed his father Mui^aj by the declining government of Hira Singh, and he his son, showed more aptitude for affairs than was expected, succeeds; He suppressed a mutiny among the provincial troops, partly composed of Sikhs, with vigour and success; and he was equally prompt in dealing with a younger brother, who desired to have half the province assigned to him as the equal heir of the deceased Diwan. Mulraj put his brother in prison, and thus freed himself from all local dangers; but he had steadily evaded the demands of the Lahore court for an increased farm or contract, and he had likewise objected to the large 'Nazarana', or relief, which was required as the usual condition of succession. As soon, therefore, as Gulab Singh had been reduced to obedience, it was proposed .to dispatch a force against Multan, and the 'Khalsa' approved of the measure through the assembled Panchayats of regiments and brigades. This resolution ^^^ agrees induced the new governor to yield, and in September ^^ the (1845) it was arranged that he should pay a fine of terms of 1,800,000 rupees. He escaped an addition to his contract the Lahore sum, but he was deprived of some petty districts to ^°^^^- ^^^• satisfy in a measure the letter of the original demand.'^ '
The proceedings of Peshawara Singh caused more The rebeidisquietude to the new Wazir personally than the lion of hostility of Gulab Singh, or the resistance of the Gov- Peshawara •^
Major Broadfoot confessed that 'late events had shown the Raja's weakness in the hills', where he should have been strongest, had his followers been brave and trusty. (Major Broadfoot to Government, 5th May -1845.) - Lieut.-Col. Richmond to Government, 10th Oct. 1844. 3 In this paragraph the author has followed mainly his own notes of occurrences. The mutiny of the Multan troops took place in Nov. 1844. The Governor at once surrounded them, and demanded the ringleaders, and on their surrender being refused, he opened a fire upon their whole body, and killed, as was said, nearly 400 of them. Diwan Mulraj seized and confined his brother in Aug. 1845, and in the following month the terms of his succession were settled with the Lahore 1
[Mulraj never paid his fine. In April 1848, when threatened with force, he resigned, and Kahn Singh was sent from Lahore to relieve him, accompanied by Mr. Vans Agnew and Lieut. Anderson. The murder of these officers on their final arrival at Multan led to the second Sikh War and the extinction of Sikh independence. ^Ed.] court.
Singh;
'
CHAP. VIII
SUBMISSION OF GULAB SINGH
243
the levies of the mountain Rajputs were unequal to a i845. contest even with the Sikh soldiery. ^ The able Governor of Multan was assassinated in sawan Mai, the month of September 1844 by a man accused of °^ Muitan. marauding, and yet imprudently allowed a consider^a^teJ^'ge t ^^ able degree of liberty.^ Mulraj, the son of the Diwan, "344 had been appointed or permitted to succeed his father Mui^aj by the declining government of Hira Singh, and he his son, showed more aptitude for affairs than was expected, succeeds; He suppressed a mutiny among the provincial troops, partly composed of Sikhs, with vigour and success; and he was equally prompt in dealing with a younger brother, who desired to have half the province assigned to him as the equal heir of the deceased Diwan. Mulraj put his brother in prison, and thus freed himself from all local dangers; but he had steadily evaded the demands of the Lahore court for an increased farm or contract, and he had likewise objected to the large 'Nazarana', or relief, which was required as the usual condition of succession. As soon, therefore, as Gulab Singh had been reduced to obedience, it was proposed .to dispatch a force against Multan, and the 'Khalsa' approved of the measure through the assembled Panchayats of regiments and brigades. This resolution ^^^ agrees induced the new governor to yield, and in September ^^ the (1845) it was arranged that he should pay a fine of terms of 1,800,000 rupees. He escaped an addition to his contract the Lahore sum, but he was deprived of some petty districts to ^°^^^- ^^^• satisfy in a measure the letter of the original demand.'^ '
The proceedings of Peshawara Singh caused more The rebeidisquietude to the new Wazir personally than the lion of hostility of Gulab Singh, or the resistance of the Gov- Peshawara •^
Major Broadfoot confessed that 'late events had shown the Raja's weakness in the hills', where he should have been strongest, had his followers been brave and trusty. (Major Broadfoot to Government, 5th May -1845.) - Lieut.-Col. Richmond to Government, 10th Oct. 1844. 3 In this paragraph the author has followed mainly his own notes of occurrences. The mutiny of the Multan troops took place in Nov. 1844. The Governor at once surrounded them, and demanded the ringleaders, and on their surrender being refused, he opened a fire upon their whole body, and killed, as was said, nearly 400 of them. Diwan Mulraj seized and confined his brother in Aug. 1845, and in the following month the terms of his succession were settled with the Lahore 1
[Mulraj never paid his fine. In April 1848, when threatened with force, he resigned, and Kahn Singh was sent from Lahore to relieve him, accompanied by Mr. Vans Agnew and Lieut. Anderson. The murder of these officers on their final arrival at Multan led to the second Sikh War and the extinction of Sikh independence. ^Ed.] court.
Singh;
'
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