Tempo:
286 1845-6.
and the occupation of Lahore.
Negotiations.
Gulab Singh.
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
CHAP. DC
ancient town, and it was ascertained that the Sikhs held together to the number of twenty thousand men in the direction of Amritsar. But the power of the armed representatives of the Khalsa was gone; the holders of treasure and food, and all the munitions of war, had first passively helped to defeat them, and then openly joined the enemy; and the soldiery readily assented to the requisition of the court that Gulab Singh, their chosen minister, should have full powers to treat with the English on the already admitted basis of recognizing a Sikh government in Lahore. On the 15th of the month the Raja and several other chiefs were received by the Governor-General at Kasur, and they were told that Dalip Singh would continue to be regarded as a friendly sovereign, but that the country between the Beas and Sutlej would be retained by the conquerors, and that a million and a half sterling must be paid as some indemnity for the expenses of the war, in order, it was said, that all might hear of the punishment which had overtaken aggressors, and become fully aware that inevitable loss followed vain hostilities with the unoffending English. After a long discussion the terms were reluctantly agreed to, the young Maharaja came and tendered his submission in person, and on the 20th February the British army arrived at the Sikh capital. Two days afterwards a portion of the citadel was garrisoned by English regiments, to mark more plainly to the Indian world that a vaunting enemy had been effectually humbled; for throughout the breadth of the land the chiefs talked, in the bitterness of their hearts, of the approaching downfall of the stern unharmonizing foreigners.^ still
The Governor-General desired not only to chastise the Sikhs for their past aggressions, but to overawe them for the future, and he had thus chosen the Beas, as offering more commanding positions with reference to Lahore than the old boundary of the Sutlej. With the same object in view, he had originally thought Raja Gulab Singh might advantageously be made independent in the hills of Jammu.- Such a recognition by the British Government had, indeed, always been one of the wishes of that ambitious family; but it was not, perhaps, remembered that Gulab Singh was still more dcMrous of becoming the acknowledged minister of the 1 Cf. the Governor-General to the Secret Committee, under dates the 19th Feb. and 4th March 1846. 2 Cf. the Governor-General to the Secret Committee, of 3rd and 19th Feb. 1846.
and the occupation of Lahore.
Negotiations.
Gulab Singh.
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
CHAP. DC
ancient town, and it was ascertained that the Sikhs held together to the number of twenty thousand men in the direction of Amritsar. But the power of the armed representatives of the Khalsa was gone; the holders of treasure and food, and all the munitions of war, had first passively helped to defeat them, and then openly joined the enemy; and the soldiery readily assented to the requisition of the court that Gulab Singh, their chosen minister, should have full powers to treat with the English on the already admitted basis of recognizing a Sikh government in Lahore. On the 15th of the month the Raja and several other chiefs were received by the Governor-General at Kasur, and they were told that Dalip Singh would continue to be regarded as a friendly sovereign, but that the country between the Beas and Sutlej would be retained by the conquerors, and that a million and a half sterling must be paid as some indemnity for the expenses of the war, in order, it was said, that all might hear of the punishment which had overtaken aggressors, and become fully aware that inevitable loss followed vain hostilities with the unoffending English. After a long discussion the terms were reluctantly agreed to, the young Maharaja came and tendered his submission in person, and on the 20th February the British army arrived at the Sikh capital. Two days afterwards a portion of the citadel was garrisoned by English regiments, to mark more plainly to the Indian world that a vaunting enemy had been effectually humbled; for throughout the breadth of the land the chiefs talked, in the bitterness of their hearts, of the approaching downfall of the stern unharmonizing foreigners.^ still
The Governor-General desired not only to chastise the Sikhs for their past aggressions, but to overawe them for the future, and he had thus chosen the Beas, as offering more commanding positions with reference to Lahore than the old boundary of the Sutlej. With the same object in view, he had originally thought Raja Gulab Singh might advantageously be made independent in the hills of Jammu.- Such a recognition by the British Government had, indeed, always been one of the wishes of that ambitious family; but it was not, perhaps, remembered that Gulab Singh was still more dcMrous of becoming the acknowledged minister of the 1 Cf. the Governor-General to the Secret Committee, under dates the 19th Feb. and 4th March 1846. 2 Cf. the Governor-General to the Secret Committee, of 3rd and 19th Feb. 1846.
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