1 The views of the
2 Government of India
3 based on commercial,
4 as well as political,
5 considerations.
6 Its views regarding
7 Sindh,
8 Ranjit Singh asserts
9 hig superior right to
10 Shikarpur,
11 But he finally yields
12 to the propositions of
13 the British Govern-
14 ment, 1832,
15 Commercial treaty
16 concluded between the
17 British Government
18 and the Mirs of Sindh,
19 April 1832,
20 ‘The second visit of
21 Lieut. Alex. Burnes to
22 Lahore, January, 1839.
23 456 HISTORY OF TUE PANJAB.
24 Lordship’s delight at the enlarged views of the Ldéhore Mahardjd,
25 who had some time previously desired to see a steam-boat, thereby
26 giving proof of his enlightened and advanced ideas, and proposing that
27 the commercial relations between the two States might be drawn
28 closer and established on a firm footing. Shortly after this, Captain Wade,
29 the Political Agent at Ludhiana, paid a formal visit to the Mahardjd
30 at Ldhore, in order to explain to his Highness the object of Colonel
31 Pottinger’s mission to Sindh, and, in continuation of the same project,
32 to propose to the Mahardjé the free navigation of the Sutlej. The Go-
33 vernment of India at this time entertained notions, not without founda-
34 tion, of the great superiority of the rivers of the Panjab, for navigation,
35 over the Ganges, and this proposal was prompted by commercial, as well as
36 by political, considerations, with reference to Russian influence in Persia, and
37 the possibility of the further extension of their power east and south. The
38 desirability of extending British influence in the countries west of the Indus,
39 and of adopting means to extend British commerce over those countries, was
40 therefore obvious to all interested in the safety and welfare of the empire
41 of India, though it was neither necessary nor desirable to make a rival
42 power, like that of the Sikhs, privy to these proceedings, especially when the
43 interests of the two were so plainly conflicting. The Mahardjd was not free
44 from suspicions, and felt that the English had designs of their own against the
45 territory which he had himself so long coveted. But he had learnt to respect
46 the power of the English, and he would not avow his ulterior motives against
47 Sindh. Yet he had represented to the Governor-General at the Ropar
48 conference that the vakils of Sindh were in attendance in his camp,
49 and had asked if he might introduce them to His Lordship. This question
50 was answered in the negative; but everybody understood at the time what
51 the wily chief of Léhore meant by the discourse. On the present occasion,
52 he spoke to Captain Wade, in terms declaring his superior right to Shikar-
53 pur, and advancing arguments in support of his position as the paramount
54 power of the Barakzais, Mohamed Azim Khan and his brothers, who, he
55 said, had originally held the district as vassals of the titular king, Shah
56 Ayub. His request to be allowed to co-operate with the English in a march
57 against Sindh had not been heeded, and he knew that coercion formed no
58 part of the scheme of the British Government in regard to the affairs of
59 that country. " He now made propositions to Mir Morad Ali of Hyderabad to
60 farm Dera Ghazi Khan to him. But all these projects failed; the course of
61 the Government of India had long been determined upon, and Ranjit Singh
62 did not think it either wise or convenient to thwart the peaceful measures
63 of his allies, and he gave his unqualified assent to the opening of the Sutlej
64 and the Indus for common navigation, the supervision of which was to be
65 given to a British Officer to be located at Mithan Kot. But he did not
66 affect to conceal from the British Officer the fact that the commercial
67 projects of the British Government had compromised his political designs
68 and operations west of the Indus.
69 Four months after, or in April 1832, a treaty was concluded between
70 the British Government and the Mirs of Sindh, through Colonel Pottinger,
71 whereby the Mirs agreed to open a passage by the river and the roads of
72 Sindh to the merchants and traders of Hindostén,
73 In the early part of January, 1832, Lieutenant Alexander Burnes, the en-
74 terprising and able officer who had headed the embassy to the Court of Lahore
75 in the preceding year, and who had gone to Simla to give an account of
76 his transactions with the darbdér of Léhore to Lord William Bentinck,
77 Sri Satgdhiyaghie Singita ipmabis way to KébybhemeipRay® garibelrpara, where