The Panjab North West Frontier Province And Kashmir

· 1916 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1xix] PERIOD, 1764-1849 A.D. 183

2at Laswarf in the same year, decided the fate of India.

3Delhi was occupied, and Daulat Rao Sindhia ceded to the

4company territory reaching from Fazilka on the Sutlej

5to Delhi on the Jamna, and extending along that river

6northwards to Karnal and southwards to Mewat. Fazilka

7and a large part of Hissir then formed a wild desert tract

8called Bhattidna, over which no effective control was

9exercised till 1818. In 1832 "the Delhi territory"

10became part of the North-West Provinces, from which

11it was transferred to the Panjab after the Mutiny.

12Relations of Ranjit Singh with English. — In December,

131808, Ranjft Singh was warned that by the issue of the

14war with Sindhia the Cis-Sutlej chiefs had come under

15British protection. The Maharaja was within an ace of

16declaring war, or let the world think so, but his statesman-

17like instincts got the better of mortified ambition, and

18in April, 1809, he signed a treaty pledging himself to

19make no conquests south and east of the Sutlej. The

20compact so reluctantly made was faithfully observed.

21In 1815, as the result of war with the Gurkhas, the

22Rajput hill states lying to the south of the Sutlej came

23under British protection.

24Extension of Sikh Kingdom in Pan jab. — As early as

251806, when he reduced Jhang, Ranjft Singh began his

26encroachments on the possessions of the Duranfs in the

27Panjab. Next year, and again in 1810 and 1816, Multan

28was attacked, but the strong fort was not taken till 1818,

29when the old Nawab, Muzaffar Khan, and five of his

30sons, fell fighting at the gate. Kashmir was first attacked

31in 1811 and finally annexed in 1819. Called in by the

32great Katoch Raja of Kdngra, Sansdr Chand, in 1809, to

33help him against the Gurkhas, Ranjft Singh duped both

34parties, and became master of the famous fort. Many

35years later he annexed the whole of the Kangra hill

36states. By 1820 the Maharaja was supreme from the