Chauyari, Mir Noor Mohammad. There were two other domestically independent smaller territories ruled from their respective capitals in Khairpur and Mirpurkhas by other amirs. On foreign affairs, these territories followed Hyderabad’s lead and treated Mir Noor Mohammad as the head of the whole of Sindh.
The correspondences begin with a report sent to the secret committee that Ranjeet Singh is advancing towards Sindh. He has complaints against the Mazari tribe that lives on the Sindh-Punjab border. He claims that the Mazaris have been crossing over to his land and plundering villages there. As retribution, Singh invades Rojhan, the capital of the Mazaris. The Mazaris live under the protection of Sindh and and the Amir of Khairpur, Mir Rustam is expected to keep them in check. Because the Amirs have failed to check the Mazaris, Singh is now planning to invade Shikarpur, the commercial hub of the region with an annual revenue of sixteen lakhs. He demands twelve lakhs as a tribute for suspension of his march.
The British see an opportunity in Ranjeet’s plan of invasion. For them, Sindh is a geographically vital area for Indus, Afghanistan and Punjab. It is vital for trade through River Indus down to their territories in Kutch and Bombay, allowing the Indian merchants access to central Asia and vice versa. However, Sindh has remained fiercely aloof and, until 1830s, the British were not allowed access to it without invitation. Now is the opportunity to change that and open up Indus and have a permanent base in Sindh.
The British offer their services to the Amirs of Sindh. They will ask Singh to stop his march towards Shikarpur and offer to mediate between the parties. Any future correspondence between Punjab and Sindh from then onwards will be exclusively through the British. They will do this only if the Amirs allow the British access to the Indus river without any checks and a British agent will be allowed to be stationed in the capital, Hyderabad. If the Amirs agree to British conditions, but Singh continues with his march, then the British offer their troops.
Consequently an attack on Shikarpur will constitute an attack on a British protectorate and the British will fight back. However, a proportion of the cost of the troops will be incurred by the Amirs. The British will also consider making Sindh a permanent protectorate against all external threats, if they so request.
The governor general is confident that Ranjeet Singh will not disobey their request and it is very likely that he will suspend his march. In essence, the British are confident that they will get access to the Indus river and have an agent stationed in the capital merely for being an independent mediator between Punjab and Sindh.
Captain Wade is assigned by the governor general to negotiate with Ranjeet Singh to get him to suspend his march. Colonel Pottinger is assigned the job of finalising commercial and political agreements with the Amirs.
As the British had expected, Captain Wade confirms that Ranjeet Singh is willing to suspend his march; he is even willing to retreat from Rojhan and accept British mediation. However, he wants his retreat to be on honourable and face-saving terms.
Colonel Pottinger confirms that the Amirs are willing to sign the commercial treaty to allow access to Indus. They will also allow a commercial fair to be held in Sindh, and offer Shikarpur as a more suitable place for it, instead of Thatta as proposed. However, they are reluctant to allow an agent to be stationed in Hyderabad as this will not be acceptable to the Baloch tribes, including their own tribe of Talpurs. Instead the Amirs offer the agent a station in Shikarpur to oversee trade and also offer one-fourth of the revenues of the city for garrison of troops and upkeep of the agent. They, however, refuse to become a permanent protectorate.
The governor general refuses to allow British involvement unless there is total acceptance of their demands, including stationing of an agent in Hyderabad. In the meanwhile, the Amirs of Mirpurkhas approach Ranjeet Singh directly to negotiate the issue. The British inform the Amirs that even if they directly get Singh to retreat, permanent peace can only come through their intervention. This was exhibited by his suspension of the march, merely on their request. After much back and forth, the Amirs agree to the full terms.
The correspondences end with a final brief correspondence from August 1838 to the secret committee. It confirms that everything the British set out to achieve has been achieved – and more. The commercial agreement, the control of Indus, a British agent in Hyderabad and more, a British agent in Shikarpur and one-quarter of the revenues of the city, have all been accepted. They will now begin to mediate between the two sides, ‘independently’.
The writer is a PhD student in Legal and Political Theory at the University of Glasgow and co-editor of South Asia Jurist.
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