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History
of Garhwal
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| After the Gurkhas had
established their hold over Garhwal and Kumaon, their
borders came directly in touch with those of the
British territory in Gorakhpur and elsewhere. They
began to raid territory controlled by the British and
this forced Lord Hastings to take the decision to
declare war. It was decided to attack Nepal
simultaneously from as many points a possible. |
| As a result, Maj. Gen.
Merley was sent with a force of eight thousand men to
Bihar with orders to directly march to Kathmandu,
while Maj. Gen. Wood was sent at the head of a four
thousand strong force to Gorakhpur. These campaigns do
not directly have a bearing on the history of Garhwal. |
| Gen.
Gillespie was sent with three thousand five hundred
men to enter Garhwal through the
Dun valley and dislodge Amar
Singh Thapa from Srinagar. He found the Gurkhas firmly
entrenched at Fort
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Kalanga,
to the east of Dehradun. After an attempt to storm the fort
failed, siege was laid to the fort on 26th October, 1813.
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Many
unsuccessful assaults were launched. These were gallantly
resisted by the Gurkhas. The General himself brought up the
reserves but was killed. At last, it was discovered that there
was no water in the fort and the garrison was compelled to
resort to a spring at some distance. This was cut off and the
fire from the batteries resumed the next day, doing great
damage to the fort and its gallant defenders. On the night of
30th November, Balbhadra Thapa, with the surviving
seventy men, evacuated the fort and escaped to a
neighbouring hill where he was joined by about 300 other
Gurkhas who were waiting to find their way into the besieged
fort. This regrouped force was confronted by Maj. Ludlow but
they escaped to the Jauntgarh fort, where it successfully
withstood a siege by a British force.
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In the meanwhile, after
razing Kalanga to the ground, Col. Carpenter joined the forces
under Gen. Martindell and they occupied Nahan. A third Gurkha
force led by Amar Singh Thapa opposed Gen. Ochterlony on the
banks of the Satluj river. He skillfully forced them to
evacuate their strong posts and concentrate at Malaun.
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Thus, the present campaign
remained inconclusive and this made Lord Hastings more anxious
to gain a foothold in the Kumaon hills.
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In 1815, an expedition to
Kumaon was sent under Lt. Col. Gardiner. The hills of Garhwal
and Kumaon had been drained of soldiers to supply the urgent
calls of the Gurkhas both in the east and the west.
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This further complicated
matters for the Gurkhas. The British force
captured Almora on 27th April and the Gurkhas
under Bam Sah evacuated Kumaon.
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Amar Singh resisted Gen.
Ochterlony at Malaun but his force slowly deserted him and
fled into the hills in an attempt to reach Nepal.
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When only 200 men remained
he gave up the forts of Malaun and Jaithak. The local
Garhwalis overran the fort of Lobha and mercilessly killed the
Gurkha soldiers there.
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Thus,
when the Gurkha power was broken due to the invasion by the
British force, the Garhwalis exactcd full payment of the debt
of blood and cruelty.
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Isolated
bands were massacred or driven away to die of exposure and
starvation in the rugged mountains.
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Everywhere,
the people of Garhwal took revenge and meted out to their
oppressors a savage punishment for their deeds of cruelty in
the past decades of Gurkha rule.
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In 1811, Sudarshan Sah, the
deposed ruler of Garhwal, had promised to give the British the
Dehradun valley and Chandi should they drive the Gurkhas out of
Garhwal. When the Gurkhas moved out of the region, Sudarshan Sah
was living in great poverty in Dehradun.
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In
the year 1815, W. Fraser was authorised to hand over to the Raja
the parts of Garhwal situated to the west of the Alaknanda
river, except Dehradun valley and Rawain pargana lying between
the rivers Alaknanda and Bhagirathi. As a result, in July that
year, Fraser directed the inhabitants of the area lying to the
east of the Mandakini river as far as Rudraparyag, and to the
east of the Mandakini river above that point, to consider
themselves under the authority of the commissioner of Kumaon.
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G.W.
Traill, an assistant commissioner, was sent to Garhwal to
introduce British authority in that province and to conclude a
settlement of the land revenue. In 1818, Traill complained of
the disorderly state of the Rawain pargana, the inhabitants
having been relieved of their fear of both the Gurkhas and the
British being accused of having taken to their old occupation of
plundering the pilgrims to Gangotri and Kedarnath. The area was
formally annexed to Tehri in 1824, though attempts to control
the inhabitants were not very successful till a later period.
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In
the meanwhile, there arose a boundary dispute between the states
of Bushahr and Tehri-Garhwal over the claim to Undra Kunwar
taluka which had been included in the grant made to the Raja of
Garhwal by Fraser. On the other hand, Pritam Sah, the uncle of
the Raja, after his release from prison in Nepal through the
good offices of Gardiner, claimed the zamindari rights in the
parganas of Garhwal and Dehradun ceded to the British by the
Gurkhas.
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Traills'
administration of Garhwal came to an end in 1835. His tenure was
acknowledged by the English historians to have been marked by a
just and progressive administration though many decisions were
taken on an arbitrary basis.There were also charges of misuse of
power by the officials. On the whole, this period was one during
which the foundations of the present style of development in
Garhwal were laid.
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After
Traill's departure from the scene, there came a brief pcriod of
wavering uncertainty and comparative misrule. According to Bird
(as cited by Walton, 1910), "The system of government had
been framed to suit the particular character and scope of one
individual.
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Traill
left the province orderly, prosperous and comparatively
civilized but his machinery was not easily worked by another
hand. There was no law and the law giver had been withdrawn. The
Board of Commissioners and the Government, who had remained
quiescent while the province was in the hands of an
administrator of tried ability and equal to all emergencies
found it necessary to reassert their control and to lay down
specified rules."
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Batten
succeeded Traill in 1836 and remained in charge till 1856. In
the year 1839, the province of Kumaon was divided into two
districts of (British)Garhwal and Kumaon, each under a senior
assistant commissioner having the same powers as the collector
has in the plains. Beckett was in charge of Garhwal district
when the Great Revolt broke out in 1857. However, it did not
have a significant impact on this peaceful region. The passes
into the hills and entrances to the valleys were carefully
guarded. Forces were sent wherever there was likelihood of any
disturbance. Some freedom fighters tried to take over Srinagar
but were quickly overpowered by a company of Gurkhas sent from
the garrison at Almora.
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