A history of England

by Charles Oman

The vassal states.

But in addition to these dominions, ruled directly by the Company, English influence was predominant in a much larger tract of India. The Nawab of Oude in the north, the Nizam in the Deccan, the Rajah of Mysore in the south, the Peishwa in the west, and many smaller princes, were all bound to us by subsidiary treaties; they had covenanted to guide their foreign policy by our own, and to supply us with troops and subsidies in time of war.

The Mahratta and Rajput states.

In all the Indian Peninsula there were only three groups of states which were still independent of the British power. The more remote Mahratta powers—the realms governed by Scindiah, Holkar, the Gaikwar, and the Rajah of Berar—were still for all intents and purposes autonomous. The treaties which Lord Wellesley had made with them were not enforced by his weaker successors, and the Mahratta princes continued their feuds with each other and their incursions into those parts of India which were not yet under British control. Their chief victims were the unfortunate states of Rajputana, where a cluster of native princes of ancient stock were as yet unprotected by treaties with the East India Company.

The Sikhs.—Runjit Singh.

Beyond the Rajputs lay the third district of India which was still independent—the Sikh principality of the Punjab. The Sikhs were a sect of religious enthusiasts who had revolted against the misgovernment of the Great Mogul some fifty years before, and had formed themselves into a disorderly commonwealth. But one great chief, Runjit Singh, had taught them to combine, and forced them into union. He ruled them for many years, and organized the whole sect into an army which combined the courage of fanaticism with the strictest discipline. He was friendly to the British, and took care never to come into collision with them.

Thus in 1815 the British in India held a position dominating half the peninsula, but unprovided with any solid frontier on the land side. They were charged with the care of several weak and imbecile dependent states, surrounded by greedy and vigorous neighbours. Unless they were to make up their minds to go back, they were bound to go forward, for no final peace was possible till it should be settled whether the East India Company or the Mahrattas and Sikhs were to be the dominating power in the whole land between the Indus and the Bay of Bengal.

Lord Hastings Governor-General.—The Nepaulese war.

The first important advance after the departure of Wellesley was made by the Marquis of Hastings, Governor-General from 1814 to 1823. This active ruler was resolved not to permit the petty insults to British territory, and the plundering of British allies which the unsettled condition of the frontier made possible. In 1814 he attacked and drove back into their hills the Gurkhas, the hill tribes of Nepaul, who had been wont to harass the northern frontier of Bengal and Oude. They offered a desperate resistance, but when once beaten became the fast friends of the British, and have given valuable aid in every war which we have since waged in India.