Supplementary Treaty, 1808.The territory ceded for the payment of the British contingent in 1805 was found to yield less revenue than had been anticipated, so in 1808 a treaty supplementary to the consolidating one of 1805 was drawn up, allotting additional assignments amounting to about 1,76,168 rupees to the British. This revenue was derived partly from alienated villages in Naḍiád, Mahudha, Dholka, Mátar, and near the Ranjar Ghát. The ghásdána or tribute of Bhávnagar was also made over by this agreement. With regard to this latter
The Maráthás, a.d. 1760–1819. acquisition, it is to be noticed that the agreement is drawn up in the name of the Honourable Company alone, and not in that of the British Government on account of Ánandráv Gáikwár. It also differs from other engagements of a similar nature in containing a provision against the contingency of future irregular demands being made by the Peshwa’s army. The reason for this distinction is evidently that the Bhávnagar contribution was not part of the Káthiáváḍa revenue farmed to the Gáikwár by Bájiráv, and was thus not divisible on the expiration of the lease. The right to this tribute rested with the British by virtue of the previous cession of Gogha, of which sub-division the fifty nine villages of the Bhávnagar Bháyád formed part.
Okhámandal, 1809.Next year the Okhámandal chiefs, who had not come under the settlement of 1807, were driven to engage not to continue their piratical depredations along the coast, and to admit one Sundarji Shivji as Resident on behalf of the British Government. The Gáikwár government then, too, seems to have become their counter security, an arrangement which led to misunderstandings a short while afterwards.
Disturbances in Káthiáváḍa, 1811.In 1811, some disturbances in Navánagar and Junágaḍh and symptoms of discontent in Okhámandal took the Resident from Baroda into the peninsula with part of the British contingent.
The Jám of Navánagar had got involved in pecuniary transactions with the Ráv of Kachh, and the British Government had mediated with a view of arranging for the repayment by gradual instalments. The Jám, however, repudiated all the engagements of 1807 both as regards the debt and the tribute, ejected the Gáikwár’s agent from his dominions, and prepared for war. He also began to incite the neighbouring chiefs to join in sweeping out the paramount power from the whole of Káthiáváḍa. It was not till after a considerable show of force that he laid down his arms and came to terms. Captain Carnac, the Resident, got him to submit the Kachh claims to the arbitration of the English Government, and after fixing them at Rs. 4,33,830, Captain Carnac made an arrangement similar to that originally intended.
There remained the question of a disputed succession in Junágaḍh. Bahádur Khán, son of a slave girl, was put forward in opposition to a younger aspirant, Salábat Khán, reputed to be the son of a lady of the Rádhanpur house. The Baroda government with the concurrence of the Resident had admitted the claims of the latter. On a report, however, by the Assistant Resident in Káthiáváḍa, Captain Carnac was induced to alter his opinion and to support Bahádur Khán, on the grounds that Salábat Khán was a spurious child, and that Bahádur was ready to make concessions of value to the Gáikwár government. The Bombay Council, however, disavowed all countenance of the claims of Bahádur Khán, and the matter was let drop.
1812.In the year 1812 the Gáikwár had paid off the pecuniary loan borrowed in 1803 from the British Government, but there still
The Maráthás, a.d. 1760–1819. remained the debts for which that government had become bhandári or security in place of the ejected jamádârs of the Arab force. These claims could not be paid off for at least two years longer, so that for that period the Resident was ordered to maintain the same close supervision of Baroda affairs as heretofore.
1813–14.The next two years were spent chiefly in discussions with the Poona government about the old claims by the Peshwa on the Gáikwár’s estate. There is no doubt that at the time of his death, Dámáji had not paid up nearly all that he had bound himself in 1753 to pay. On the other hand there had been at least six intermediate compacts between the Peshwa and various members of the Gáikwár family. Amongst others was that of 1768 fixing the arrears of the previous three years, that of 1778 and of 1781, by the tenth clause of which Fatehsingh was excused payment of arrears for the time during which he was engaged in hostilities against Rághobá. Then came the agreement with Govindráv in 1797, to which a sort of debit and credit account is appended.
Peshwa Intrigue in Baroda, 1814.The Peshwa had been content, for reasons that have been shown above, to let these claims lie dormant during the currency of the ten years’ farm. But, as the question of the renewal of this agreement became imminent, he gradually opened more frequent communications with the Baroda council, using these claims as a pretext for sounding the disposition of the chief officials and ascertaining their feelings especially towards the British Government. When the negotiations for the settlement of these claims were fairly set on foot, he used every possible means to protract them till he had finally decided what he should do in 1814, when the Ahmedábád farm expired.
It was easy for Bájiráv to discover who were the malcontents at the Baroda Court. Sitárám, the adopted son of Rávji Áppáji, having been found both incompetent and untrustworthy in the management of affairs, had been practically removed from any post of influence in the council, and was moreover chafing at the refusal of the British Government to recognize him in the same way as they had done his father. He had also been superseded as Suba of Káthiáváḍa by Vithalráv Deváji. Under these circumstances, and finding that he had the support of a large number of the older court party against the authority of the Resident and of his native agent, he either himself opened communications with Bájiráv or readily listened to the counsels sent to him direct from Poona. Before long, agents were sent to the Peshwa’s Court by Takhtbái, wife of Ánandráv, with instructions, it is supposed, to thwart all the proposals and designs of Gangádhar Shástri, who had been recently sent as envoy by the Gáikwár council of administration. The chief obstacle to the settlement of the Peshwa’s claims was the counter-demand made by the Baroda government on account of Broach, which had been disposed of without the Gáikwár’s consent, and also on account of the damage caused by the inroads of Ába Shelukar, when accredited agent of Bájiráv in Gujarát.
There is no need to detail here the events that took place in Poona during these negotiations. On the expiration of the farm in 1814,
The Maráthás, a.d. 1760–1819.
Peshwa Intrigue in Baroda, 1814. Bájiráv appointed Trimbakji Dengle Sarsuba of Ahmedábád. The latter, however, did not leave Poona, where his presence was indispensable to his master, but sent agents with instructions rather of a political than of a fiscal nature. He himself undertook the task of disposing of Gangádhar Shástri, whom he caused to be assassinated at Pandharpur in July 1815.