Fig. 65. Zamzama Gun[6].
Annexation.—The cause they represented was in no sense a national one. The Sikhs were a small minority of the population, the bulk of the people being Muhammadans, to whom the English came as deliverers. On the 30th of March, 1849, the proclamation annexing the Panjáb was read at Lahore.
CHAPTER XX
HISTORY (continued). THE BRITISH PERIOD, 1849-1913
Administrative Arrangements in Panjáb.—Lord Dalhousie put the government of the province under a Board of Administration consisting of the two Lawrences, Henry and John, and Charles Mansel. The Board was abolished in 1853 and its powers vested in a Chief Commissioner. A Revenue or Financial Commissioner and a Judicial Commissioner were his principal subordinates. John Lawrence, the first and only Chief Commissioner of the Panjáb, became its first Lieutenant-Governor on the 1st of January, 1859. The raising of the Panjáb to the full rank of an Indian province was the fitting reward of the great part which its people and its officers, with their cool-headed and determined chief, had played in the suppression of the Mutiny. The overthrow of the Khálsa left the contending parties with the respect which strong men feel for each other; the services of the Sikhs in 1857 healed their wounded pride and removed all soreness.
Fig. 66. Sir John Lawrence.
Administration, 1849-1859.—When John Lawrence laid down his office in the end of February, 1859, ten years of work by himself and the able officers drafted by Lord Dalhousie into the new province had established order on a solid foundation. A strong administration suited to a manly and headstrong people had been organised. In the greater part of the province rights in land had been determined and recorded. The principle of a moderate assessment of the land revenue had been laid down and partially carried out in practice. The policy of canal and railway development, which was to have so great a future in the Panjáb, had been definitely started. The province had been divided into nine divisions containing 33 districts. The Divisional Commissioners were superintendents of revenue and police with power to try the gravest criminal offences and to hear appeals in civil cases. The Deputy Commissioner of districts had large civil, criminal, and fiscal powers. A simple criminal and civil code was enforced. The peace of the frontier was secured by a chain of fortified outposts watching the outlets from the hills, behind which were the cantonments at the headquarters of the districts linked together by a military road. The posts and the cantonments except Pesháwar were garrisoned by the Frontier Force, a splendid body of troops consisting ultimately of seven infantry and five cavalry regiments, with some mule batteries. This force was till 1885 subject to the orders of the Lieutenant Governor. It never wanted work, for before the Mutiny troops had to be employed seventeen times against the independent tribesmen. East of the Indus order was secured by the disarmament of the people, the maintenance, in addition to civil police, of a strong body of military police, and the construction of good roads. Just before Lawrence left the construction of the Amritsar-Multán railway was begun, and a few weeks after his departure the Upper Bárí Doáb Canal was opened.