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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: Fig. 67. John Nicolson's Monument at Delhi.]
[Illustration: Fig. 68. Sir Robert Montgomery.]
~Administration, 1859-1870.~--The next eleven years occupied by the
administrations of Sir Robert Montgomery and Sir Donald Macleod were a
quiet time in which results already achieved were consolidated. The
Penal Code was extended to the Panjáb in 1862, and a Chief Court with a
modest establishment of two judges in 1865 took the place of the
Judicial Commissioner. In the same year a Settlement Commissioner was
appointed to help the Financial Commissioner in the control of land
revenue settlements. Two severe famines marked the beginning and the
close of this period. Omitting the usual little frontier excitements, it
is necessary to mention the troublesome Ambela campaign in 1863 in the
country north of Pesháwar, which had for its object the breaking up of
the power of a nest of Hindustání fanatics, and the Black Mountain
expedition, in 1868, on the Hazára border, in which no fewer than 15,000
men were employed. Sir Henry Durand, who succeeded Sir Donald Macleod,
after seven months of office lost his life by an accident in the
beginning of 1871.
~Administration, 1871-1882.~--The next eleven years divided between the
administrations of Sir Henry Davies (1871-1877) and Sir Robert Egerton
(1877-1882) produced more striking events. In 1872 a small body of
fanatics belonging to a Sikh sect known as Kúkas or Shouters marched
from the Ludhiána district and attacked the headquarters of the little
Muhammadan State of Malerkotla. They were repulsed and 68 men
surrendered to the Patiála authorities. The Deputy Commissioner of
Ludhiána blew 49 of them from the guns, and the rest were executed after
summary trial by the Commissioner. Such strong measures were not
approved by the Government, but it must be remembered that these madmen
had killed ten and wounded seventeen men, and that their lives were
justly forfeit. On the 1st of January, 1877, Queen Victoria's
assumption of the title of Empress of India (_Kaisar-i-Hind_) was
announced at a great _Darbár_ at Delhi. In 1877 Kashmír, hitherto
controlled by the Lieutenant-Governor, was put directly under the
Government of India. The same year and the next the province was tried
by famine, and in 1878-80 it was the base from which our armies marched
on Kábul and Kandahár, while its resources in camels were strained to
supply transport. Apart from this its interest in the war was very great
because it is the chief recruiting ground of the Indian army and its
chiefs sent contingents to help their suzerain. The first stage of the
war was closed by the treaty of Gandamak in May, 1879, by which Yakúb
Khán surrendered any rights he possessed over Khaibar and the Kurram as
far as Shutargardan.
[Illustration: Fig. 69. Panjáb Camels--Lahore.]
[Illustration: Fig. 70. Sir Charles Aitchison.]
~Administration, 1882-1892.~--During the Lieutenant-Governorships of Sir
Charles Aitchison (1882-1887) and Sir James Lyall (1887-1892) there was
little trouble on the western frontier. In 1891 the need had arisen of
making our power felt up to the Pamírs. The setting up of a British
agency at Gilgit was opposed in 1891 by the fighting men of Hunza and
Nagar. Colonel Durand advanced rapidly with a small force and when a
determined assault reduced the strong fort of Nilt, trouble was at an
end once and for all. Within the Panjáb the period was one of quiet
development. The Sirhind Canal was opened in 1882, and the weir at
Khánkí for the supply of the Lower Chenáb Canal was finished in 1892.
New railways were constructed. Lord Ripon's policy of Local
Self-government found a strong supporter in Sir Charles Aitchison, and
Acts were passed dealing with the constitution and powers of municipal
committees and district boards. In 1884 and 1885 a large measure of
reorganization was carried out. A separate staff of divisional,
district, and subordinate civil judges was appointed. The divisional
judges were also sessions judges. The ten commissioners were reduced to
six, and five of them were relieved of all criminal work by the sessions
judges. The Deputy Commissioner henceforth was a Revenue Collector and
District Magistrate with large powers in criminal cases. The revenue
administration was at the same time being improved by the reforms
embodied in the Panjáb Land Revenue and Tenancy Acts passed at the
beginning of Sir James Lyall's administration.
~Administration, 1892-1902.~--The next two administrations, those of Sir
Dennis Fitzpatrick (1892-97) and Sir Mackworth Young (1897-1902) were
crowded with important events. Throughout the period the colonization of
the vast area of waste commanded by the Lower Chenáb Canal was carried
out, and the Lower Jhelam Canal was formally opened six months before
Sir Mackworth Young left. The province suffered from famine in 1896-97
and again in 1899-1900. In October, 1897, a worse enemy appeared in the
shape of plague, but its ravages were not very formidable till the end
of the period. The Panjáb was given a small nominated Legislative
Council in 1897, which speedily proved itself a valuable instrument for
dealing with much-needed provincial legislation. But the most important
Panjáb Act of the period, XIII of 1900, dealing with Land Alienation was
passed by the Viceroy's Legislative Council. In 1901 a Political Agent
was appointed as the intermediary between the Panjáb Government and the
Phulkian States. On the frontier the conclusion of the Durand Agreement
in 1893 might well have raised hopes of quiet times. But the reality was
otherwise. The establishment of a British officer at Wána to exercise
control over Southern Wazíristán in 1894 was forcibly resisted by the
Mahsúd Wazírs, and an expedition had to be sent into their country. The
Mehtar or Chief of Chitrál, who was in receipt of a subsidy from the
British Government, died in 1892. A period of great confusion followed
fomented by the ambitions of Umra Khán of Jandol. Finally we recognised
as Mehtar the eldest son, who had come uppermost in the struggle, and
sent an English officer as British Agent to Chitrál. Umra Khán got our
protégé murdered, and besieged the Agent in the Chitrál fort. He
withdrew however on the approach of a small force from Gilgit.
Shuja-ul-Mulk was recognised as Mehtar. This little trouble occurred in
1895. Two years later a storm-cloud suddenly burst over the frontier,
such as we had never before experienced. It spread rapidly from the
Tochí to Swát, tribe after tribe rising and attacking our posts. It is
impossible to tell here the story of the military measures taken against
the different offending tribes. The most important was the campaign in
Tirah against the Orakzais and Afrídís, in which 30,000 men were engaged
for six months. In 1900 attacks on the peace of the border by the Mahsúd
Wazírs had to be punished by a blockade, and in the cold weather of
1901-2 small columns harried the hill country to enforce their
submission. By this time the connection of the Panjáb Government with
frontier affairs, which had gradually come to involve responsibility
with little real power, had ceased. On the 25th of October, 1901, the
North-West Frontier Province was constituted and Colonel (afterwards Sir
Harold) Deane became its first Chief Commissioner, an office which he
held till 1908, when he was succeeded by Major (now Sir George) Roos
Keppel.
~Administration, 1902-1913.~--The last eleven years have embraced the
Lieutenant Governorship of Sir Charles Rivaz (1902-1907), the too brief
administration of Sir Denzil Ibbetson (1907-1908), and that of Sir Louis
Dane (1908-1913). Throughout the period plague has been a disturbing
factor, preventing entirely the growth of population which the rapid
development of the agricultural resources of the province would
otherwise have secured. It was among the causes stimulating the unrest
which came to a head in 1907. A terrible earthquake occurred in 1905.
Its centre was in Kángra, where 20,000 persons perished under the ruins
of their houses. The colonization of the Crown waste on the Lower Jhelam
Canal was nearly finished during Sir Charles Rivaz's administration.
Before he left the Triple Canal Project, now approaching completion, had
been undertaken. Other measures of importance to the rural population
were the passing of the Co-operative Credit Societies' Act in 1903, and
the organization in 1905 of a provincial Agricultural Department. The
seditious movement which troubled Bengal had its echo in some parts of
the Panjáb in the end of 1906 and the spring of 1907. A bill dealing
with the rights and obligations of the Crown tenants in the new Canal
Colonies was at the time before the Local Legislature. Excitement
fomented from outside spread among the prosperous colonists on the Lower
Chenáb Canal. There was a disturbance in Lahore in connection with the
trial of a newspaper editor, the ringleaders being students. When Sir
Denzil Ibbetson took the reins into his strong hands in March, 1907, the
position was somewhat critical. The disturbance at Lahore was followed
by a riot at Ráwalpindí. The two leading agitators were deported, a
measure which was amply justified by their reckless actions and which
had an immediate effect. Lord Minto decided to withhold his assent from
the Colony Bill, and it has recently been replaced by a measure which
has met with general acceptance. When Sir Denzil Ibbetson took office he
was already suffering from a mortal disease. In the following January he
gave up the unequal struggle, and shortly afterwards died. Sir Louis
Dane became Lieutenant Governor in May, 1908. A striking feature of his
administration was the growth of co-operative credit societies or
village banks. At the Coronation _Darbár_ on 12th December, 1911, the
King-Emperor announced the transfer of the capital of India to Delhi. As
a necessary consequence the city and its suburbs were severed from the
province, with which they had been connected for 55 years. In 1913 Sir
Louis Dane was succeeded by Sir Michael O'Dwyer.
[Illustration: Fig. 71. Sir Denzil Ibbetson.]
[Illustration: Fig. 72. Sir Michael O'Dwyer.]