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Consolidation of Raj Frontire and Foriegn Policy
Consolidation of Raj Frontire and Foriegn Policy
6.0 OBJECTIVES
?'he policy adopted by the British to consolidate their rule in India included the
establishment of a proper administrative system as well as securing the boundaries of
the newly conquered territories. The latter aspect is called the foreign and frontier
policy and it is often referred to as an imperialistic policy because it was formulated to
serve world-wide British imperial interests. This Unit tries to analyse the basic
components of Indian foreign policy.
After reading this Unit you will :
know what the international situation was during the period of our study,
know how the British established their supremacy in the sub-continent,
understand how they tried to overcome the Russian danger in Central Asia,
learn what methods the British Indian government adopted to bring the North-West
under their control,
grasp the nature of British Indian relations with Tibet, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, and
come to know about Indian policy regarding Perisa and Persian Gulf as well as
North-East Frontier Agency.
6.1 INTRODUCTION
By 1818 the British had conquered almost the whole of India except Punjab and Sindh
and their annexation too was only a question of time. After completing the empire
building process, the British followed a two-fold policy for the consolidation of the Raj,
namely, the introduction of a suitable administrative system and making arrangements
for ensuring security of the newly conquered territories. The latter effort constitutes the
frontier and foreign policy. This, of course, excludes British relations with Indian states
which were also regulated by the Foreign Department. The policy of defending British
Indian territories is often described as "an imperialistic policy" for it was formulated in
the perspective of world-wide British imperial interests. Here we are posed with a
pertinent question: can we say that India before 1947 had an independent foreign policy
of her own? To a certain extent it was so. We have the following arguments in support
of this point:
i ) The invasions of Afghanistan and Persia (Iran) and the plundering expeditions of the
the frontier tribes which had been going on for a long time ended with the
consolidation of British rule in India.
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. ii) Being a big and strong component of the Empire India always had some weight in
the formulation of British foreign policy.
iii) Because of distance between India and England, the British Government of India
always had some discretion and a certain degree of initiative in the formulation of
foreign policy of India.
iv) Moreover, the British imperial interests in some spheres coincided with those of
India, such as those involving Russia, Persia and China which gave a fillip to the
evolution of India's foreign policy.
In spite of these arguments we must remember that India was a colony. The foreign
political activities of the colonial government can be termed as India's foreign policy
but these were directed towards the larger interests of British imperialism.
Here we may also draw your attention to the problem of suggesting the period or a
specific year said to be the starting point of India's foreign policy. It is generally believed
that the British East India Company began to evolve its foreign policy by establishing
relation's with the Indian states. These states were compelled to surrender their foreign
relations to be controlled by the paramount British power. The other starting point is
1818 which inaugurated an era of consolidation of the Raj by the Company. But in
terms of international law, it was the transfer of power in 1858-59 from the Company to
the British crown that gave to India's foreign policy an independent character, in form,
but not in reality.
6.2.4 Afghanistan
The British were anxious to protect Afghanistan, the emporium of their trade, and the
only entrance to Central Asia from their side. A stage was thus set for the Central Asian
duel between the two expanding empires. Persia's siege of Herat and the unhappiness
of Dost Mohammad (the Amir of Kabul) with the British policy makers combined with
the over-anxiety of the British Indian administration lecfto the First Afghan War
(1838-42) which proved to be a great disaster for the British. One of its significant
consequences was the annexation of Sindh (1843) and Punjab (1849) which made the
frontier of British Indian empire co-terminus with that of Afghanistan.
The disaster in the First Afghan War led to the return of Dost Mohammad on the
throne of Kabul. To the distinct advantage of England, he maintained absolute
neutrality when England was fighting against Russia in the Crimean War (1854-56) or
was facing in India the revolt of 1857. Soon after the Crimean War, the Russians
advanced swiftly in Central Asia. Making the Russian intention clear Prince
Gortchadoff wrote in his memorandum of 1864 that in approaching Afghanistan Russia
was influenced by the same imperious law that had led the British armies across the
plains of Hindustan and Punjab till they reached the mountains. In pursuance of this
aim Russia extended its frontier by 1864to Bokhara, to Samarkand in 1868and toKhiva in
1873. In 1867 a new province of Russian Turkestan was formed and reduced Bukhara
'to the position of a vassal state. In 1873 Khiva fell to their control. In defence of their
policy Russians argued that British could always pose a threat to them through continental
alliances, as had happened in the Crimean War. It was for this reason, the ~ u s s i a n s
argued that they had secured a strong military position in Central Asia to keep England
in check by the threat of intervention in India.
The British reaction to this Russian posture was two-fold:
i) One move was to occupy advanced stations in Central Asia and to secure
commanding influence in Afghanistan. This came to be known as "Forward Policy"
which was generally held by the members of the Conservative Party.
ii) The other move known as 'The Policy of Masterly Inactivity' or 'Stationary
School' generally supported by the,Liberals aimed at reaching a
diplomatic understanding with Russia and adopting the policy of watchful non-
intervention as far as Afghanistan was concerned.
In the case of Russian attack, the Government of India, under this second policy during
1863-75 preferred to meet the danger on the Indian frontier itself since it was
dangerous to strive for political domination over ~ f ~ h a n i s t aMoreover,
n. the Russian
military base being far away from the expected scene of conflict, it was better toengage
themat the Indian frontier. Opposed to this line of thinking were the protagonists of
Forward Policy who believed that the imminknt threat of Russian invasion should be
met beyond the Indo-Afghan frontier to avoid dangerous repercussions on the
disaffected Indian people. It implied that the British Indian government should go
forward to establish their control over Afghanistan and check the Russian advance on
the Hindukush Frontier.
ii) ......................................................................................................
A coniparative study of the two systems - Punjab and Sindh -reveals that the latter
achieved greater success at least upto the year 1890, not because of innate superiority of
the system but because of physical differences of the two frontiers which have already
been mentioned. There were other factors as well. The jirga, or the tribal council of the
Pathans was a large group consisting almost of the whole tribe. In Baluchistan there
were only a few leaders and it was easy to deal with them. Agreements with the Pathan
chiefs, o n the other hand, did not possess the value which those arrived at with the
Baluch chiefs, carried. Another feature that proved effective was the appointment of
Major Sandeman as an agent in Baluchistan in February 1877. His policy of friendly and
conciliatory intervention was a great success for the British. All attempts of application
of Sandeman's methods to the Pathan tribes, however, completely failed, because the
leaders here did not possess a comparably high degree of influence over the fellow
tribesmen.
The Himalayan ranges form a natural frontier between India and China. These high
peaks sheltered many principalities like Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Tibet. Among
these Tibet is the most significant for the protection of India's frontier. Known as the
'Hermit Kingdom', Tibet is a landlocked country encircled by a chain of mountains with
average height of 10,000 feet above the sea level. With meagre economic resources, its
people loved isolation and used the Chinese protection granted in 1728 as a means to
ward off foreign dangers. The Chinese suzerainty over Tibet was nominal, and in
practice it was never recognized in the nineteenth century. Having no threat from
Tibet, a state which had given up war-like activities, and China being militarily weak
the British interest in Tibet, the backyard of China, was purely commercial to begin
with. Warren Hastings showed keen commercial interest in the region and sent two
missions, one in 1774 and another in 1783. But the isolationist and suspicious Dalai
Lama, the ruler declined the offer of establishing trade relations with the British East
India Company. I
Inevitably but g;adually the British interest in Tibet increased. Among many factors
accountable for this increase in interest, we may mention the following as the most
significant ones:
i) In view of the declining power of China, and scramble among the foreign powers to
divide it into spheres of influence, Tibet assumed great strategic importance
particularly for the British and the Russians.
ii) After the extension of British influence over Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim, the
boundaries of British India and Tibet came very close to the each other.
iii) When the Russian advance reached Pamirs, it posed a threat to the security of India
from the northern side.
iv) Lastly, during the nineteenth century British interest in tea and shawl wool
considerably increased. There was a tremendous pressure of the traders on the
government to develop regular traffic with Tibet through Bhutan.
With the palpable decline of the Manchu dynasty, the Chinese influence in Tibet
was weakened. When the young Dalai Lama became independent of Regency
Council, he became anxious t o liberate himself from the Chinese influence which in
reality was just nominal. But this was the impression which British, particularly
Lord Curzon, formed. Rumours were rife that a Mongol of Russian nationality
named Agwar Dordshi had gained the confidence of the Dalai Lama and was
shutting between Lhasa and Petersburg. The lure of the closed land was too strong
to resist, the fear of Russia was too great to be ignored and the desire for trade was
too powerful to overcome. For Curzon these were incentives to action, particularly
when he knew that the Tibetan had little more than prayer wheels with which to
resist modern weapons. Cumon was determined to bring Tibet under the British
control.
Though the government in England was reluctant to sanction any interference in
the Tibetan affairs, Curzon was however able to extract permission to send Colonel
Francis Younghusband to Tibet. He started his march into Tibet through Sikkim
and reached Lhasa in August 1904. After the slaughter of 700Tibetans a treaty was
imposed upon them which reduced Tibet to the status of a protectorate of the
British. The treaty yielded some commercial concessions to the British. But the
bogy of Russian danger soon became superfluous because Russia by 1907 treaty
acknowledged the British predominance over Tibet. Even, if it had not done so, the
Russians could not afford to pay much attention to Tibet as they were involved in
East Asia. In fact the British expedition was governed by imperialistic designs.
After the Chinese revolution of 1911, the. Dalai Lama, announced his
independence. But the new government was determined to make Tibet its integral
part. The British instead of recognising Tibet as an independent state, invited
representatives of China and Tibet to a tripartite conference in Shimla in May 1913.
It met on 13October, 1913 and finally in 1914 two agreements were concluded. By
one of them the British accepted China's suzerainty over eastern zone o r the inner
zone. The outer zone or the western zone was declared autonomous. By another
treaty it was decided to draw a boundary between Tibet and British India which is
named after the British delegate Henry McMahon-The boundary by his name was
Aal:..aa+-A
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~atbdiam 6.6 NEPAL
Betweemthe North-West frontier and Tibet, there was a chain of small principalities.
With the expansion of British empire in this region, these small principalities came into
contact with the British. In the process they were brought under their direct or indicrect
control to serve as outposts against Tibet or China. The first among them from the
western side was the Hindu Gorkha Kingdom of Nepal. After securing the control of
the valley of Kathmandu in 1768, the Gorkhas steadily encroached upon both east and
west, and occupied Kumaon, Garhwal and the Shimal hills. These areas were conceded
to the British after the Gorkhas were defeat by the Treaty of Sagauli in 1816.
After the treaty the British used a great deal of tact and skill in their dealings with the
rulers of Nepal. They treated Nepalese ruler as sovereign and addressed him as 'Your
Majesty'. It is important to note that the British did not depend solely on the high
ranges of the Himalays to provide India protection from the North. To them the
kingdom of Nepal was a stable and secure buffer between India and Tibet or China. To
t k g r e a t satisfaction of the British, Nepal displayed no signs of entertaining any
sentiments against the British. Relations between them were of peaceful co-existence
and confidence. They were based, more or less, on the assumption that there existed an
alliance between the two sides. The Nepalese on their part maintained perfect neutrality
during the revolt of 1857, while the British enlisted a large number of Gorkhas as
mercenaries in their army. Without any formal alliance treaty the Nepalese government
moulded their foreign policy in accordance with the British interests. For example it is
important to note the fact that they did not allow any diplomatic mission other than that
of the British into Nepal.
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6.7 SIKKIM
Between Nepal and Bhutan there is a small Himalayan state known as Sikkim. It had
two passes leading to Tibet. One road through Kalimpong and Jelep pass leads into the
Chumbi Valley and the other upward along the Tista river to Kampass Tsong and
Shigatse. 1n the period before the Chinese domination over Tibet, Sikkim was
politically and strategically significant because through it Tibet could be approached.
Civilized by the Tibetan monks and ruled by its aristocratic family, Sikkim was an
independent country. By the closing decades of the eighteenth century, the Gorkhas
temporarily established their control over it. The British, however, restored its
independence, and in 1861 declared it their protectorate much against the wishes of
Dalai Lama. The British right over Sikkim was recognized by the Chinese government
in 1890. Here too, the British had acted to guard their own interests.
6.8 BHUTAN
Adjacent to Sikkim on the eastern side is the state of Bhutan. Being poor, the
Bhutanese frequently raided the plains for looting wealth. In one of such raids, the
Bhutanese kidnapped the Raja of Cooch-Behar who was a British protectorate.
To rescue him, Warren Hastings attacked Bhutan and as a result of the Bhutanese
defeat a small strip of land was annexed to the British territories. The Bhutanese
continued their raids on occasions when the British were busy eleswhere. They
occasionally mistreated the British delegates. Annoyed with such activities on the
border, the British unleashed the policy of repression and reprisal and established their
authority so firmly that in the Younghusband Expedition (2904-6), the Bhutanese
offeredfull support. Finally, through the efforts of Sir Charles Bell a treaty of friendship
was signed at Punakha which recognized the Bhutanese ruler as sovereign in all matters
except foreign relations which were placed under the British control.
I Burma, the eastern neighbour of India during the late 18th and early 19th centuries was
I an expanding empire. After shaking off the Chinese supremacy, it started expanding its
empire. Through conquests it extended its frontier over Thailand on the east, and on
the west over Manipur and Assam and the Burmese encroachments led to three major
wars with Burma (1st in 1824-26, 2nd in 1852 and last in 1885) which resulted in the
conquest of the whole of Burma, by the British.