Factors in the Political History of this Period
REFERRING to the achievements of Lord Hastings, who left India on the lst January, 1823, Prinsep, a contemporary writer, observed: “The struggle which has thus ended in the universal establishment of British influence, is particularly important and worthy of attention, as it promises to be the last we shall ever have to maintain with the native powers of India.” But this optimistic prophecy did not turn out to be wholly true. There is no doubt that by the year 1823 the greater part of India, extending from the Sutlej to the Brahmaputra and from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, fell under British control. But there were beyond the western and eastern limits already reached by the British arms, powers whose activities had been a source of great anxiety to the Mughuls and whose subjugation was indispensably necessary for the rising British power before it could establish an all-India Empire on a firm and secure basis. In short, an Indian Empire, without effective control over the western and eastern frontiers of the country, was an idle dream. This was proved by the subsequent conflicts of the English with the Sikhs, the Sindhis, the Pathan and Baloch tribes of the north-west frontier, and the Afghans beyond the Khyber Pass, and with the Burmese and the Assamese to the east of the Brahmaputra. Further, the growth of the new political authority inevitably gave rise to varied problems. It crashed with the interests of some who continued to nurse against it a feeling of discontent. This was aggravated by the Company’s policy of annexation and led to a violent outburst in the Revolt of 1857-1859, when British supremacy in India was put to a severe test. The foreign policy of the Company during this period received a new orientation. Sir Lyall observes: ” As the expansion of our dominion carried us so much nearer to foreign Asiatic countries, our rapid approach to the geographical limits of India proper discovered for us fresh complications and we were now on the brink of collision with new races.” Hitherto the Company’s external policy had been influenced by French projects and ambitions in the Near and Middle East and in India. The French menace disappeared with the fall of Napoleon, but Russia now stepped into the place of France. The expansion of Russia in Asia, and her various ambitious enterprises in the East, proved to be the dominating factor in the foreign policy of the East India Company in the post-Waterloo period.
The Eastern Frontier and the Burmese Wars
The First Anglo-Burmese War
When Lord Hastings left India, Mr. John Adam, a senior member of the Council, acted as Governor-General till the arrival of Lord Amherst, who took charge of his office on coming to India in August, 1823. The most important event of the new Governor- General’s regime was the First Anglo-Burmese War.
The English had commercial intercourse with Burma since the seventeenth century. But the growth of their Indian dominion, and at the same time the establishment of the sway of a Tibeto- Chinese race over Arakan, Pegu and Tenasserim, situated south of Chittagong, during the second half of the eighteenth century, brought the two powers into political relations in the nineteenth century. About 1750 a Burman chief named Alompra conquered the province of Pegu from the Tailangas in the delta of the Irrawaddy and established there a strong monarchy. His successors, notably Bodawpaya who reigned from 1779 to 1819 and was followed by Hpagyidoa, extended the kingdom in different directions. The Burmese seized Tenasserim from Siam in 1766; subjugated the hitherto independent kingdom of Arakan in 1784, and conquered Manipur, near the Surma valley, in 1813.
The advance of the Burmese towards the eastern frontier of the Company’s dominion, which continued to remain “very ill defined and variable”, made an Anglo-Burmese conflict inevitable. But being engaged seriously in other parts of India, the Calcutta Government tried at first to prevent an immediate rupture by sending envoys to Burma-Captain Symes in 1795 and again in 1802; Captain Cox in 1797; and Captain Canning in 1803, 1809, 1811. The envoys were not treated well and the missions proved successful. The refusal of the Company’s Government to comply with Burmese demands for the surrender of fugitives who, fleeing from the territories conquered by the Burmese, took shelter on the British border and from their new base made inroads into Burmese territories, served to render relations more strained. Thus when the English were engaged in suppressing the Pindaris, the King of Ava sent a letter to Lord Hastings demanding the surrender of Chittagong, Dacca, Murshidabad and Cassimbazar, which in medieval times paid tribute to the ruler of Arakan. The Pindari menace was over before Hastings received this letter. The Governor-General returned it to the Burmese king with the comment that it was perhaps a forgery.
But the Burmese commanders soon conquered Assam in 1821-1822 and thus came directly in contact with the ill defined British frontier on the north-east. They further captured in September, 1823, the Shahpuri island, near Chittagong, belonging to the Company, drove away the British outposts from that island to Dudpatli and made preparations for an attack on the Company’s territories in Bengal. This was too much for the English to bear, and Lord Amherst, the Governor-General, declared war on the 24th February, 1824. The Burmese had the best means of defence in the physical features of their country, ” which was one vast expanse of forest and morass, laced longitudinally by mountain ranges and the valleys of the Irrwaddy, Sittang and Salween ” Further, though in open fighting the Burmese soldiers were a poor match for the trained British troops, yet they were expert in quickly preparing stockades of timber and in “throwing up earthworks and sinking rifle-pits”. The British plan was to attack Rangoon by sea, and they sent an expedition under General Sir Archibald Campbell, with 11,000 men, mostly recruited from Madras, and with ships under Captain Marryat, the novelist.
The British troops were able to expel the Burmese from Assam, but Bandula, the ablest of the Burmese generals who had advanced to invade Bengal, repelled a British detachment at Ramu on the Chittagong frontier. This could not, however, prevent a British attack on Rangoon, which was captured by Campbell on the 11th May, 1824. Without resisting the invaders, the Burmese fled into the jungles of Pegu carrying with them all kinds of supplies. The British troops were put to great hardships for lack of provisions. Their difficulties were aggravated by the unhealthiness of the place due to the rains. Their sufferings were terrible till the close of the rainy season. In the meanwhile, BanduIa had been recalled to relieve the Burmese and had arrived before Rangoon on the lst December with 60,000 men. He was, however, defeated on the 15th December and retreated to Donabew, where he held out bravely till the beginning of April, 1825, when he was killed by a chance shot. This was indeed a terrible loss to the Burmese. Campbell occupied Prome, the capital of Lower Burma, on the 26th April and spent the rainy season there. After some futile negotiations for peace, fighting recommenced towards the end of 1825. The British troops having baffled all the opposition of the Burmese marched to Yandaboo, within sixty miles of the Burmese capital. On the 24th February, 1826, the Burmese concluded a treaty, the terms of which, as dictated by Campbell, provided for the payment of a crore of rupees as war indemnity by the King of Ava;
the absolute surrender by him of the provinces of Arakan and Tenasserim; abstention of the Burmese from interference of any kind in Assam, Cachar and Jaintia; their recognition of Manipur as an independent State; the conclusion of a commercial treaty “upon principles of reciprocal advantages”; and the admission of a British Resident at Ava, a Burmese envoy being allowed to come to Calcutta. A commercial treaty of a rather unsatisfactory nature was concluded on the 23rd November, 1826; and a British Resident was not accepted until 1830. From 1830 to 1840, the residency was held successively by Major Burney and Colonel Benson. King Hpagyidoa, being seized with melancholia, was deposed in May, 1837, in favour of his brother Tharrawaddy and was kept in confinement till he expired.
