Himachal Pradesh - British Rule
The Gorkhas, a martial tribe came to power in Nepal in the year 1768. They consolidated their military power and began to expand their territory. Gradually the Gorkhas annexed Sirmour and Shimla hill states. With the leadership of Amar Singh Thapa, Gorkhas laid siege to Kangra. They managed to defeat Sansar Chand, the ruler of kangra, in 1806 with the help of many hill chiefs. However Gorkhas could not capture Kangra fort which came under Maharaja Ranjeet Singh in 1809. After this defeat the Gorkhas began to expand towards south. This resulted in the Anglo-Gorkha war. They came into direct conflict with the English along the tarai belt after which the English expelled them from the hill states east of the Satluj. Thus British slowly emerged as the paramount powers in this tract.
At the end of the British-Nepalese war (1814–15), the ‘Simla Hill States’, which constituted a majority of the merging units, came under British suzerainty and became insulated from the ideas and political movements spreading across British Indian provinces. After the Anglo-Gorkha war the common border of the British domain and Punjab became very sensitive. Both the Sikh and English wanted to avoid a direct conflict, but after the death of Ranjit Singh, the Khalsa army fought a number of wars with the British. In 1845 when the Sikhs invaded the British territory by crossing the Satluj, the rulers of many hill states sided with the English as they were looking for an opportunity to settle scores with the former. Many of these rulers entered into secret communication with the English. After the first Anglo-Sikh war, the British did not restore the hill territory vacated by Sikhs to their original owners.
Nineteenth century historiography characterised the pre-colonial political structure of the princely states as ‘feudal’. In the History of Punjab Hill States, Vogel, has likened the principle of their government to ‘an order of things that was patriarchal rather than monarchical . . . very much akin to the clan system of the Highlands of Scotland’, adding that its primitive character suggested the possibility of its having been the earliest form of government in the hills.
This was an era dominated by petty chiefs. The ruler was supreme and the sole owner of the soil; the fountain from which flowed the right of cultivator to a share of the produce. Whatever was in excess of a subsistence level, was exacted from the cultivator. The distribution of the land amongst the high caste hierarchy was discriminatory and exclusively concentrated in the hands of the principal farming communities. The lowcaste and the artisan class, for the most part, constituted land-less agricultural labor. Literally they formed the deprived and the depressed classes.
In addition to the land revenue, there were various other levies called karahads (cesses). The collection of these, in actual practice, provided the State officials an occasion to practise rapacity and oppression beyond imagination. British officials of East Indian Company availed of the compulsory, forced or bonded labor to such an excessive extent that it oppressed both the rulers and the poor peasantry. Realising, in the end, that the burden interfered with profitable agricultural operations, the British government abolished it in Kangra proper during 1884, and in Kullu in 1896. In the Punjab Hill States it was either commuted in cash or abolished by the 1940s.
Ruled by feudal rulers — titled Rajas or Ranas — some thirty hill states or ‘Protected Hill States’ as they were euphemistically called by the British administrators, integrated to form a centrally administered Chief Commissioner’s province. Including Mandi state, which merged on 23 July 1949 (Cf: Ministry of States’ Notification 256-IB of even date). Initially constituted as a centrally administered province Bilaspur merged on 1 July 1954. Nalagarh, another hilly state affiliated with Phulkian state’s union became part of Punjab in 1956 and from 1 November 1966 on the re-organisation of Punjab, was transferred to Himachal Pradesh.
The revolt or first Indian war of independence resulted due to the building up of political, social, economic, religious and military grievances against the British. People of the hill states were not politically alive as the people in other parts of the country. They remained more or less aloof and so did their rulers with the exception of Bushahr. Some of them even rendered help to the Britishers during the revolt. Among them were the rulers of Chamba, Bilaspur, Bhagal and Dhami. The rulers of Bushars acted in a manner hostile to the interests of British. However it is not clear whether they actually aided the rebels or not.
The British territories in the hill came under British Crown after Queen Victoria’s proclamation of 1858. The states of Chamba, Mandi and Bilaspur made good progress in many fields during the British rule. During the Great War, virtually all rulers of the hill states remained loyal and contributed to the British war effort both in thr form of men and materials. Among these were the states of Kangra, Siba, Nurpur, Chamba, Suket, Mandi and Bilaspur.
Fresh elements in the urban patterns of the hills emerged in the nineteenth century when the British established the ‘hill stations’ like Shimla (earlier spelt, Simla), Dharamsala, Dalhousie and Kasauli. Additional pockets rose as cantonments — like Dagshai, Balun, Jutogh and Subathu. Palampur became a focus after tea plantation was introduced in the area in 1849. While the character of these towns was essentially colonial, yet the bulk of their population was Indian which migrated to them for portions of the year. These towns remained largely depopulated during the winter months.
The people of the hill also participated in the freedom struggle. The highlights of the freedom movement in this tract are listed below:
- Praja Mandal launched agitations against the British yoke in areas under direct British Rule.
- In other princely states agitations were launched for social and political reforms. However these were directed more against the princes than against the British and as such were mere extensions of freedom movement.
- The Mandi conspiracy was carried out in 1914-15 under the influence of the Gadhr party. Meetings were held in Mandi and Suket states in December 1914 and January 1915 and it was decided to murder the Superintendent and Wazir of Mandi and Suket, to loot the treasury, blow to up the bridge over Beas river. However conspirators were caught and sentenced to long terms in prison.
- The Pajhota agitation in which the people of a part of Sirmour state revolted is regarded as an extension of the Quit India Movement of 1942.
- Important freedom fighters of this state during this period included Dr. Y.S. Parmar, Padam Dev, Shivanand Ramaul, Purnanand, Satya Dev, Sada Ram Chandel, Daulat Ram, Thakur Hazara Singh and Pahari Gandhi Baba Kanshi Ram.
- The Congress party was also active in the freedom movement in the hill state particularly in Kangra.
The constraints that prevented the Congress party to be drawn directly into their grievances, impelled the people of princely states to think in terms of a forum of their own. The birth of All India States’ People’s Conference in 1927, was the manifestation of this need. With the background thoughtfully laid out, the Conference had its first session on 27 December that year and focused to demand responsible government and popular assemblies formed on an elective basis alongwith guaranteed civil liberties.
Assured of moral support from the Congress, fires of freedom broke out in Punjab and Shimla Hill States, a few during the 1930s, but mostly in the mid-1940s. The Praja Mandal Movement began spearheading the nationalist aspirations of the people of Himachal Pradesh. Earlier, there had been uprisings, demonstrations and agrarian troubles. But for the most part, these eruptions were in protest against the high-handedness of a ruler or for reasons of maladministration. With the independence of the country hovering on the horizon, a definite change of climate surfaced. The people started thinking seriously of grappling not with the symptoms of the evil but with what lay at their root.
Meanwhile, 26 princely rulers created a ‘Hill States Union’ to preserve their own way of life. Expectedly, this archaic amalgamation was a failure and these states ceded to the Dominion Government full and extensive authority, jurisdiction and powers, and they agreed to transfer to it the administration of their states. On 15 April 1948, Himachal Pradesh was born as a Centrally Administered Area.
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