The Duar War 1864-1865

After the British occupied Assam and made the area part of British India (1826), a persistent frontier dispute began with the state of Bhutan, to the north, over possession of the duars. The duars, literally the doors or gates, were a valuable belt of rich land that served as a buffer between the Himalayan foothills and the higher elevations of Bhutan. The duars were divided into the Bengal Duars and the Assam Duars, corresponding to those Indian states. In 1841, the Assam Duars were annexed by the British, paying a compensation of 10,000 rupees a year to Bhutan. Charges and countercharges of border incursions and protection of fugitives resulted in several attempts negotiate a settlement. A Bhutanese mission to Calcutta in 1852 failed. British troops deployed to the region in the mid-1850s. In 1863, the British sent Ashley Eden to Bhutan, as a peace envoy. At Punakha, Eden was obliged to sign an agreement whose terms were spelled out by the Bhutanese. Upon his return to Darjeeling, the Governor General, Sir John Lawrence, repudiated the agreement that Eden had signed and promptly withheld the share of the Assam Duars revenue that Britain had paid on an annual basis to Bhutan since the annexation of its territory. On November 12, 1864, the British issued a proclamation that amounted to a declaration of war on Bhutan.

The British expeditionary force, led by Sir Henry Tombs, advanced in two columns -- one against the western and the other against the eastern half of the country -- towards the end of November 1864. Britain assembled six hundred elephants and countless bullocks for the task of breaching the mountain kingdom's defenses in the Bengal Duars. Artillery was moved into place, and the Duar War (also known as Anglo-Bhutanese War) began with an attack on a Bhutanese fort at Dalingcote, near the forested meeting point of Sikkim, Bhutan and India. Bhutan had no regular army, and what forces existed were composed of dzong guards armed with matchlocks, bows and arrows, swords, knives, and catapults. Some of these dzong guards, carrying shields and wearing chain mail armor, engaged the well-equipped British forces.

British objectives were achieved early in January 1865, and it was assumed that the Bhutanese were beaten. scarcely had the British authorities decided to break up the expeditionary force when the Bhutanese, under the personal command of the Tongsa Penlop, swept down upon Dewangiri, one of the eastern posts which had been occupied, and, having cut off the water-supply, compelled its evacuation on February the 5th. Similar attacks were made with varying fortune all along the line of the occupied territory, and a complete reorganization of the expeditionary force, including the dispatch of reinforcements from Calcutta, was found necessary before the shaken prestige of British arms was re-established. Honor having been satisfied by the recapture during the spring of the posts which had been evacuated, operations remained in abeyance during the summer.

This lull in the storm was taken advantage of to attempt once more to negotiate a settlement. On June 2, 1865, the Viceroy, Lord Lawrence, addressed a letter to the Deb and Dharma Rajas which proposed peace on the basis of the British proclamation of November 1864. As this failed to produce the desired result, an advance into the heart of the country was decided on, and full warning given to the Deb Raja by Colonel Bruce, in a letter dated September the 28th, 1865. These preparation s for war at length made an impression, and in a letter to Colonel Bruce, dated October 4, 1865, the Deb Raja agreed to negotiate. The result was a treaty signed on November the 11th, 1865, the most important clause of the Treaty of Sinchula was that ceding to Great Britain in perpetuity, the whole of the Bengal and Assam Duars and a block of mountainous country on the left bank of the Tista river, now known as the subdivision of Kalimpong, and the grant to Bhutan by way of compensation of an annual sum rising by increments to a maximum of 50,000 rupees. An enduring peace followed.

References

So Close to Heaven, 170-1; Lands of the Thunderbolt, 209-12; Dictionary of Wars, 57; Military History, 941; Timelines of War, 351; British Empire: Bhutan; Bhutan - A Country Study.

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