The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and KashmirDouie, James McCrone, Sir
History
The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir
Douie, James McCrone, Sir
India -- Description and travel; Jammu and Kashmir (India); North-west Frontier Province (Pakistan); Punjab (India)
~Administrative Arrangements in Panjab.~--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 Panjab, became its first Lieutenant-Governor on the
1st of January, 1859. The raising of the Panjab 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
_Khalsa_ 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 Panjab, 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 Peshawar 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-Multan railway was begun, and a few weeks after his departure
the Upper Bari Doab Canal was opened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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