The Duar War (or Anglo-Bhutan War) was a war fought between
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
and
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
in 1864–1865. It has been the only military conflict between the two states since 1774.
Background
Across the nineteenth century, British India commissioned multiple missions to Bhutan.
Official documents always cited cross-border raids by Bhutan or sheltering of dissidents as the immediate cause; however, modern historians note Britain's imperialist ambitions in the region to be the actual pretext.
Not only was Bhutan a vital cog in the Indo-Tibetan trade but also the commercial viability of
Duars
The Dooars or Duars ( as, দুৱাৰ, duar, rkt, দুৱাৰ, duar, bn, দুয়ার, duyar) () are the alluvial floodplains in eastern-northeastern India that lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and north of the ...
region for supporting tea plantations was well-known among Company officials.
The most significant of these was a "peace mission" under
Ashley Eden
Sir Ashley Eden (13 November 1831 – 8 July 1887) was an official and diplomat in British India.
Background and education
Eden was born at Hertingfordbury, Hertfordshire, the third son of Robert Eden, 3rd Baron Auckland, Bishop of Bath a ...
in 1863-64, which was dispatched in the wake of a civil war.
However, Bhutan rejected the offer and Eden claimed to have been mistreated.
The
dzongpon of
Punakha
Punakha ( dz, སྤུ་ན་ཁ་) is the administrative centre of Punakha dzongkhag, one of the 20 districts of Bhutan. Punakha was the capital of Bhutan and the seat of government until 1955, when the capital was moved to Thimphu. It is abo ...
– who had emerged victorious – had broken with the central government and set up a rival
Druk Desi
The Druk Desi ( Dzongkha: འབྲུག་སྡེ་སྲིད་; Wylie:'' 'brug sde-srid''; also called " Deb Raja")The original title is Dzongkha: སྡེ་སྲིད་ཕྱག་མཛོད་; Wylie: ''sde-srid phyag-mdzod''. ...
while the legitimate druk desi sought the protection of the
penlop
Penlop ( Dzongkha: དཔོན་སློབ་; Wylie: ''dpon-slob''; also spelled Ponlop, Pönlop) is a Dzongkha term roughly translated as governor. Bhutanese penlops, prior to unification, controlled certain districts of the country, but n ...
of
Paro and was later deposed. The British mission dealt alternately with the rival penlop of
Paro and the
penlop of Trongsa
Penlop of Trongsa ( Dzongkha: ཀྲོང་གསར་དཔོན་སློབ་; Wylie: ''Krong-gsar dpon-slob''), also called Chhoetse Penlop ( Dzongkha: ཆོས་རྩེ་དཔོན་སློབ་; Wylie: ''Chos-rtse dpon-sl ...
(the latter acted on behalf of the druk desi).
Battle
Britain declared war in November 1864. Bhutan had no regular army, and what forces existed were composed of
dzong
Dzong architecture is used for dzongs, a distinctive type of fortified monastery ( dz, རྫོང, , ) architecture found mainly in Bhutan and Tibet. The architecture is massive in style with towering exterior walls surrounding a complex of cou ...
guards armed with
matchlocks
A matchlock or firelock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of rope that is touched to the gunpowder by a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with his finger. Before ...
, bows and arrows, swords, knives, and catapults. Some of these dzong guards, carrying shields and wearing chainmail armor, engaged the well-equipped British forces.
![Dewangiri_siege](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Dewangiri_siege.jpg)
The fort, known at the time as
Dewangiri
Dewangiri was a northern part of Kamrup, measuring , which was ceded to Bhutan in 1951. The area contains ruins of ancient temples and loose structures. In modern times it lost its earlier importance. It was used only for winter grazing of Bhutane ...
, at
Deothang Deothang, also known as Dewathang, is a town in south-eastern Bhutan which falls under Samdrup Jongkhar District. In 2010 it became part of Samdrup Jongkhar municipality (thromde).
Geography
Dewathang is located in Samdrup Jongkhar District at a ...
was dismantled by the British during 1865. The British initially suffered a humiliating defeat at Deothang and when they recaptured Dewangiri they dismantled the fortress there to deny its use to Bhutanese forces.
The Duar War lasted only five months and, despite some battlefield victories by Bhutanese forces which included the capture of two howitzer guns, resulted in the loss of 20% of Bhutan's territory, and forced cession of formerly occupied territories. Under the terms of the Treaty of Sinchula, signed 11 November 1865, Bhutan ceded territories in the
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
Duars
The Dooars or Duars ( as, দুৱাৰ, duar, rkt, দুৱাৰ, duar, bn, দুয়ার, duyar) () are the alluvial floodplains in eastern-northeastern India that lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and north of the ...
and
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
Duars
The Dooars or Duars ( as, দুৱাৰ, duar, rkt, দুৱাৰ, duar, bn, দুয়ার, duyar) () are the alluvial floodplains in eastern-northeastern India that lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and north of the ...
, as well as the 83 km² of territory of Dewangiri in southeastern Bhutan, in return for an annual subsidy of 50,000
rupee
Rupee is the common name for the currencies of
India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...
s. The Treaty of Sinchula stood until 1910, when Bhutan and British India signed the
Treaty of Punakha
The Treaty of Punakha was an agreement signed on 8 January 1910, at Punakha Dzong between the recently consolidated Kingdom of Bhutan and British India. The Treaty of Punakha is not a stand-alone document, but represents a modification of the Tr ...
, effective until 1947.
Treaty of Sinchula
Below appears the text of the Treaty of Sinchula.
See also
*
Foreign relations of Bhutan
Bhutan has diplomatic relations with 54 of 193 member states of the United Nations and the European Union. Bhutan's limited number of such relations, including the absence of formal relations with any of the permanent members of the United Nati ...
*
History of Bhutan
Bhutan's early history is steeped in mythology and remains obscure. Some of the structures provide evidence that the region has been settled as early as 2000 BC. According to a legend it was ruled by a Cooch-Behar king, Sangaldip, around the ...
*
Treaty of Punakha
The Treaty of Punakha was an agreement signed on 8 January 1910, at Punakha Dzong between the recently consolidated Kingdom of Bhutan and British India. The Treaty of Punakha is not a stand-alone document, but represents a modification of the Tr ...
References
Bibliography
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{{Authority control
Conflicts in 1864
Conflicts in 1865
Wars involving Bhutan
Wars involving the United Kingdom
Wars involving British India
History of the Bengal Sappers
1864 in Bhutan
1865 in Bhutan
19th-century military history of the United Kingdom
Military history of Bhutan
Bhutan–India relations
Bhutan–United Kingdom military relations