Gauri Shankar Shukla Brigadier Major to Sunder Lal Sends Palwanals Force Sealed Out Returned
Gauri Shankar Shukla Brigadier Major to Sunder Lal Sends Palwanals Force Sealed Out Returned
Secret Papers
MARC-02032023-402
May 31, 2023 at 12:48:07 PM
National Archives of India
PR_000002384834
Gauri Shankar Shukla Brigadier Major to Sunder Lal Sends Palwanals Force Sealed Out Returned
The National Archives of India is located at the intersection of Rajpath and Janpath Road
Foreign
September 10 , 1857
135
211
Mutiny
0.1
02
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Mohammed Q, Binghalib
Urdu
The Translation and Comment
by
Mohammed Abdulkarim:
of Original Document:
Loca News—Court of Persta—It is discovered from the late Bombay papers received at this press, that the King of Persia one day summoned a number of Herat chiefs, together with his nobles, to his court, and had a conference with them regarding the war After due deliberation, they all advised him unanimously to declare war against the English, expressing their dependence that God would will his being victorious, for, said they. ‘Taking Herat you will be ina position as though you had reached the doorway into Hindustan.” They further urged that the wish of the Russians too was that the Persians should go to war with the English, and should conquer India. On this the King declared with an oath, that he was greatly pleased with these courtiers, who had given advice so opposite to that of his perfidious prime minister, and solemnly promised that on reaching India, he would appoint them to the Governorships of different provinces, viz., one to that of Bombay, another to that of Calcutta, a third to Poona, and so on, and that he would bestow the crown on the King of Delhi. Just at this juncture, intelligence was brought that the prime minister had clandestinely sold the King’s diadem jewelled with privious stones, through a merchant named Haji Ali, for a lakh and twenty-five thousand francs, giving him (the merchant) a portion of the money. On this, the King sent for the wily prime minister, and questioned him on the subject, but he denied aJl knowledge of the business. The King then had the merchant apprehended and fined, and expressed his displeasure in no measured terms with the prime minister for keeping up intrigues with people of other nations. It is reported that the duties of prime minister have been intrusted to some other statesman ~=i[t is said thatthe prime minister above alluded to generally counselled the King to maintain a peaceable policy. It was reported to the King that the Emperor of Russia had sent an effective and thoroughly appointed army of 400,000 men, with abundant munitions, to assist him, and that portions of these had already joined thePersians, and it was also reported that the Emperor of Russia had declared that if the force should be insufficient for the intended wars and slaughter, the constabulary army would’also be sent. In answer to these communications, the King spoke in terms of the highestpraise of the Emperor Alexander of Russia, and issued instructions that funds for the expenses of the Russian army should be defrayed from his treasury, and that the courier from the Russian army should not want for any- thing or suffer any inconveniences. After this, the French ambassador submitted as welcome news, that his sovereign, who had for some days been unwell, was now, by the blessing of God, restored to perfect health. The King hearing this, said, he thanked God for it. ‘The Georgian ambassador now presented his master’s compliments, and stated that contrary to the laws of England and Turkey, the sale of slaves of both sexes still continued in his country. Throughout Persia it is reported that the chief reason for the Persian King going to war with the English is that for five successive generations, the occupants of the Persian throne, intending to conquer India, had been accumulating all sorts of military munitions, and had been laying by treasures: but that no one of them had been able to work up his resolution to the undertaking, and that moreover Nasir-ud-din, the present sovereign, had himself long cherished the same wish, transmitted to him as it were hereditarily, when the present opportunity presented itself. On one side, Herat came easily intO possession; on another the unforeseen assistance of the Russians came to his aid; on a third, the nobles unanimously counselled an advance on India, predicting that God would bestow victory; and ona fourth the whole nation rose and assembled as for a religious war, so that the King of Persia had no alternative but a declaration of war, It is also said that the Amir Dost Muhammad Khan, the ruler of Cabul, is secretly in league with the King of Persia, while he professes to the English that he is at deadly enmity with him, urging as his reason that the sovereignity of Cabul had formerly always descended in lines of Shah Kamran and Shuja-ul-mulk, and that the King of Persia had appointed the Prince Yusuf, his Vice-regent, in the government of Herat; that this Prince now counsels the King of Pergia to takethe sovereignity of Cabul from the Amir and to bestow it on him, that it is in consequence of this that the Persians are advancing towards Cabul, and that he seriously apprehends that Prince Yusuf, assisted by the Persians, will finally take Cabul from the Afghans in requital for Shah Shujah-ul-mulk’s dispossession On leaving for Cabul the Amir wrote a letter to the King of Persia, that he was altogether a subject of the Persian Sovereignity, and that he had no relations with the British Government.