Treaty of Sugauli

The Treaty of Sugauli (also spelled Sugowlee, Sagauli, Soogoulee), the treaty that established the boundary line of Nepal, was signed on 2 December 1815 and ratified by 4 March 1816 between the East India Company and Raj Guru Gajaraj Mishra with Chandra Shekhar Upadhaya for Nepal following the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16. The treaty represented a Nepali surrender to the British and contained the cession of Nepal's western territory to the British East India Company.[1][2]

Sugauli Treaty
DraftedDecember 2, 1815
SignedMarch 4, 1816
LocationSugauli, India
SignatoriesParish Bradshaw (for the Company Government) and Raj Guru Gajaraj Mishra with Chandra Shekhar Upadhaya (for Nepal)
Parties East India Company
   Nepal
RatifiersGovernor-General David Ochterlony (British India)
LanguageEnglish
The territorial effects of the Treaty of Sugauli (1816)
Map of Gorkha Empire before Sugauli Treaty.
Nepal in 1823

Background

Following the Unification of Nepal under Prithvi Narayan Shah, Nepal attempted to enlarge its domains, conquering much of Sikkim in the east and, in the west, the basins of Gandaki and Karnali and the Uttarakhand regions of Garhwal and Kumaon. This brought them in conflict with the British, who controlled directly or indirectly the north Indian plains between Delhi and Calcutta. A series of campaigns termed the Anglo-Nepalese War occurred in 1814–1816. In 1815 the British general Ochterlony evicted the Nepalese from Garhwal and Kumaon across the Kali River,[3][4] ending their 12-year occupation, which is remembered for its brutality and repression.[5][6]

Octherlony offered peace terms to the Nepalese demanding British suzerainty in the form of a protected state and the delimitation of Nepal's territories corresponding roughly to its present day boundaries. The Nepalese refusal to accede to the terms led to another campaign the following year, targeting the Kathmandu Valley, after which the Nepalese capitulated.[7][8]

Terms

Historian John Whelpton writes:

Negotiations for a general settlement produced a draft which was initialled at Sagauli in Bihar in December 1815 and required Nepal to give up all territories west and east of its present-day borders, to surrender the entire Tarai and to accept a permanent British representative (or 'resident') in Kathmandu. The Nepalese government initially balked at these terms, but agreed to ratify them in March 1816 after Ochterloney occupied the Makwanpur Valley only thirty miles from the capital.[9]

Ongoing disputes

Among the border dispute of the Indo-Nepal boundary, the most significant are in the Susta and Kalapani regions.[10] The two regions cover some 40 km of the Indo-Nepal border.

See also


References
  1. "Original copies of both Sugauli Treaty and Nepal-India Friendship Treaty are missing". kathmandupost.com. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  2. "Treaty of Sagauli | British-Nepalese history [1816]". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  3. Whelpton, A History of Nepal (2005), p. 41-42.
  4. Rose, Nepal – Strategy for Survival (1971), pp. 83–85: "Ochterlony forced Amar Singh Thapa to agree at Malaun to terms under which the Nepali army retired with their arms, and the territory between the Kali and Sutlej rivers came under the control of the British."
  5. Whelpton, A History of Nepal (2005), p. 58.
  6. Oakley, E. Sherman (1905), Holy Himalaya: The Religion, Traditions, and Scenery of a Himalayan Province (Kumaon and Garhwal), Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, pp. 124–125 – via archive.org
  7. Whelpton, A History of Nepal (2005), p. 41-42: "The Nepalese government initially balked at these terms, but agreed to ratify them in March 1816 after Ochterloney occupied the Makwanpur Valley only thirty miles from the capital."
  8. Rose, Nepal – Strategy for Survival (1971), pp. 87–88: "[In 1816] With the collapse of the main defense line, the Darbar quickly dispatched Chandra Sekhar Upadhyaya to Ochterlony's camp with a copy of the Sugauli treaty bearing the seal of the Maharaja."
  9. Whelpton, A History of Nepal (2005), p. 42.
  10. Stephen Groves (22 September 2014). "India and Nepal Tackle Border Disputes". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on 29 March 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2017.

Bibliography
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