By Kulbhushan Kain
Historically, Dehradun was a part of the Garhwal Kingdom, which was founded by Ajai Pal around 1400 AD, (with its capital in Srinagar). He had captured all the minor principalities of the Garhwal region. At that time, Dehradun was a “far off”, largely uninhabited territory of the kingdom.
In 1757, Najib-ul-Daula, the governor of Saharanpur, (who later founded the city of Najibabad), invaded Dehradun with his army of Rohillas and ruled here briefly. When he died, in 1760, his successors could not hold on to it.
Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Garhwal headquartered in Srinagar, became progressively weak due to many reasons – the least being the internal politics which pulled it in opposite directions. This attracted the rulers of Nepal and, very soon, they started fishing in its troubled and dirty waters.
Sensing trouble and imminent attack, the King of Garhwal, Pradyuman Shah, decided to transfer his documents and valuables, including his gold throne, jewellery, and the plate of Badri/Kedar temples out of Srinagar to Dehradun. He felt that the Gorkha invasion could be stopped in the Doon Valley.
That was not to be. The Gorkha forces defeated the forces of Pradyuman Singh at the Battle of Khurbura in 1804. Pardyuman Singh was killed, leaving the region to be ruled by the Gorkha General, Bal Bhadra Kunwar. The Garhwal kingdom came to be merged with the kingdom of Nepal.
After the war, Pradyuman Singh’s son Sudershan Shah and his family were living near Haridwar (Jwalapur), which had become a part of British territory in 1803. It is here that an interesting turn took place.
The East India Company was playing the “big game”. They were in their early phases of expansion in India in the late 18th century and early 19th century. The once strong Mughal Empire was in a state of decay and power seekers hovered over and around it like vultures. Though the East India Company was in the ascendant, it had a force to reckon with in the Marathas. The Marathas had formed a Confederacy of the Peshwa in Poona, Holkar in Indore, Scindia in Gwalior, the Bhonsale in Nagpur, and the Gaikwad in Baroda. This brought them face to face in several wars with the British.
By 1803, the Maratha forces had by and large been defeated. In the north, Hisar, Panipat, Rohtak, Rewari, Gurgaon, the Ganga Yamuna Doab, the area around Delhi, Agra, and parts of Bundelkand came under their sway.
Importantly from the perspective of Dehradun’s history, Saharanpur and Haridwar came directly under British suzerainty. The British could now look towards Nepal and Tibet – provided they got past the Nepalese.
The forces of the East India Company and Marathas were basically made up of mercenaries. Many of them had switched sides from the Marathas to the British after the loss in the Second Anglo Maratha War in 1803. They were what came to be called “irregulars”. They however had one thing in common – competence and ambition. They watched carefully what was unfolding in the Nepalese-Garhwali conflict. At least three of them were to later share close links with Dehradun and take part in the Anglo Nepal wars.
One of them was William Gardner. Gardner had previously served the Maratha ruler of Indore. He joined the East India Company’s forces and raised the regiment known as 2nd Lancers (Gardner’s Horse). The 2nd Lancers is one of the oldest and decorated armoured regiments of the Indian Army.
The other was James Skinner – popularly called “Sikander Sahib” and also referred to as the “father of Indian Cavalry”, because he raised two cavalry regiments for the British in 1803 – the Ist and 3rd Skinner’s Horse. At the Battle of Khalanga by virtue of which the British established their foothold in Doon, there was one Rissalah of Skinner’s Horse fighting for them. Later Skinner’s descendants settled and owned properties in Dehradun and Mussoorie.
The third and very interesting one was Hyder Jung Hearsey.
Why do I find Hyder Hearsey so interesting?
I find him interesting because he actually bought Dehradun for Rupees 3005!
Who was he?
Hyder Jung (later anglicised to “Young”) Hearsey was educated in England, and at an early age followed in his father’s footsteps, being appointed a cadet in the Maratha service before his seventeenth birthday but, like other Englishmen in that service, left it after the defeat of the Marathas in 1803. He formed an army of irregulars and took part in the Anglo Nepal War in 1814. Hearsey was in command of a small body of irregulars and advanced in February 1815 from Pilibhit up the Kali into the hills, capturing Champawat in March 1815.
In 1810, much before the war, Hearsey had met Sudarshan Shah (who had escaped there after his father’s death at the battle of Khurbura) at Anjani Ghat in Haridwar. It was here that Hearsey concluded a bargain with the Raja and purchased Doon and Chandee, which were under the Gurkhas, along with ‘firmans’ which had been bestowed on the Garhwal kings by Aurangzeb. The purchase for a paltry sum of rupees 3005 was not on behalf of the East India Company – it was specific to Hearsey as per the sale deed dated 22.6.1811!
After the East India Company emerged victorious in the Anglo Gurkha War, they British reinstated Sudarshan Shah on the throne – albeit a truncated part of Garhwal. However, the East India Company retained Doon. Hyder Hearsey repeatedly asked the EIC to purchase Doon from him, which he felt was rightfully his according to a condition mentioned in the sale deed!
Nothing came out of his requests!
Hearsey, by any yardstick lived a busy and eventful outdoor life. He was also a great and enthusiastic explorer and took part in two expeditions, through the hill country and to Tibet, to discover the source of the Ganga. The first was in 1808 with Lieutenant Webb and Captain Raper. During the second, in 1812, he and William Moorcroft became the first Europeans to reach the sacred lake of Manasarovar. He was a prolific painter as well. In 1815, he created a watercolour titled “Nokoocheea Lake Kumaoon”. Around July 1812, he created a watercolour of Moorcroft and himself on the road to Lake Manasarovar. He was a rare specimen of a painter, a soldier and a warrior.
That’s why he fascinates me!
(Kulbhushan Kain is an award winning educationist with more than 4 decades of working in schools in India and abroad. He is a prolific writer who loves cricket, travelling and cooking. He can be reached at kulbhushan.kain@gmail.com)
