The coming of the British to Saurashtra:

When India became free, there were over 200 princely States in Saurashtra alone! It would be interesting to know how the British made inroads into Saurashtra and gained supremacy over the States in Saurashtra. The following excerpts from the book ‘Saurashtra no itihas – 1807 - 1948’ (History of Saurashtra), by A.V. Jani, published by Darshak Itihas Nidhi (Darshak history fund), gives some idea of the same.

“…In the 18^th century, first the Mughals and then the Marathas, in order to collect Khndni (tribute) from Saurashtra, instead of keeping a permanent army [in the region], adopted the system of Chadai - invasion with army. This system was called Mulakgiri…

…The army of the Gaekwad came often to Saurashtra to collect Khndni (tribute/money)…

…By 1770, the Maratha rule had been established in Gujarat. As per the treaty of distribution of regions between Peshwa and Gaekwad, the work of collecting Khndni was done by their collective armies. Many a times they would invade every year…they had also increased the amount of Khndni a lot, they used to collect Khndni with force and threats…the Sates that refused to give Khndni or opposed used to be destroyed by them…

…The expense to maintain an army for such invasions was very high…the Mulakgiri army turned the regions through which it passed barren and the farmers suffered heavy losses… the sole purpose of the Maratha Mulakgiri army was to collect maximum Khndni… as a result, for the people [of Saurashtra] it was ‘pay up or invite destruction.’…

 …The British Government was aware that a large portion of the income of the Gaekwad was the Khndni collected from Saurashtra. [It so happened that] A part of the Khndni amount due to the Gaekwad remained outstanding. To collect that, help of British army was needed. Therefore they [Gaekwad] entered into a treaty with the British Government and kept three platoons of British auxiliary army and had also decided to send one platoon to Saurashtra if required…

…earlier too…in 1771, the British East India Company with the help of the Bhavnagar Maharaja had defeated the pirates of Talaja…in 1800 as per the British guarantee, collection of Peshwa’s Khndni from Ahmedabad and Saurashtra was given exclusively to the Gaekwad. In the mean time, due to the Vasai treaty, the British Government power became supreme in Gujarat. With that, the British got a foot hold in Saurashtra as Gaekwad’s friend and colleague…

…by the beginning of 19^th century, the Gaekwad and the Peshwa too did not remain very effective before the wide powers of the British… 

…Likewise many of the smaller States of Saurashtra for having suffered due to the army of the Peshwa and Gaekwad who collected Khndni and also fearful of the atrocities by the bigger States like Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Jamnagar, had requested the British company to provide protection and rescue them from such unjust - oppressive situation… 

…in 1807, it was found that getting involved in the matters of  Saurashtra was beneficial to the British and so Mumbai’s British Government gave them [British] permission to go to Saurashtra…

…Keeping in mind various scenarios, it was decided in 1807 that British resident Col. Walker along with British army and Gaekwad’s army with its commander in chief Vitthalrao would go to Saurashtra. The right to decide how much Khndni should each State of Saurashtra pay…was given to Col. Walker…  

…The Maratha army of the Gaekwad and the British army under the leadership of Col. Walker came to Saurashtra in the year 1807 and they made  continues efforts for a year to enter into a treaty regarding collection of Khndni with the royalty of Saurashtra and in the end, in the month of May 1808, they met with success…

…as per the special rules of inheritance of the Rajputs the total of Khndiya Kings was coming to153 [153 States liable to pay Khndni]…The treaty regarding the payment of Khndni with the 153 talukedars [revenue officers] is known as Walker treaty…with this treaty the total amount of Khndni [tribute to be paid every year] was Rs.9, 79,882 [there is no mention of how much of this was the share of the British]…

…Like this, with the exception of two States from all of Saurashtra, all the other states paid Khndni to the Gaekwad. These two States were Diu under the Portuguese and Jafrabad under the rule of Sidis of Janjira [Janjira is in today’s Maharashtra which has a famous fort]…

…Col. Walker lived in Saurashtra till the year 1809…He lived as British resident in Vadodara from 1802 to 1809…After him Capt. Kanark was appointed as the new resident of the British in Vadodara…After the departure of Col Walker, the administration of Saurashtra was under the Gaekwad’s commander in chief Vitthalrao Devaji. He was appointed as Saurashtra’s revenue commissioner…In Saurashtra the capital city of the Gaekwad was Amreli…

…Between 1807 to 1820, in the matters of larger States of Saurashtra like Porbander, Bhavnagar, Junagadh and Jamnagar, there remained interference of the Gaekwad and the British power and the situation was such that only with the help of the collective armies of both (British and Gaekwad) it was possible [ for the larger States] to continue to retain their own power. They had to take the help of this collective army in order to drive out their enemies from their States. Therefore the British and the Gaekwad authority had become very effective in Saurashtra. It was likely that the power and the region of anyone opposing it could be snatched away…

…In 1816, the Peshwa accepted the British’s auxiliary army project and in return for the expense of that army, gave up all their rights regarding Saurashtra through Pune treaty (1817) to the British. As per the condition of the treaty, Peshwa forfeited their rights over the Gaekwad by accepting the past dues of Rs 4 lacs and handed over their [share of] Saurashtra Khndni to the British. This is how Gaekwad became an independent King by separating from the Peshwa…

...moreover Peshwa were defeated by the British in 1818…the British became the rulers of the Peshwa States…the British became more powerful and the strength and powers of Gaekwad reduced…In spite of having collected a lot of wealth through Mulakgiri, they [Gaekwad state] had become a State with debt… a situation arose where in they too [Gaekwad] had to depend on the British mercy and help. Therefore in the end, in the year 1820, the Gaekwad gave away their right to collect Khndni from Saurashtra to the British powers...

...This is how the British became all powerful in Saurashtra. Later Junagadh too gave up its right to collect Jortalbi (tribute) to the British. As remuneration for the work of collection, the State of Junagadh gave 25% of the amount collected to the British…this is how British power became supreme in Saurashtra...

...This is how in 1820, the complete powers that Gaekwad enjoyed in Saurashtra came into the hands of the British. Therefore to look after the work of Saurashtra, the British Government established British agency in Rajkot and appointed as its first political agent Capt. R. Barnvel…

(Excerpts translated by me from Gujarati)