DALHOUSIE MUNIMENTS,

DALHOUSIE MUNIMENTS, a classified and catalogued collection of Lord Dalhousie`s official, demi official and private papers and diaries, preserved at the Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh. These are a part of the vast collection of Dalhousie papers which were deposited in the Scottish Record Office in 1951, and placed in the Gifts and Deposits series.

These documents include Lord Dalhousie`s private correspondence with Sir George Couper, known as Coulston House Papers, containing his frank opinions on various policy matters and events leading to the second Anglo Sikh war resulting in the annexation of the Punjab; private correspondence on Punjab affairs with Abbott, Whish, Littler, the Lawrences and others; military minutes (1848-49); correspondence with the Board of Control ; letters from Sir Henry Lawrence, Lord Gough and Sir Frederick Currie: excerpts from Major Edwardes` diary concerning Multan; financial accounts of the Lahore Darbar; and paper relating to the return of troops engaged in the Punjab (1849).

The Dalhousie Muniments deal mainly with the second Anglo Sikh war (1849) and the annexation of the Punjab. These papers show how the minor Multan revolt in April 1848 was declared by Lord Dalhousie to be a major calamity, how immediate military operations were designedly postponed, and how a national reparation demanded from the State of Lahore. Immediately afterwards, “conspiracies” were unearthed, the Maharani of the Sikhs deported, and the Commander-in-Chief directed to organize a military preparation for a full scale invasion of the Punjab.

References :

1. Hasrat, BJ., ed.. The Punjab Papers. Hoshiarpur, 1970