AKHBAR LUDHIANA, a weekly newspaper in Persian sponsored by the British North-West Frontier Agency at Ludhiana in November 1834. The paper, a four page sheet initially, but doubling its size within two years, started printing at the American Missionary Press, Ludhiana, shifting to the Pashauri Mall Press, Ludhiana, in June 1841. Three years later it ceased publication. It had a small circulation mainly determined by the requirements of the East India Company\'s government. The name of the editor or subscription rates were nowhere mentioned. The Akhbar carried news furnished by English news printers from various parts of the Punjab.
ANNEXATION OF THE PUNJAB to British dominions in India in 1849 by Lord Dalhousie, the British governor general, which finally put an end to the sovereignty of the Sikhs over northwestern India, was the sequel to a chain of events that had followed the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh ten years earlier. Internal dissensions and treachery had caused the defeat of the Sikh army at the hands of the British in the first Anglo Sikh war (1845-46). When on 16 December 1846, the Lahore Darbar was forced to sign the treaty of Bhyrowal (Bharoval), the kingdom of the Punjab was made a virtual British protectorate.
AUCKLAND, GEORGE EDEN, EARL OF (1784-1849), Governor General of India, son of William Eden, First Baron of Auckland, was born at Eden Farm, near Beckenham, in Kent, in August 1784. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the bar at Lincoln`s Inn in 1809. From 1810-13, he represented Woodstock in Parliament. He served as President of the Board of Trade from 1830-34. In 1834, he became the First Lord of Admiralty under Lord Melbourne, who sent him out in April 1836 to India as governor general.
BHATRAS (the term bhatra appears to be a diminutive of the Sanskrit bhatta, a bard), an endogamous and tightly knit group among the Sikhs with peddling and fortunetelling as their principal occupations. More than one story is current about their origin. However, the Bhatras themselves trace it to Baba Changa Rai of Sangladip (Ceylon), who was admitted as a disciple by Guru Nanak during his journey to the South. His name figures in the old text Haqiqat Rah Mukam Raje Shivanabh Ki. Changa Rai, himself a devout Sikh with a substantial following, added the suffix "Bhatra" to his name.