History and information about Himachal Pradesh

The impregnable fort of Nagarkot was besieged and the garrison starved into submission by Akbar's son, Jehangir. The siege lasted fourteen months and concluded in November 1620, when the Raja's garrison surrendered along with his vast treasure. Jehangir was greatly pleased at this achievement and visited the fort a year later. He erected a mosque in the fort.

During Moghul overlordship, the hill chiefs got liberal and even generous treatment from the imperial court. They were allowed more or less independent governance of their areas as long as they paid due regard and tribute in cash to the Moghul authority. 

Aurangzebis death heralded the disintegration of the mighty Moghul empire. When bigger areas were at stake, his successors could hardly attend to far-off, insignificant hill states. Thus, hill chieftains took advantage of the situation to resume their independence. Ghamand Chand Katoch was the first to rebel and he occupied his ancestral area, Kangra. Finding no one to restrain his power he extended his influence in the neighbouring territories of Guler, Jaswan, Datarpur and Siwan. He even invaded Kulu and annexed some of its parts. Seeing the talent of this rising star, Ahmed Shah Abdali during his last invasion appointed him the deputy governor of Jullundur and the adjoining hill areas. Ghamand Chand utilized his new position to full advantage and ex-tended his control over Jullundur, Nurpur, Guler, Nandi, Suket, and parts of Kulu, Chamba, and Kota Kehloor. 

The expansionist activities of Raja Ghamand Chand could not continue for long. jassa Singh, Chief of the Ramgarhia Sikh Mist, subdued him and in 1770, forced him to pay tribute. Gham and Chand's star was no longer in ascendant, but with his daring, cunning, diplomacy and treachery he paved the way for the rise of the Katoch power in Kangra and the adjoining hill areas. Ghamand Chand died in 1773. 

During Ghamand Chand's time the famous Kangra fort had remained in the hands of the Muslim governor, Nawab Saif Ali Khan, who frequently alternated his allegiance between Delhi and Kabul as dictated by circumstances. He died in 1774, and Sansar Chand, grandson of Ghamand Chand, finding the time opportune, requested Jai Singh of the Kanahiya Misl, who had by now overpowered Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, to help him take the fort. Jai Singh marched to Kangra at the head of a large force and by threat, cajolery and bribery got the fort vacated from Jiwan Khan, son of the deceased Nawab. But he decided to keep the prize for himself. Then ensued the long struggle between Sansar Chand and the Ramgarhia chief which ended in a compromise reached through the good offices of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The fort was to be handed over to Sansar Chand but the war equipment in it was to be given to Jai Singh. 

After the occupation of the fort, Sansar Chand em-barked on a career of expansion. He took possession of Rohlu from Chamba after a battle. Later he extended his power over Kotlehar, Suket, Mandi, Kulu, Jaswan, Siwan, Guler, Patanpur, and Bilaspur. By 1790, Sansar Chand rose to the apex of his power having defeated most of the hill chiefs, subjugating many of them, except those in the Shimla hills. 

In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Gurkhas under the command of their capable and ambitious commander, Amar Singh Thapa, after establishing their authority between Yamuna and Sutlej, attacked Kangra in 1805. Thapa with the help of other hill chiefs, who wanted to avenge themselves on Sansar Chand, laid siege to the fort. Sansar Chand sought help from Maharaja Ranjit Singh who wanted the fort as the price for his assistance. Much double-crossing followed between Raja Sansar Chand, Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Amar Singh Thapa. Finally, the astute Sikh warrior got the better of both, the Raja and the Gurkha general. Amar Singh Thapa retreated but came in conflict with the new rising power of the British in Shimla hills and lost. Maharaja Ranjit Singh annexed Kangra and then ex-tended his influence over many adjoining hill principalities. Jaswan and Datarpur were annexed by him. Nurpur, Siwan, Chamba, Mandi, Kulu, Bilaspur and Guler were made to pay tribute. Sansar Chand protested in the name of old treaties but in vain and was asked to pay an annual tribute of Rs. 2 lakhs by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He died a broken man in 1824, and thus ended his effort to carve out an independent Hindu kingdom in Himachal. 

Sansar Chand was the greatest patron of arts among the hill princes but was checkmated in his efforts to integrate the hill states under a single banner by the intrigues of the petty chieftains and by the rising power of the Sikhs under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Gurkhas under Amar Singh Thapa, while the freshly emerging British power in India watched the struggle for power in the hills from Shimla, which besides being their summer resort was also a window to the events taking place beyond the western bank of Sutlej. 

The English entered the hills in the wake of the Anglo-Gurkha Wars. The rising Gurkha power had in its expansion come into contact with the British dominion in their ill-defined and vague northern frontiers in the Terai areas. The conflicting interest of the Gurkhas and the English had made a resort to arms inevitable in 1814. While the hostilities first broke out in Butwal, Uttar Pradesh, in May the chieftains of hill states in areas east of Sutlej some of whom had been deposed and others ruthlessly oppressed by the Gurkhas, offered co-operation to the British against Amar Singh Thapa. Then followed a brilliant campaign led on the English side by Major General Ochterlony in which he was aided by Bushahar, Hindur Kehlur, Sirmur, Kulu and other hill states. Amar Singh Thapa suffered reverses. Later, a treaty was signed at Sagauli in November A.D. 1815, according to which Gurkhas abandoned all claims to these hill areas. The British had arrived on the scene.

The English restored the rulers to their states, Baghal, Hindur, Bilaspur, Bushahar and Sirmur which had come wholly or partly under the occupation of the Gurkhas. They, however, kept some areas of strategic importance with them. Shimla and some other hill stations and cantonments are the products of the Gurkha War. From now onwards the hill states between east of Sutlej and the west of Jamuna passed under the protection of the British who extracted huge sums from them as their contribution towards the expenses of war. These were named later as the Shimla Hill states by the paramount British Power which settled their quarrels and intervened in their affairs whenever necessary.

West of Sutlej was, however, a different story. The hill states there were under the influence of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Their relationship with the British was neighbourly, though at times some of the chieftains sought refuge with them from the Sikh terror. Sometimes the British, on request from the Rajas who had taken refuge with them would take up their matters with Maharaja Ranjit Singh who, desirous of keeping friendly relations with the rising imperial power, mostly agreed to their remonstrations. 

The Anglo-Sikh Wars, which took place after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, however, changed the entire con-text. In 1845, when the leaderless, ungovernable and intrepid Khalsa army crossed the Sutlej and attacked the territory under the British, the rulers of most of the hill states beyond the western bank of the Sutlej who were much harassed by the policy of annexation and extortion pursued by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, willingly offered help to the British. Finding the Sikhs locked in conflict on the Sutlej front against the British in the plains, the hill chiefs also took possession of the posts and territories then occupied by the retainers of the Sikhs.

Some of the rulers through their agents secretly ten-dered allegiance to the British even before the First Sikh War ended with the Treaty of Lahore on 9 March 1846. According to this treaty, the Sikhs ceded to the British all territories to the left of Sutlej together with the Jullundur Doab areas lying between Sutlej and Beas.

The rulers of the hill states reasonably expected a fair if not a generous deal at the hands of the British whom they had lent moral and material support during the conflict. They had thought that they would be treated like the Shimla hill chieftains and confirmed in their respective hereditary charges. Instead of the liberal warrior, Lord Hastings, who was the Governor General during the Gurkha War, India's destiny was now governed by the economist Lord Hardinge, who could not let go any opportunity that added to the Company's exchequer. Instead of restoring their territories to the hill chiefs, the British decided to retain these themselves.

The states of Kangra, Guler, Jaswan, Datarpur, Nurpur, Suket„ Mandi, Kulu and Chamba came under the control of the British. 

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