nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47Despite General Fane’s appeal not to encumber the army with ‘large estab
lishments’, officers had wholeheartedly embraced the adage that ‘an army
marches on its stomach’ and were determined that if they were going to
war, they would do so in style. Among the ‘essentials’ they took with them
were fine wines, cigars, potted meats and silver tableware, eau de cologne,
bath tubs and whole suites of furniture. The 16th Lancers took a pack of
foxhounds, while General Cotton had a horse and buggy and requisitioned
260 camels to carry his personal baggage and that of his servants. It was
not so much an army going to war as one vast imperial picnic.
Prior to the Southern Field Force setting out, Burnes and Henry
Pottinger were sent to negotiate with the Amirs of Sind to secure the
passage over the Indus. Before they set out, Macnaghten reminded them
again that their personal animosity must not interfere with their public
duty. Less than a year earlier, Pottinger had signed a treaty that made Sind
a British Protectorate, assuring the amirs that the Indus would remain
demili tarized and that Britain would not interfere in Sind’s internal affairs.
This treaty was now effectively torn up as the Indus became a military
highway, while the amirs’ worst fears about British imperial objectives,
first precipitated by Burnes’s survey, were now confirmed. Britain’s amoral
dealings with the Amirs of Sind were then extended to other erstwhile allies
that lay along the line of advance. As Kaye, the great imperial historian of
the First Afghan War, noted:
The system now to be adopted was one of universal intimidation
and coercion. Along the whole line of country which the armies
were to traverse, the will and pleasure of the British Government
was to be the only principle of action recognisable in all our trans
actions with the weaker States, which were now to be dragooned
into prompt obedience. Their cooperation was not to be sought,
but demanded. Anything short of hearty acquiescence was to be
interpreted into a national offence. 66Burnes ‘persuaded’ the Amir of Khairpur to make his territory a British
Protectorate and to cede the strategic island fortress of Bukkur, which
commanded the ford over the Indus and was the gateway to Shikapur.
Pottinger, meanwhile, informed Nur Muhammad Khan of Hyderabad that
if he failed to comply with British demands for safe passage and assistance
with supplying the army he would be ‘annihilated’. Pottinger also secured
a promise that in future there would be no more tolls charged to shipping
or trade caravans crossing the Indus. Nur Muhammad Khan was also fined