Treaty of Amritsar, 1809

Who: Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore and Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, for the East India Company. The Governor-General, Lord Minto, ratified it.

What: From 1806 Ranjit Singh had crossed the Sutlej to collect tribute from the Malwa chiefs, and by autumn 1808 he was reported to have decided to take the whole country south of the river. That year Minto sent Metcalfe with an offer of alliance against a supposed French invasion under Napoleon. Metcalfe met Ranjit Singh at Khem Karan near Kasur on 12 September 1808. Ranjit Singh doubted the French threat and would cooperate only if the British recognised his paramountcy over the Majha and Malwa Sikhs. He crossed the Sutlej and took territory on the left bank, with Metcalfe following him. As the French danger faded, the British told him that they had taken the Sikh chiefs south of the Sutlej under their protection. David Ochterlony moved to Ludhiana with a force, and Ranjit Singh began military preparations. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism's treaty entry calls him Colonel, but its entry on Ochterlony says he was promoted colonel only in January 1812 and major-general in June 1814, and Wikipedia dates his appointment as lieutenant colonel to early 1803. The treaty was signed at Amritsar on 25 April 1809 and ratified on 30 May. Its four articles promised perpetual friendship, treated Lahore as one of the most favoured powers, and bound the British to have no concern with Ranjit Singh's territories and subjects north of the Sutlej. On the left bank he could keep only the troops needed for internal duties and was not to encroach on the neighbouring chiefs. If either side broke the terms, the treaty became void.

Where: Amritsar.

Why it mattered: The treaty stopped Ranjit Singh's expansion at the Sutlej, so the Majha and Malwa Sikhs were not united in one state, although he kept the ground he already held south of the river. It left him free to turn north and west, and the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism records the occupation of Multan from 1818, the annexation of Kashmir in 1819 and the direct annexation of Peshawar in 1834. The Sutlej remained the line between the Lahore state and the Company until Ranjit Singh died on 27 June 1839. The two Anglo-Sikh wars followed, in 1845 to 1846 and 1848 to 1849.