ABSTRACT
If Jang Bahadur comprehended the recklessness of persisting with an anti-British policy, he also understood the benefits of retaining the traditional relationship with China. With disparate remnants of the opposition on British Indian soil, the East India Company still had the capacity to undermine the new government, especially when Jang’s personal position was far from secure. Once Queen Rajya Lakshmi realized she lacked Jang’s support in her quest to appoint her own son as crown prince, she began plotting against him. Discovering the conspiracy, Jang arrested and executed the key players, stripped the queen of all powers and ordered her exiled to Benares. Citing his own remorse at the massive bloodletting, King Rajendra accompanied her, leaving Crown Prince Surendra at the helm. Jang had allowed Rajendra to leave on the undertaking that he would forfeit the throne if he failed to return within a stipulated time. From exile, however, the king sent loyalists to Kathmandu to sound out the possibility of regaining powers from Jang. Accusing the monarch of plotting to assassinate him, Jang ousted Rajendra and enthroned Surendra. Undaunted, the deposed king raised an army and headed back into Nepalese territory to regain his throne. But Rajendra’s forces were routed, and Jang’s soldiers brought the former king to Kathmandu where he would live out his life under guard. Still uncertain of his legitimacy, Jang reached out for external recognition. Sensing that Governor-General Harding was in no hurry to recognize the new regime, Jang turned his attention northward.1 The ambans normally reminded Kathmandu when the tribute mission was next due. Since no missive had arrived this time, Jang made his own inquiry.2 In June 1847, a delegation departed with the traditional gifts and petition to the emperor. Learning of the mission’s arrival in Lhasa, the emperor instructed the ambans to recognize the new Nepalese ruler.3 Thus Jang was able to win formal recognition of his rule from China before Britain.4 Meanwhile inconsistencies in Jang’s policies toward the British started to emerge. In 1848 he offered the British resident the services of eight Nepalese regiments in the war against the Sikhs, which Calcutta declined. The following year Jang granted the queen regent of Lahore asylum in Nepal.5 The fall of the Sikh kingdom eventually forced him to recognize the importance of maintaining relations with the British.
