A History of Assam c21.5

c21.5

The problem in the Brahmaputra valley was more difficult. Not only had the Burmese been in possession for several years, in the course of which they had overthrown most of the old administrative landmarks, but the people were split up into many conflicting parties, and the elevation of any particular pretender to the throne would have resulted, as soon as the British troops were withdrawn, in a renewal of the fatal dissensions and civil wars which had prevailed for so many years before the Burmese occupation. With the exception, therefore, of two tracts in Upper Assam, *viz.*, Sadiya and Matak, it was decided, for a time at least, to administer the country as a British province.