A History of Assam c21.58

c21.58

During the unsettled conditions which prevailed for some time after the Burmese war, the Raja of Jaintia encroached considerably on the southern border of the Nowgong district; and between 1830 and 1832 he was repeatedly called upon to remove an outpost which he had established without authority at Chappar Mukh, at the confluence of the Kopili and Doyang rivers. He evaded compliance, but before any coercive measures had been taken a fresh cause of dispute arose. In 1832 the Raja of Gobha, in the west of Nowgong, one of the petty chieftains dependent on Jaintia, acting under the orders of his suzerain, seized four British subjects, three of whom were afterwards immolated at the shrine of the Goddess Kālī. The fourth escaped and gave information of the occurrence. At this juncture Raja Rām Singh died, and was succeeded by his nephew, Rājendra Singh. For two years the Government endeavoured to induce him to give up the perpetrators of the outrage, and reminded him of the consequences of refusal, and of the solemn warnings which had been given on previous occasions when similar attempts had been made on the lives of British subjects in the district of Sylhet. The young Raja, however, was obdurate, and at last, failing to obtain satisfaction, it was resolved to dispossess him of his territory in the plains.