Surji-Arjungaon, Treaty of

▪ Indian history

      (Dec. 30, 1803), settlement between the Marāṭhā chief Daulat Rāo Sindhia and the British, the result of Lord Lake's campaign in upper India in the first phase of the second Marāṭhā war (Marāṭhā Wars) (1803–05).

      Lake captured Alīgarh and defeated Sindhia's French-trained army at Delhi and Laswarī (September-November 1803). By this treaty the Mughal emperor Shāh ʿĀlam II passed under British protection; the Yamuna-Ganges doab (territory between the rivers), Āgra, and Sindhia's territories in Gohad and Gujarāt were entrusted to the British East India Company; and Sindhia's control over Rājasthān was relaxed. In addition, Sindhia received a British resident and signed a defensive treaty.

      In November 1805 this treaty was revised by the acting governor-general, Sir George Barlow, in accordance with the London policy of withdrawal. Gwalior and Gohad were restored to Sindhia, the defensive treaty abrogated, and the East India Company's protectorate over Rājasthān withdrawn. On Nov. 5, 1817, the treaty was again revised under pressure from the British on the eve of the third Marāṭhā war. Sindhia promised to help the British against the Pindari marauders and surrendered his rights in Rājasthān. Shortly afterward, British treaties of protection were concluded with 19 Rajput states.

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