Which of the following sites were obtained by the British East India Company under the Treaty of Sugauli in 1816 ?
1. Kathmandu
2. Shimla
3. Ranikhet
4. Nainital
Select the correct answer from the cod

Question

Which of the following sites were obtained by the British East India Company under the Treaty of Sugauli in 1816 ?
1. Kathmandu
2. Shimla
3. Ranikhet
4. Nainital
Select the correct answer from the code given below :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, 2, 3 and 4. The Treaty of Sugauli closed the Anglo-Nepalese (Gurkha) War of 1814-16. It was drawn up at Sugauli in Champaran on 2 December 1815 and signed and ratified on 4 March 1816, which is why the question dates it to 1816. Under it Nepal surrendered its entire western expansion: the whole Tarai, the lowlands between the Kali and the Rapti, and all the hill territory west of the Kali (Mahakali) river — that is, Kumaon and Garhwal and the hill tract running on towards the Sutlej. Ranikhet and Nainital lie in Kumaon and Shimla in the hills the Gorkhas had to give up, so all three sites passed into the East India Company's sphere. Kathmandu did not. Nepal kept its capital and its independence; the single concession it made there was to accept a permanent British Resident. Hence 2, 3 and 4.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) It puts Kathmandu on the list. Nepal was never annexed and never ceded its capital — the treaty explicitly left its government intact, subject only to a British Resident being stationed there. That single word 'Resident' is what this option confuses with conquest.  (c) The most tempting wrong answer: it correctly rejects Kathmandu but stops the cession at Kumaon (Ranikhet, Nainital). The treaty's western surrender did not stop there — it covered the hill country beyond Garhwal from which the Gorkhas were expelled, including the Shimla hills, which is why the official key keeps Shimla in.  (d) It names the one site that was certainly NOT obtained and rejects the three that were. Kathmandu remained Nepal's capital throughout, and Nepal was never a British possession.

Concept: Gorkha Nepal expanded hard in the decades after 1768, taking Kumaon in 1790 and Garhwal in 1804 and pushing west towards the Sutlej and east into Sikkim. That expansion ran into the East India Company's northern frontier and produced the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16, in which Ochterlony's campaign eventually broke Gorkha resistance in the western hills. The Treaty of Sugauli then fixed a settlement that has lasted: Nepal stayed sovereign but lost its conquests and accepted a British Resident, while the ceded Himalayan foothills became the base for colonial cantonments and hill stations.

State PCS 2025 Q2 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q2 — History PYQ with Answer