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 :
- (a)1 and 2
- (b)2, 3 and 4
- (c)Only 3 and 4
- (d)Only 1
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.
- (a)1 and 2 — 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)Only 3 and 4 — 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)Only 1 — 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.
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.
The trap here is the assumption that a war ends with the loser's capital changing hands. It rarely does in South Asia, and it did not here — the British extracted territory on the periphery and influence at the centre, exactly the pattern of Subsidiary Alliance-era diplomacy. Note also the date: the treaty was drafted in December 1815 but only signed and ratified on 4 March 1816, so both years appear in different books; UPPSC uses 1816. One more nuance worth carrying honestly: the towns themselves were built later on the ceded land — Shimla grew from the 1820s and became the summer capital of British India in 1864, Nainital developed as a hill station from 1841, and Ranikhet was laid out as a cantonment in 1869. What 1816 transferred was the territory, not the towns.
- Anglo-Nepalese (Gurkha) War 1814-16; Treaty of Sugauli drafted 2 December 1815, signed and ratified 4 March 1816
- Nepal ceded the whole Tarai, the lowlands between the Kali and Rapti rivers, and all hill territory west of the Kali — Kumaon and Garhwal among them
- Nepal retained Kathmandu and its sovereignty; the only intrusion allowed was a permanent British Resident in the capital
- Sugauli lies in Champaran district of present-day Bihar
- The war opened the door to Gurkha recruitment into the Company's army, which became a permanent feature of the Indian Army
- The ceded hills later carried the colonial hill stations: Shimla (summer capital of British India from 1864), Nainital (from 1841) and the Ranikhet cantonment (1869)
- Treating the acceptance of a British Resident at Kathmandu as annexation of Nepal
- Confusing the Treaty of Sugauli (Nepal, 1816) with the Treaty of Titalia (Sikkim, 1817)
- Dating the treaty only to 1815 (when it was drafted) or only to 1816 (when it was ratified) and rejecting the other year outright
UPPSC asks what a treaty transferred — which places, which rights, which year — often as a statement or pair list. UPSC prefers the consequence: what the treaty meant politically, or where it sits in the sequence of Company expansion.
Which one of the following statements does not apply to the system of Subsidiary Alliance introduced by Lord Wellesley ?
- (a) To maintain a large standing army at other’s expense
- (b) To keep India safe from Napoleonic danger
- (c) To secure a fixed income for the Company
- (d) To establish British paramountcy over the Indian States
Answer(c) To secure a fixed income for the Company
The same instrument seen from the other side. Wellesley's Subsidiary Alliance is the classic case of the Company taking paramountcy and a Resident rather than the territory itself — precisely what happened at Kathmandu in 1816, which is why statement 1 of this question fails.
Consider the following princely States of the British rule in India: 1. Jhansi 2. Sambalpur 3. Satara The correct chronological order in which they were annexed by the British is
- (a) 1, 2, 3
- (b) 1, 3, 2
- (c) 3, 2, 1
- (d) 3, 1, 2
Answer(c) 3, 2, 1
The complementary half of the topic — how the Company actually took land. Satara, Sambalpur and Jhansi went by Dalhousie's Doctrine of Lapse; Kumaon, Garhwal and the western hills went by war and treaty. Knowing which mechanism produced which acquisition is what these questions test.
With reference to the Treaty of "Aix-la-Chapelle" – 1748, which of the following statements is/are correct ? 1. The I Carnatic War was ended. 2. The English got back Madras. Select the correct answer using the codes given below.
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(c) Both 1 and 2
Structurally the identical question five years earlier: two statements about what a treaty achieved, one about the war it ended and one about the territory it moved. Aix-la-Chapelle returned Madras to the English; Sugauli moved Kumaon, Garhwal and the western hills to them.
Match List – I with List – II and select the correct answer from the codes given below the lists : List – I A. Treaty of Allahabad B. Treaty of Manglore C. Treaty of Salbai D. Treaty of Madras List – II 1. 1782 2. 1784 3. 1769 4. 1765 Codes :
- (a) A-4, B-2, C-3, D-1
- (b) A-2, B-4, C-3, D-1
- (c) A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3
- (d) A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3
Answer(c) A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3
UPPSC's habit of testing Company-era treaties by date and content. Sugauli belongs at the end of the same list — Allahabad 1765, Madras 1769, Salbai 1782, Mangalore 1784, Sugauli 1816.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Treaty of Sugauli was signed at the end of which of the following wars?
- (a)Third Anglo-Maratha War
- (b)Anglo-Nepalese War
- (c)First Anglo-Burmese War
- (d)First Anglo-Sikh War
Answer(b) Anglo-Nepalese War — fought 1814-16; the treaty was drafted at Sugauli in December 1815 and ratified in March 1816.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under the Treaty of Sugauli, what did Nepal agree to accept at Kathmandu?
- (a)A Company Governor
- (b)A permanent British Resident
- (c)A permanent British garrison
- (d)A joint Anglo-Nepalese council
Answer(b) A permanent British Resident — Nepal kept its sovereignty and its capital; the Residency was the only British presence the treaty allowed there.