IOR/L/PS/5/146

The volume contains manuscript copies of secret letters, despatches, memoranda, translations of letters, intelligence reports, financial statements, and other papers relating to diplomatic, military, and logistical aspects of the British-led invasion of Afghanistan in 1839 by the so-called Army of the Indus.

The principal correspondents include: Lord George Eden, Earl of Auckland, Governor-General of India; William Hay Macnaghten, Envoy and Minister to Shah Shooja ool Moolk [Shujā’ al-Mulk Durrāni]; Thomas Herbert Maddock, Secretary to the Governor-General of India; Sir John Keane, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of India; Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alexander Burnes, Envoy to Kelat; Andrew Ross Bell, Political Agent, Upper Sind [Sindh] (also spelled Scinde or Sinde); Henry Whitelock Torrens, Secretary to the Government of India; Henry Pottinger, Resident in Sind; and George R Clerk, Officiating Political Agent, Loodhiana [Ludhiana].

Other correspondents include several more British military and political officers, as well as regional rulers, such as: Captain T J Nuthall, Deputy Assistant Commissary General; Lieutenant-Colonel R Macdonald, Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief; A C Gordon, Assistant Political Agent, Dera Ismael Khan [Dera Ismail Khan]; William Beveridge Thomson, Deputy Assistant Commissary General, Bhawulpore [Bahawalpur]; Muzhur Ullee, News Writer at Belaspore [Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh]; Lieutenant-Colonel James Stuart, Secretary to the Government of India, Military Department; Sir Henry Fane, Commander-in-Chief, East Indies; the Military Board; L R Reed, Acting Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay [Mumbai]; Lieutenant Colonel W Spiller, Commanding the Sinde Reserve, at Karachee [Karachi]; Raja [Maharaja] Ratan Singh of Bukaneer [Bikaner]; Shah Shooja ool Moolk; Henry Montgomery Lawrence, Assistant Political Agent, Loodhiana; Captain J D Bean, Political Agent, Quetta; Captain William Joseph Eastwick, Political Agent, Shikarpore [Shikarpur]; Captain H Johnson, Paymaster, Candahar [Kandahar]; William Griffith, Assistant Surgeon, Madras Establishment; and George H MacGregor, Political Assistant and Officiating Military Secretary to the British Envoy and Minister, Cabool [Kabul].

Matters covered by the papers are many and wide-ranging, but include: British authority and administration in the Upper Provinces and along the Northwestern Frontier; honours given by the Shah to British Officers; military logistics and planning; security along the Bolan Pass; the fall of Ghuznee [Ghazni] (folios 16-23 for a detailed account); financial matters – accounts, expenses; proceedings of cases of theft, murder, and embezzlement; the progress of the army from Ghuznee to Cabool and the flight of Dost Mahomed Khan [Dōst Moḥammad Khān Bārakzay, Amir of Afghanistan]; the establishment of postal routes and services; matters of carriage and supply; intelligence reports, including translated copies of the 'Punjab Ukhbars' (sometimes written Akhbar), a newsletter regarding court life in the Panjab; personnel matters such as pay, promotion, transferral, and dismissal; the destruction of tombs at Sukhur [Sukkur]; relations with the rulers of Upper Sind and the Panjab; and the capture of the fort at Ally Musjid [Ali Musjid].