Page:The Earl of Auckland.djvu/39

Rh Sindhia, the weak but well-meaning tenant of a throne once filled by Mádhava Ráo. In the days of Mádhava's successor, Daulat Ráo, the power of the Sindhias had been greatly curtailed by the arms and the statesmanship, first of Lord Wellesley, and afterwards of Lord Hastings. On the death of Daulat Ráo in 1827, his widow, the strong-willed Baiza-Bai, adopted the boy Jankoji as his heir, but resolved to keep the government in her own hands as long as she could. It was not until 1833 that the young prince's efforts to shake off her hated thraldom were crowned with full success.

For nine years Jankoji Sindhia did his best to keep the peace among his unruly nobles, and his overgrown army, and to prove his loyalty to the British rule. In return for his concurrence in the remodelling of the Gwalior Contingent, Lord Auckland restored to him in 1837 those districts in Khándesh which had been wrested from Daulat Ráo. He co-operated with his English neighbours in their campaign against Thags and Dakáits. In 1838 he turned back from Gwalior a mission which the ruler of Nepal had sent thither for purposes apparently hostile to the Indian Government. In the following year he arrested an envoy from Dost Muhammad, the able Amír of Kábul, against whom Lord Auckland had already declared war. It needed a stronger hand than his, however, to repress the growth of those internal disorders which, soon after his early death, compelled the armed interference of Lord Auckland's successor.