£//JVA UR.
43 °
throne of Delhi, turned their attention to the subjugation of Rohilkhand. The Rohillas sought assistance from the Wazir of Oudh in 1772, but the Wazir betrayed their trust, and, borrowing troops from the British and the Emperor, attacked and subjugated Rohilkhand in a merciless campaign. the
territory to
The
treaty
Wazir, with the
by which the Rohillas ceded
reserved for Faiz-ulla Khan, a son of Ali at Lai
Dhang
their
Rampur State, Muhammad, was concluded
exception
of the
in this District in 1774.
This incident forms almost the only notice of Bijnaur which can be gleaned from the scanty Rohilld. and Pathan narratives. The District doubtless shared in the general
during
its
good government of Rohilkhand
independent period, while,
from
its
probably escaped in great part the desolating
The
subjugation.
the
general
high
large state
number
of considerable
of cultivation,
prosperity in this isolated nook.
northern position, effects of the
Musalman
it
war of
towns, and
both point to long-continued
Bijnaur was ceded to the British,
with the neighbouring southern country, in
1801.
Up
till
1817,
it
formed a part of Moradabad District, being known as the Northern Division, but in that year it was erected into a separate charge. The administrative head-quarters were originally fixed at Nagi'na, the largest town of the District, but were removed to Bijnaur in 1824, both on account of its superior sanitary conditions and its proximity to the important military station at Meerut. The only event of note between the British occupation and the Mutiny was the defeat of Amir Khan of Tonk, near Afzalgarh, in 1803, by the British troops under Colonel Skinner, founder of the well-known landowning family. The news of the Meerut outbreak reached Bijnaur on May 13, 1857. The Rurki (Roorkee) sappers mutinied and reached Bijnaur on the 19th, but they passed on without creating any disturbance, and the District remained quiet till the ist of June. On that date, the Nawab of Najibabad appeared at Bijnaur with 200 armed Pathans. On the 8th, after the outbreaks at Bareilly and Moradabad, the European officers quitted Bijnaur, and reached Rurki on the nth. The Nawab at once proclaimed himself as ruler, and remained in power till the 6th August,
when the Hindus of the District rose against the Musalman authority and defeated him for the time. On the 24th, the Muhammadans The latter attacked their returned in force and drove out the Hindus. conquerors again on the i8th of September, but without success, and Our troops the Nawdb ruled unopposed until the 17th April 1858. then crossed the Ganges, and utterly defeated the rebels at Nagina on the 2ist. British authority was immediately re-established, and has not since been disturbed. Population The Census of 1853 returned the total population of The enumeration in 1872, on an area the Bijnaur at 695,521 persons. .
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