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Robert Boileau Pemberton
Agent to the Governor-General, Murshidabad
In office
1840–1840
British commissioner to Manipur
In office
1824–1835
Personal details
Born21 June 1798
St Nevis, West Indies
Died26 June 1840(1840-06-26) (aged 42)
Murshidabad
NationalityBritish
Parent
  • John Butler Pemberton (father)
Military service
Allegiance Great Britain
Branch/serviceBengal Native Infantry
RankCaptain

Robert Boileau Pemberton (1798–1840) was a British army officer and, later, a political officer in British India. As a Lieutenant, he was sent as a junior commander of the British-funded Manipur Levy provided to prince Gambhir Singh of Manipur. He was instrumental in evicting the Burmese from the Manipur during the First Anglo-Burmese War. Afterwards, he was appointed as a commissioner for Manipur along with Captain Grant and the two negotiated the boundary with the Burmese commissioners.[1] Pemberton demarcated the boundary between Manipur and the Kabaw Valley, which was ceded to Burma after the negotiations. It came to be known as the "Pemberton's Line". Pemberton was noted as a distinguished geographer. He surveyed the territory of Manipur and the surrounding country, and wrote a book titled Report on the Eastern Frontier of British India in 1835, which is a valuable early historical reference on the states of northeast India as well as Burma.[2][3]

Later Pemberton was sent as a special envoy to Bhutan.[4] He was appointed to the Indian Political Department in 1840 and served as the Agent to the Governor-General in Murshidabad. He died in Murshidabad.[5][3]

Early life

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Boileau Pemberton was born on 21 June 1798 to John Butler Pemberton, a barrister and later the rector of a parish in West Indies. He entered the Indian Army in 1817 and was assigned to the 44th Native Infantry.[3]

Manipur

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In 1819, the Burmese occupied Manipur, evicting its ruling prince Marjit Singh. The occupation lasted seven years. During this period, the Marjit Singh and his three brothers settled in the neighbouring Cachar and made multiple unsuccessful attempts to oust the Burmese.

After the Burmese occupied Assam and started threatening the states bordering British Bengal, the British declared war on Burma in 1824.[6] The British proceeded on two fronts: a land invasion of Assam, which commenced immediately,[7] and a naval invasion on the Burmese mainland starting in May 1824.[8]

Gambhir Singh, a brother of Marjit Singh, who was also in exile in Cacher, obtained from David Scott, the Agent to the Governor-General for Assam, an allowance to raise a force of 500 men. The force was eventually increased to 2000 men, including cavalry, infantry and artillery, under the name 'Manipur Levy'. Captain F. J. Grant was appointed as its commander, with Pemberton, then a Lieutenant, as his assistant.[9]

Along with Gambhir Singh and Pemberton, a force of 500 men left Sylhet on 17 May 1825 and arrived in the Manipur Valley on 10 June. They found that the Burmese had withdrawn and so the Valley was recaptured.[10][11] More troops were brought in in December 1825, commanded by Captain Grant, and an advance was made to the Kabaw Valley. Again the Burmese forces were found to have withdrawn, and only the local forces were present. Two stockades at Tamu and Sumjok (Thaungdut) were taken, repossessing the Kabaw Valley.[12]

The Anglo-Burmese War was soon concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Yandabo, and the Burmese agreed to relinquish control over Manipur. However, it soon became clear that they did not recognize Manipur's claim to the Kabaw Valley. Grant and Pemberton were dispatched as British boundary commissioners in 1828, to decide the boundary between Manipur and Burma. The Burmese boundary commissioners claimed that the border was at the "Ningthee river" (the Manipuri name of the Chindwin River) but that it was a different river from Chindwin claimed to be west of Kabaw Valley. The British officers believed that it was an attempt at deception.[13][14][15]

A joint survey was then proposed for the following year, but the Burmese commissioners did not arrive. Thereafter, the British government ordered Grant and Pemberton to fix the boundary to the west of Chindwin. They did so, erecting boundary pillars. They also ordered all the Burmese subjects living in the disputed area to leave by 25 June 1930 or become Manipuri subjects.[16]

Meanwhile, the British sent Major Henry Burney as the Resident to Burma, who discovered, upon his arrival at Ava, that tensions were very high regarding the Kabaw Valley. Upon his request, Pemberton was sent to Ava to represent Manipur's case. Pemberton took with him the Manipur chronicle as well as the Manipuri translation of a Shan chronicle (presumably that of Pong). There followed long and tedious discussions regarding the respective claims of the two states to the disputed valley.[17]

Henry Burney conducted his own study of the Burmese records and became convinced of the Burmese claim. In the eventual memorandum sent to the British governor-general, he stated that the Kabaw Valley was in the possession of Burmese kings since 1370 and that, for 12 years prior to the outbreak of the war, it was in continuous Burmese possession. Further, he interpreted the Treaty of Yandabo to mean that Manipur was entitled to recover only those territories that it possessed before the conflict.[18][19] Based on the force of Burney's argument as well as the apparent seriousness of the Burmese claim, the governor-general acceded to the cession of Kabaw Valley to Burma. [20] The transfer took place on 9 January 1834.[21] Grant and Pemberton were dispatched to define the boundary between Manipur and Burma along the Yomadong range, where it still lies. Manipur was compensated by the British government for the loss of its territory by an annual payment of Rs. 6,000.[15]

Pemberton Line

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A portion of the Pemberton Line, the border between Manipur and Kabaw Valley

Pemberton was sent instructions to define the boundary in November 1834, along with Captain Grant, to lie at the foot of the Yomadong range (called Maring Hills in Manipur), which lies immediately to the west of Kabaw Valley. They were met by the Burmese commissioners, who requested further adjustments, which were firmly denied. The Burmese also objected to the Moreh thannah, which was very close to the proposed boundary. They were told that Manipur had as much right to establish posts on its side of the boundary as the Burmese had to their side. The Burmese also asked for consultation with the tribes living on the eastern slope of the Yomadong range, which was also denied for being inconsistent with the instructions of the British government. Eventually the boundary was laid down and agreement prepared, along with a Burmese translation. Upon Burmese request, a note was added at the bottom stating that a "small strip of country between the eastern base of the Yoma Doung range and the Muring Hills" would be later addressed by the Burmese ministers. But the court of Ava accepted the boundary as laid down.[22]

The agreement also included a line to serve as portion of the southern boundary of Manipur, which came to be called "Pemberton's imaginary line". Pemberton's inquiries showed that the southern boundary of Kabaw Valley was at a river called Numsailung by Manipuris (Namsaweng in Burmese and Tuipu in Kuki-Chin). So he included in the agreement an imaginary line running west from the point where Numsailung enters the plains, across the mountains up to the Manipur River. In reality much of this territory was under the control of Chin tribes at that time, and it was not part of Manipur.[23] But it did influence the British thinking in later times and, when a proper boundary between Manipur and Chin Hills was defined in 1894, it was drawn very close to Pemberton's imaginary line.[24]

References

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  1. ^ Mackenzie, Relations with the Hill Tribes (2012), pp. 177–178.
  2. ^ Markham, Clements R. (2023), Memoir on the indian surveys, BoD – Books on Demand, p. 84, ISBN 9783382136055
  3. ^ a b c Eastern Frontier of India (Book announcement), Mittal Publications, 6 September 2018 – via e-pao.net
  4. ^ "Political Missions to Bootan (Book blurb)". Library of Congress. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  5. ^ Calcutta Monthly Journal and General Register, 1840, p. 27
  6. ^ Banerjee, The Eastern Frontier of British India (1946), p. 319.
  7. ^ Banerjee, The Eastern Frontier of British India (1946), p. 330.
  8. ^ Banerjee, The Eastern Frontier of British India (1946), p. 359.
  9. ^ Johnstone, Manipur and the Naga Hills (1896), p. 85.
  10. ^ Banerjee, The Eastern Frontier of British India (1946), pp. 345–347.
  11. ^ Tarapot, Bleeding Manipur (2003), pp. 123–124.
  12. ^ Banerjee, The Eastern Frontier of British India (1946), pp. 347–348.
  13. ^ Hall, Henry Burney (1974), pp. 186–.
  14. ^ Tarapot, Bleeding Manipur (2003), pp. 222–223.
  15. ^ a b Upper Chindwin District Gazetteer (1913), p. 12.
  16. ^ Hall, Henry Burney (1974), pp. 186–187, 212–213.
  17. ^ Hall, Henry Burney (1974), pp. 214–.
  18. ^ Banerjee, The Eastern Frontier of British India (1946), pp. 492–493.
  19. ^ Hall, Henry Burney (1974), p. 245: "On the second point Burney explained that the Burmese chronicle known as the Mahayazawindawgyi Oater (to be called by the British The Glass Palace Chronicle), which covered Burmese history up to 1821, showed that the valley had been in Burmese possession since 1370, though during the wars with the Shans in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it had been often overrun. There were also stone inscriptions supporting the Burmese claim.... On the fourth point he said the Burmese had had undisputed possession of the valley for twelve years prior to the Anglo-Burmese war, and although during the war it had been conquered by the Manipuris, the stipulation in the treaty of Yandabo that the Raja of Manipur should recover his territories applied only to those which he had held before the war.".
  20. ^ Hall, Henry Burney (1974), p. 246.
  21. ^ Banerjee, The Eastern Frontier of British India (1946), p. 493.
  22. ^ Mackenzie, Relations with the Hill Tribes (2012), pp. 183–184.
  23. ^ Pau, Indo-Burma Frontier (2019), pp. 159–160.
  24. ^ Pau, Indo-Burma Frontier (2019), pp. 161–163.

Bibliography

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