Treaty of Sugauli


The Treaty of Sugauli, the treaty that established the boundary line of Nepal, was signed on 2December 1815 and ratified by 4 March 1816 between the East India Company and Raj Guru Gajaraj Mishra with Chandra Shekhar Upadhaya for Nepal following the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16. The treaty represented a Nepali surrender to the British and contained the cession of Nepal's western territory to the British East India Company.

Background

Following the Unification of Nepal under Prithvi Narayan Shah, Nepal attempted to enlarge its domains, conquering much of Sikkim in the east and, in the west, the basins of Gandaki and Karnali and the Uttarakhand regions of Garhwal and Kumaon. This brought them in conflict with the British, who controlled directly or indirectly the north Indian plains between Delhi and Calcutta. A series of campaigns termed the Anglo-Nepalese War occurred in 1814–1816. In 1815 the British general Ochterlony evicted the Nepalese from Garhwal and Kumaon across the Kali River, ending their 12-year occupation, which is remembered for its brutality and repression.
Octherlony offered peace terms to the Nepalese demanding British suzerainty in the form of a protected state and the delimitation of Nepal's territories corresponding roughly to its present day boundaries. The Nepalese refusal to accede to the terms led to another campaign the following year, targeting the Kathmandu Valley, after which the Nepalese capitulated.

Terms

Historian John Whelpton writes:

Ongoing disputes

Among the border dispute of the Indo-Nepal boundary, the most significant are in the Susta and Kalapani regions. The two regions cover some 40 km of the Indo-Nepal border.