Sir Robert Sandeman dies at Bela on 29 January 1892

Pages from history: this piece tells the story of a day before the launch of Roznama Atemad (October 1970). It has been compiled from available historical sources.

Friday, 29 January 1892. In a camp outside Bela, the capital of Lasbela, Colonel Sir Robert Groves Sandeman, Agent to the Governor-General and Chief Commissioner in Balochistan, has been ill for six days. His fever eased a little the previous evening, but rose again this morning. Outside the tent, the Jam of Lasbela and the chiefs of the area await news. Near sunset, at the age of 56, the man whom the Imperial Gazetteer (1908) called “the founder of the present province of Balochistan” passed away.

The last journey

According to Sandeman’s biographer T. H. Thornton (1895), on 7 January he gave a function at Quetta for the children and wives of railway employees. On the morning of 9 January he set out with Lady Sandeman on a tour of Sibi, Karachi and Lasbela. On 15 January he boarded the official steamer “Patrick Stewart” at Karachi and reached Sonmiani on 16 January. From there he marched on and arrived at Bela on 22 January, where the Jam received him outside the town.

Thornton writes that the purpose of the tour was to give instructions to political officers on matters concerning the borders of Kech, Makran and Lasbela, and to meet the chiefs of Kech and Panjgur to settle pending cases. According to the Dictionary of National Biography (1897), he had also gone to settle the dispute between the Jam and his eldest son. The Lasbela Gazetteer (1907) likewise mentions tension between Jam Ali Khan and his eldest son, Mir Kamal Khan. According to Thornton, Sandeman also wanted to find out whether the area was suitable for a railway line linking Karachi directly with Quetta.

The last days

He had caught a cold on the way. According to Thornton, he stayed in bed on 23 January. The next day the doctor diagnosed influenza. His lungs were affected and he had pleurisy for some time. Even in illness, he gave instructions on pending cases to his old assistant, Rai Bahadur Hittu Ram. In one land matter he insisted that there must on no account be any “oppression”. The Jam set up a relay of horsemen to bring medicine from Karachi, 115 miles away.

On the evening of 29 January he lost consciousness. According to Thornton, his words on recovering were: “Where are the people? I cannot speak without the people.” The Jam, the chiefs and local assistants were called in. One by one they passed his bed and saluted him. He had died before the British officers arrived.

Burial at Bela

According to Thornton, it was first proposed to take the body to England, but at the Jam’s insistence it was decided to bury him in Lasbela. The Khan of Kalat wrote to Lady Sandeman that the burial should take place in England or in his state. Thornton also records that the Khan offered to send troops to bring the body to Quetta.

The burial took place at four in the afternoon on 1 February 1892, at the same spot where Sandeman had held a durbar in 1889 to announce the accession of Jam Ali Khan. According to the Lasbela Gazetteer, that ceremony took place on 21 January 1889. The coffin was draped in the Union Jack and carried by soldiers of the 1st Baloch Regiment. A 13-gun salute was fired.

Six months later the Jam had a dome built over the grave. In January 1893 a tomb of granite and white marble, sent from England by Lady Sandeman, was placed beneath it. According to the Lasbela Gazetteer, the mausoleum stands in a small garden south of the town. The inscription says he was born at Perth (Scotland) on 25 February 1835 and died in Lasbela on 29 January 1892, and that he “died as he lived, doing his duty”.

The “Sandeman system”: two views

According to the DNB, Sandeman joined the Bengal army in 1856 and became Magistrate of Dera Ghazi Khan in 1866. In 1876 he negotiated a treaty with the Khan of Kalat. From 21 February 1877 until his death he was Agent in Balochistan.

The favourable view. The Imperial Gazetteer calls his policy “conciliatory intervention”, accompanied by lucrative employment and light taxation. According to the Gazetteer, Sandeman was the first officer to break with the closed-border policy and to treat Baloch and Brahui chiefs as a means of keeping the peace. The DNB, citing Thornton, writes that his greatest achievement was changing the attitude of the Government of India towards the frontier tribes.

The critical view. According to Muhammad Fiaz Anwar (Journal of Historical Studies, 2019), the system established indirect rule by giving tumandars patronage, Levies jobs, allowances and jagirs. In this way the “egalitarian” structure of the Baloch tribes was turned into an “authoritarian” social organisation. Muhammad Naeem and Nasreen Afzal (The Dialogue, 2025) write that, with British backing, the system made the sardars equal to the Khan and ended the central role of the Khan of Kalat. The Imperial Gazetteer itself admits that a chief finds it easier to keep his place when he has outside support, and that this is “largely the secret of the Sandeman policy”.

In the world this month

• 1 January 1892, New York: Ellis Island began processing immigrants arriving in the United States.
• 7 January 1892, Egypt: Khedive Tewfik Pasha of Egypt died.
• 14 January 1892, England: The Duke of Clarence, second in line to the British throne, died. According to Thornton, Sandeman wished, during his illness, to send a message of condolence.

What happened next

• 1 February 1892: According to Thornton, a condolence meeting was held at the Sandeman School Hall in Quetta.
• 6 February 1892: The Governor-General, Lord Lansdowne, issued a notification in the Gazette of India describing his death as a public loss.
• 1892: According to the Imperial Gazetteer, General Sir James Browne succeeded him.
• Memorials: The Sandeman Memorial Hall was built in Quetta, with a little less than half its cost raised by public subscription. Fort Sandeman in Zhob, a military station selected in 1889, already bore his name.

Do you have an old photograph or document of Sandeman’s tomb at Bela, the Sandeman Hall in Quetta, or the period? Please send it to us. We will add it to this page with your name.