ABSTRACT
By 1849, the British government in India was able to destroy the last substantial independent Indian power and establish control over the subcontinent. British rule in the Indian subcontinent was maintained through a combination of political co-option and coercion. At times, the indigenous social groups were forced to collaborate with the Raj due to pressure exerted by the British-Indian military. The peripheral regions of the British-Indian empire (north-west and north-east India) gave most of the trouble to the British. Terrain, historical context and the cultural characteristics of the people in those frontier regions resulted in more or less continuous uprisings against the British government. In response, the British launched repeated ‘butcher and bolt’ expeditions.
