ABSTRACT
Prior to the year 1857 the British authorities had assumed that the Jat, ‘the pillar of the state’, would stand by the British, since no group had benefitted more obviously from the pax Britannica and the extension of canal irrigation. The King tried to stop violence through a proclamation, because in the town pro-British baniahs and Kayasthas had become targets of all the freedom fighters. Tremendous efforts were made in late July to consolidate both pro and anti-British forces to confront each other in the Hisar district. On the 23rd William Ford, present at the Delhi camp, was sent to Hisar, and since the troops were being supplied by the Punjab, he was put under John Lawrence. It was confirmed that Ford had started for Hisar, temporarily made over to the Punjab and reported in Delhi camp that Cortlandt’s force was tranquilizing the country. Yet people were giving trouble.
