The province of Sind was conquered and annexed by the British in 1843 under the command of:

Sind (Sindh) was conquered and annexed by the British in 1843 under the command of General Sir Charles Napier.

Background:

• Sind was ruled by the Amirs (Mirs) of the Talpur dynasty, who had friendly relations with the British.
• The British wanted control of Sind because of its strategic position near Afghanistan and its trade route along the Indus river.
• During the First Anglo-Afghan War, the British forced the Amirs to allow British troops to pass through Sind and to pay for them, in violation of earlier treaties.
• After the war, the British demanded more concessions from the Amirs.

The conquest:

• Napier provoked a conflict and defeated the forces of the Amirs at the Battle of Miani (February 1843) and the Battle of Dabo (Hyderabad, March 1843).
• Sind was annexed to British India in 1843; Napier became its first governor.
• The Amirs were exiled.

"Peccavi":

• According to a famous story, Napier sent a one-word message: "Peccavi", which is Latin for "I have sinned" (a pun on "I have Sind").
• In fact, this pun was made by the magazine Punch, not by Napier himself.

Criticism:

• The annexation was widely criticised as unjust, even in Britain.
• Napier himself wrote that the British had no right to seize Sind, but that it would be "a very advantageous, useful, humane piece of rascality".
• The Governor-General at the time was Lord Ellenborough.
• Sind was later attached to the Bombay Presidency (1847).
• It became a separate province in 1936, and is now a province of Pakistan.

About Charles Napier:

• He was a British general who had fought in the Napoleonic wars.
• He later became Commander-in-Chief in India (1849-1851).

Why not the other options?

• ✗Sir Hugh Gough fought in the Anglo-Sikh wars.
• ✗Sir Henry Lawrence was associated with Punjab and Lucknow, and Colin Campbell with 1857.