RAS question
Which Rajput state was the last to sign a treaty with the British East India Company?
Correct answer: (B) Sirohi.
Sirohi was the last Rajput state to sign a treaty with the British East India Company, with its treaty dated September 1823.
Explanation
Sirohi's treaty falls outside the main 1817-18 treaty wave in Rajputana. Sirohi signed with the British East India Company in 1823, while major states such as Mewar, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Bundi, Kota and Bikaner had already entered subsidiary alliance treaties in 1817-1818. The Imperial Gazetteer of India supports this chronology: in its Rajputana account, it notes that Karauli and Kotah concluded treaties in late 1817 and that similar engagements had been made with the other states by the end of 1818. Its footnote then expressly excepts Sirohi, whose treaty is dated September 1823, making Sirohi the last Rajput state in this sequence.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Jaipur is wrong because it belonged to the earlier 1818 treaty phase, not the later 1823 exception represented by Sirohi.
- (C) Mewar is wrong because it had signed in 1818, so it was part of the main Rajputana treaty wave rather than the final Sirohi treaty.
- (D) Jodhpur is wrong because it also signed in 1818, before Sirohi's September 1823 treaty.
Concept
The chronology of British subsidiary alliances and treaty-making in Rajputana links Rajasthan's princely states with the expansion of British paramountcy.