Mehta Basti Ram

Mehta Basti Ram was one of the main officers of Zorawar's force and played a crucial role at multiple locations of the conquest of Ladakh which started in 1834. Basti Ram led an attack that resulted in the capture of the Fort of Sod/Soth (in Kargil) and subsequently the Gyalpo.[7] The assault included crossing the Indus River on inflated goatskins.[8] During the conquest of Balti which started during the end of 1840, he found a way to cross a river that had caused Zorawar's army to halt for over a month in the cold and snow causing indiscipline to set in.[9] For this Zorawar gifted Mehta Basti Ram Rs. 500 and a pair of gold bangles while other instrumental soldiers were given gifts of lesser value.[lower-alpha 2][11] Basti Ram was also present during the capture of Skardu.[12]

In 1841, Zorawar plundered Hanle and Tashigong monasteries. Rudok and Garo came next and were captured without a fight.[13] Basti Ram was the governor of Taklakot (Burang).[13] This is when the Tibetans launched an attack. Zorawar was killed on 12 December 1941 and his army defeated.[14] The men stationed at Taklakot fled to the British province of Kumaon.[15] Basti Ram escaped to Almora where a British resident gave him shelter.[16] By the autumn of 1846, Basti Ram was vazir of Zanskar and "one of the confidential servants of Maharaja Gulab Sing(h)".[17]

Basti Ram's account of the Dogra conquest of Ladakh and beyond, twelve years after the events, was one of the earliest. While the original version was lost, Alexander Cunningham had re-written Basti Ram's account based on a dictation by Basti Ram himself.[1][18] August Hermann Francke notes that Basti Ram may have exaggerated the enemy numbers at certain locations.[19]

Basti Ram being the thanadar of Leh was the principal thanadar of Ladakh between 1847 and 1861.[20] At the time there were four other thanadars for Zanskar, Kargil, Dras and Nubra.[20] All the thanadars were independent of each other, each having military and civil authority in their districts and each one was only accountable to the Maharaja.[20] Alexander Cunningham estimated that Basti Ram's income would have been a "respectable" Rs.18,000 annually, (roughly £1,800 a year).[21] Basti Ram had previously been the incharge of Zanskar.[20] By the time Lieutenant Colonel Henry Torrens passed through Ladakh, Torrens wrote that "the Governor, Basti Ram, had grown too old and feeble to hold the reins of Government, and had, some months before, retired to his home in the valley of Kishtawar, there to spend the last days of his active life in peace; a successor had not yet been appointed by the Maharaja".[22] Instead, Torrens met the Kahlone[lower-alpha 3] of Le, the "nominal governor". The Kahlone got little respect from the Sikhs.[24]