Storming of Nilt and Thol, 1891

Before the 1880s the British took little interest in the patchwork of isolated and backward little kingdoms scattered through the vast and virtually unknown mountain ranges to the north-west of their Indian empire. The only central authority in the region, such as it was, was the corrupt and indolent Dogra Maharaja of Kashmir, who claimed feudal rights over most of the area and maintained a ragged garrison at Gilgit (which was, as it still is, the strategic hub of the region) to enforce this. However in 1889 the British, driven by the imperatives of the 'Great Game', established Colonel Algernon Durand as the Agent in Gilgit, to establish links with the local tribes and keep an eye on the movements of suspected Russian agents. Algy Durand was keen to take the job. He was a strong proponent of the 'forward school', who argued that the only way to make India secure from Russian expansionism was to dominate, and if necessary control, the high passes of the Hindu Kush. In this he was saw eye-to-eye with his brother Mortimer who, as Foreign Secretary to the Governor-General Lord Dufferin, was in a position of considerable influence.