- Also known as
-
Sir Alexander Burnes
-
primary name: Burnes, Alexander
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other name: Bokhara Burnes
- Details
- individual; military/naval; politician/statesman; Scottish; Male
- Life dates
- 1805-1841
- Biography
- Political agent; coin collector. Popularly known as "Bokhara Burnes". Born Montrose, 16 May 1805; assassinated in Kabul 2 November 1841. Son of James Burnes. Educated at Montrose Academy. Went to India in service of East India Company (q.v.), aged sixteen; learned Hindustani and Persian and gained position as interpreter at Surat in 1823; transferred to Cutch in 1825 as Assistant to Resident; sent on an ostensibly commercial mission to Lahore in 1830, with a gift of horses from King William IV to the Maharaja Ranjit Singh, actually to explore navigability of Indus River and the surrounding country; under orders of the government, continued travels through Afghanistan, across the Hindu Kush to Bokhara and Persia. Published narrative of his travels on a return visit to England in 1834-5, 'Travels to Bokhara', was lionised as a traveller and received medal of the Royal Geographical Society. On his return to India, he was appointed to the court of Sind in 1835; succeeded in securing a treaty with the Amirs who agreed to a survey of the Indus. Undertook a political mission in 1836 to Dost Muhammad Khan, reigning Amir of Kabul; his advice that Dost Muhammad be supported on the throne was not accepted by the Governor-General in Calcutta, Lord Auckland, who rejected the Amir's requests. Burnes was asked to leave Kabul and sent to Sind and Baluchistan to prepare the way for the British Army. Knighted and made Lt-Colonel, Burnes returned to Kabul as political agent, deputy to Sir William Macnaghten, Britain's envoy to the court of Shah Shuja (re-instated by the British in place of Dost Muhammad), and remained there until his assassination in 1841 during an insurrection resulting in the outbreak of the first Anglo-Afghan War.
It came to light in 1861 that some of Burnes' dispatches from Kabul in 1839 had been altered to reflect opinions contrary to his own; the matter was brought before Parliament, but an inquiry was refused. Author of several works, including 'Travels to Bokhara', several papers in the 'Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London', and the posthumously published book 'Cabool; being a Narrative of a Journey to, and Residence in that City, in the Years 1836-7-8'.
Donated coins collected in Bukhara, Afghanistan and Punjab to British Museum in 1835 (see appendices to 'Travels to Bokhara' authored by H.H. Wilson and J. Prinsep).
- Bibliography
- C E Buckland, 'Dictionary of Indian biography', London 1906
