Diwan Hari Chand

Diwan Hari Chand (died 1857) was a Khatri general from the prominent family of the Dewans of Eminabad, who were chiefs in service of Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu. Hari Chand's military leadership secured Dogra rule across the western Himalayas. In 1842 he marshaled an army that lifted the siege of Leh, routed the Tibetans at Tangtse and Chushul, and negotiated the Treaty of Chushul, which firmly established Ladakh under Gulab Singh’s suzerainty. Over the next decade he defended the frontiers of the newly formed princely state of Jammu & Kashmir—quelling rebellions in Hazara, Gilgit and Chilas. In 1857 he led the Jammu contingent at the Siege of Delhi, where he succumbed to cholera. Hari Chand remains one of the foremost military architects of mid-19th-century Dogra expansion.