Duhamel plan

Duhamel proposed five alternative routes but his preference was to march through Persia and Afghanistan and invade British India through the Khyber Pass.

He also hoped that the Sikh Empire, defeated by Britain in 1849, might attack the British and that other Indians, particularly among the Muslim population, might rise in rebellion.

Allied forces would join the Ottomans at Varna, Bulgaria, in June and invade the Russian territory of Crimea in September.

[1] During this year General Alexander Osipovich Duhamel [ru] submitted a plan to Russian Tsar Nicholas I for an invasion of British India.

[3][2] Britain maintained a relatively small standing army compared to other world powers and the demands of the Crimean War even led her to deploy militia to the theatre.

[6] Duhamel considered that only a small Russian force would be required as he hoped to attract support from Afghanistan, Persia and, perhaps, the former Sikh Empire.

Duhamel preferred Kabul as it offered the quickest route, via the Khyber Pass, to the Indian cities of Lahore and Delhi, where he hoped that large numbers of rebels would rise to join his forces.

[9] Duhamel had two alternatives for a Kandahar route: running through Quetta, Dadu and Shikarpur or via Ghazna and Dera Ismail Khan.

Duhamel thought that Persia may even attack Ottoman Turkey if Russia guaranteed the restoration of Ottoman-held Baghdad, Kerseldi and part of Kurdistan in any subsequent peace treaty.

Hopkirk considers that the Duhamel plan was unlikely to succeed, relying as they did on co-operation between Afghanistan and Persia and for their populations to allow a foreign army to march across their lands.