Duhamel plan

The Duhamel plan was a proposed Russian invasion of British-ruled India during the Crimean War, a war in which Russia was fighting Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire. The plan was drawn up by General Alexander Osipovich Duhamel [ru] and proposed to Tsar Nicholas I in 1854. Duhamel proposed five alternative routes but his preference was to march through Persia and Afghanistan and invade British India through the Khyber Pass. The plan would have required the support of the Afghans and Persians.

Duhamel hoped that Afghan tribesmen would join his force in the hope of winning loot and territory and that the Persians might attack the Ottomans. 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. Because of the demands of the Crimean War the invasion did not progress. The British considered that they could have defeated any potential invasion from the North-West Frontier.