Robert Groves Sandeman Sir Robert Groves Sandeman , KCSI ( 1835 – 1892 ) , Colonial British Indian officer and administrator , was the son of General Robert Turnbull Sandeman , and was born on 25 February 1835 . He was educated at Perth and University of St Andrews , and joined the 33rd Bengal Infantry in 1856 . When that regiment was disarmed at Phillour by General John Nicholson during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 , he took part in the final capture of Lucknow as adjutant of the IInd Bengal Lancers . After the suppression of the Mutiny he was appointed to the Punjab Commission by Sir John Lawrence . 1866 . In 1866 he was appointed district officer of Dera Ghazi Khan , and there first showed his capacity in dealing with the Baluch tribes . He was the first to break through the close - border system of Lord Lawrence by extending British influence to the independent tribes beyond the border . In his hands this policy worked admirably , owing to his tact in managing the tribesmen and his genius for control . 1871 . In February 1871 , he was given the political control over the warring Marri , Bugti and Mazari tribes of Sulaiman Hills at the Mithankot ( e ) conference between the governments of Punjab and Sindh provinces . 1876 . In 1876 he negotiated the treaty with the Help Of Nawab Sir Imam baksh Khan Mazari if Rojhan with the Khan of Kalat , which subsequently governed the relations between Kalat and the Indian government ; and in 1877 he was made agent to the governor - general in Baluchistan , an office which he held until his death . 1878 . During the Second Afghan War in 1878 his influence over the tribesmen was of the utmost importance , since it enabled him to keep intact the line of communications with Kandahar , and to control the tribes after the British disaster at Maiwand . For these services he was made K . C . S . I . in 1879 . In 1889 he occupied the Zhob valley , a strategic advantage which opened the Gomal Pass through the Waziri country to caravan traffic . Sandeman ' s system was not so well suited to the Pashtun as to his Baluch neighbour . But in Baluchistan he was a pioneer , a pacificator and a successful administrator , who converted that country from a state of complete anarchy into a province as orderly as any in British India . Recent scholarship in postcolonial studies and on colonial Balochistan has disputed this overtly laudatory account of Sandeman ' s life and career as explicated in books such as Tucker ' s " Sir Robert G . Sandeman : Peaceful Conqueror of Baluchistan " and Bruce ' s " The Forward Policy and its Results " . At a conceptual level , the idea of colonial rulers bringing order to the colonized territory has been questioned by authors such as Edward Said and Nicholas Dirks who argue that this myth resulted from a misunderstanding of ( mostly unwritten ) local social and cultural norms . It was the product of an effort to make alien peoples and territories governable through the invention of categories of savage and civilized . In respect of colonial Balochistan , Simanti Dutta points out that Sandeman skillfully exploited an existing rift between the Baloch ruler , the Khan of Kalat , and his subordinate tribal chiefs to leverage his influence and project British power into a region which was strategically significant in the context of Anglo - Russian rivalry in Afghanistan . A careful examination of historical records suggests that there were a number of armed uprisings against British rule in Balochistan during and after Sandeman ' s tenure which had to be put down through the use of lethal force and imposition of crippling financial penalties on the defaulting tribes . 1892 . Robert Sandeman died at Bela , the capital of Las Bela state , on 29 January 1892 , and there he lies buried under a handsome tomb .