Dalhousie’s successor in Calcutta was Charles John Canning, whose father had died as Britain’s prime minister. Like Dalhousie, Charles Canning too had served in the cabinet before coming out to Calcutta, where, right away, he was confronted with troubling events to India’s west. Persia having claimed Herat and received Russia’s backing, Dost Muhammad asked for British aid. In July 1856, London announced that a Persian attack on Herat would be taken as an attack on Britain.
