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Peshawar history
Old City Map Of City Government Peshawar
The Peshawar Valley appears first in history as forming part of the ancient kingdom of Gandhara. This name of Gandhara figures in Sanscrit literature from the earlier times and it is used by the Chinese pilgrims also who visited the kingdom in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries of the Christian era. Strabo describes a country, which he calls Gandaritis as lying along the river Kophes (Kabul) between the Choaspes and the Indus. The ancient capital of the district was Pushkulavati from which is obviously derived the Peukelas of Arrian, the historian of Alexander the Great. The position of the capital is vaguely described by Arrian and Strabo as' " near the Indus." The geographer Ptolemy however fixes it upon the eastern bank of the Suastene or Swat.
On this and on the itinerary of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuan-Tsang General Cunningham identified the site of Peukelas as near the modern twin towns of Charsadda and Prang. The Chinese pilgrims were drawn to Pushkulavati, as here was the famous stupa where the Lord Buddha was said to have made an alms offering of his eyes. Actually in their day the ancient capital had been superseded in political importance by the new town of Parashawara or Peshawar. There are no authentic records of the tribes seated about Peshawar in these early days. It is, however, established that they were of Indian origin. It has been conjectured with some show of probability that they were an off-shoot from the race of Yadu who were either expelled or voluntarily migrated from Gujrat c. 1100 B. C. and who were identified afterwards near Kandahar and in the hill country round Kabul.
Some authorities would actually find in the Gaduns who reside in the hills to the north-east of Swabi and in the Hazara District a last remnant of this ancient race. With the invasion of Alexander the mists, which obscure the early history of the countries near the Indus River in the northwest, begin to clear. According to Arrian, who wrote in Greek an account of Alexander's Asiatic expedition called the " Anabasis of Alexander," the armies of the Macedonian king reached the' Indus by two separate routes-one direct through the Khyber Pass and the other accompanied by Alexander himself through Kunar, Bajaur, Swat and Buner (326 B. C.). The first Greek invasion however left little trace on Peshawar. Alexander had hardly left India when the valley came under the sway of the Buddhist King Chandra Gupta (the Sandrokottos of the Greek historian) who reigned 321-297 B. C. In 323 B. C.
Alexander the Great died at Babylon. About 20 years later Seleucus attempted to recover the-Indian-possessions f the Greek empire and passed the Indus with an army for this purpose. He was content however in the end to conclude a treaty with Buddhist king by the terms of which all the territories claimed by the Greeks cast of the Indus together with the Peshawar and Kabul Valleys west of that river were formally eeded to Chandragupta, who furnished Seleucus in return with 500 elephants. Chandragupta was succeeded first by his son Bindusara and then by his famous grandson Asoka (269-227 B. C.) Asoka's fame rests chiefly on his position as the great patron of Buddhism. As such he has often been compared to Constantine the Great, the royal patron of Roman Christianity. In his reign the Buddhist faith was extended to Peshawar, Kabul and Kashmir. This is the period of the famous rock edicts -inscriptions cut into hard rocks or pillars of stone by command of the king himself and often recording his own words. The object of these inscriptions was ethical and religious rather than historical or political.
They were not, like the equally famous cuneiform inscriptions of the Persian King Darius, intended to convey to posterity a record of conquests or of the extent of a migty ebut to further the temporal and spiritual welfare of the subjects of the Buddhist king. One of these edicts was graven on rock near the village of Shahbazgarha in Yasafzai. Its characters may now be traced with difficulty after the lapse of more than twenty centuries. It remains, however, a curious relic of this older time and a reminder that human empires have their day.The Peshawar Valley was later to see a revival of Brahmanism when Buddhist monks were massacred and driven out. The Greeks too again appeared under Menander, King of Bactria. Scythian and Indian masters followed, the latter finally retaining control of the valley till the 7th century of the Christian era.
Fa Hian, a Chinese pilgrim, visited the Peshawar Valley in the fifth century A. D. and was followed some two centuries later by his countryman and co-religionist Hiuan-Tsang. During the visit of the former Buddhism was still the dominant religion of the inhabitants of the valley but at the time of the tatter's pilgrimage it was fast losing place. The Buddhist faith had therefore prevailed in the country round Peshawar for upwards of nine centuries. It can easily be imagined therefore that tile antiquities of this period in the Peshawar Valley are of peculiar interest and importance. For places of archaeological interest reference may be made to Chapter IV, and for objects of art to Appendix No. 3. Numerous coins of various periods-Grecian, Bactrian, Scythian, Hindu and Muslim-have been found at these sites and elsewhere in the district. Collections of these may be viewed at the Museum at Peshawar and at Lahore. There have been several well-known private collections also. Some of the finest Gandharan sculptures extant are to be seen in the Guides Mess at Mardan.
Before the close of the seventh century a new race-the Afghans or Pathans-appeared upon the scene. This people are first heard of as holding the hills of Ghor and Suliman about the middle of the seventh century A. D. at the time when Persia first succumbed to the force of Mohammadan arms. Against the Arab wave of conquest the Pathans appear not only to have held their own but also to have commenced about the same period a series of attacks upon their Indian neighbours of the countries bordering on the Indus. Ferishta records a campaign of 70 pitched battles in five months when in the event the Pathans succeeded in wresting a portion of the plain country near the Indus from the Rajahs of Lahore. Joined later by the Gakkars who at this period held all the country from the Indus to the Jhelum the Pathans c. 700 A. D. compelled the Lahore rulers to cede to them all the hill country west of the Indus and south of the Kabul River on condition of their guarding that frontier of Hindustan against invasion.
Even after this date however the plain of Peshawar and apparently the Jalalabad plain still further west together with the hills to the north including modern Swat, Buner, etc., were occupied by tribes connected with India who appear to have been left un-molested. In the 10th century Peshawar came for-the first time under foreign yoke when Sabuktagin of Ghazni defeated Jaipal, the Hindu Prince of Lahore, near Laghman in Afghanistan and drove his armies across the Indus with great slaughter (978 A. D.). The conqueror took possession of all the country west of the Indus and left his Lieutenant Abu All as Governor of Peshawar with an army of 10,000 horses.In this campaign the Pathans sided with Sabuktagin and furnished soldiers to his army.
Sabuktagin was succeeded in the year 997 by his celebrated son Mahmud. The Hindu princes of Lahore had made repeated attempts to recover their trans-Indus territories, and in the reign of Mahmud, the plains of Peshawar were the scenes of many great battles. The first of these encounters took place in 1001 near Nowshera when the Hindus were again routed, Jaipal himself being taken prisoner. The Pathans prior to this battle had changed their allegiance and sided with Lahore. They were severely chastised therefore by Mahmud and as they had by now become converted to the Mohammadan faith, they were afterwards true to their allegiance and joined the Sultan in all his wars against the infidels. For his invasions of India in 1017 and 1023 Mahmud made Peshawar the rallying point of his forces of which Pathans now formed an integral part. The Pathan chiefs were treated with special favour in his camp and he encouraged the tribesmen to settle in the hill country west of Peshawar with a view to their forming a bulwark between his own country and that of his enemies of Hindustan. From this time and for a century and more Peshawar remained a province of Ghazni under Mahmud numerous successors.
Under the later princes of this line the place acquired considerable importance as a central stronghold of their dominions which then extended to Lahore whither the royal residence had also been transferred. The first settlement of any tribe of undoubted Afghan origin in the plains of the Peshawar District took place, as will be subsequently related, in the fifteenth century. Long before this date however sections of the Dilazak tribe, to whom some authorities attribute Pathan descent but whom the Pathans themselves declare to be of Indian origin, had settled round Peshawar. The Dilazak by their superior numbers overweighed and finally absorbed the indigenous population, which had held the valley prior to their advent. The latter are described as few in number-a quiet race chiefly pastoral and still unconverted. In the eleventh century the Dilazak--intermarried and much fused with the previous indigenous population-held all the plain of Peshawar south of the Kabul river and their settlements spread even to the modern Chach tract on the left bank of the Indus.
They paid tribute regularly at this period to the local Governors appointed from Ghazni. In the same century the Pathans of Ghor rose in revolt against their Ghaznavite over-lords and the empire founded by Mahmud was destroyed.Many extensive immigrations of Pathan tribesmen into the hill country west of Peshawar date from this period. The invasion of the Peshawar Valley by Pathans in force was however due to other causes. The Pathan traditional history of the occupation of the Peshawar Valley, perhaps little more than an epic, is as follows: - Two Pathan brothers Khakhai and Ghori had in the earlier times given their names to two of the great divisions of the nation then seated round Kandahar. The country in possession of the tribe was held jointly by both sections. As numbers increased partition of their territory was forced upon them and in the division, which ensued the Khakhais, being the weaker section, received an unequal share.
Even from this portion they were subsequently ejected by their stronger Ghori kinsmen, and accompanied by Utman Khel and Mohammadzai sections belonging to other divisions they left their ancient seats and about the middle of the. 13th century settled near Kabul. Here they increased in numbers and wealth and finally came to be grouped into three principal clans Yusufzais, Gigianis and Turkilanis. Restless and turbulent they came into conflict with Ulug Beg (who was the eldest; son of Shiroch, the son of Taimur and uncle of Babar), who then ruled at Kabul, and were finally driven out of their new habitations also. Leaving Kabul they settled in Basaul and round Jalalabad. They endeavoured to take possession of Bajaur but were repulsed. Finally three sections- the Yusafzais, Gigianis and Mohammadzais entered the Peshawar plain, where they begged a portion of laud from the Dilazaks on which to settle.
This was granted and the newcomers settled in the Charsadda Doaba. They did not how ever for long sustain the role of suppliants. Native historians lay the blame for the quarrel which ensued on the cattle-lifting propensities of the Dilazaks but the contrary is the more likely supposition. In any case a great battle Pathan v. Dilazak eventuated and the Dilazaks were routed with great slaughter. After their defeat practically the entire tribe is said to have left the country north of the Kabul River and fled precipitately to Hazara. The Pathans proceeded to partition the vacant land among them. The Gigianis received the Doaba as their portion, to the Mohammadzais was assigned Hashtnagar, and to the Yusafzais the remainder of the country north of the Kabul river.
Later the Yusafzais, bent on further conquests, prepared to take possession of Swat moving for that purpose to Sakhakot. Making a faint attack on the Mora Pass-a manoeuvre which it is interesting to note was repeated by the British forces in 1895-they occupied the Malakand Pass by night and fell upon the astonished Swatis who were instantly routed. Lower Swat become from this date a possession of the Yusafzais.Meanwhile the seats of the Khakhai Pathans in Basaul and Jalalabad were occupied by the Ghori clans-- Khalil, Mohmand and Daudzai. These spread eastward till they occupied the hills between Lalpura and the Peshawar Valley, now the country of the upper Mohmands.
This was the state of affairs at the end of the fifteenth century. In the year 1505 the Emperor Babar, who had acquired the sovereignty of Kabul and Ghazni in the previous year from the usurper Mokim, invaded. Peshawar via Jalalabad (then called Adinpur) and the Khyber Pass. He made however no prolonged stay in the valley, being diverted on a marauding expedition towards Kohat and Bannu and returning by the Sakhi Sarwar Pass and Bori to Ghazni. Ten years later lie turned his attention to the Pathans and invaded and subdued Bajaur and Swat. Descending from Swat Babar harried the plain lands of the Yusafzais and Mohammadzais and erecting a fort at Peshawar, he left a garrison there as a point d'appui for his invasions of India. The first of these followed in 1519 when he crossed the Indus above Attock and defecated the Gakkars in the Chach.
His subsequent invasions of India did not affect the tribes about Peshawar who were left very much to themselves and reverted to their previous condition of independence. Babar died at Agra in 1530. In the reign of Humayun his son the, Ghoria Khel Pathans-Khalil, Mohmand and Daudzai-entered the plain of Peshawar. Dilazak sections still held the country south of the Kabul River. The branch of the Khattak." known as the Akora Khattaks settled soon afterwards with the permission of Akbar on the south of the Kabul River in the vicinity of Akora. They were originally under one chief Khushal Khan who undertook to protect the road from Attock to Peshawar receiving in return a grant of land between Khairabad and Nowshera.
The tribe has been fully described in Section C. of this Chapter. In 1586 the Emperor Akbar on his return from Kashmir passed through the Peshawar Valley and determined on the subjugation of the Pathan tribes. Several expeditions were undertaken and the plain country was easily subdued. When his armies attempted to force the Swat Passes, however, they were three times repulsed by the tribesmen with heavy losses. Realising after these defeats the futility of becoming involved in guerilla warfare in the hills where the enemy could not be forced to a decisive action, the Emperor's commanders satisfied themselves with occupying positions in the plain where they fortified themselves and prevented the Pathans from cultivating their lands. This measure proved so harassing to the tribes that they tenderd a more or less nominal submission which enabled Akbar to accept an agreement from them and to turn his attention elsewhere.
No more complete subjugation of the Peshawar tribes was attempted in Akbar's time. He confined himself to keeping open the road to Kabul and maintaining a partial control over the tribesmen by commanding their cultivation.Some time about the end of the 16th or the beginning of the 17th century occurred the great schism in the Yusafzai tribe. This tribe upon first taking possession of their present seats were accompanied by three Sheikhs of great repute and sanctity. To one of these, Sheikh Mali, was entrusted the work of dividing the new territory among the several branches of the tribe. In Kandahar and Kabul the latter had been known by one common appellation-Yusafzai. As their numbers increased however and their possessions were enlarged, two divisions sprang up -Yusafzai and Mandanr-the latter being the descendents of Mandanr, the nephew of Yusaf. Both Yusaf and Mandanr being descended from Khakhai, Sheikh Mali awarded both sections all area of hill country with a complementary plain tract and these were partitioned by lot among the several clans and sub-divisions.
The two main sections remained for some time united in their new seats but dissensions ensued which were enhanced and possibly originally instigated by Moghal intrigue. Finally the Yusafzais of Swat and Buner arose and expelled all Mandanr tribesmen from these territories. The latter leaving their women in Chamla descended to the plain and retaliated by expelling the Yusafzai families settled there. The Baizai section only of Yusafzais who made a stand in the Lundkhwar Valley was not ejected at this time. Later also they continued to hold this valley with the aid of Khattak auxiliaries whom they called in to assist them in their struggle with Mandanr.
In modern days, however, only a few communities of true Yusafzai remain in the plain. The Lund-khwar Valley is now mainly occupied by the descendants of the same Khattak auxiliaries who came to assist the Yusafzais and ended by occupying most of the tract. Three villages only in Baizai, namely Matta, Shamozai and Babozai, remain inhabited by true Yusafzai. Elsewhere in the plain the Mandanr section was left in sole occupation. The state of the district remained unaltered during the reign ofJahangir and Shah Jahan. The Pathan tribes rendered a nominal allegiance to the Delhi Emperors punctuated by periods of commotion and turbulence when a weak Governor or a foreign war furnished them with an opportunity.
At length in
1668 they openly revolted and crossing the Indus in large numbers
they devasted Chach and out the line of communication between Kabul
and Delhi. They suffered a reverse near Attock but at Peshawar
defeated the royal troops sent by Amin Khan, Governor of Kabul, to
suppress the emeute. For a time the insurgent Pathans were sole
masters of the Peshawar plain and in the almost continual fighting
of these years the Yusafzais gained a great reputation for valour
and martial prowess. Aurangzeb, who was now on the throne of Delhi,
marched in person at the head of an army to re-establish the
authority of his Government. Arrived at Hassan Abdal he conducted
the general course of the operations from there, the actual command
in the field devolving on his son Sultan. The struggle persisted for
two years 1673-1675 till finally the Emperor was compelled to agree
to terms, which left the Pathans practically independent and
withdrew his forces to India.This period is distinguished in Pathan
annals by the verses and deeds of the renowned Khushal Khan, the
Khattak chief, poet, patriot and warrior. Khushal Khan has Ieft a
history and some poems of considerable merit-the latter indited in
the days of the Pathans struggle with the Moghals. To rouse the
Pathan youth and excite their patriotism, the great deeds of their
forefathers are counted in glowing stanzas, while the young men of
the day are taunted for their lack of manly spirit and martial
ardour.
It Though,
somewhat artificial in form due to the influence of the
Persian mode, these poems breathe a spirit of patriotism and a
love of the Pathan countryside, which, have made them live on
the lips of Peshawar villagers right down to the present day.
Nor was Khushal Khan less active as a soldier than as a
patriotic bard; he led his Khattaks well in many a fight and
once at any rate obtained a signal victory over the Moghal
forces in the low hills opposite Akora, an occasion rendered
memorable by the flight of his Yusafzai allies whose baseness
on that day he has recorded in a poem full of spirit. On one
occasion he was captured and for three years suffered
captivity in Gwalior Fort. In the end, how over, he was
liberated in exchange for some imperial prisoners of rank who
had been captured by the Pathans.
He returned to Akora
and resumed at the head of his tribe the guerilla warfare
against the Moghals for which his name will always be
remembered with pride by Peshawar Pathans. The successors of
Aurangzeb retained nominal possession of Peshawar but the
Empire of the Moghals was now declining and kings at Delhi had
neither the power nor the inclination to make any further
attempts to control the rude tribes of the valley. Followed
the invasion of Nadir Shah and the surrender of Peshawar by
its Moghal Governor, the new invader crossed the Indus', in
1738, defeated the Imperial forces and extorted from Mohammad
Shah a treaty by which all the trans-Indus countries were
ceded to the conqueror. Peshawar therefore once again passed
from the eastern to the western Empire. Affairs in Khurasan
however occupied so much of Nadir Shah's attention up till the
time of his assassination nine years later that he was able.
to take little interest in his new province. The Yusafzai, the
Khattaks and the hill tribes remained practically independent
a before paying no tribute.
The Khalils. Mohmands,
Daudzais, Gigianis and Mohammadzais however as being more
accessible were forced to pay tribute to Nadir Shah's
Governors at Peshawar through their chiefs. Some of the latter
were in the habit of travelling occasionally to the distant
court and bringing back with them grants of land and patents
exempting them from payment of tribute, some of which still
exist. The death of Nadir Shall (1747) was followed by the
establishment at Kandahar of the Saddozai branch of the Durani
dynasty in the person of Ahmad Shah. For the first time the
Pathan tribes of the Peshawar Valley were now to come under
the rule of a prince whom they could in some manner regard as
their native king. During the 26 years of Ahmad Shah's
vigorous and active reign, the plains of Peshawar were brought
under more complete control than any previous Government had
been able to attempt, at any rate since the days of the Pathan
invasion. Expeditious penetrated even into the Yusafzai
Valleys while in the country nearer Peshawar the levy of the
King's tribute was put on a more regular basis, the sums to be
paid being fixed for each village though these were still
recovered and paid through chiefs of clans.
Taimur
Shall succeeded his father in 1773 but proved himself a
voluptuous and indolent prince. Peshawar was his favourite
residence, and here he kept court with much pomp and splendour
attracting to the city a large concourse of nobles and
adventurers from the surrounding countries. During his reign
the well-known Kazi Khel come to be a power in the land.
Trading on the weak-ness of the king they gradually
accumulated all the public offices in heir own hands. In the
exercise of powers of Government they became notorious for
their corrupt and avaricious habits. Outside in the strict
there was much confusion. The Pathan chiefs were engaged in
constant feuds among themselves. Agriculture was neglected and
the district relapsed into the state of practical
independence, which had been usual in the days of the Moghals.
The death of Taimur Shah in 1793 left the throne to be
contested by his sons. The struggles and adventures of these
princes make a romantic if confusing page of oriental history.
Peshawar was concerned most whit the cause and fortunes of
Shas Shuja,the last of the Saddozai dynasty, and the puppet of
the first Afghan war.
The latter proclaimed himself
King in the Pehawar and attempted battle near Tahkal on the
Jamrud road. By1809 however he had gained an entry into the
city and in that year received with courtesy and honour the
British mission headed by Mountstuart Elphinstone.
Elphinstone's account of his mission to this court at Peshawar
contains in absorbing description of the geography, manners,
customs and politics of the Afghanistan of that day, centred
as it was largely in Peshawar; and to this day no batter
introduction could be prescribed to the student of Peshawar
history. It is entitled the account of his mission to Kabul,
though in the fast Elphinstone never went beyond Peshawar.
Some time later Shas Shuja was again driven out by his brother
Mahmud, or rather by that prince famous Lieutenant, Fateh khan
of the Barakzai. During all these disturbances Peshawar
remained in a constant state excitement and commotion
possession of the city passing from one ruler to another with
bewildering frequency. No ruler stayed long enough to be able
to exercise any control over the tribes of the valley who
enjoyed practically complete independence. The Afridis, always
the disposal of the highest bidder had espoused the cause of
Shall Shuja who was of course compelled in return to pay
handsomely for their support.
In addition to payments
for special services, the Afridis he also to receive the lakes
subsidy which had been paid them for some years now for
keeping the road to Kabul open. Shah Shuja after his many
vicissitudes found at last a resting place under British
protection at Ludhiana (1815). Meanwhile the Sikhs had
appeared upon the scene. Attock fell to Ranjit Singh in 1814,
and in 1818 a Sikh army advancing on Peshawar overran country
as far as the foothills. At length in 1823Axim Khan determined
to try his strength with this new power and marched with a
large army from Kabul to Peshawar. The Sikhs crossed the Indus
to meet him. Kharrak Singh was left to hold the right bank of
the Kabul river and bar the way of the troops expected for
Peshawar, while Ranjit Singh with the flower of his army
crossed to the left bank opposite Akora. Azim Khan had sent
his brother Samand Khan to raise the Yusafzai and Khattak
clans while he himself with his regular troops moved out from
Peshawar. On his arrival at Nowshera he found Samand Khan
already engaged with the enemy on the, level land north at the
river near Pir Sabak. Azim Khan was unable to cross to his
brother's aid and remained a helpless spectator of the combat,
which ensued.
The Pathans fought with desperate valour,
but could make no headway against he superior numbers and
discipline the Sikhs, frequently rallying however round the
low hill near Pir Sabak village; they bore down bravely on the
enemy, who towards evening, began to show signs of wavering.
The Sikhs had at this late most lost the day, had not Ranjit
Singh himself seizing standard and plunging in where the fight
was thickest allied his men for a final charge. The last stand
was made at sunset a party of 200 Yusafzais who died righting
to a man. In; his action 10,000 Pathans said to have been
slain. With them on the other side fell that gallant old
warrior, Phulla Singh the intrepid leader the Alkalis who five
years before lad led the into the breach at Multan nd was on
this day less conspicuous for his gallantry. A Sikh shrine of
great repute Pir Sabak, owed with two-thirds of the revenue of
the village, rcmains as a memorial of a brave man and a
gallant soldier.
The Sirdars, Azim Khan and Dost
Mohammad, who had not taken any part in the battle defeat fled
to Kabul andRanjit Singh advancing to Peshawar placed the town
under tribute and after a short stay, withdrew across the
Indus. Azim Khan Did not survive this defeat, and on his
death, Dost Mohammed khan Barakzai, succeeded the chief
authority at Kabul. The Peshawar Valley lay now at the mercy
of Ranjit Singh. No permanent occupation however was at tin's
period attempted. Subject to the payment of a yearly tribute
the Government re-mained in the hands of the Barakzai Sirdar
Ranjit Singh for his part contenting himself with. Sending an
army to receive tribute and to keep up the terror of his name.
The Sikh armies on these annual marches indulged in the most
reckless depredation-to mention one instance only during the
years when these expeditions were recurring, most of the fruit
trees in the famous Peshawar gardens were felled to provide
fuel for the campground of the troops. The approach of the
Sikh army through the district was the signal for the removal
of property and valuables, even of the window and doorframes
of the houses. Crowds of women and children fled frightened
from their home sand villages and the country presented the
appearance of an emigrating Colony.
The Yusafzai
country was similarly exposed to depredation. RanjitSingh,
having tasted of the Yusafzai valour in 1823, had at first no
wish to renew conclusions with tills tribe. Being en-camped,
however, with his army near Gandgarh on the left bank of the
Indus, the Yusafzais provided him with the necessary
provocation. De lending on the Indus to protect them, the
Pathans began to slaughter kine on the right bank over against
the Sikh camp. RanjitSingh unable to restrain himself at the
insult ordered his troops to cross. His generals would have
had him desist from the attempt, pointing to the danger of
attempting to ford a river like the Indus, but he was not to
be deterred. A body of irregulars first plunged in and crossed
though with heavy loss. Mr. Allard'sregular regiments of
cavalry followed and maintaining good crossed with impunity.
The Pathans, thunderstruck at the boldness of this
exploit, attempted no resistance but fled to their villages
closely pursued by the infuriated Sikhs. An indiscriminate
slaughter ensued in Yusafzai in which-hundreds of men, women
and children were put to the sword. Ranjit Singh himself
withdrew to Lahore in 1824 leaving his famous general Hari
Singh Nalwa in command on the frontier with force of 12,000
men. It was these troops who carried out the annual marches to
Peshawar to which reference has already been made. HariSingh
in tin's difficult command displayed the utmost activity
combined with soldierly qualities of the first order. The
Pathans of Pcshawar.who cannot but hate his memory as that of
a most tyrannical oppressor, are fain to acknowledge Harvey
and skill. The tribute levied from the Yusafzai was not fixed
but depended on "his will and consisted of horses, hawks and
such sums in cash as lie could collect as a fee for escaping a
military Visitation.
The tribute of horses was, we
read, commuted in 1853 to a tax of Rs. 4 per house. Hardly a
village escaped being looted and sacked during Hari Singh's
regime and the rums of old villages burnt to the ground by his
troops may still be seen i Yusafzai. His name to this day is
used as a bogey with which to frighten children and with "
Hariraghe " (Hair's here) the Mohmand mother is said even now
to still her crying child. This state of affairs continued for
several years, Ranjit Singh evincing no desire, to take
advantage of his position and annex the valley. The intrigues
of the Barakzai Sirdars in Peshawar, however, finally brought
upon them their own destruction and Peshawar paranormally
occupied by the Sikhs in 1835 for the next two years, during
which Hari Singh continued to command west of the Indus, the
Sikhs were unmolested in Peshawar.
A new fortress-the
present Peshawar Fort, though of late it has been much
restored-was built on the site of the old Bala Hissar and
garrisons were stationed at selected points on the border. A
mobile column was also located in the angle between the Indus
and Kabul rivers on the left bank of the latter and covered by
a strong fort ofJahangir. These measures naturally consorted
ill with the temper of the Pathan chiefs round Peshawar. The
Arbabs-as the chief men of theKhalil and Mohmand clans arc
called-were accustomed to a life of license and disorder.
During Hari Singh/s regime many of them went across the border
from where they organized raiding gangs, which roamed about
the district and rendered all travelling unsafe. Towards the
end of 1836 hariSingh decided to construct fort at Jamrud at
the month of the Khyber Pass. Against the advice of the
friendly chiefs a fortress-the present Jamrud Fort was built
and garrisoned. Amir Dost Mohammad Khan sensed in this measure
a preliminary to a further advance by the Sikhs with possible
designs on Kabul.
He determined therefore to send an
army to oppose the construction of the fort and once more to
attack the Sikhs. In the month of April 1837 a great battle
was fought round Jamrud and in the mouth of the Khyber. The
accounts of this action are victory has-been claimed by both
parties. The Sikhs however heldtheree ground while the Duranis
retreat by night in disorder. many of their troops not staying
their retreat till they reached Kabul. While victory most
there forever remained to the Sikh's the advantage was dearly
bought by the death of Singh, their great commander Silk role
as now confirmed throughout the district and, tyrannical
though it was. It can hardly have more odious to the
inhabitants than that of the Durani sirdaes. Singh found it to
his advantage to assign whole tappahs (i.e., land held a
single tribe) to the latter in jagir.Thus Said Mohammad
KhaneceivedHashtnagar and Pir Mohammad Khan Theodora. Sultan
Mohammad Khan was placated with the revenues of Kohat and
Hangu. In this way the Lahore Government as relieved of
responsibility for some of the most troublous parts of the
district.
Hashtnagar being held in free by a Durani
Chief, Ranjit Singh avoided unnecessary contact with the
Mohanuuadzais, a turbulent' restless tribe, while he was
equally freed from responsibility for the raids of all the
petty frontier tribes on the Swat border. The. Presence of a
Durani Sirdar in the Doaba again saved him from Annoyance the
Mohammadzais a turbulent restless retained under the direct
control of the Peshawar governor and at Shabkadar where a fort
the present Fort-was built by Sirdar Taj Singh in 1837.On the
Afridi border assigned large grants to the Khalil and
MohmandAtbabs taking care that the villages close to the
frontier should form the greater part of their jagirs. Similar
grants were made to the chiefs of powerful and remote villages
from which the collection of revenue would, in any case, have
been attended with difficulty.
Haying thus after a
fashion secured his outer frontier by foregoing the revenues,
he was in a position to employ his available strength in
controlling the inlaying tracts nearer to Peshawar. In
Yusafzai, the revenue was still collected by the
periodical'despatch of columns of troops into that country. No
permanent administration, such as might have embroiled him in
a prolonged struggle with the tribes north of the Kabul River,
was ever attempted. Hari Singh was at first- succeeded by
Sirdar Tej Singh. Who was shortly relieved by General
Avitabile (known to the present day among Pathans as "
Abutabella" This, officer held charges Governor of Peshawar
from 1838-42 and acquired as great a celebrity among the
people for his conduct of the internal administration as Han
Singh had gained for his military achievements. On first
taking possession of the valley the Sikhs had left the land
revenues very much as they existed under their predecessors,
the Duranis.
In 1837 the demand had been slightly
raised by Sirdars Taj Singh. state of the district, however,
rendered the reali-sation of the enhanced demand impossible in
practice, and in 1838General Avitabile again reduced it to the
earlier figure. In the following year the demand was
indirectly increased by nearly 20per cent. on account of the
recovery of the same amount in Nanak-shahi, which had
previously been paid in Peshawar currency. The revenue
recovered in this year amounted to nearly nine likes rupees.
It is interesting to observe that this sum represents afar
higher demand on the land actually assessed than is recovered
the present time after a lapse of nearly 100 years. This was
the annual demand during the next years till in 1842it was
still further increased by Taj Singh. No material change
occurred after this date until the district was annexed by the
British. The revenue of tappahs and villages wan usually
fanned out to Arbabs nd influential maliks.
Where none
such were available, leases were granted to Hindu capitalists.
Agents of the latter class came to be spread all over the
district, and these naturally employed every available means
for exploiting the cultivators to whom so much of the produce
only was left as was sufficient for a bare subsistence, '['hi'
nominal share of the produce chimed by the i (Government was
one-half, but the extra fees which were demanded on every
possible, excuse, and the advances, etc. which had to be
adjusted afforded the farmers and their minions opportunities
for unlimited extortion. The latter almost invariably
collected the Government demand in kind so that at every crop
the homes of the villagers were invaded by swarms of rapacious
and ill-paid menials. The realisation of revenue from the more
powerful members of the community was accomplished with great
difficulty-often force had to be employed. Arbabs und maliks
constantly tied to the hills to avoid payment of revenue -and
if powerful enough to cause trouble from there were usually
after a short interval pardoned and restored to their former
positions.
Thus Mohammad Khan the Mohmand Arbab who
farmed the revenues of that tappah in1837, fled to Adam Khel
country where lie remained for four years. In his absence a
member of another branch of the family was appointed Arbab,
but as lie was unable to control the tribe. General Avitabile
had Mohammad Khan back in 1840 under promise of the grant of a
jagir to him of Ks.6.000 per annum which was actually
increased subsequently by S. S. Taj Singh and Sher Singh to Rs. 8.550 per annum. The Khalil Arbabs likewise after having
several times absconded across the border were recalled and
granted jagir of Rs. 12,000 per annum exclusive of their
hereditary property which they enjoyed revenue free. Under the
Sikh regime, the maintenance of internal order was scarcely
attempted. Blood feuds between villages and families led to
pitched battles in broad daylight but the Government only
interfered to inflict a fine, usually in those cases only
where it felt strong enough to do so. Raids from across the
border were of frequent occurrence, and as far as the
Government was concerned, remained unavenged.
The law
of the land was the old Pathan tribal custom unabated by any
civilizing influence descending from the ruler of the time,
the. Sikhs, in fact. refused to consider disturbances not
directed against themselves as casting any dis-credit on their
rule. Government troops were held mostly in reserve at
Peshawar with a few out-posts on the frontiers, e.g., at
Shabkadar nd Bara Forts. Yet when the Sikhs punished they
punished savagely. The frequent destruction of refractory
villages kept up the terror which their arms had inspired in
the time of Hari Singh, and the gibbets outside the city walls
which attracted the notice of British offers on their way
through Peshawar to. Kabul told their own tal (Towards members
of hill tribes mercy was considered quite unnecessary. These
were invariably sent to the gallows on apprehension other and
less reputable means were employed against them.
On of
the terms on which Karm-ul-din Khan of Chamkani held his jagir
was that he should produce twenty Afridi heads annually In
later days tills Khan was heard to describe with perfect
ingenuousness the treacherous methods he was sometimes
compelled adopt in order to fulfil the conditions of the fief.
As permanent masters of the valley the Sikhs found that attack
upon their hill neighbours could not be conducted with the
same successful energy, which had marked their periodical
invasion under Hari Singh. Their commitments had increased and
part of their energies was absorbed by the mere holding of the
valley .The conduct of expeditions against the tribes on their
border was now visibly weaker and less enterprising. They were
attended not with actual reverses at any rate with such
doubtful injury tithe enemy that their occurrence came to be
avoided where possible Avitabile's troops, for instance,
accompanied by Mohmand and other levies, were unable to make
any impression on the Adam Khel Afridis, and far from reaching
and inflicting loss on the village of Bori an I Janakor, which
were their objective, the Government forces were unable even
to hold the Garhi Chandan ridge against he
tribesmen.
An attack on Prang Ghar in the Utman Khel
foot hills was equally abortive, and in an attempt to surprise
Pandial they could not advance beyond Chingai, a small village
immediately Within the hills opposite Malta Moghal Khel, where
they destroyed few huts with a loss to themselves of between
400 and 500 men Later Peshawar itself came to be very weakly
held, and during the troubled times which followed upon the
death of Ranjit Singh, the Sikh forces were greatly reduced.
In 1841 when Captain Mackeson applied to General Avitabile for
a detachment of Sikh troops, the General assured him that he
had not 2,000 men, all told, at his disposal. General
Avitabile was relieved in 1842. Of his character there are
various opinions. In the district he has left a name to
administrative talent tarnished by excessive cruelty. The
latté was perhaps forced upon him by the nature of the times
and the character of the people whom he was called upon to
rule. Sirdar Taj Singh who succeeded him was Governor at
Peshawar for four years.
He is described as lacking in
energy and enterprise but as a mild and just ruler-the latter
probably by contras with General Avitabile. His successor was
one Sirdar Sher Singh After the first Sikh War of 1846 Sirdar
Golab Singh was appointed Governor on behalf of the Durbar
with Major George Lawrence representing the resident at
Lahore. Major Lawrence arrived at Peshawar early in 1847. His
duties as described by himself in his book "Forty-five years
service in India " were to act as a friendly adviser to the
Sikh Officials and not to interfere directly except when
justice could not otherwise be obtained. He was also
responsible for the control of the large garrison at Peshawar,
now not less than one-third of the whole army of the Durbur.
During 1848-49 the Sikh troops at Peshawar mutinied and Major
Lawrence was forced to withdraw to Kohat. He was received
there with every demonstration of friendship by Sultan
Mohammad Khan (the chief of the Peshawar Sardars," and the
ancestor of King Nadir Shah, the reigning King of
Afghanistan).
Sultan Mohammad Khan however eventually
determined to yield to the importunities of his Sikh masters
and handed Major Lawrence and his family over to them as
prisoners. After the defeat of the Sikh army and the
annexation of the Punjab Major Lawrence was in April 1849
appointed Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar. In December 1849 an
expedition was sent to the Yusafzai border to punish the
Yusafzai village of Babozai for refusal to pay revenue. The
village is situated in a remote glen on the Buner border and
received the aid of the trans-border villages of Pallai,
Zormandi and Sher Khana, certain Utman Khel villages within
the district; these were also punished, and the force
successfully withdrawn to Peshawar.
On the
night of the disarming, about 250 of the sepoys of the 51st
Native Infantry deserted and fled in every direction. They
were promptly seized by the people of the district and the
police, and extraordinary to say, were brought in alive,
though loaded with money. The ringleader, the Subadar Major of
the regiment, was hanged before the whole garrison on parade,
and was the first mutineer executed at Peshawar. Return we now
to the Nowshera mutineers. It was soon reported that both the
55th and 10th Irregular Cavalry at Mardan were in a state of
disaffection-the former regiment having threatened to murder
their officers, and the latter to " roast " Lieutenant Home,
the civil officer stationed there. As soon, therefore, as the
disarming had been accomplished at Peshawar, measures wore
taken to deal with the disaffected troops at Mardan. Major
Vaughan's corps was ordered from Attock to Nowshera to protect
the families of Her Majesty's 27th Regiment against any return
of the mutineers or any outbreak of the detachment of the 10th
Irregulars.
At 11 o'clock on the night of the 23rd a
force of 800 European Infantry, 250 Irregular Cavalry, horse
levies and police, and 8 guns left Peshawar under command of
Colonel Chute, of Her Majesty's 70th accompanied by Colonel
Nicholson as Political Officer, and, after being joined by 200
Punjab Infantry from Nowshera under Major Vaughan, reached
Mardan about sunrise of the 25th. But no sooner did this force
appear in the distance than the 55th (with the exception of
some 120 men) broke from the fort and fled tumultuously
towards the Swat hills. A pursuit was made by the whole force,
but the mutineers had a long start, and the ground favoured
them.
The guns and infantry were unable to come up
with them; the Irregular Cavalry only pretended to act; but
Colonel Nicholson (who was twenty hours in the saddle and
under a burning sun must have traversed seventy miles on that
day) hurled himself on the fugitives with a handful of police
sowars, and did fearful execution amongst them; 150 dead
bodies were numbered on their line of flight; thrice that
number must have borne off wounds; 150 were taken prisoners.
The people of the border rather favoured than opposed them,
and about 500 made good their escape into Swat. The ultimate
fate of these men is told in the Hazara Gazetteer. Colonel
Spottiswoode, of the 55th unable to endure the disgrace of the
corps he had so loved and trusted, died by his own hand. It
subsequently appeared that there had been long intrigue going
on between the 55th and 64th Native Infantry and the 10th
Irregular Cavalry and the Hindustani fanatics in
Swat.
And now another cloud seemed gathering on the
frontier. The noted outlaw Ajun Khan came down, to Prang,
invited, as it was believed, by our Hindustani troops in the
fort of Abazai, at the head of the Swat river. Nothing seemed
more likely than that lie would be joined by the fugitives of
the 55th, come down to Abazai, and get the fort betrayed to
him by the garrison, when the whole frontier would have been
in a flame. But the danger was promptly met. The force under
Colonel Chute was strengthened and moved rapidly to cover the
threatened outposts. It was seen that, after disarming four
regiments and routing another, we still had a force in the
field standing on the aggressive. Ajun Khan withdrew into the
hills, and our little force encamped on the border until Delhi
should be regained. But Delhi was not to be recovered by a
coup dc main and months of painful anxiety were yet to be
endured.
About this time the Commissioner issued a
proclamation that any deserter might be killed wherever found
in the district, and the property on his person appropriated
by the captors. About forty or fifty sepoys were killed in
consequence in making for the Indus, and this destroyed all
confidence between the soldiery and the people. Now, too, the
Multani Pathans from the Derajat began to arrive, and the
aspect of affairs greatly to improve. It may be mentioned as
an instance of the strange things that happened in those days,
that a party of 300 of the Mullikdin Afridis (who were under
embargo, as has been previously mentioned) marched into
cantonments armed to the teeth, and said they had come to
fight for us and be forgiven. They formed the nucleus of one
of the new Punjab regiments. The several detachments of the
64th at the outposts were one by one disarmed by the column
under Colonels Chute and Nicholson, and by other forces sent
out from cantonments for the purpose.
Meanwhile General
Cotton Lad not been idle, he had been dealing out stern
justice to such of the mutineers, as had openly commited
themselves; and he now turned his attention to making the most
of his reliable material. Volunteers from the Queen's infantry
regiments were mounted and armed with the horses and weapons
taken from the 5th Light Cavalry, under the denomination of
the "Peshawar Light Horse." Subsequently a limited number of
selected sowars of the 5th Light Cavalry were associated with
them. The Sikhs and other Punjabis were picked out of the
several Hindustani regiments of the line and formed into a
separate corps, which subsequently did good service. A battery
of 9-poundcr guns lying in the magazine was manned by European
volunteers from the Queen's Infatry regiments and horsed by
the horses of the 5th Light Cavalry, In like manner the native
troop of horse artillery was replaced by European volunteers.
A depot was established for Afghan recruits, which was soon
after embodied as the 18th Regiment of Punjab
Infantry.
Three more Irregular Cavalry regiments were
raised. Lastly amongst the measures of new organization may be
mentioned the " Land Transport Train " for the conveyance of
the European soldiers with ease and comfort at that inclement
season. A number of spare ammunition wagons were fitted up by
the Ordnance Commissariat Officers, so that sixteen men could
ride in each waggon and their arms be stowed away in the
lockers on which they sat. The wagons were to be drawn by
relays of commissariat bullocks at regular stages along the
road; and it was found that, if necessary, the train could
thus accomplish forty miles in one night. It proved of
invaluable service when the autumnal sickness set in with more
than its usual virulence. " The European soldiery viewed this
thoughtful effort in their behalf with gratitude. It literally
opened a way to them to get out of this fatal valley when
prostrated by fever and, though many fine fellows fell victims
to the disease, there is no question that many were rescued
from death by being removed to Rawalpindi in the Land
Transport Train.
" In the first year of our rule the
border was chiefly disturbed by the hostility of the
neighbouring country of Swat. An aged priest, called the
Akhund, had hitherto been the pope of this country; but,
looking at the English career in India as aggressive, lie
expected us to annex Swat as soon as we had settled at
Peshawar. On his suggestion, therefore, the Swatis created one
Sayad Akbar, their King, and agreed to pay him a tithe of
their crops to keep up soldiers for their defence.
Providentially for us, this Badshah of Swat died on the 11th
May, the very day that the first news of the mutiny readied
Peshawar; so that Swat' was plunged into civil war, and thus
prevented from making those aggressions on our territory which
might otherwise have been looked for. Sayad Mobarik Shah, son
of the deceased Sayad Akbar, wished to succeed his father but
the Swatis had grown tired of tithes. Both sides called in
their friends and allies to settle the question by arms.
It was at this juncture that the 500 fugitive sepoys
of the 55th Native Infantry arrived in Swat. They were at once
taken into the young King's service, but after fighting one
battle demanded pay. The King, not being in funds, borrowed Rs. 1,000 from the leaders of the sepoys and distributed them
amongst the mutineers; but when this supply was exhausted the
full extent of their folly and misery seems to have struck the
ringleader for he blew out his own brains. The Akhund at this
time having sided with the popular party, the 55th sepoys were
dismissed and the young King expelled from Swat. The peace of
our border being thus assured, the column returned to Peshawar
with Colonel Nicholson, who was, however, shortly after
removed to the command of the Punjab movable column, with the
rank of Brigadier-General, in the room of General Chamberlain,
appointed Adjutant-General of the army.
Colonel
Nicholson's place as Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar was
filled by Captain James, then Secretary to the Chief
Commissioner, who had previously had charge of the district
for many years. On the break up of Colonel Chute's column, the
fort of Mardan was garrisoned by a part of the 5th Punjab
Infantry, and the Nowshera cantonment by the 4th Punjab
Infantry. It was now time to bring the 10th Irregulars to
task. Part of this regiment was in Peshawar, part in Nowshera.
Both were simultaneously dealt with. On the 26th June their
arms, horses and property were taken from them and
confiscated, and the whole of the men were hurried down to
Attock where they were dismissed with Rs. 2 each, just enough
to carry them to their homes. Shortly after, the disarmed
regiments were not only deprived of their extra batta, but
also put upon subsistence allowance to their great disgust.
Two of the frontier outposts, Forts Bara and Mackeson were
garrisoned by detachments of the 24th Native
Infantry.
It became known to the authorities that some
of these men had been negotiating with the Afridis to pilot
them through the hills to some ferry on the Indus. They were
deprived of their arms and removed to cantonments; the
ringleader was blown from a gun; and the outposts were
garrisoned by Multanis. Scarcely had this little affair been
disposed of when (on the 9th July) two Afridis of the Sipah
tribe entered the lines of the 18th Irregular Cavalry and
presented to the sowars a letter from Mullik Suraj-ud-Din, the
head of their tribe, and one of the most powerful men in the
Khyber, offering an asylum in the hills to " any black man "
(so the Hindustanis are called by the Afghan tribes), either
of the cavalry or infantry, who chose to mutiny and come to
him. The sowars at once took letter and emissaries to their
commanding officer. The Sipah chief was called upon to
explain; he at once acknowledged the letter, and said" If the
black men had come lie meant to give them up.
" It has
already been related how Sayad Mobarik Shah and the mutineers
of the 55th Native Infantry were dismissed from Swat and told
to seek their fortune elsewhere. The moss of the latter made
for Kashmir, and mostly perished by the way. The former
accompanied by the few remaining sepoys, proceeded to the
valley of Punjtar, which adjoins the Yusafzai side of the
valley of Peshawar. Here they found a colony of Hindustani
Muhammadans of the Wahabi sect, headed by a maulvi named
Inayat who, in return for land at place called Managalthana,
supported the Khan of Punjtar in oppressing his own clan.
Either this chief (Mokarab Khan) or the clan used to be
constantly calling in our border officers to arbitrate their
mutual disputes, and our decisions being generally in favour
of the people, incurred for us the hatred of the Khan. Now was
a good opportunity to vent it. He commenced by sending a party
of Hindustanis and other vagabonds under his cousin, Mir Baz
Khan, into our nearest villages and instigating them to "
raise the standard of the Prophet;" or, in other words, to
refuse to pay their revenue.
Major Vaughan, then
commanding at Mardan, at once marched out (2nd July) and fell
on them with about 400 horse and foot and 2 mountain guns,
killed Mir Baz Khan, took prisoner a Rohilla leader, hanged
him and the headman of the rebels, burnt two of the villages
which had revolted, fined others, and thus extinguished this
spark of mischief. Captain James at once proceeded to the
spot, and by his judgment, courage and intelligence the
Yusafzai border was saved at this period from a general rise.
" The most disastrous tidings came daily from Hindustan, and
echoed in still more alarming voices among these hills.
Special messengers made their way from Delhi and proclaimed
the extinction of the Nazarenes in the Moghal capital. Others
came from Peshawar and invited the Ghazis to descend and
inflame the country. The Ghazis came with the maulvis at their
head, and planted their standard (embroidered with butchery
from the Koran) on the heights of Narinji.
This
mountain village was so strongly situated that the police
scarcely dared to go near it; and it became a refuge for every
evil-doer. Its inhabitants, about 400 in number, welcomed the
maulvi with delight. The holy war seemed auspiciously opened
with every requisite-a priest, a banner, a fastness, a howling
crowd of bigots, and several days' provisions. But on the
morning of the 21st July Captain James surprised them with a
force of 800 horse and foot, and 4 mountain guns, under
command of Major Vaughan, and put them to a disastrous flight,
which the maulvi headed so precipitately that his mystic
banner remained in the hands of the infidels. No less than 50
or 60.) of the Ghazis were slain, and the lower village of
Narinji was destroyed.
" The weather was too hot and
the troops too exhausted to destroy upper Narinji, to which
place the maulvi shortly returned with a strong reinforcement.
It was, however, assailed on the 3rd August by Captain James
and Major Vaughan with 1,400 men. "The Ghais had thrown up
some formidable entrenchments and danced and yelled as they
saw a small column advancing in their front. Their shouts were
answered by British cheers from a second column under
Lieutenant Hoste, which had gained the heights by a bye path,
and now appeared above Narinji. A general flight took place;
30 of the Ghazis died running stoutly, and three were taken
prisoners, amongst whom was a maulvi from Bareilly, who was
summarily hanged. The village was then knocked down by
elephants, and its towers blown up by the engineers; Narinji
was at last destroyed.
'' About this time a general
restlessness was observed amongst the chiefs of the district,
as well as amongst the native community. Delhi still held out,
and doubts began to be entertained in regard to our ultimate
success. The conduct of the moneyed classes in respect to the
6 percent, loan, which was opened by order of the Financial
Commissioner, may be instanced to show how completely native
confidence was destroyed. The chief native gentlemen of the
city were summoned by the Commissioner and consulted on this
delicate topic. "They looked grave, made many wise remarks on
the duty of every body to help such a paternal government,
affected an entire freedom from vulgar belief that the English
raj was coming to an end; but it was clearly their opinion not
a rupee would be subscribed." However, they under took to
sound the city corporation, and to bring up the chief
capitalist next day.
" About two hours after the
appointed time," writes Colonel Edwardes, " the city magnates
slunk in, each trying to make himself as small as possible and
to sit in any row except the front. That hyperbole of
gratitude for the prosperity enjoyed under our shadow; that
lavish presentation of trays of fruits and sugar candy with
which these comfortable men formerly rolled in to the
presence-what had become of it! Alas, all vanished with our
prestige! Behold, a Government, not only opening n loan, but
also imperatively needing it! Not a man would lend a farthing
if lie could help it." Seeing this, Colonel Edwardes commenced
business by fining them all round for being late, and asked
them what arrangements they proposed.
After half an
hour's consultation, they said they thought 15,000 rupees
might be raised with a little contrivance in the course of a
few months." But the prestige of the Government was to be
maintained, and the Commissioner informed the corporation that
it was his intention to levy five lakhs towards the loan, the
assessment of which he left to themselves, allowing them one
day to arrange it. " They at once settled down to the details,
but as every house desired to throw an unfair share on its
neighbour, I placed the assessment in the hands of the
Government treasurer, Man Mall, who carried it out with a
patience, firmness, good nature, and impartiality which I
cannot too highly praise." Ultimately four lakhs were
subscribed. These securities fell during the crisis so low as
26 per cent. discount, but subsequently rose nearly to par.
The loan operated very favourably on public opinion. The
people enjoyed seeing the money-lenders brought to book, and
the latter at once became interested in the cause of good
order.
On the 27th July the reliable force in Peshawar
was much weakened by the march of the 4th Punjab Infantry for
Delhi; but the new levies had now attained an importance,
which justified the withdrawal of that regiment. Shortly
afterwards most of the tribes in disgrace on the border
tendered their submission. Some anxiety was caused by rumour
of a rising in the city on the feast of Bukra-Eed (1st
August), and of its being the intention of the British
Government to make over the territories trails-Indus to the
Amir of Kabul. The fears caused by these reports were,
however, allayed and nothing came of them. A fresh source of
anxiety was now produced (15th August) by a red hot fanatic
named Sayad Amir, of the family of the well-known Kunar
Badshahs, who came down into the Khaibar to incite the tribes
to a holy war. " This man had all his life been a mendicant
wandering in Peshawar, Kabul, Teheran, Constantinople and
Mecca, and had just returned from one of these pilgrimage with
a few thousand rupees, seed enough for a goodly harvest of
devilry on the frontier.
He planted his green flag at
the village of Gaggri in the Peshawar mouth of the Khaibar
Pass, and sent summons to the Kuki Khel Malliks to leave me
and join him in a crescentade. There is some tiling delightful
in the good conduct of thorough rascals. Who could have
expected the Kuki Khel to stick to their agreements of
yesterday? But they did. They went back and told the Sayad to
be off. He cursed them well and frightened them a good deal
with his Koran, flag and various incantations, but the most he
could get from them was five days' hospitality. He certainly
made the most of his time, for his emissaries came to every
regiment in Peshawar with invitations to join him. At the end
of five days, when the Sayad showed no symptoms of leaving,
the Kuki Khel pulled up the pickets of his horses and camels
and even irreverently shut up Ins flag; and the Sayad left the
pass in a storm of Arabic.
" But we were not yet done
with him. He went to the next tribe under blockade, the Michni
Mohmands, who received him with open arms; and again
incendiary letters and messages were introduced amongst the
troops. Great restlessness pervaded the disarmed regiments,
and arms were supposed to be finding their way into the lines.
General Cotton accordingly (on the 28th August) ordered the
sepoys to be moved into tents, and the lines of every native
regiment to be searched simultaneously. Weapons of every
description were found. " Exasperated by the discovery of
their plans, and by the taunts of the newly-raised Afridi
regiments, who were carrying out the search, the 51st Native
Infantry rushed upon the piled arms of the 18th Punjab
Infantry, and sent messengers to all the other Hindustani
regiments to tell them of the rise. For a few minutes a
desperate struggle ensued. The 51st Native Infantry had been
one of the finest sepoy corps in the service; and they took
the new irregulars altogether by surprise.
They got
possession of several stands of arms, and used them well. But
soon the Afridi soldiers seized their arms, and then began
that memorable fusillade which commenced on the parade ground
at Peshawar and ended at Jamrud. General Cotton's arrangements
for meeting such emergencies were perfect. Troops, horse and
foot, were rapidly under arms and in pursuit of the mutineers.
Every civil officer turned out with his posse comitatus of
levies or police and in a quarter of an hour the whole country
was covered with the chase."
Out of a
total of 871 men, some 60 or 70 are supposed to have reached
the hills, 660 having either been killed in the pursuit, or
subsequently executed by sentence of court-martial. The
example had a good effect on the disarmed troops, who from
that date underwent a marked change. About a fortnight after
this event, Sayad Amir, with a body of Mohmands and 40 or 50
of the escaped 51st sepoys, made a night attack on the fort of
Michni. The garrison consisted of a detachment of the
Khelat-i-GhiIzai who had heretofore behaved well, but they
were Hindustanis, and who could rely on them? The Mohmands
opened on the fort with their jazails, but the 51st deserters,
with a far more formidable weapon, appealed to every prejudice
in the garrison, and screamed to them to betray the fort if
they valued their country or their religion. A company of
Afridi sepoys was hastily thrown into the citadel, but
something more was needed.
The Mohmands were in the
highest excitement, sending the " fiery cross " to all their
neighbours, and evidently determined to strike u blow for the
recovery of a fief that they had forfeited some three years
before. " We had no troops," writes Colonel Edwardes, '' to
move out against them, It was ii time for Yielding with as
good a grace as could be assumed. I sent them word that they
were just going the wrong way to work, and that if they wanted
to regain their confiscated privileges, they must render some
marked service to the Government, instead of adding to the
embarrassments of a passing crisis. For instance, let them
send the fanatic Sayad Amir up to the Court of Kabul and there
make him over to the Amir Dost Muhammad Khan. If they did
that, and gave hostages for their good conduct till this war
was over, I would gladly ask Government to reinstate them,
though not on such favourable terms as formerly. Whatever the
errors and shortcomings of Englishmen in the East may be, they
are undoubtedly believed.
The Mohmand sent in their
hostages to Peshawar, packed the Sayad off unceremoniously,
and sat down quietly to wait for the return of peace in
Hindustan." The narrative of events at Peshawar during crisis
of 1857 is now ended: but the following statistics may prove
interesting. To give a right idea of the way in which the
military authorities met the crisis, it may be mentioned that
no less than 523 military executions took place for mutiny and
desertion, of whom 20 were hanged, 44 blown from guns, and 450
shot by musketry.Of irregular levies raised in Peshawar during
the crisis (irrespective of regiments of disciplined infantry
raised by military officers), there were 1,223 horse and 1,101
foot, or a total of 2,324; and if we take into account the
levies of the Derajat and Kohat, which were subsequently sent
to Peshawar, the total will be raised to 5,667, of whom 1,807
were sent to Hindustan for general service, where they behaved
with credit. Perhaps nothing tended more than these levies to
keep the frontier quiet.
They absorbed nil the idlers
and adventurers of the Peshawar valley, and made the campaign
against the Hindustani mutineers a highly popular service. To
use a. common phrase of the natives, " it put the people into
one boat."The internal administration of the district under
British rule is deferred to later chapters for discussion. On
the historical side the chief interest now centres in the
border administration. Some account may conveniently be given
here of the tribes who hold the country round the external
borders of the district. From the Indus to the Swat river the
country within and without the British border is held almost
exclusively by various sections of the Yusafzai tribe
including in the generic name their great offshoot Mandanr.
Roughly speaking, the Yusafzai proper arc settled in Dir;
Swat, Buncr and the Upper Indus hills. Mandanr settlements are
in the plain land which occupies all the north-eastern portion
of the Peshawar District (the Mardan Sub-division) and in the
trans-border valleys between Buner and the Indus.
The
tract immediately along the right bank of the Indus (Kaya-Khabbal) is held by a comparatively small tribe the
Utmanzai-a Mandanr clan of whom the majority live in British
territory, in the Swabi tahsil of the Peshawar district and
the Haripur tahsil of the Hazara district. Immediately north
of the Utmanzai country lies Amb and the few villages held by
the non-Pathan Chief of Amb on the right bank of the Indus.
Beyond them again are settled the Isazai section of Yusafzai
of whom two sub-divisions, the Hassanzai and Akazai, occupy
the Black Mountain on the Hazara border, and only the Madda
Khel reside wholly on the right bank of the Indus. Next to the
Utmanzai along the British border live the Gaduns. A large
portion of this tribe resides in the Hazara district in the
neighborhood of Abbottabad where, however, they are known as
Jaduns. They are said not to be an Afghan race but to be
allied to the Tanawalis of Amb and to other races such as the
Dilazaks who were ousted from the hills round the Peshawar
valley by the irruption of the Yusafzai tribes in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Further west we
come to the Khudu Khel who belongs to Mandanr stock. The same
tribe own two villages in British territory-Baja and Bamkhel
in the Swabi tahsil. In tribal territory the Khudu Khel are
settled on the southwestern slopes of the Mahaban range and
north of Swabi their territory runs down into the plain also.
North of the Khudu Khol and of the Gaduns are the Amazai. The
tribe is divided into two sections of which one occupies the
Sadhum valley in the Mardan tahsil and the other lives in
Tribal Territory on the northern and western slopes of Mahaban. The two sections now maintain little intercourse with
each other separated as they are by a strip of country 30
miles in width held by other clans. Beyond the independent
Amazai again are the cis-Indus Hassanzai and the Chigharzai,
Yusafzai proper; To the north-east of the Khudu Khel
settlements is the valley of Chamla, which is held by a mixed
population composed of detachments of the Mandanr clans in the
Yusafzai plain, chiefly from the Razzar tappa. Here commence
the Yusafzai tribes proper
. Buner itself is held by
the two main sections of Malizai and IIiaszai Yusafzai. Next
to Buner come the tribes that hold the Swat valley. Swat
proper comprises the valley of the Swat River from its
junction with the Panjkora to the village of Churrarai. Above
Churrarai is the Kohistan, of Swat inhabited by a non-Pathan
race, which appears to have some affinities with the people of
Dir Kohistan, and some of the outlying valleys of the Gilgit
Agency. The watershed of the Swat River towards British,
territory is the Mora and Malakand range, the southern slopes
of which are inhabited by a section of the Ranizai tribe and
other miscellaneous elements. The tract from the British
border to the hills here is known as Sam Ranizai. From Sam
Ranizai to the Swat river where it en'ers British territory
the hills are held by the Utman Khel tribe who also occupy the
country on the right bank of the river as far as Bajaur and
the limits of the Mohmands. A small section of the Utman Khel
tribe is settled in the extreme north of the Mardan tahsil in
the Lund Khwar Valley just within the British
border.
These maintain, however, no connection with
their brethren in tribal territory. The Utman Khel are not
Yusafzais and their territory marks the western limits of the
latter tribe. The country lying between the Swat and Kabul
rivers is held by Mohmand tribes who extend northwards up to
the range which flanks the left bank of the Kunar river and
westwards as far as Jalalabad and the country of the Shinwaris. In order as they lie from the Swat river to the
Kabul the Mohmand sections are the Burhan Khel with the Isa
Khel behind them in the Pandiali Valley, the Halimazi in
Gandnb, and the Tarakzai in the tangle of hills between Gandab
and the Kabul river. South of the Kabul River and immediately
adjoining British territory live the Mullagoris, originally
humsayas of the Mohmands, whose settlements terminate near
Jamrud at the mouth of the Khyber Pass. Next to the Mullagoris
and completing the chain of independent tribes round the
Peshawar Valley come the Afridis who are divided into eight
sections-Kuki Khel, Zakka Khel, Malikdin Khel, Qambar Khel, Kamarai,
Sepah, Aka Khel and Adam Khel.
The sections
most concerning the Peshawar district are the Kuki Khel, who
occupy the Jam and Qadam villages at the month of the Khyber
Pass, the Zakka Khel with their settlements in the Khyber and
Bazar Valleys, and the Sepah, Qambar Khel, and Aka Khel who
hold most of the land on the Khajuri and Aka Khel plain. The
Adam Khel holds the large salient of tribal territory
intervening between the Peshawar and Kohat districts, and is
responsible for the security of the Kohat Pass Road. The
plateau of Lawargai (Landi Kotal) is held by the Shinwaris,
most of whom reside in the Ningrahar Valley of Afghanistan.
Omitting the comparatively insignificant clans of the Gaduns,
Utman Khel and Mullagoris the tribes round the Peshawar Valley
fall ethnologically and to some extent politically into three
main divisions. First the Yusafzai tribes (of whom the Gaduns
for all practical purposes form a portion) form the Indus to
the Swat River. Next the Mohmands from the Swat to the Kabul
river. Lastly the Afridis south of the Kabul
River.
Between the Yusafzais and the Mohmands there is
a much closer conformity in speech and physical
characteristics, as well as a more lively consciousness of a
common historical origin than there is between either of these
two tribes and the Afridis. It seems highly probable that the
Mohmands and Yusafzai either jointly emigrated to their
present settlement from the interior of Afghanistan, or at any
rate that the movements of the two tribes took place about the
same time or were probably duo to the same causes.There is
every reason to believe, on the other hand, that the Afridis
have held the country they at present occupy from much earlier
times and that they belong as well to a different branch of
the Afghan nation. The principal events in the history of the
relations of the British Government with these tribes have now
to be related.The Yusafzai tribes are considered first. As the
narrative proceeds it will become obvious how the whole nature
of our border administration here is affected by the fact that
the population on both sides of the present political border
springs with minor exceptions from one common
stock.
The Yusafzais of the district have on the whole
displayed examplary loyalty to the British Government. Such
trouble as has occurred between the Government and the
Yusafzais of tribal territory has been largely traceable to
the presence in their midst of the so-called. " Hindustani
fanatics." The curious history of this colony of religious
maniacs is now to be related. About the year 18-23 one Said
Ahmad Shah of Bareilly made his appearance in Yusafzai. He was
a mullah by profession and had performed the pilgrimage to
Mecca. There appears to be no doubt but that during Ins stay
in Arabia he had accepted the tenets of the Wahabi sect,
doctrines which he thereafter considered it his mission in
life to propagate wherever opportunity offered. Political
conditions in the Peshawar Valley seemed to him at tins time
to provide such opportunity. Sikh influence had just begun to
make itself felt west of the Indus. The new kingdom of Ranjit
Singh in the Punjab was now consolidated. It appeared that the
Sikh nation must seek new fields for conquest.
There
was naturally considerable uneasiness among the Muhammadan
population of the Peshawar Valley in consequence. Said Ahmad
Shall took advantage of this opportunity to arrive on the
scene with about 400 followers whom he had recruited among the
Muhammadans of Bengal and Hindustan. He arrived just in time
to rouse again the war spirit in the Yusafzais, humbled
temporarily by the heavy defeat they had recently sustained at
the hands of Ran] it Singh in the battle at Pir Sabak. Said
Ahmad raised the standard of Jihad. Animated by a spirit of
fanaticism and possibly with a patriotic desire to free their
country from Hari Singh and his oppressive soldiery numerous
bands of ill-disciplined levies drawn from the villages of
Yusafzai were quickly at his disposal. His Hindustani
disciples-soon increased, by recruits till they numbered 900
men-formed a disciplined nucleus round which the new army was,
to be organised. In addition he received support both open and
secret from the Barakzai chiefs at Peshawar who from being
independent princes had been reduced by Ranjit Singh to the
position of tributary Governors.
In 1827 Said Ahmad
made his first attempt to expel the Sikhs but was unsuccessful
largely owing to the treachery of the Barakzai Sirdars. He
fled to Swat, proceeded thence to Buner and ultimately took up
his residence at Panjtar, the stronghold of the Khudu Khel
chief, Patch Khan. By 1828 he had extended his influence over
the whole country north of the Kabul River. In 1829 he
successfully occupied Peshawar. There he quickly alienated any
attachment the Peshawaris had been inclined to give to his
cause. He endeavoured forthwith to introduce the asceticism of
the Wahabi faith-a measure likely to be little acceptable then
or now to the population of Peshawar City or Yusafzai. He
enforced the Muhammadan Law with great vigour, disallowing
those national customs to which the Pathan still clings with
tenacity, opposed although they may be to the precepts of
Islam. His following of Hindustanis who were scattered over
the country in small detachments had also made themselves
obnoxious to the rural population by assuming the airs or a
body of conquerors.
In what followed is well
illustrated the traditional dislike of the Pathan for
Government in any form, even by his co-religionists. The
impression was created that it way useless to get rid of the
Sikhs and to find the country saddled with a new master in the
shape of Said Ahmad. A massacre of the Said and of all his
followers was secretly arranged. At a given signal a beacon
lire on the top of Karamar-every Hindustani in Yusafzai was
murdered wherever found. The Said who on the fatal night had
rested in Panjtar with a selected band of his closest
followers escaped across the Indus. After wandering in the
Hazara hills fo+r some time he was eventually attacked by the
Sikhs at Balakot in the lower Kaghan Valley. The leader
himself was killed and his band all but annihilated. The
remnant fled to the Utmanzai village of Sitana. Tills village
had been made over by the Utmanzai as a religious grant to a
family of Saids whose head at the time was one Said Akbar
Shah.
This man had served as treasurer to Said Ahmad
and on this account he gladly granted the Hindustani fugitives
refuge. Here they accordingly settled and established a fort
the garrison of which received recruits from sympathisers in
Hindustan and Bengal. A private line of communications was
established across the North of India with forwarding stations
whence men and money passed from depots down country to the
headquarters of the whole movement-the colony at Sitana.From
fanatical motives the colony now adopted a regular policy of
stirring up trouble along the borders of Peshawar and Hazara.
They first came into collision with the British Government in
1853 after a punitive expedition had been sent against the
Hassanzai on account of the murder of two officers of the Salt
Department by men of that tribe. The Hindustani fanatics
cooperated with the Hassanzai and accordingly in January 1853
a small force crossed the Indus and destroyed the Hindustani
fort of Kotla.
In 1858 arising out of troubles with the
Khudu Khel, a British column was sent to Sitana when the
Wahabis were defeated with much slaughter and the Utmanzai and
Gaduns were compelled to sign an agreement not to admit the
fanatics into their limits and to resist, any oilier tribe
which might attempt to reinstate them in their former
settlements. The fanatics then settled at Malka, a village in
Amazai territory on the northern slopes of Mahaban.During the
autumn of 1802 the colony became again active and a small
party re-occupied Sitana in the next year, the Gaduns and
other tribes of the neighbourhood giving them covert
assistance. Government determined to put an end once and for
all to their activities. Arrangements were made to dispatch a
force against them, which should move from the Chamla Valley
in a direction north of Malka thereby cutting off their
retreat. On the 9th of October 1863 a force-marched from
British Yusafzai with this objective. An unavoidable delay at
the Ambeyla Pass gave the fanatics time to .
set tin'
tribes in motion. A rumour was given currency that the British
really intended to occupy Buner and thence to inarch into
Swat. The tribes, jealous as ever of any threat to their
independence, caught fire at once and soon a formidable
collection of fighting men gathered to contest the advance of
the British force from the Ambeyla Pass. Excitement was so
intense that the Akhund of Swat was obliged against his better
judgment to lend the movement his support. The struggle on the
Ambeyla now assumed considerable dimensions. From 15,000 to
20,000 fighting men were collected and for six weeks the
British force was fully occupied in holding its own on the
crest of the Pass. Eventually the coalition of the
trans-border Yusafzai tribes was broken up after severe and
continuous fighting in which a large number of Hindustani
fanatics attained the salvation they desired.
The
tribes agreed to dismiss the fighting men of all kinds
collected round the Ambeyla Pass to send a party to destroy
Malka, accompanied by British officers and by such escort as
might be considered necessary, and to expel the fanatics from
the territories of the Buner, Chamla and Amazai tribes. These
engagements were duly carried out and on the 22nd of December
1863 Malka was destroyed.The greater part of the "Hindustani
fanatics now took refuge in Chigharzai country. Their position
was however by no means satisfactory. The tribesmen made them
pay dearly for the protection afforded to them and for such
local supplies, as they required. They later incurred the
displeasure of the Akhund of Swat who brought pressure on the
Chigharzai to expel the fanatics from their limits. The latter
thereafter for some time led a wandering existence in the
hills on both banks of the Indus to the north of the Black
Mountain.
At last they threw themselves on the mercy of
the Hassanzai who allotted them some land near the village of
Palosi on the right bank of the Indus about 20 miles north of
Darband. They resided there in peace till 1888, when in the
course of the Black Mountain expeditions of that year they
were induced (apparently against the wishes of their leaders)
to join in the opposition offered by the tribesmen of that
region to the British forces. At Kotkai a body, some 200 of
their number, made a desperate charge on the Government troops
and were amihilated to man. Their mud fort at Palosi was
subsequently destroyed and the colony withdrew once again to
Chigharzai limits where, for some years they lived on
sufferance. In the second Black Mountain expedition of 1891
they again appeared among the enemy tribesmen and on this
occasion their chief exploit was a desperate night attack on
Ghazikot, which was beaten off with heavy loss to the
fanatics,
It In 1850
the expedition against the tribes of the Kohat Pass was
conducted by General Sir Charles Napier, the
Commander-in-Chief in person. Major Lawrence accompanied the
force as Political Officer. In the same year he was succeeded
as Deputy Commissioner by Major (afterwards Sir H. B.) Lumsden, the first Commandant of the Corps of Guides, to be
succeeded by the famous John Nicholson in 1857. At this time
the Commissioner of the Peshawar Division was that other
well-known Frontier Officer, Herbert Edwardes.
The
following account of the events of 1857 is taken from the
Punjab Mutiny Report: -
"The Peshawar Division,
comprising our north-western frontier, and inhabited
throughout by turbulent and warlike people, as arc also our
neighbours beyond the border, was a source of the greatest
anxiety throughout the crisis. It i, made up of the hills and
valleys of the Kohat and Peshawar Districts, our most
northerly possessions trails-Indus, and the mountainous
district of Hazara, cis-Indus. Kohat and Hazara were held by
portions of the old Punjab irregular force; but in the valley
of Peshawar a strong garrison of the regular army had always
been maintained. In the beginning of May 1857 perfect peace
reigned in Hazara and Kohat. Their irritable and bigoted, but
simple and manly races, had been tamed by easy revenue and
kindly rule into that chronic contentment which is the nearest
approach to loyalty that new conquerors can expect.
In
Peshawar the same ease and prosperity prevailed; but for one
crime or another almost every powerful tribe beyond the border
was under a blockade-the Malikdin Afridis for the
assassination of a police officer; the Zakkakhel Afridis and
the Michni and Pandiali Mohmands for along course of raids and
highway robberies; the Kukkikhel Afridis for the murder of a
British officer at the mouth of the Khaibar Pass; and the
people of Totye for harbouring escaped criminals. The people
of Punjtar, though not actually under ban, were known to be
meditating mischief, and to have called in to their assistance
a detachment of Hindustani fanatics from Sitana. Thus the
valley of Peshawar stood in a ring of repressed hostilities.
Be-yond that mountain ring lay the kingdom of Kabul, over the
disastrous memories of which some treaties of friendship had
freshly drawn a veil.
Three British officers, Major H.
Lumsden, Lieutenant P. Lumsden, and Doctor Bellow, were on a
political mission at Kandahar-envoys to day, but possible
hostages to-morrow. On the western frontiers of Kandahar
hovered the skirmishers of the Persian army, which had
captured Herat in breach of treaties with the English. Such
was the state of our northwest border when the electric
telegraph flashed up intelligence of the beginning of the
mutiny of the native army at Meerut. The events at Peshawar
will be read with a painful interest. This district contained
a large native force which for the most part proved mutinous
to the core, to restrain whom, and to keep in check the fierce
spirits within and beyond our border, we had but few Europeans
and other reliable troops; while it was very probable that on
the slightest provocation the Amir of Kabul might pour an army
through the Khaibar to over whelm us when we were hardly in a
condition to offer any opposition.
How these
difficulties were grappled with and overcom by the able
officers, civil and military, then in authority at Peshawar,
how the disaffected Purbis and Hindustanis were rendered
innocuous and the wild mountaineers of the country enlisted on
our side, will be narrated in the following paragraphs. The
late lamented Brigadier-General John Nicholson was at the time
of the outbreak the Deputy Commissioner of this district. The
military forces in the valley, consisting of about 2,800
Europeans and 8,000 native soldiers, of all arms, with 18
field guns and a mountain battery were commanded by Brigadier
Sydney Cotton. It was on the night of the 11th May that
intelligence arrived by telegraph from Delhi that sepoys from
Meerut were burning the houses and killing the Europeans. This
intelligence was confirmed on the following morning by a
second message from Meerut, stating that the native troops
were in open mutiny, and the European troops under arms
defending barracks, Prompt measures were taken to meet the
coming storm.
A movable column of picked troops was
determined on to put down mutiny in the Punjab. Orders were
the same day (12th May) issued for the 55th Native Infantry to
march from Nowshera and relieve the Guide Corps in charge of
the fort of Mardan, and for the Guides, on being relieved, to
join Her Majesty's 27th Foot at Nowshera. A rigid examination
of sepoys correspondence in the post office began. The 64th
Native Infantry, of whom particularly suspicions were
entertained, was broken up into three detachments and marched
to different out-posts as if to meet an expected raid of the
Mohmands, and was thus much crippled for intrigue, whether in
its own ranks or with other regiments. Brigadier Neville
Chamberlain, commanding the Punjab Irregular Force, was
invited over from Kohat to join in a council of war. Early on
the following morning news was received of the disarming of
the native troops at Lahore.
The council of war,
composed of General Reed, commanding the Peshawar Division,
Brigadier Sydney Cotton, Brigadier Neville Chamberlain,
Colonel Edwardes, and Colonel Nicholson, assembled on the
forenoon of the 13th, and the following measures were
determined on, all of which received the approval of the Chief
Commissioner: 1st , the concentration of civil and military
power in the Punjab by General Reed (the senior officer)
assuming chief command and joining the headquarters of the
Chief Commissioner at Rawalpindi, leaving Brigadier Cotton in
command of Peshawar; 2nd, the organization of a movable column
of thoroughly reliable troops to assemble at -Jhelum, and
thence to take the field and put down mutiny wherever it might
appear in the Punjab ; 3rd, the removal of a doubtful sepoy
garrison from the fort of Attock and the substitution of a
reliable one in that important post; and 4th, the levy of 100
Pathans under Fatten Khan, Khattak a tried soldier, to hold
the Attock ferry, a vital point in the communication between
Peshawar and the Punjab.
Brigadier Chamberlain was also
deputed to consult further with Sir John Lawrence, and an
abstract of the above measures was telegraphed to every
station in the Punjab. On the same day (the 13th) the Guide
Corps marched from Mardan six hours after it got the order,
and was at Attock (thirty miles off) next morning, fully
equipped for service-'' a worthy beginning," writes Colonel
Edwardes, " of one of the rapidest inarches ever made by
soldiers for, it being necessary to give General Anson every
available man to attempt the recovery of Delhi, the Guides
were not kept for the movable column, but were pushed on to
Delhi, a distance of 580 miles, or 50 regular marches, which
they accomplished in twenty-one inarches with only three
intervening halts, and those made by order. After thus
marching twenty-seven miles a day for three weeks, the Guides
reached Delhi on the 9th June, and three hours afterwards
engaged the enemy hand to hand, every officer being more or
lees wounded.
" On the 16th a lithographed circular
drawn up by Captain Bartlett, Cantonment Joint Masgistrate, in
the common character of sepoy correspondence, and in their own
provincial dialect, containing an appeal to every loyal
feeling and personal interest of the native soldiery, was
despatched to many stations of the army, with how little
effect is well-known. On the same date General Reed and
Brigadier Chamberlain joined the Chief Commissioner at
Rawalpindi, and Colonel Edwardes was also summoned to a
conference. Before starting, he, with the consent of Sir John
Lawrence, left orders with Colonel Nicholson to raise a force
of 1,000 Mooltani horse. On the 18th permission was given to
increase them to 2,000, for it soon became apparent that,
whatever, gave rise to the mutiny, it had settled down into a
struggle for empire, and that Delhi must be regained at any
coat.
Dark news kept coming up from the provinces, and
a rapid change was observed in the native regiments.
Precautions began. The treasure (about 24 lakhs) was removed
from the centre of cantonments to the fort outside, where the
magazine was, and a European garrison was placed in it. The
Brigadier removed his headquarters to the Residency in the
centre of cantonments, which was appointed as the rendezvous
for all ladies and children on any alarm by day or night. The
troops in garrison were divided into two brigades under the
Colonels of the two European regiments with guns attached to
each. European guards were placed in the artillery lines, and
a watch was set on every ferry of the Indus.
About this
time intelligence was received that the 55th Native Infantry,
both at Nowshera and Mardan, and the detachment of 10th
Irregular Cavalry at the latter place, were in a state of
discontent; a wing of Her Majesty's 24th Regiment was
therefore ordered from Rawalpindi. The native newspaper At
Peshawar having published an incendiary report that the
Khelat-i-GhiIzai regiments had murdered its officers; its
editor (a Persian) was immediately put in prison. The movable
column was now organized and placed under the command of
Brigadier Chamberlain. Major Beecher, Deputy Commissioner of
Hazara, contributed to the column one of the two Irregular
Infantry regiments stationed in Hazara. On the 21st May
Colonel Edwardes returned to Peshawar and found the aspect of
affairs gloomy in the extreme.
The moat rancorous and
seditious letters had been intercepted from Muhammadan bigots
in Patna and Tanesar to soldiers of the 64th Native Infantry,
revel ling in the atrocities that had been committed in
Hindustan on the men, women and children of the " Nazarenes,"
and sending them messages from their own mothers that they
should emulate these deeds, and if they fell in the attempt,
they would at least go to heaven, and their deaths in such a
case would be pleasant news at home. These letters also
alluded to long series of correspondence that had been going
on, through the 64th Native Infantry, with the fanatics in
Swat and Sitana. Another important letter, which had been
despatched by the 51st Native Infantry at Peshawar to the 64th
Native Infantry and the Khelat-i-GhiIzai Regiment at the
outposts, had a few days before come to light. It ran as
follows:
" This letter is sent from the Peshawar
Cantonment to the whole Heriot Regiment" (name of the 64th
Native Infantry). " May it reach the Subadar Bahadur." After
some Hindu apostrophes, it proceeds (t for the rest, this
letter is written to convey from the, whole camp at Peshawar
obeisance and benediction " (from Brahman to Brahman) " and
salutation and service " (from Mussalman to Mussalman) " to
the whole regiments of Heriot and Khelat-i-GhiIzai. Further,
the state of fv affairs here L thus, that on the 22nd day of
the month the cartridges will be given to the Dubaran
Regiment; so do whatever seems to you proper. Again, " (i.e.,
it is repeated)" the cartridges will have to be bitten on the
22nd instant. Of this you are hereby informed. On reading this
letter whatever your opinion is so reply. For considering you
as our own, we have let you know before hand. Therefore do as
you think right. This is addressed to you by the whole
regiment.
0 brothers, the religion of Hindus and
Muhammadan is all one. Therefore all you soldiers should know
this. Here all the sepoys are at the bidding of the Jemadar,
Subadar-Major and Havildar Major, all are discontented with
this business, whether small or great. What more need be
written? Do as you think best. High and low send their
obeisance, o benediction, salutation and service." (Postscript
by another hand). " The above is the state of affairs here. In
whatever way you can manage it, come into Peshawar on the 21st
instant.' Thoroughly understand that point. In fact, eat there
and drink here (a proverb for letting no delay intervene)."
Strange to say, this letter was given up by the men of the 6th
to their officers. There is very little doubt that the
regiment was disaffected, and it is supposed that they acted
thus because, being broken up into three detachments, and
being unable to act together, and having ascertained that the
Khelat-i-GhiIzai Regiment would not act with them, they
thought it better to endeavor to gain a name of loyalty for
themselves.
Another letter in the Persian character was
found Jon the person of a faqir in a small bag (or housewife,
for holding antimony and snuff) which was concealed under his
armpit. It was as follows: "My beloved Mullah, salam,
salutations to you. After salutation and good wishes, this is
the point, that instantly on receiving this, on the 2nd day of
the festival of the Eed, you must-yes, must come here; and if
it be easy, bring a few pounds of fruit with you. Now is the
time, admit no fear into your heart. Such an opportunity will
not again occur. Set out I enjoin you-signed Faqir Mullah
Najim." There is no doubt that this was an invitation from
Muhammadan conspirators in the garrison to Muhammadan
conspirators at the outposts to come in with a few English
officers' heads and join in a rising on the second day of the
Eed, i.e., the 20th May. Warned by these discoveries and by
secret information, Colonel Nicholson endeavoured to raise
levies through the chiefs of the district. But the time had
passed. It became known that Delhi had fallen into the hands
of the mutineers, and men remembered Kabul.
Not a
hundred could be found to join so desperate a cause as ours.
In this extremity Colonel Edwardes applied to Kohat for
assistance, and Captain Henderson sent 100 levies under
Bahadur Sher Khan, the Bangash Chief, who gathered about fifty
more Afridi volunteers as he came through the Kohat Pass. But
the train of mutiny had been already fired. A detachment of
the 55th Native Infantry, on duty at the Attock ferry, broke
into open revolt and marched on towards Nowshera, being joined
on the way by another detachment of the 24th Native Infantry
which was escorting commissariat stores to Peshawar, the two
bands mustering about forty or fifty men. Intelligence of this
having been sent by a horseman across country to Nowshera, the
mutineers were met at the entrance of cantonments by a party
of the 10th Irregular Cavalry, disarmed and taken prisoners.
But no sooner did the companies of the 55th stationed in
Nowshera see their comrades in this plight, than they broke
out and fired on the sowars, who dispersed.
The
mutineers (now some 200 strong) then broke open the regimental
magazine, and, having supplied themselves with ammunition,
rushed to the bridge-of-boats to cross the Kabul River and
join the main body of the 55th at Mardan. The bridge had,
however, already been broken up by the Executive Engineer,
Lieutenant F. 8. Taylor, so the sepoys betook them to the
boats; some were drowned, but the majority got safe to the
other bank. The sowars of the 10th Irregular Cavalry did not
join the mutineers, but they did not act against them.The news
of this revolt did not reach Peshawar until midnight, and it
became evident that desperate measures must immediately be
resorted to.
It was resolved to disarm the native
troops early the following morning, and to call in the aid of
the mountaineers, to keep whom in order these very native
troops had been maintained in the valley. This measure was
determined on under the strenuous opposition of the commanding
officers of the condemned corps; some had " implicit
confidence " in their regiments; others advocated "
conciliation; " while one officer predicated that his men "
would attack the guns if called on to give up their muskets."
Nevertheless, a parade was ordered at 7 a.m. on the morning of
the 22nd when it was determined to disarm the 5th Light
Cavalry and the 24th, 27th and 51st Regiments, Native
Infantry. The other native troops in Peshawar were the 21st
Native Infantry (who were spared because it had declined to
set a mutinous example and because one infantry corps was
indispensable for carrying on the duties of the station) and
the 7fch and 18th Irregular Cavalry; for at that early stage
of the revolt, it was hoped that they would be kept quiet by
their stake in the service, and it would be easy (after
disarming the other regiments) at any time to coerce them.
It remained, however, to be seen whether the condemned
regiments would submit to be disarmed, and if they resisted
whom there the three excused regiments would not fraternise
with them at once and reduce the struggle to the simple issue
of the black and white races. At the, appointed hour the
troops paraded under arms, the two European regiments' (Her
Majesty's 70th and 87th) and the artillery taking up positions
at the end of the cantonment, within sight of the parades,
ready to enforce obedient if necessary, yet not so close as to
provoke resistance. The sepoys were completely taken aback;
they were allowed no time to consult: and isolated " from each
other no regiment was willing to commit itself.
The
whole land down their arms; and it is said that, as the
muskets and sabers were hurried into carts, here and there the
spurs and swords of English officers fell sympathisingly on
the pile. The result of this measure was at once apparent as
the civil officers rode to the disarming, a very few chiefs
and yeomen of the country attended them, apparently to see
which way the tide would turn "as we rode back " writes
Colonel Edwardes, " friends wore as thick as summer flies, and
levies began from that moment to come in.'' As fast as they
came in they wore enrolled, and, humanly speaking, to the
levying of this militia the preservation of the border at this
critical period may be mainly ascribed. Afghans though
fanatical, are yet more avaricious, and gladly brought their
arms to our market. A large number of footmen were collect in
a short time. Good horses are scarce in that country; " but
the head men of every village have two or three hacks, and the
enlistment of their farm servants on these rips attached all
the hemlets one by one to our cause, and got up quite a hearty
feeling.
" Colonel Edwardes gives a graphic and amusing
sketch of these enlistments, "Long before time," he writes ''
crowds of candidates for employment thronged the gateways and
overflowed into the garden: jockeys of unconquerably vicious
horses endeavoured to reduce them to A show of docility by
galloping them furiously about till the critical moment of
inspection came. At last sick at heart from the receipt of a
bad telegram from the province, but endeavoring to look happy,
out I used to go and face some hundreds of the chiefs and
yeomen of the country all eager to gather from the
Commissioner Sahib's countenance how the "King of Delhi " was
getting on. Then the first horseman would be brought up. The
beast perhaps would not move. The rider, the owner, and all
the neighbours would assail him with whips, sticks, stones and
Pashto reproaches that might have moved a rock; but nothing
would do till the attempt was given up, and the brute's head
turned the other way when he went off at a gallop amid roars
of laughter from the Pathans, who have the keenest perception
of both fun and vice.
No 2 would make a shift to come
up, but every man and boy in the crowd could sec that he was
lame on two or three legs. Thru the argument began; and
leg-by-leg, blemish-by-blemish, the animal was proved by a
multitude of witnesses (who had known him for very many years)
to be perfectly sound. And so the enlistment went on from day
to day affording immense occupation, profit and amusement to
the people, and answering a great many good ends. Now and then
an orderly of the Hindustani Irregular Cavalry admirably armed
and mounted, would pass the spot and mark his opinion of the "
levies " by a contemptuous smile. But nevertheless ho told his
comrades in the lines that the country people were all with
the English and that it was of no use to desert or to
intrigue."
In 1893
they moved back to a site within Amazai limits close to Malka.
This was of course a direct contravention of the agreement
executed by the Amazai clan on 11th January 1864 after the
fighting at the Ambeyla Pass. During the attack on the
Malakand in July and August 1897 and the subsequent operations
in Upper Swat the younger members of the colony went across
and joined the enemy in their resistance to the British
forces. Maulvi Abdulla, the head of the colony at the time,
was however opposed to this move declaring that his policy was
not to attack the British unless they invaded the, country
where he was living. When General Sir Bindon Blood's force
entered Buner in January 1898 the fanatics prepared to resist
him but on the collapse of the Buner opposition they fled
across the Barandu River and again took refuge among the
Chigharzai. The present refuge of the fanatics is at a place
called Asmas (or Smatze) in Madda Khel limits on the banks of
the Barandu River near the ChamIa-Amazai border.
During
the present century the colony has been more or less quiescent
except that in 1915 some of its members joined in the abortive
rising on the Sadhum border stirred up by the Haji of
Turangzai (a disaffected local mullah who in that year went
across the border from Turangzai village in Hashtnagar). In
1916 the colony split up and a branch organization was founded
at Chamarkand in a pocket of Shinwari country north of Mitai,
and only a few miles from the Indo-Afghan border on the east
side of the Kunar river. The adherents of the new light at
Chamarkand have adopted a much more aggressive attitude than
the members of the original colony at Asmas. In recent years
Chamarkand has been a regular focus of Bolshevik intrigue.
During the Great War the fanatics were even approached by
German agents-and they maintain close relations with Kabul
also. The inactivity of the members of the parent colony is
the cause of much chagrin to the extremists at Chamarkand.
In 1921 Maulvi Niamatullah, the head of the colony at
Asmas, was murdered while sitting in his hujra by an emissary
from Chamarkand who was immediately cut down by the guards.
This act temporarily caused a complete rupture between the two
sets of Mujahidin. It appears also that they now draw recruits
and supplies from different areas in India. Most of the Asmas
fanaties are said to be Bengalis and Hindustanis while those
Chamarkand are largely Punjabis. Since the date of the
foundation of the Chamarkand colony in 1916 few opportunities
have presented themselves to the colonists for armed action
against the British Government. Hut it may generally be said
flint in place of their ancient fanatical valour the new light
it Chamarkand have displayed a tendency with changing times to
the indulgence seditious activity of pen and speech, while
encouraging others to acts of secret terrorism. In aid of such
commonplace activities they have issued from time to time a
vitriolic news sheet appropriately dubbed '' Almujahid."
As adversaries in open war they may safely
be assumed to be contemptible. A steady propagandist activity
is maintained the existence of which occasionally comes to
light in the criminal courts. In 1922 for instance seven
members of the Chamarkand colony were tried and convicted in
Peshawar. On appeal the Judicial Commissioner upheld the
convictions and ruled that membership of the colony was
punishable under Section 121-A of the Indian Penal Code
(waging war against the King) as the objective of the
Chamarkand association was the overthrow of the Government
established by law in India. The occasions on which the
Yusafzai tribes have come into conflict with the British
Government since 1863 may now be briefly noticed. In 1879
during the Afghan War an attempt was made by the mullahs to
take advantage of the pre-occupations of the British
Government and stir up trouble in Swat und Buner.
Nothing however came of this. In 1884 and 1885
numerous raids into British territory were committed by the
Bunenwals, three sections of whom-the Salarzais, Ashmzais and
Nurizais-were placed under blockade in consequence. Raiding
however still continued and a small force was dispatched to
surprise the village of Soria Malandri. The attempt at a
surprise was unsuccessful bm the village was attacked and the
Malandri Valley was cleared. In 1887 the Buner jirgahs came in
and agreed to pay a fin of Rs. 15,000 when the blockade was
raised. The events of these years arc instructive as they go
to prove that the blockade weapon is likely to be ineffective
against the Bunerwals. Buner is approached by so many passes
from the south that effective measures to enforce a blockade
are difficult. Also even if the passes leading to British
territory are closed, ingress and egress via Swat or by the
Indus are still possible. In 1887 and again in 1891 the
Bunerwals became unsettled but no overt action against
Government was in the end attempted.
It has been
already related that a contingent of this tribe joined the
Swatis in 1895 during the earlier part of the operation of the
Chitral relief Force the Malakand and in Lower Swat. In1897
came the Swat insurrection, which was effectively suppressed.
The result of the subjugation of Swat, history which is not
directly concerned with this district, led to the
establishment of the political area in Sam Ranizai and the
more direct assumption of political control over Dir. Swat and
Bajaur. From this time a new era in the border history of the
Yusafzai tract undoubtedly dawns, and the gradual development
and civilization of the Yusafzai tribe begins. While the
operations in Upper Swat were in progress a brigade was sent
to Rustam to watch the Buner border. This had the desired
effect of distracting the attention of the Bunerwals and of
preventing them from rendering active assistance to their
neighbours in Swat.
On the conclusion of operations in
the latter country, it having been established that the
Bunerwals had taken an active part in the earlier fighting at
the Malakand, they were called upon to submit to certain terms
including fines, etc., as punishment for their conduct. The
Bunerwals had since the Ambeyla Campaign of 1863 enjoyed a
vicarious reputation- entirely unmerited- for bravery and no
one was so well aware of this as the tribesmen themselves.
They now, along with the Chamlawals, rejected the terms
offered by the British Government with high disdain. It was
decided to coerce them and in 1898 a Buner Field Force was
formed. Troops marched everywhere through Buner and retired in
12 days having effected the complete subjugation of the tribe.
The British casualty was one man wounded. The reputation of
the Bunerwals for bravery received a blow from which it is
never likely to recover. The terms originally announced by the
Government were complied with in full and there was the
additional gain that an accurate survey of almost the whole
country had been effected.
From 1898 to 1913 the
Bunerwals gave little trouble. In the latter year however a
British officer was fired at in the Ambeyla Pass and two raids
on Sadhum villages were committed. A small tome was sent out
which crossed the Malandrai Pass by night (February 1914) and
destroyed two Buner villages-Nawe Kali and Zangi Khan. Fines
of Rs. 7,000 were imposed and realized immediately. During the
Great War the Bunerwals were, strangely enough, among the
first of the frontier tribes to attempt to take advantage of
the pre-occupations of the British Government in Europe.The
Haji of Turangzai-a well-known mullah of that village, whose
name has already appeared in these pages-fled from British
territory in June 1915 and started an agitation against the
Government among the Bunerwals. The Haji had been known for
long for his anti-Government proclivities and, as he was a
mullah of repute as well, the Bunerwals were stirred. About
8,000 tribesmen quickly collected on the Pirasai, Malandrai
and Ambeyla Passes threatening British
territory.
Troops reached Rustam on August 16th and on
the following day the tribesmen emerged from the Ambeyla
defile to attack the camp. The Bunerwals on tin's occasion
displayed some bravery but little fighting skill and the
attack was repulsed with a loss to the tribesmen of 130 killed
and wounded. Troops remained at Rustam till September by which
time the Haji had left Buner and the excitement died down.
Raids on the part of the Bunerwals, however, occurred again in
December of the same year and a blockade was imposed. The
tribe finally submitted and paid a fine of Rs. 8,000. The
Bunerwals took no part in the disturbances of 1919 nor were
they affected by the Hijrat movement of the following year.
Prior to 1862 the Gaduns do not seem to have given any
trouble. In that year, as already related, they raised no
objection to the re-occupation of Sitana (situated just beyond
their limits on the Indus) by the Hindustani fanatics against
the express terms of the agreement, which Sir Herbert Edwardes
had taken from them in 1858.
The Ambeyla Campaign
followed during which the behaviour of the Gaduns was on the
whole satisfactory. After the termination of hostilities it
was considered necessary to take security from the Gaduns in
the matter of sheltering the Hindustani fanatics and fresh
agreements were entered into accordingly. In 1864, however,
some of the fanatics again returned to Sitana. In 1870 the
conduct of the tribe had become so unsatisfactory that they
were again placed under blockade. Again they quickly came in
and made terms. Blockade against this tribe is a most
effective weapon.Their country is poor and they depend for a
living on free access to British territory. Shut off from the
bazaar at Topi, which is the entrepot in British territory for
Gadun trade, they have no market for ghi and the other
articles they export nor can they obtain necessities of life
like salt, etc., by any other route. The effects of a blockade
arc therefore quickly felt and this method of bringing the
tribe to terms is effective accordingly.
For their
complicity in the fighting in the Swat Valley in 1897 the
Gaduns were required to pay a cash fine of Rs. 2,500 and to
surrender 200 guns, 200 swords and the standards of Gandaf and
Bisak. There are two sections of the tribe- the Salar section
with headquarters at Gandaf and the Mansur section round
Bisak. During the Great War the Gaduns were quiet. They took
no part in the Buner emeute of 1915. In 1920 they committed a
raid in strength on the - village of Gharghushti in Chach
(Punjab). Government retaliated by raiding Gandaf. The
Frontier Constabulary surrounded the place by night and the
tribesmen were required to pay fine of Rs. 7,500 for the
offence.The Khudu Khel, under the influence of the Hindustani
fanatics and led by two firebrand chiefs of the day, Mukarrab
Khan of Panjtar and Mubaras Khan of Chingli, attempted
hostilities against the British Government in 1857. The Guides
had left Mardan for their memorable march to Delhi and the
55th Native Infantry which relieved them
mutinied.
Encouraged by these events several villages
on the Khudu Khel border threw in their lot with the
tribesmen-- notably the villages of Naranji and Sheikh Jana.
An expedition was accordingly organised against them which
traversed the whole of Khudu Khel country, destroyed Chingli,
Mangal Thana and Panjtar and then proceeded, as already
related, to deal with the Hindustani fanatics at Sitana
(1858). From this date till the Swat rising in 1897 the Khudu
Khel gave little trouble. They had joined forces with the
Swatis in the latter year and on the conclusion of hostilities
they were required to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000 and to surrender
150 guns, 200 swords and the standards of Dagi, Totalai and
Chinglai. The territory of the tribe is easily accessible and
in later years their conduct has usually been satisfactory.
Before leaving this section of the border some account must be
given of the main event, which has occurred in the internal
history of these tribes since the advent of the British
Government in Peshawar -namely the conquest of Buner, by the
Mian Gul.
Mian Gul, Gulshazada Sir Abdul Wadud, K.B.E.,
to give him his full title-is a grandson of the famous Akhund
of Swat (fl. 1852-77). Born about 1882, and left a minor at
the death of his father in 1892, the Mian Gul, as ho is
popularly called, had to wait long before he was able to
re-establish the temporal power of his grandfather. Spiritual
influence the family has always had, and the grave of the
Akhund at Saidu is one of the most famous shrines in Swat or
Buner. During the first 15 years of the present century the
Mian Gul was engrossed in family quarrels. He had one brother,
Shirin, and two cousins. Said Badshah and Amir Badshah. During
the minority of the Mian Gul and of his brother Shirin their
cousins represented the family. On the death of the cousins by
violence there occurred an estrangement between the Mian Gul
and Shirin, who had married Amir Badshah's sister. The Mian
Gul's great opponent in his struggle to power has now to be
introduced.
This was Abdul Jabbar Shah of Sitana, a
grandson of the Said Akbar Shah, who had first received the
Hindustani fanatics at that place and of the family of the
famous Pir Baba, the most renowned saint in all Yusafzai. In
1915 Abdul Jabbar Shah, taking advantage of the ill feeling
between the Mian Gul and his brother, had himself proclaimed
King of Swat, a position which he held till 1917. In that year
the Mian Gul, who had succeeded in discrediting his brother
Shirin, found himself strong enough to drive out Abdul Jabbar
Shah who retired to Sitana. In the next year the murder of
Shirin left the Mian Gul supreme in Swat. Into the details of
his conquest of Buner it is not necessary to enter. Suffice it
to say that, in spite of, armed opposition by the Chief of
Amb, in whose State Abdul Jabbar Shah had now become Minister,
by 1923 he had completely overrun the country and that in the
struggle the Bunerwals played no creditable part.
Later
he extended his sway over Chamla and the Khudu Khel also. The
Gaduns and Utmanzai are still, however, independent. It should
be added here that in 1927 at the suggestion of the Settlement
Officer, Peshawar, and with the consent of the Mian Gul, the
British border opposite Buner was extended to the Malandrai
watershed and the two villages of Pitao and Soria Malandrai
with the area known as the Wara Darra included in British
Territory. The external border of the district here now
follows the main outer watershed from Pajja over the Malandrai
and Ambeyla Passes of Pagoch Sar. In 1926 the Mian Gul
received the recognition of Government as Wali of Swat. His
Firm and sane administration of Swat and Buner has greatly
assisted in the establishment of stable conditions on the
northern border of Peshawar, and way entirely responsible for
the fact that the serious disturbances of 1930 in the Peshawar
District were not complicated by reactions among the Yusafzai
tribes beyond the administrative border. Events in Swat
including the campaigns of 1895-97 are outside the scope of
the present narrative.
A separate agency has been
created to deal with the affairs of Dir, Swat and Chitral and
the Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar has now no direct
political relation with these countriesThe Butkor sections of
Utman Khel residing in Ambahar and Salala are under the
political control of Peshawar, the remainder being now
included in the Malakand Agency. The chief events in the
history of our relations with this tribe can be briefly
related. As a tribe the Utman Khel are neither powerful nor
influential. The eastern portion of the tribe at any rate
lives largely by the sale of the few products of their hills
in the Peshawar villages and by working as labourers in the
valley. The Utman Khel first came into collision with the
British Government in 1852.Ajun Khan of Tangi, a large village
in the north of Hashtnagar a few miles from the Utman Khel
border, had risen against the new Government in Peshawar. He
fled to the Utman Khel and in April 1852, with a gang of bad
characters enlisted among the tribesmen, lie came down at
night and murdered the Tahsildar of Hashtnagar. The tribe
refused to give satisfaction and prepared to resist the
Government.
A force was sent out from Peshawar which
visited the '" Laman " Utman Khel villages lying along the
border and destroyed them. This show of force was sufficient
and the conduct of the tribe remained uniformly good till in
1876 an event occurred which made further punishment
imperative. The Lower Swat Canal was under construction and,
at the instigation of persons of influence in British
territory, a gang of Utman Khel came down and killed six and
wounded twenty-seven coolies who were employed on the head
works of the canal near Abazai. The tribe was promptly put
under blockade and in 1878 after the close of the Jowaki
expedition the villages of Tsapri and Bucha were surprised by
the Guides accompanied by Sir Louis Cavagnari. The ringleader
of the raiding gang was killed and full retribution was
exacted from the tribe. A further period of twenty years
elapsed before correction was again called for.
Like
almost all the tribes from the Swat to the Indus the Utman
Khel had joined in the attack on the Malakand in July-August
1897. Towards the end of November 1897 a small force was
despatched into their country to exactretribution. A regiment
also marched to Gandhera near Prang Ghar to deal with the "
Laman " Utman Khel residing in the foot hills of Salala. The
tribe was quickly overawed and the jirgahs almost immediately
accepted the terms offered them. Beyond harbouring outlaws and
committing occasional petty offences the Utman Khel remained
quiet until 1930. In that year they yielded to the stirrings
which, following on disorders in Peshawar and other Districts
spread by Congress disaffections, swept through all the tribes
from Bajaur to Waziristan, and encouraged by the preachings of
a fanatical malany named the Faqir of Alingar, they Occupied a
number of caves in the upper portion of the Jindai Khwar near
Palai and joined forces with the red-shirts of the Yusafzai
and Hashtnagar mairas. They were finally ejected from this
area by a force of Scouts under the command of Colonel Scott,
who with military support from Tangi, succeeded in occupying
the line of their retreat, and captured and killed a
considerable number of fugitives.
South and west of the
Utman Khel lives the large tribe of Mohmands whose settlements
stretch from the Peshawar border as far as Kunar to the north
and Jalalabad to the west. The British Government first came
into touch with the Mohmands during the first Afghan War
(1838-42) when a British force advanced to Kabul to place Shah
Shuja on the Afghan throne. The most important Mohmand chief
had his seat at Lalpura. When the British forces passed to
Kabul Saadat Khan was chief at Lalpura. He joined the Barakzai
party and so was deposed. With the collapse of the Saddozai
interest in 1840-41 Saadat Khan regained the chief ship and
when the British Government annexed the Peshawar District
seven years later the same Khan was in power at Lalpura. His
feelings towards the new Government were naturally the reverse
of cordial, and it is possible to trace to his hostile
influence the earlier troubles in which the British Government
was involved with the Mohmands. There were other causes also.
Two important sections of the Mohmand-the Halimazi and
Tarakzai-held large tracts in jagir within the border of the
Peshawar District.
Prior to the advent of the British
the Mohmands were inside these jagirs independent of the
Government of the day. The British authorities could not
permit this state of affairs to continue and the Halimzai and
Tarakzai were made to understand that in their jagir villages
they must comport themselves as British subjects. To the
tribesmen the suggestion was of course most unpalatable. The
first conflict occurred in 1850 when the Mohmands at the
instigation of a son of the Khan of Lalpura made an unprovoked
attack on the British village of Shabkadar in the Doaba.
Followed a series of raids, which rendered punitive action
unavoidable. The Mohmand villages adjoining the border were
destroyed in 1851; the Shabkadar Fort way occupied in
strength, and a new fort constructed at Michni near the
debouchments of the Kabul river. This was, however, not
sufficient to quell the Mohmands. In December 1851a
considerable body of tribesmen led by Saadat Khan appeared
before Matta Moghal Khel, another large village in the Doaba.
They were engaged by a British force, despatched from Peshawar
to meet them, and defeated with heavy loss. Raids continued,
and in April 1852 a second action was fought at Matta Moghal
Khel when the Mohmands again suffered defeat.
The
Mohmands border continued in this state of disquietude till
the Mutiny broke out. During the Mutiny days the tribe might
have been expected to take advantage of the pre-occupations of
the British Government in India. They did not, however, cause
any serious trouble in these critical times. Raids continued,
it is true, and between September 1857 and March 1860, 30
serious outrages were reported to have been committed by the
Mohmands. Followed the Ambeyla Campaign when a large force of
Mohmands, instigated by the Akhund of Swat, collected round
Shabkadar. Once more they were engaged by a British force from
Peshawar and dispersed with heavy loss. The Amir of Kabul
intervened at this stage. The Khan of Lalpura deposed and
carried a prisoner to Kabul and a new Khan was appointed in
his stead. The Halimzai paid a fine of Rs. 2,000 and till l897
the Mohmand border enjoyed a period of almost unbroken
peace.Under the Durand agreement of 1894 the eastern Mohmand
clan comprising the Tarakzai, Halimzai, Burhan Khel, Isa Khel,
Dawezai and Utmanzai with some sections of the Khawezai and
Baizai (the Mitai Musa Khel) came on the British side of the
Durand line.
In pursuance of this agreement Afghan
Khassadars wereWithdrawn from Mitai in the Baizai country in
April 1897. They Durand line was, however, never demarcated
through Mohmand country, as the Joint Commissioners considered
it was impossible to, carry through the work without a joint
expedition. The result has been that the actual location of
the Indo-Afghan boundary in this sector is not yet denned, and
the Afghan Government have made no serious attempt to bring
the Mohmands left to them under their control. Those Mohmands,
who reside within the British sphere of influence, and in
particular the "Assured" clans, are politically controlled by
the Deputy Commissioner, Peshawar. On November 22nd, 1896, the
jirgahs of the six " assured " clans appeared before Sir
Dennis Fitzpatrick at Shabkadar and were promised service
allowances from the British Government to replace those which
they had hitherto received from Kabul and Lalpura. Mohmand
affairs seemed now to have been placed on a satisfactory
basis, but in the very next year, reacting to the excite- ment
produced by the Swat insurrection, a Mohmand Lashkar again
appeared before Shabkadar.
This time the tribesmen were
led by the famous Adda Mullah. The fort, garrisoned by a small
party of Border Police, resisted all attacks but Shankargarh
bazaar, which lies under the walls of Shabkadar Fort, was
burnt and pillaged. Owing to a misunderstanding troops did not
arrive from Peshawar till the following day when the tribesmen
were once more defeated with heavy slaughter in the plain west
of Shabkadar, an action rendered memorable on the British side
by a brilliant cavalry charge of 1 1/2 miles over difficult
ground led by Major Atkinson, 13th Bengal Lancers. The Lashkar
though severely defeated, did not disperse until news arrived
of the victory of the British forces in Swat. Government
therefore decided that the Mohmands must be taught a lesson.
The first British invasion of Mohmand country followed. The
Mohmand Field Force marched from Shabkadar on September 15th,
1897, and crossed by the Kharappa Pass into the Gandab Valley.
Simultaneously the Malakand Field Force moved on Nawagai. The
full submission of all the assured clans was secured by
October 3rd, all the main routes through eastern Mohmand
country having been traversed by British forces in the
interval.
The Adda Mullah's own residence at Jarobi
was destroyed by the troops. The usual punishment in the way
of fines and surrender of arms was inflicted and in the next
year allowances were restored to the tribes. From 1903 to 1907
such offences as were perpetrated by the Mohmands were due to
suspicion and mistrust engendered by the construction of the
Loe Shilman Railway. The Halimzai and Tarakzai sections took
no part in these affairs.The year 1908 opened with serious
unrest amongst the Mohmands encouraged by Afghan mullahs and
by promises of assistance from the large force, which the Sufi
Sahib had collected for a so called religious war. Except for
the Tarakzai and a part of the Halimzai sections, the tribe
failed to remain loyal to their agree- ments and crossed the
British border as an armed force. They were engaged at
Shabkadar and Matta Moghul Khel simultaneously on April 24th,
and it was necessary to send a punitive expedition, which
entered their country on May 13th and inflicted severe
punishment on each section, procuring the submission of the
whole tribe east of the Durand Line.The next seven years were
uneventful and though the outbreak of war in August 1914 had
excited little interest amongst the trans-frontier tribes yet
the assumption of hostilities by Turkev in the following
November entirely altered the position of affairs. Hopes of a
great Islamic renaissance were at once aroused and the tribes
were summoned to rise in the name of the Sultan.By March 1915
risings had taken place in the Tochi and Run-am and these were
the fore-runners of a series of disturbances throughout the
Frontier.
On April
17th a Mohmand priest known as the Chaknawar Mullah invaded
British territory, a few miles from Shabkadar in the Peshawar
District, with a force of 4,000 tribesmen. On the following
day they were attacked by a force under Major-General Young,
and though the result was indecisive, they returned on the
following day.By June the Babra Mullah was forced under
pressure to join the war party and called on the Mohmands to
follow him in jehad; but a Lashkar never matured owing to
tribal dissensions. By the end of the month the unrest had
spread to Swat and Buner and the Haji of Turangzai (see
accounts of unrest in Buner in this volume), absconded to
Tribal Territory and joined the hostiles in Buner, who later
entered the district, engagements taking place at the Ambeyla
and Malandri Passes. Subsequently the Haji took up his
permanent abode in Lakarai in Safi country, where he became
the chief focus of tribal disaffection throughout Mohmand
country and Bajaur.
He is still alive and his three
sons, all of whom bear the Cognomen Badshah Gul, have
inherited the political ambitions and attitude of their father
At about the same lime the Sandaqi Mullah and the Sartor Faqir
moved down the Swat River; they were engaged at the Landakai
Spur and dispersed. Meanwhile the Babra Mullah had succeeded
in raising the Mohmands and by September had attacked
Shabkadar with 10,000 tribesmen. A serious engagement took
place in which very heavy casualties were inflicted on the
insurgents.Intermittent trouble continued and it was found
necessary to place the Mohmands under blockade. This was much
resented and resulted, in a series of raids, which ended in a
serious attack on Charsadda, where a large portion of the
bazar was burnt. By April 19l6 the pressure of the blockade
had induced the jirgahs to ask for terms of settlement, and
they willingly paid a fine equal to double the amount paid at
the end of the rising of 1908 in order that it might be
raised.
In 1927 when the Faqir of Alingar-see account
of Utman Khel- attempted to raise the Upper Mohmands to jehad,
the Haji of Turangzai was forced to join him half-heartedly.
The Faqir advanced down the Gandab in the hope of attacking
Shabkadar. A flying column left Peshawar, and the Mohmand
Lashkar was bombed by the Royal Air Force by day and by night
during the 6th and 8th of June; the Lashkar finally dispersed
after receiving a number of casualties without coming into
contact with the ground troops. There was very little trouble
till the repercussions of the political disturbances in
Peshawar City and District of April 1930 again caused unrest.
Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the leader of the Frontier Red Shirt
Movement, was closely connected marriage to the Haji of
Turangzai who lost no time in setting to work to foment
trouble. An Upper Mohmand Lashkar led by the Haji in person
came down to the caves on the Shabkadar border, where it
remained for two months, though it never crossed into British
territory mainly owing to the fact that the Halimzai, led by
their chief Malik Anmir, remained staunch to their
engagements.
The Lashkar suffered from sickness and
dissension and the bombing of the Hajji's house at Lakarai on
June 5th together with the failure of the first Afridi
incursion which took place about the same time were sufficient
to cause the dispersal of the tribesmen. This Mohmand rising
in sympathy with Ahdul Ghaffar Khan's movement did much to
strengthen and encourage disaffection within the district; the
results would have been far more serious than they actually
were had it not been for the loyalty of the Lower Assured
clans, who acted as a barrier between the Haji's sympathisers
in Upper Mohmand country and the forces of revolutioner in
Peshawar. In March 1932 the Upper Mohmands considering
themselves aggrieved by the failure of the Halimzai to follow
their lead, made an attack in force on Gandab, and burned
Malik Anmir's village. The results of their action are yet to
be seen but it will be evident that mainly owing to the
failure to define and control the British and Afghan spheres
of influence in Mohmand country a position of stability has
not yet been reached on their border after 84 years of British
Administration.
The history of the relations of the
British Government with the Afridi tribes is hardly a distinct
matter. As is the case with the Mohmands Afridi affairs at
times assume almost international importance. All the Afridis
except the Adam Khel residing in the salient between Peshawar
and Kohat Districts together with the Mullagoris have their
relations with Government through the Political Agent, Khyber.
A large part of the Adam Khel is for the most part under the
political jurisdiction of the Deputy Commissioner, Kohat. But
the Hassan Khel, and certain sub-sections of the Ashu Khel
together with the Jawaki Adam Khel of Bori and Pastawani are
now under the political control of the Deputy Commissioner,
Peshawar. To complete the account of the relations of the
British Government with tile tribes bordering on the Peshawar
District however the following brief resume of events as they
affected the Afridis is-offered. The Mullagoris are a tribe of
little political importance and may be regarded as an appanage
only of the Khyber Agency.
The Afridis as a whole
differ from all the other tribes on the Peshawar District
border in the fact that they are in a sense migratory. In the
hot weather they retire to the cool highlands on the southern
slopes of the Sufed Koh where on the plateau of Maidan and in
the Rajgal Valley they occupy extensive settlements. In the
winter they descend to the low hills and plains (known as the
Khajuri and Aka Khel plains) along the Peshawar District
border from Jamrud to the Kohat Pass. Here they cultivate what
little arable land there is available but live for the most
part on their flocks and herds, or by the sale of wood,
charcoal, grass. etc., in the Peshawar market. A considerable
business; is also done in mats and ropes which they make from
the leaf of the dwarf palm. Many of them also engage as
tenants with the Peshawar Khans. Their permanent habitations
are with few exceptions in Maidan and other parts of Tirah; in
their migration to the lower hills during winter they live in
tents and temporary shelters like ordinary nomads.
The
Afridis, as remarked previously, are divided into eight main
sections Kuki Khel, Qambar Khel, Malikdin Khel, Sipah,
Kamarai, Zakka Khel, Aka Khel and Adam Khel. The British
Government first came into contact with them, as with the
Mohmands, during the first Afghan War. Thereafter and until
the second Afghan War no serious incident occurred to disturb
the relations between Government and the Khyber tribes, which
remained on the whole friendly. When the second Afghan War
broke out it was soon discovered that the British Government
was not to be able to rely even on the neutrality of the whole
of the Khyber Afridis. Two parties quickly formed one, which
was prepared to assist the British Government at a price, and
a second, which made common cause with the Amir. The Maliks of
the former party were called in and entered into engagements
to keep the Khyber Pass open for the passage of British troops
and to control their followers in return for subsidies fixed
on the scale in force during the first Afghan War, when a
similar expedient had been resorted to.
This in the
event they proved unable to do, completely at any rate, and
during the war two expeditions to the Bazar Valley were
necessary to punish attacks on the Khyber road. After the
Treaty of Gandamak the headmen of the pro-Afghan party also
came in and fresh engagements were effected by which subsidies
were redistributed among all the sections, the headmen who had
been in opposition being recognised according to their
position and influence in the tribal councils. When the time
came for the British forces to withdraw from Afghanistan it
was decided to make permanent arrangements to have the Khyber
Pass kept open and policed by the tribesmen themselves. After
protracted negotiations a complete jirgah of all the Khyber
Afridis affixed their seals to an agreement with British
Government in February 1881. The terms of this important
document claim more than a mere passing notice. In outline
they were as follows:
(i) The independence of the
Afridis was recognised but on their part the tribesmen agreed
to maintain exclusive political relations with the British
Government;
(ii) the Afridis undertook themselves to
maintain order in the Khyber Pass and guaranteed the good
conduct of the tribe otherwise also in consideration of the
receipt of subsidies from the British Government;
(iii)
the tribe was to furnish a corps of " jazailchis " for the
protection of caravans on their way through the Pass
;
(iv) all tolls recovered were to be credited to
Government.
As soon as these arrangements were complete
the regular army garrisons were withdrawn from Alt Masjid and
Landi Kotal. " Turning now to the Aka Khel, the first occasion
on which they appear to have come into collision with' the
British Government was in 1854 when they were responsible for
an attack on the camp of a British officer about six miles'
distance from Peshawar. For this they were punished by a
series of raids on their flocks and herds and the tribe was
finally placed under blockade also. The Aka Khel are
peculiarly amenable to coercion by blockade. Carrying on as
they do an extensive trade in wood and grass with Peshawar
exclusion from British territory hits them particularly hard.
On the present occasion blockade had at once the desired
effect. The tribe made unconditional submission and paid a
fine of Bs. 2,500. From this date till 1897 their conduct
appears to have been satisfactory and there were few incidents
of any importance.
The Afridis as a whole could hardly
fail to be affected by the wave of excitement, which swept
along the Frontier in 1897. The mullahs saw to that. Rumours
of impending trouble and of an intended assault on the posts
in the Khyber reached Peshawar on August 17th, when owing to
distractions elsewhere no regular troops were available to
support the Khyber Rifles in the Pass. On the 23rd of August
Fort Maude was attacked and captured and Alt Masjid also fell.
At Landi Kotal the Khyber Rifles garrison made some stand but
on the 25th this post also surrendered and was sacked by the
tribesmen. Id September Afridi contingents joined the Orakzais
in the attack on the Samana. War with the Afridis was
obviously inevitable. In October 1897 Sir William Lockhart's
force invaded Tirah. The details of the campaign are outside
the scope of the present narrative. Suffice it to say that in
the following March the Afridis made formal submission and
paid a fine of Rs. 50,000 and surrendered the 800
breech-loading rifles which had been demanded from
them.
In December 1899 regular troops were withdrawn
from the Khyber find the protection of the Pass was entrusted
once again to the Khyber Rifles. This corps had grown out of
the " jazailchis" which the Afridis had undertaken to provide
in 1881. From this date until 1905 no event of any importance
occurred to disturb the friendly relations of the Afridis with
the British Government. During this year and the year
following the Zakka Khel committed innumerable raids into
British territory and generally adopted an attitude of open
defiance. A year later in January 1908 the misconduct of this
section culminated in an attack on the city of Peshawar
itself. In February 1908 a punitive expedition was sent
against them, which penetrated the Bazaar Valley and forced a
formal submission from the tribe before the end of the month.
From that date until 1930 it proved unnecessary to coerce by
force of arms any section of the Afridis, though in 1910 the
outbreak of the third Afghan War proved too much for the
loyalty of the Khyber Rifles, which had to be
disbanded.
Though during the Great War the conduct of
the Afridis had been examplary, leading to an increase in
their allowances, protective measures had to be falcon against
them in 1919 and at the time of writing the forts in the
Khyber Pass are again held by regular troops reinforced for
road protection duties by tribal levies known as the
Khassadars. The Hassan Khel and Ashu Khel sections of the Adam
Khel, who are under the political jurisdiction of the Deputy
Commissioner, Peshawar, are on the whole extraordinarily
well-behaved. The history of their relations with the British
Government therefore is almost entirely devoid of serious
incident. The Kohat Pass Afridis (Adam Khel) are under the
political control of the Deputy Com- missioner, Kohat, and for
an account of these tribes the reader is referred to the
Gazetteer of that District. It remains to relate the effect of
the serious disturbances of 1930 on the Afridis as a
whole.
For some time previous to that year various
causes of unrest had been prevailing amongst the tribesmen,
causes which were aggravated and brought to ahead by a number
of attributes, among which may be numbered Congress agitation
in India, dissatisfaction on the part of the younger members
of the tribe with the Maliks and Elders particularly owing to
the distribution of compensation for the Sunni-Shiah
Settlement of 1930 in Orakzai Tirah; economic troubles caused
by the rise in the standard of living, the fall in value of
the Kabuli rupee and a decrease in the value of contracts,
added to by a growing feeling of self-importance. When
therefore exaggerated reports of the rioting in Peshawar on
April 23rd, 1930, flashed through Tirah, embroidered with a
story that a large number of Afridis had been killed, tribal
excitement rose to unprecedented heights.
In the first
half of May discussions were held to decide what action should
be taken; the Orakzais (under Kohat control) decided in favour
of non-intervention; and, while the Afridi Maliks were of the
same opinion, the younger men decided to raise a Lashkar Cases
of sniping in the Khyber and against aeroplanes were reported
.By May 30th a Lashkar began to form and move down the Bara
Valley. The Malikdin Khel and Qambar Khel were the chief
movers in the earlier stages, but at length a Lashkar of
10,000, of whom only half crossed the border, assembled in the
Spin Kamar foot hills. It was the object of the leaders to
hold a jirgah with the Khalils and Mohmands of the Peshawar
District, but a party of malcontents met them near Miri Khel
and encouraged them by promises of assistance from the
district to make an attack on the City. The lashkar
accordingly crossed into the district on Jan 5th and lay up in
the villages south and west of Peshawar; a number were
surprised and bombed in the Khajuri plain during the day; and
after a very half-hearted attack the lashkar streamed back up
the Bara Valley.
A period of recrimination and
dissension followed, during which time a young party called
the Khilafatist Party came into prominence. This party, which
stood against the authority of the elders, despatched
delegates to the Mohmands and Orakzais from whom promises of
assistance were received. By August 7th matters were ripe for
a second incursion, and a lashkar of 5,000 reached the edge of
the foot hills with the object of making an attack directed
against the Aerodrome. Cantonments and the Central Jail; by
August 12th about 2,000 Afridis had crossed into the district.
An attack was made on the Military Supply Depot cast of
Peshawar and beaten of by troops with considerable casualties.
Simultaneously a determined attempt was made to enter Peshawar
City from the east; this was defeated by the City Armed Police
who took up a position on the City wall. After other
unsuccessful clashes with troops, the Afridis left the
district after suffering at least 200 casualties.
The
Khilafatist Party in the Tirah made attempts to coerce
loyalists into helping them, while Government made plans to
occupy the Khajuri and Aka Khel plains, which was eventually
accomplished; the final settlement being made on October 3rd,
1931. The Khajuri and Aka Khel plains have not been
incorporated in the Peshawar District. They remain tribal
territory, but posts, at present occupied by troops, together
with a net work of connecting roads, have been constructed,
and by agreement with the tribe Government forces have
unrestricted access to the entire area up to the foot hills,
thus denying to the Afridis a convenient vestibule in which to
collect for entry into administered territory. It remains to
notice briefly the system of border management and the
measures now in force for protection of the district frontier.
Prior to the British annexation of the district there could
not be said to be any settled Government in Peshawar at all,
except possibly in the urea immediately surrounding the
city.
Certainly nothing approaching regular
administration was attempted north of the Kabul river. The
Sikhs confined themselves to levying revenue with spasmodic
severity from the inhabitants of the valley and to preserving
a semblance of order in the vicinity of Peshawar leaving the
more distant villages to get on as they best could which the
independent tribes outside the border. Between the latter and
the Sikh administration a state of open hostility way the
rule. It has already been noted that trans-border men were
invariably sent to the gallows by the Sikh governors when any
of them chanced to fall into their hands. Political relations
of some sort were how ever unavoidable and these were
invariably conducted through the local chiefs of the district
tribes who acted as go-betweens and negotiators between the
Sikh Government and the men of independent territory. In this
way there grew up that system of middlemen which the British
Government found in full swing in Peshawar when the district
was annexed.
The earliest British officers to serve in
the valley were of necessity unacquainted with the language,
customs and politics of the border tribes. This being so a
continuance of the middleman system was for a time at any rate
unavoidable. The middlemen on their side were not at alt
anxious that a term should be put to their lucrative
functions. The hill men too undoubtedly preferred the older
way, accustomed as they were to having been treated by the
Sikhs like wild beasts of the field. In the course of time
however the middleman system came to be almost entirely
abandoned-it subsists still in one or two bad examples on the
district border-when British officers acquired the
acquaintance to enable them to conduct Government business
with them direct.The system of tribal management put briefly
is this. If any event occurs which makes communication with
the whole body of a tribe necessary the jirgah, or
representative deputation of elders, is summoned to meet the
Deputy Commissioner.
If the matter is settled well and
good; if not the Deputy Commissioner proceeds to put pressure
on the tribe until his orders are complied with. This pressure
may take the form of a blockade, viz., the exclusion of
members of the offending section from the Peshawar District,
or reprisals, i.e., arrest and detention of all members of the
section found in the district. If the section receives service
allowances these may be with held or in the last resort
military force may have to be employed. Military aid cannot be
invoked for small troubles, e.g., the pursuit of ordinary
raiding gangs or sectional reprisals inside the District
border. For these purposes it has long been recognised that a
special force is necessary which should be at the disposal of
the Deputy Commissioner for exercising political pressure and
for general border defence.
The history of the forms
under which this force has been constituted at various dates
since the annexation of the district is interesting. Prior to
1878 apparently the only armed force in the district was the
regular army garrison, supplemented by the Corps of Guides at
Mardan. In that year a Border Defence Committee assembled to
consider the problem of the defence of the Peshawar District
border. It had come to be realised that the regular army was
an imperfect and also an expensive weapon to employ for the
purpose of dealing with the ordinary day to day troubles of
the border. Regular troops were not sufficiently mobile to
deal with rapidly moving raiding gangs, the time and place of
whose appearance it was impossible to forecast. It was also
impossible to scatter regular troops in small detachments
everywhere along the border. The scheme which was propounded
by the Committee and which received the sanction of Government
contemplated the erection of a chain of posts round the entire
border of the district to be held by a drilled and organized
body of Government servants enrolled as a Border Militia.
It was arranged at the same time that the garrisons of
these forts should in case of need be reinforced by village
levies armed with comparatively superior weapons supplied by
Government. Only in the last resort, e.g., if the Border
Police and village levies found themselves unable to cope with
a gang of raiders, was the aid of regular troops to be
requisitioned. In 1879 the force which later became known as
the Border Military Police came into existence. It was finally
decided to be only necessary on that part of the border from
the Swat river south- wards and round by the Kohat Pass to the
end of the Jowaki hills. Along the Yusafzai border no forts
were constructed nor have they ever been necessary down to the
present day. The regular garrisons of forts Mackeson, Bara,
Michni, Shabkadar and Abazai were gradually relieved, the last
to be evacuated by regular troops being Abazai in November
1894. The force was commanded originally .by police officers
and later by Assistant Commissioners. In 1895 it numbered 512
of all ranks. In its own way there is no doubt that the Border
Military Police rendered excellent service. The rank and file
were however indifferently trained and as the corps was
constituted it was manifestly impossible to arm them with
modern rifles.
The armament of the trans-border tribes
has improved out of all recognition in the last decades. This
is the outstanding feature of the North-West Frontier problem
in its modern shape. A comparison of the statistics for number
of troops engaged, e.g., in the Mahsud War of 1919-20 with the
corresponding figures for the earlier expeditions against this
tribe shows what an important bearing this one factor of
tribal armament has on frontier control both military and
political. The time there fore came when something more
efficient than the Border MilitaryPolice was required as aid
to the civil arm is protection oftheBritish border. In 1913
accordingly a new Provincial force was constituted under the
name of the Frontier Constabulary. (For a description of the
Frontier Constabulary as at present constituted see Chapter
III. H (e)) The new corps is officered by the Indian Police-it
is recruited for the most part from Pathans of the districts
and is regularly trained and armed with modern rifles.
There is a
Commandant for the whole force and under him District Officers
Commanding in the various districts of the province. The first
Commandant was Mr. R. C. Boyle, C.I.E., I. P. Another
well-known leader and Commandant of this Corps was Mr. E. C.
Handy- side, C.I.E, I.P., whose name was a terror to every
raider and outlaw; who finally fell in 1926 at the head of his
men securing the surrender of two dangerous criminals. The
alignment of the external administrative boundary of the
Peshawar District has been the cause of frequent dispute. The
whole matter was made the subject of a very careful enquiry at
the third Regular Settlement of the District (1923-29). The
line then defined which bears the sanction of Government, is
as follows: - For facility of description the external
boundary on the landside may be divided into three
sections-
(a) the Khattak-Afridi section from the Indus
river in the extreme south-east corner of the district to the
Kabul river.
(b) the Mohmand section between the Kabul
and Swat rivers ;
(c) the Utman Khel-Ranizai-Yusafzai
section from the Swat river to the Indus in the extreme
north-east corner of the district.
The boundary with
the Kohat District westwards from the Indus follows the crest
of the Nilab range. At a point about two miles west of Toru
Sar (4736 on the 1" survey map) where the track from Darsha
Khel crosses the Nilab range, the line leaves the watershed
and runs down to the Musa Darra nullah just west of
Lashora-Tutki. Thence it ascends to the crest of Dowalas
Ghaiban passing just under the peak of Jalala Sar, which is
inside the district. From Dowalas Ghaiban to Shamshattu Fort
the boundary between the Hassan Khel Afridis and the British
village of Dag Ismail Khel is bitterly disputed. The alignment
of the British border here has not yet been accepted by the
tribesmen. From Shamshattu Fort all the way to the Kabul River
the external border of the district was left at Settlement in
a most unsatisfactory shape. As surveyed at Settlement it
bears the sanction of Government and the agreement of the
Afridis procured at the second Regular Settlement of the
district (1895).
But tills line has never been acted
upon and the Afridis have encroached upon it everywhere. At
the third Regular Settlement political considerations did not
permit of the matter being taken up and the whole alignment of
the external border from Dowalas Ghaiban to the Kabul River
was left for decision at some future date. The occupation of
the Khajuri and Aka Khel plains after the Afridi disturbances
of 1930 has altered the position, and it is now proposed to
enforce the 1895 line as the facto border of the district, and
steps are being taken to demarcate it accordingly. From the
Kabul River at Michni to the Swat River above Abazai-a
distance of about 14 miles-the Mohmands hold the border hills.
The line here runs along the foot hills well in advance of the
line of block houses which the Mohmands sometimes pretend to
think were built on the external boundary.
Near the
Swat River the three towers of Khazana Gund were brought
within the border after the Mohmand disturbance of 1915-16.
Across the Swat River the boundary with the Utman Khel runs
among the low foothills. Across the Jindai Khwar it ascends to
the Darwazagai-Kandao and thence follows the main outer
watershed to Ghojal Khat Sar. From this point it drops again
to the plain. Eastwards the line runs in the plain across the
Malakand Road. In this sector the district abuts on the
semi-administered country of Sam Ranizai, since 1895 part of
the Malakand Political area. After traversing the crest of the
small hill known as Sarkai Ghar it drops again to the plain
west of Kharaki village. Onwards it ascends to the watershed
of the main outer range north of Kharaki. In Saroba limits it
drops again to the plain but almost immediately ascends again
to the crest of the outer range of hills, which it follows to
Pajja. From Pajja to the Ambeyla-except for a short distance
near Sar Banda on the Pirsai Pass-the line follows the
watershed- crossing Khan Baba peak, the Malandri Kandao and
Pato Sar Eastwards from the Ambeyla the line crosses the
Pagoch Kandao (3701) to Pagoch Sar (4763).
From the
latter peak it follows a subordinate watershed to Narnaji Sar
(4240) and the Dirhan Kandao. From the Kandao it drops down
the nullah to the plain. Passing along the crest of Tarako
Dheri it then runs in the plain to a point west of Salim Khan.
Here the line turns due east and runs through cultivation to
the banks of the Badrai nullah. Crossing the nullah northeast
of Salim Khan it ascends immediately to the watershed of the
Darsang range which it follows as far as a point known as
Tambugat Sar. Here it turns north running down the hill face
over Kulpai Sar and Jabba Sar to the Loe Rao, the most
easterly of the drainages from the Darsang range which flow to
the Jhanda Khwar. Thence it runs in the plain till it joins
the Sargari Khwar. Passing up the bed of this for a short
distance the line runs up a well-defined spur to the hill
called Loc Dop. From the crest of this it runs straight over
an intervening Kandao to Nakhtar Sar. Onwards the boundary
runs straight to the most westerly of three small hillocks
known as Dingano Dheri.
Crossing the crests of these
it runs due east to the Pakli Khwar, the bed which it follows
to the Babini border. From this point it runs in the plain in
a south-easterly direction till it meets the Polah Khwar. From
this point to the Indus above Kiara the alignment is bitterly
disputed and the Gaduns claim a border here much in advance of
the sanctioned line. The latter from the left bank of the
Polah Khwar runs up the Sili Kandah and so to the head of the
Bazdarrah Khwar. Here the line turns north east along the
crest of Manoram and later along the front edge of a prominent
bluff to the Dadar Darrah. From the Dadar Darrah it ascends to
the crest of Bazwani Sar. From this peak it runs down almost
due south along a prominent spur to the plain above Kiara,
thence through cultivation to the Ram Khan Kandah which it
follows to the Indus. The ideal-political boundary would
obviously be one where- (a) the limits of jurisidiction can be
easily recognized, and (b) where these limits correspond
completely with existing possession either side of the
line.
While it cannot be said that these requirements
have been everywhere attained in the alignment of the external
border of the Peshawar District as now sanctioned, still with
the exception of the Afridi section and one or two minor
stretches-notably from the Polah Khwar to the Indus-the
present border is, if not scientific, at least fairly
satisfactory. Apart from the revenue maps a full and accurate
description of how the line runs is kept for record in the
office of the Deputy Commissioner. The boundary with the
Hazara and Attock Districts on the Indus is now fixed. From
Kiara to Attock it runs in the bed of the river. From Attock
to the Nilab range it follows the right bank of the river. The
last is somewhat of ail anomaly and is contrary to the usual
practice by which riverain boundaries run in mid-stream. Since
Robert's famous '' Class " system of recruiting was put into
force in 1893, the Pathan was considered a favourite class for
enlistment in the combatant branches of the Indian Army, and
so many Pathans were taken from the Peshawar District for the
Army that they came to be over-recruited; on December 31st,
1916, 7, 567 persons were serving as combatants, but by the
close of 1918, 11, 500 persons from the Peshawar District or
2-7 percent of the male population had enlisted in the
Army.
This was no mean achievement, as in the Peshawar
Valley where economic conditions were favourable, there was no
strong natural inducement to enlist as in the loss favoured
districts. For a detailed account of the achievements of the
N. W. F. Province in the War in which the Peshawar District
played no small part, the reader is referred to the
publication entitled" the N.W. F. Province and the War, by Lt.
Col. W. J. Keen, C.L. E., C.B.E., LA. Revenue Commissioner.
The War passed and with the return of soldiers to their homes
and the relief from tension and from ruinous prices, the cold
weather of 1918-19 seemed likely to be the opening of an era
of peace and restored prosperity. But the strain of the past
four years could not relax itself so easily. Agitation and
disturbances in other parts of India reacted upon Peshawar;
stimulus was added by Amir Amanullah Khan, who felt no great
security in the throne, which had come to him as a result of
the murder of Amir Habib Ullah, and endeavoured to strengthen
his position by creating a diversion against the
British.
His first move in this direction was an
extensive anti-British intrigue in Peshawar City; this was
discovered and before the Afghan forces could make any headway
against our troops in the Khyber, Peshawar City was surrounded
by troops on May 3rd with remarkable speed and skill and the
surrender of the leading conspirators was demanded. They were
handed over with little delay, and Peshawar City, which had
been the scene of a certain number of processions and
anti-Government demonstrations during the preceding weeks, was
again quiet. In Peshawar District, as in other parts of the
Frontier, the situation continued to be one of danger and
uncertainty. The attack during May by Afghan troops upon our
positions in the Khyber, the unfortunate-though possibly
unavoidable-disbandment of the Khyber Rifles, and the constant
endeavours of the Afghan Government to incite the tribes, and
especially the Afridis to hostility against us, meant that
certain elements in Peshawar District were on tiptoe to see
which way the fortune of war would go. Martial Law was
therefore proclaimed in Peshawar District. Sir George
Roos-Keppel, who had made all arrangements to hand over to his
successor and to leave for England at the beginning of May but
had been retained in Peshawar in view of the gravity of the
situation, was appointed Military Governor.
His wise
administration of Martial Law immediately restored a wavering
confidence, and except for some unimportant incidents in the
Shabkadar Charsadda area, the peace of the district was hardly
disturbed throughout the remainder of the summer. The
political agitation set on foot in India in connection, which
the Rowlatt Bill culminated during the year 1920 in the Hijrat
movement, as a result of which several thousands of
inhabitants of the Peshawar District went temporarily to
Afghanistan. Other districts of the Province were also
affected in a minor degree. With very few exceptions the
disillusioned emigrants returned after a few months in a state
of utter destitution and arrangements were undertaken with a
view to resettling them in their homes and giving them a fresh
start. The years 1921 to 1930 passed on the whole
comparatively quietly in Peshawar District, though 1921 and
1922 witnessed the repercussions of the non-co-operation
campaign down-country, and Peshawar City was more than once
disturbed. At the end of 1923 the third Regular Settlement of
the District, which had been deferred for 10 years owing to
the War, was eventually put in hand, and Mr. F. V. Wylie.
I.C.S., appointed as Settlement Officer.
The
Settlement of this district is a very heavy task, and in this
instance lasted for nearly six years. The results are given in
detail in Chapter II and III, and it will suffice to notice
here that the operations were carried through without
disturbances and may be said generally to have commanded the
confidence and co-operation of the people. In 1927 there were
disturbances of a communal nature, prompted by the appearance
of scurrilous anti-Muslim pamphlets in certain organs of the
Hindu Press down country. Muhammadan feeling was stirred to
such an extent that local Hindus in the villages and in Tribal
Territory, who had been living as 'hamsayas ' for generations
under the protection of the Pathan population, were in many
instances ejected by the landowners simply on the ground of
their religion. It was only with great difficulty that serious
rioting in Peshawar City and certain rural areas was averted.
1929 was marked by a number of demonstrations in favour of
King Amanullah, whose cause had been espoused by more advanced
political opinion on the Frontier, and whose downfall was
deplored as likely to alter the balance of power in Central
Asia and on the Indian Frontiers.
Nadir Khan's
successful capture of Kabul was at first hailed as a triumph
by the same opinion, but enthusiasm waned as soon as it became
clear that as King Nadir Shah lie had no intention of
restoring the fallen Amanullah to the throne which he had
lost. Advanced Muhammadan opinion at this time was represented
by the various Khilafat Committees which, finding their
aspirations belied as regards Afghanistan, tended more and
more to turn with sympathy towards the Congress movement,
which was again gathering strength in India proper and
preparing once more to cross swords with Government. The most
important leader of the Peshawar City Khilafatists joined the
Congress, while the beginnings of the red-shirt movement-later
affiliated with Congress-became visible in the rural tracts of
the district. The leader and inspirer of this rural movement
is named Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a lesser Khan of the important
Hashtnagar village of Utmanzai.
Associated with the
Haji of Turangzai's family on the distaff side he had long
imbibed feelings of bitterness against constituted authority
and had taken a leading part in disturbances connected with
the Afghan War and its aftermath in the 1919 and 1920.
Subsequently he founded " Azad" schools in Utmanzai and
elsewhere in the district, and, mounting on the wave of
disaffection which surged over the whole of India in 1929-30,
he finally conceived the idea of forming a great body of rural
volunteers, uniformed and organized by tappas and villages
nominally in the interests of social reform, but in reality to
over throw not only the Government but the existing social
order. The directors of the movement in each tappa and
subordinate village were Pathans and were known as the Local
jirga, all subordinated in various degrees to the Central
jirga at Utmanzai. As the executive force to carry out their
orders they enrolled villagers, many of whom were either
landless or kamins of the menial classes, under commanders who
were given various ranks from Commander-in-Chief " to "
Captain." These wore shirts died a dark plum colour, and later
came to be known as red-shirts.
To this uniform they
added badges of rank and various accoutrement such as Sam
Browne belts, and drill was even carried out with dummy rifles
and words of command. Their creed was nominal based on that of
Gandhi non-violent non-co-operation, but in practice, as they
grew stronger, forceful methods were adopted against their
opponents in villages, together with every form of social
boycott and exploitation of local feud; the non-violent
attitude being reserved for clashes with constituted authority
(if supported by sufficient force) where the red-shirts
apprehended that an appeal to force would go against them. It
was decided to arrest the City Congress leaders together with
Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his leading rural lieutenants on the
same day, April 23rd, 1930. The arrests in the city led the
Peshawar riots of that year, in the cause of which mobs had to
be dispersed with the aid of troops, who after the death of a
dispatch rider and the setting fire to an armoured car were
forced to resort to firing to clear the streets.
About
20 persons were unfortunately killed, and a number of others
wounded. On the following day acting on an assurance from
certain leaders of local opinion it was decided to withdraw
the troops; but the only result of this was the assumption of
control over Peshawar City by Congress volunteers, who managed
the frame and against whom the Police were unable unaided to
reassert the authority of Government. It was therefore
necessary to reoccupy the city with troops-this being done on
May 4th. The troops had to remain until nearly the end of
August before the authority of Government could be said to
have been re-established. Meanwhile the arrest of Abdul
Ghaffar Khan and his four leading w"r lieutenants was effected
without loss of life in Charsadda, though ^lace it proved
necessary to despatch the Guides Cavalry from Mardan to remove
him from the Charsadda Jail, which had been invested by
singing crowds of his followers. He was tried and on
conviction removed to a jail in the Punjab.
The tribal
disturbances, which followed these events, have been described
in the foregoing sections on Utman Khel, Mohmands and Afridi.
Within the district itself it proved necessary for mixed
columns of military and police to traverse disturbed areas
more than once to effect arrests of leading red-shirt
agitators and to enable the civil administration, which had
ceased to function, once more to be put into gear. These
operations combined with the successful suppression of tribal
disorder on the district border had once more reduced the
district to a semblance of order, when the release of Abdul
Ghaffar Khan and all his red-shirts, together with the city
agitators, under the Delhi agreement of March 1931 once more
set free the full flood of disaffection.
The period
ushered in by this agreement was regarded by the red-shirts as
one of truce enabling them to reorganise their forces; and as
a number of dangerous demonstrations demanding Abdul Ghaffar's
immediate release had had to be dispersed by the local
authorities, that release subsequently under the orders of the
Government of India was regarded by local opinion as a victory
for agitation, which made it unnecessary for the agitator to
defer in any way to the orders of local authority. The year,
which followed, was one of unprecedented difficulty for the
administration. Abdul Ghaffar Khan proceeded on
village-to-village tours, preaching defiance of Government and
non-payment of revenue. Police investigation was interfered
with, and crime rose' to unheard of levels. In 1931 alone in
Peshawar there were some 400 murders.
The collection
of revenue came to a stand still; and Government officers and
forces were subjected to constant insult and abuse even on the
public road. Perhaps even more significant was the fact that
the red-shirt movement began to attack the basic rights of
property on which rural society is based, to indulge in
vilification of landowners, and to hint at the possibility of
a redistribution of land in favour of the " have nots." Abdul
Ghaffar Khan had now been joined by his brother Dr. Khan
Sahib, who had previously held a commission in the l. M. S.
This man took over red-shirt organisation in Peshawar City
when; his supersession of the old Khilafat leaders caused some
bitterness; and lie Abdul Ghaffar Khan were recognised by
Gandhi as the local leaders of Congress, with which the
red-shirt organisation was publicly affiliated by a visit from
Devi Das, son of Gandhi himself. Government finally authorised
action against the red-shirts on Christmas Day, 1931, when 7
mixed columns of troops and police occupied the City and
tactical points in the rural areas.
Abdul Ghaffar Khan,
Dr. Khan Sahib and all the leaders throughout the district
were arrested. The movement came as a complete surprise with
the result that success was happily achieved without loss of
life. It was necessary to open fire only twice, once at Tahkal
Payan near Peshawar on the second day of the operations and
again near Gujrat in the Mardan Sub-division some time later.
But in order once more to enable the civil administration to
work, it was necessary to employ troops on column duties until
April 1932. Meanwhile throughout the period 1930-32 energetic
preparations had been made for the introduction of a measure
of reforms based on the Government of India Act, 1919; and it
is noteworthy that this action had the effect of rallying the
same and steady elements in the district to the side of law
and order. The elections were eventually held early in April
1932; the red-shirts making a final effort to render the
access of voters to the poll impossible.
Much disorder
resulted, but on the whole the elections were successful; and
the new constitution was inaugurated by His Excellency the
Viceroy Lord Willingdon in person on April 20th, 1932, which
was preceded by the official installation of the first
Governor of the Province His Excellency Sir Ralph Griffith,
K.C.S.L, C.I.E., two days previously. Abdul Ghaffar Khan, his
brother and 2 other leaders were interned down country under
Regulation III of 1818, and the remainder of the prisoners
sent to the new Haripur Jail in the Hazara District. The new
constitution during its first year of trial has, on the whole,
worked remarkably well. In 1847 George Lawrence arrived in
Peshawar as Political Assistant to the British Resident at
Lahore. After being temporarily located in Peshawar, the Corps
of Guides occupied rough quarters of tents and huts at Gujar
Garhi near Mardan. As the water supply at Gujar Garhi was
found to be unsatisfactory, for a short time, the tents and
chappars were re-erected near Baghdada, meanwhile, the site of
the Mardan Fort was chosen and marked out and work on the fort
was commenced towards the end of 1853.
At that time
Hodson was in command of the Corps, and in the fashion of
those days, he was also Assistant Commissioner of Yusafzai.
Somewhere between 1865 and 1869, Colonel Sam Browne, V.C.,
built the first quarter outside the defences. The site for the
present Mess was chosen. The original garden, planted by
Hodson, had spread to much of its present limits. Up till
1894, the Punjab Government provided an allowance for the
upkeep of the garden, as it apparently treated the Punjab
Frontier Force with some generosity, and the name Company Bagh
presumably dates from the days of the old Punjab Government
allowance. The garden with its fine trees and magnificent
prospect towards the hills of Yusafzai is well known as one of
the choice spots on the Frontier. In 1870 the Assistant
Commissioner moved his residence and offices to the present
site. Yusafzai was now organized under the control of the
civil forces of law and order. In 1886 a new Mess was
constructed.
This stands until the present day with
certain alterations. In 1892 the Church was built by the M. W.
D. previous to this date Church Services had been held in the
Mess. In 1902 the Cavalry Lines were rebuilt. Following the
old self-reliant Silladar methods, the cost was met
regimentally. The original lines had also been built and
maintained by the Regiment. Each sowar had purchased his own
quarter from his " assami." On leaving the Regiment, he had
sold his quarter to his successor. In the lines of 1902 this
system of transfer was modifies. The lines remained as
Regimental and not private property. They were maintained
under Regimental arrangements. A recruit now paid a fixed rate
of Rs. 80 from his " assami " for his quarter. This was
refunded to him when he left. During his tenure of the
quarter, he paid a further rent of 8 as monthly. In 1916 the
Cavalry moved into their present lines. These were the
property of Government. The change resulted in some financial
loss to the Regiment.
The Rs. 80 purchase-money had to
be refunded to the men. No compensation was received from
Government. The Guides continued to keep their own transport
up to 1917. The cavalry and infantry are now housed in good
brick- barracks. The bazaar is now a tall mass of brick work.
At the southern end stands the Kabul Memorial with its proud
message to succeeding generations of Guides. The old Fort can
scarcely be recognized. Its mud walls are concealed by the
gardens, which now surround it. The dry ditch and glacis are
now bright with flowers. The hedges and the rustic bridges
that give access to the bungalows are covered with climbing
roses, red and white. The Mess is a museum of the history of
the Corps; a brief account of it will be found in Chapter
IV-Places of Interest.