Hindūstānī Mujāhidīn and the British from the Annexation of Punjab to the Frontier Uprising of 1897
Abstract
The Hindūstānī Mujāhidīn (Indian Fighters) came to the country’s Northwest Frontier with Sayyid Aḥmad (d. 1831) of Raebareli. After the martyrdom of their leader, they lost strength and became highly dependent on local tribes. The local chiefs used them against one another as well as against the British. After the Ambela expedition of 1863, the Mujāhidīn faced the worst time of their stay in the Indian Northwest Frontier due to their enmity with the Akhūnd of Swat and colonial checks on their supporters in India. This article contends that whenever the Mujāhidīn faced colonial troops, they suffered heavily and were compelled to wander from place to place. During the 1890s, Mujāhidīn tried to avoid confrontation with the colonial troops. For this reason, the Mujāhidīn were not involved in the Frontier Uprising of 1897.
References
‘Abbās, Muḥammad. Uwah Buzargān [Pashto]. Peshawar: Idārah-i Farūgh-i Ta‘līm, 1971.
“The Wahabis in India-III,” The Calcutta Review 51 (1870): 381-99.
Abdul Rauf. “The British Empire and the Mujāhidīn Movement in the N.W.F.P. of India, 1914-1934.” Islamic Studies 44, no. 3 (2005): 409-39.
Afghani, Abdul Halim Asar. Zamung Mujahidin [Pukhtu]. Peshawar: Maḥkamah-i Nashr-o Ishā‘at-i Qabā’il, n.d.
Ahmad, Ishtiaq. “British Colonial Interference in the Affairs of the Natives: An Analysis of Black Mountain Tribes Resistance (1849-1892).” Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society, 67, no. 4 (2019), 103-36.
Ahmad, Ishtiaq. “Pakhtun Resistance against British Rule: An Assessment of the Frontier Uprising of 1897.” PhD diss., Department of History, University of Peshawar, 2017.
Ahmad, Ishtiaq. “The Ambela Expedition 1863: A Military Failure but Political Triumph; An Appraisal.” Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society 70, no. 4 (2022): 77-106. https://phs.com.pk/index.php/phs/article/view/247/124.
Ahmad, Mohiuddin. Saiyid Ahmad Shahid: His Life and Mission. Lucknow: Academy of Islamic Research and Publications, 1975.
Ahmad, Qeyamuddin. The Wahabi Movement in India. Calcutta: Firme K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1966.
Bellew, H. W. A General Report on the Yusufzais. Lahore: Sang-e Meel Publications, 1977.
Bundle No. 15, Serial No. 1601. Syad Feroz Shah of Sitana and Malka. EX-DD Files, at Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Provincial Archives, Peshawar.
Bundle No. 18, Serial No. 2035, Conduct of the Hindustani Fanatics during the Disturbances in Swat. Ex-DD Files, at Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Provincial Archives, Peshawar.
Bundle No. 18, Serial No. 287. Syad Feroz Shah of Sitana and Malka. F.F. Political Department, at Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Provincial Archives, Peshawar.
Bundle No. 19, Serial No. 613. Attitude of the Hindustani Colony in Amazai Territory. Files of the Commissioner Office Peshawar, at Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Provincial Archives, Peshawar.
Bundle No. 31, Serial No. 514. Movements of the Hindustani Fanatics Colony. F.F. Political Department, at Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Provincial Archives, Peshawar.
Caroe, Olaf. The Pathans, 550 B.C.—A.D. 1957: With an Epilogue on Russia, 19th Impression. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Cotton, Sydney. Nine years on the North-West Frontier of India: From 1854 to 1863. London: Richard Bentley, 1868.
Frontier and Overseas Expeditions from India. Quetta: Nisa Traders, 1979.
Ghulam, Masal Shah. “Hazrat Abdul Ghafur Saib.” Pukhtu 13, nos. 1-2 (1982).
Hindustani Fanatics: India’s Pashtuns, and Deobandism Connections (Williamsburg, VA: Tribal Analysis Center, 2009), accessed September 16, 2014, http://www.tribalanalysiscenter.com/PDF-TAC/Hindustani%20Fanatics-Deobandism.pdf.
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. http://parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk/imageserver/pdf_download.
Hunter, W. W. The Indian Musalmans. Lahore: Sang-e Meel Publications, 1999.
Ḥusain, Ṣādiq. Tāhrīk-i Mujāhidīn. Lahore: Ṣādiq Ḥusain Printers and Publishers, n.d.
Ḥusain, Ṣādiq. Sayyid Aḥmad aur un kī Tāhrīk-i Mujāhidīn. Lahore: Al-Mīzān, 2010.
Khail, Haider Ali Akhund. Bunair Khudu Khail: Tārīkhī, Taḥqīqī, aur Thaqāfatī Jā’izah. Mingawarah: Graphics World, 2008.
Khān, Khān Rōshan. Yūsufza’i Qaum kī Sarguzasht. Karachi: Roshan Khan & Co., 1986.
Khān, Muḥammad Khavāṣ. Rū’īdād-i Mujāhidīn-i Hind. Lahore: Maktabah-i Rashīdiyah, 1983.
Low, Rathbone. Major-General Sir Frederick S. Roberts, Bart., V.C., G.C.B., C.I.E., R.A.: A Memoir. London: W.H. Allen & Co., 1883.
Marsden, Magnus, and Benjamin D. Hopkins. Fragments of the Afghan Frontier. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Mason, A. H. Expedition against the Black Mountain Tribes by a Force under Major-General J. W. McQueen in 1888. Simla: Printed at the Government Central Printing Office, 1889.
Mason, A. H. Expedition against the Hasanzai and Akazai Tribes of the Black Mountain by a Force under Major-General W.K. Elles, C.B., in 1891. Simla: Printed at the Government Central Printing Office, 1894.
Mason, A. H. Note on the Black Mountain Affairs, Subsequent to the Expedition of 1891. Simla: Printed at the Government Central Printing Office, 1892.
Masson, A. H. Report on the Hindustani Fanatics: IOR: L/MIC/17/13/18. Simla: Government Central Printing Office, 1895.
Mihr, Ghulām Rasūl. Jamā‘at-i Mujāhidīn. Lahore: Shaikh Gulam Ali and Sons, n.d.
Mihr, Ghulām Rasūl. Sarguzasht-i Mujāhidīn. Lahore: Shaikh Gulam Ali and Sons, n.d.
Miller, Charles. Khyber: British India’s North West Frontier; The Story of an Imperial Migraine. London: Macdonald and Jane’s, 1977.
Miyāṇ, Sayyid Muḥammad. ‘Ulamā’-i Hind kā Shāndār Māżī. Lahore: Maktabah-i Maḥmūdiyyah, 1977.
Movements of the Hindustani Fanatics Colony. F. F. Political Department, Bundle No. 31, Serial No. 514, at Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Provincial Archives, Peshawar.
Muhammad, Shahbaz. Da Malakand Ghazaganay [Pukhtu] Lower Dir: Pukhtu Department, University of Malakand, 2016.
Nadvī, Muḥammad Ḥamzah Ḥasanī. Tadhkirah: Ḥażrat Sayyid Aḥmad Shahīd. Karachi: Majlas-i Nashriyāt-i Islām, 1996.
Nadvī, Sayyid Abū ’l-Ḥasan ‘Alī. Jab Īmān kī Bād-i Bahārī Chalī, 5th ed. Lucknow: Maktabah-i Firdūs, 2004.
Nadvī, Sayyid Abū ’l-Ḥasan ‘Alī. Sīrat-i Sayyid Aḥmad Shahīd, 2 vols., 9th ed. Lucknow: Majlas-i Taḥqīqāt-o Nashriyāt-i Islām, 2011.
Nevill, H. L. Campaign on the North-West Frontier. Lahore: Sang-e Meel publications, 2003.
Nūrānī, Khūshtar. Tāhrīk-i Jihād aur British Government: Aik Taḥqīqī Muṭāla‘ah. Delhi: Idārah-i Fikr-i Islāmī, 2004.
Paget, W. H., and A. H. Mason. Record of the Expeditions Against the North-West Frontier Tribes: Since the Annexation of the Punjab. London: Whiting & Co Ltd, 1884.
Prichard, Iltudus Thomas. The Administration of India from 1859 to 1868: The First Ten Years of Administration under the Crown. London: Macmillan and Co., 1869.
Proceedings of the Government of the Punjab in the Foreign Department for the Month of February 1889. Punjab Archives, Lahore.
Proceedings of the Government of the Punjab in the Foreign Department for the Month of July 1893. Punjab Archives, Lahore.
Proceedings of the Government of the Punjab in the Foreign Department for the Month of August 1893. Punjab Archives, Lahore.
Qadir, Altaf. Sayyid Ahmad Barailvi: His Movement and Legacy from the Pukhtun Perspective. Delhi: SAGE Publication, 2015.
Richards, D. S. The Savage Frontier: A History of the Anglo-Afghan Wars. London: Pan Books, 2003.
Roberts, Lord. Forty-one Years in India: From Subaltern to Commander-in-Chief. London: Macmillan & Co., 1901.
Ṣābir, Muḥammad Shafī‘. Tārīkh-i Ṣūbah-i Sarḥad. Peshawar: University book Agency, 1986.
Ṣābir, Sulṭān Muḥammad. Khpalwaki aw Pakistan [Pashto]. Quetta: Islamiyh Press, n.d.
Saif, Muḥammad Khālid. Tadhkirah-i Shahīd. Lahore: Maktabah-i Ghaznaviyah, 1983.
Scott, G. B. Twenty Years on the North-West Frontier. Allahabad: Pioneer Press, 1906.
Shaheen, Muhammad Parwaish. Gulwariny Sukay [Pukhtu]. Mingawarah: Shoaib Sons Publishers, 1989.
Shāhjahānpūrī, Payām. Shahādat Gāh-i Bālākūt. Lahore: Idārah-i Tārīkh-o Taḥqīq, 1971.
Shāhpūrī, Ābād. Sayyid Bādshāh kā Qāfilah. Lahore: Al-Badar Publications, 1981.
Stewart, Charles E. Through Persia in Disguise: With Reminiscences of the Indian Mutiny, ed. Basil Stewart. London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1911.
Sultan-i-Rome. Swat State (1915—1969): From Genesis to Merger; An Analysis of Political, Administrative, Socio-Political, and Economic Developments. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Tōnsvī, Mudathar Jamāl. Tārīkh-i Sayyid Aḥmad Shahīd. Bahawalpur: Dār al-Baṣā’ir, 1433/2012.
Watson, H. D. Gazetteer of the Hazara District, 1907. London: Chatto & Windus, n.d.
Wylly, H. C. From Black Mountain to Waziristan. Lahore: Sang-e Meel Publications, 2003.
Yūsufī, Allāh Bakhsh. Yūsufza’ī, 2nd ed. Karachi: Muhammad Ali Educational Society, 1960.
Publication of material in the journal means that the author assigns copyright to Islamic Studies including the rights to electronic publishing. This is, inter alia, to ensure the efficient handling of requests from third parties to reproduce articles as well as to enable wide dissemination of the published material. Authors may, however, use their material in other publications acknowledging Islamic Studies as the original place of publication. Requests by third parties for permission to reprint should be addressed to the Editor, Islamic Studies.
.jpg)
