There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
Henry David Thoreau
… but the wretched Rohillas had no country; the country they had left had long been
possessed by others, and where were these miserable people to seek for a place of shelter –
from the persecution of whom? Of Englishmen – natives of a country renowned for its justice
and humanity. They will carry their melancholy tale into the numerous tribes and nations
among whom they are scattered, and you may depend upon it the impression which it will
make, will, sooner or later, have its effect.1
Charles James Fox
The British literature about the military problems they encountered with the Pashtun2
tribes in the region lying along the border with Afghanistan
is filled with references to antagonists they referred to as “Hindustani Fanatics.” Again and again, the huge British Empire went to war with these
people, but they are little understood. The purpose of this paper is to explain who the “Fanatics” were, their tribal connection, and their links to both
Islamic extremism and Deobandism. This study will also illustrate how political-religious leaders can modify a religion in order to match with the
general beliefs of the population they are attempting to sway toward supporting a new movement.
There are several important keys to understanding this paper:
• The widespread unrest in India reflected in this paper was related to the disintegration of the Mughal Empire. This produced multiple
opportunities for regional warlords to create independent states while chaos produced nearly constant local warfare and rapidly shifting
alliances. European entry into the subcontinent during this period increased the unrest.
• Northern Pashtuns, primarily from the Yusufzai and Bangash tribes, had migrated into northern India where they were called “Rohillas”
and served interchangeably as mercenaries and trader merchants. This process began during the 13th century and continued into the period
of Mughal disintegration.
• The military immigrants maintained contact with the original segments of their tribe that didn’t migrate. Like the European Vikings, these
warrior-traders gradually established their own nations.
1. Fox, Charles James, The Speeches of the Right Honourable Charles James Fox in the House of Commons: With a Biographical Memoir, and Introductions and Explanatory Notes,
Aylott and Co., 1853, pg. 256.s
2. There are three names frequently used when referring to this large tribe: Pashtun, Pakhtun, and Pathan. This study will use the rendering used in the southern portion of the
tribal region, Pashtun.
Tribal Analysis Center, 6610-M Mooretown Road, Box 159. Williamsburg, VA, 23188
Hindustani Fanatics, India’s Pashtuns, and Deobandism – Connections
• These Pashtuns spoke a unique common language that wasn’t understood by their southern cousins, even though they shared a common
written language. They remained a separate culture within India where the Indians referred to them as “Pathans” to connect them to one of
their major population centers, Patna. This eastern Indian city shows the breadth of Pashtun penetration into India, far from their original
homeland near Afghanistan.
• The greater percentage of the Pashtuns were from the Yusufzai tribe, a group reported by the British known for quickly turning to religious
leaders for advice and control during tribal unrest. They accepted respected outsiders as leaders who could mediate between squabbling
subtribes rather than select a member of any of their subtribes as a leader who would only polarize current animosities rather than minimize
them.
• The Pashtuns were exceptionally religious and tended to view any external threat to the tribe as a parallel threat against Islam, itself. This
perception of a dual threat allowed leaders to mobilize the tribes quickly to face outsiders, particularly those from another religion.
• Pashtunwali’s Badal, the cultural requirement to seek revenge, keeps an insult to the tribe or tribes current in the memories of new
generations.
• “Storytelling” and visits from wandering Pashtun poets3
to isolated compounds having few other forms of entertainment, especially during
periods of extreme winters, keeps the memory of tribal heritage, religion, and revenge fresh in the minds of succeeding generations. Hafiz
Rahmat, the Rohilla chief killed by the British, was a recognized poet and his poetry and tales of his demise probably lingered long among
northern Pashtuns.
There were four key events that occurred within the Indian subcontinent during the 19th century and the effects, while little understood, remain
as very significant factors in the religious politics of the Pashtun region lying between Afghanistan and Pakistan – the Pashtun belt. First, the Rohilla
Pashtun “statelets” that were located in northern India were destroyed by their Indian enemies and the British in 1774. Second, the relocation of
Sayed4
Ahmad Shah of Bareilly, a city within the lost Rohilla territory, from what is today’s Uttar Pradesh state to the region of Pakistan’s NorthWest
Frontier Province is quite significant. He and his “Hindustani Fanatics” carried a new political-religious ideology system to the Pashtuns
that was essentially indistinguishable, except for minor details, from Wahabbism. Third, and interrelated, was the “Sepoy Mutiny of 1857” that
had a significant involvement of Sayed Ahmad Shah’s followers and supporters within the lost Rohilla territory in leadership positions among the
“mutineers.” Finally, Deobandism was developed by two of Sayed Ahmad Shah’s adherents in the aftermath of the failed “Mutiny.” This revolt
was worse within the Rohilla territory that had been destroyed in 1774. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the very plausible connection
between these “Rohillas” and today’s political and religious strife found along the border separating Afghanistan’s Pashtuns from their cousins living
in Pakistan.
3. There is a serious connection between Pashtu songs, actually their prized poetry, and the destruction of the Rohilla states. In 1887, James Darmesteter studied their songs
and concluded, “… the literary poet, who can read … who has composed a Divan. Every educated man is a Sha-ir, though, if he be a man of good taste, he will not assume
the title. Writing Ghazal was one of the accomplishments of the old chiefs. Hafiz Rahmat, the great Rohilla captain, and Ahmad Shah, the founder of the Durrani empire,
had written Divans, were ‘Divan people.’” “Afghan Life in Afghan Songs,” Science, Vol. 10, No. 246, October 21, 1887, pg. 195. Amazingly, Hafiz Rahmat was viewed as an
equivalent of Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1887 and poets affiliated with the Pashtuns disseminated his poetry and stories about his fate down through the generations in a culture
having revenge as a major tenet.
4. There are multiple English transliterations of this word. The Pashto rendering, Sayed, will be used in this study.
Tribal Analysis Center, 6610-M Mooretown Road, Box 159. Williamsburg, VA, 23188
Hindustani Fanatics, India’s Pashtuns, and Deobandism – Connections
Missing in the available literature is an understanding of the Pashtun tribal connections to all of this new form of “revolutionary Islam”, as it
developed deeply within northeast India where scholars consistently refer to the Rohillas as “Afghans”, but there is an excellent reason for the speed
with which Sayed Ahmad Shah’s political-religious message was accepted by the Pashtuns, especially the Yusufzai tribe. The answer is simple: the
initial “Hindustani Fanatics” were simply returning home to Pashtun country. Most of the original group that followed and supported Sayed Ahmad
Shah, if not all of them, were probably Yusufzai Pashtuns. At a minimum, they were born and raised in a part of India that was once controlled by
the independent Rohilla Pashtuns, most of whom were members of the Yusufzai tribe.
Iqbal Husain, in his first-rate study, The Rise and Fall of the Ruhela Chieftaincies in 18th Century India, provides the necessary history that
allows connections to be made with early Pashtun military immigrations into India and the 19th century anti-British Islamic to impose shari’a on their
Muslim cousins. They established a cultural antagonism that revolutionaries seeking power that continues to exist today, possibly within some of
the descendents of the original Hindustani Fanatics that fought nearly continuous wars with the Sikhs and the British throughout the 19th century.
Husain, however, does not identify these military immigrants as Pashtuns and refers to them, generically, as “Afghans.” They were far more than just
Afghans. These people were northern Pashtuns with warrior traditions and great amounts of combat experience gained while fighting as mercenaries
inside India.
From Husain:
“The immigration of Afghans into India dates back to the time of the Ghorian conquests5
: they are found serving the Sultans of Delhi in the 13th
century with their own settlements at Gopalgir (Mewat), Afghanpur (Delhi), Bojpur, Kampil, Patiyali, and other places. During the Sultanate period,
after many vicissitudes, they rose from being petty mercenaries to a position where they acquired control of the Delhi Sultanate under the Lodis and
Surs. During the entire period stretching from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, the process of Afghan immigration to India seems to have been
a continuous one; but after the fall of the Lodis6
, and still more, the Afghan immigrants suffered greatly and their settlements in various areas were
either destroyed or deprived of their prosperity.7
”
Much of this information escaped most western historians, but Husain’s use of both Urdu and Persian primary sources for his study of the
Ruehelas, known by their Anglicized name, Rohillas, clearly identifies these migrant soldiers and traders in their occupations used interchangeably
5. The Ghorian conquests occurred around A.D. 1200. See Irfan Habib’s “Pursuing the History of Indian Technology: “Pre-modern Modes of Transmission of Power”, Social
Scientist, Vol. 20, No. 3 / 4 (Mar. – Apr., 1992), pg. 16.
6. The Sultanate of Delhi which was established in 1206 by the Indian viceroy of Sultan Mu’izz al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam of Ghor, continued to flourish for over a century
and a half, but fell on evil days during the reign of Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq (1351-1388) who was destined to see the disruption of an empire which under his predecessor had
embraced nearly the entire subcontinent. After his death the throne of Delhi was continually contested by rival factions until Timur’s invasion in 1398 virtually put an end to the
Tughluq dynasty. The Sayyids who emerged in 1414 owed their rise to Timur’s benevolence, but their greatest achievement, perhaps, was to repulse further Mughal attacks and
delay the Mughal occupation of India by about a century. They were superceded in 1541 by the Lodi Afghans who extended the boundaries of the Sultanate and founded a new
capital at Agra. The last Lodi Sultan was defeated by Babur at the battle of Panipat in 1526, but the Afghans under Sher Shah Sur recaptured the throne in 1538 from Babur’s
son, Humayun, and continued to enjoy sovereignty till 1555 when Humayun was able to re-establish Mughal rule. See ud-Din, Hameed, “Historians of Afghan Rule in India,”
Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 82, No. 1 (Jan. – Mar., 1962), pg. 44.
7. Husain, Iqbal, The Rise and Decline of the Ruehela Chieftaincies in 18th Century India, New Delhi: Oxford, 1994, pp. 1-2.
Tribal Analysis Center, 6610-M Mooretown Road, Box 159. Williamsburg, VA, 23188
Hindustani Fanatics, India’s Pashtuns, and Deobandism – Connections
by the Pashtuns settling into India as far back the thirteenth century. As the new arrivals gained property and commerce brought them prosperity and
access to power, the continuous flow of additional Pashtuns continued as some migrant tribes actually gained control of the Indian empire.
From Husain:
“Most Afghan immigrants came from three distinct regions. The first was the region to the north and west of Attock, comprising Bajaur,
Tiran and Swat and the intervening areas, mainly inhabited by the Lodis and Yusufzais. The second was a large, and in parts fertile, district, called
Bangash, which lay to the south of the Tirah range, bounded by the Safed Koh Range in the north-west and by the Indus on the west. The Afghans
of this range mainly settled in Northern India, including present Uttar Pradesh. The third region, which comprised southeastern Afghanistan and the
adjoining parts of Pakistan, contained the Panni, Tarin and Kakar tribes, amongst others who largely settled in Gujarat and the Deccan….8
“…they served as soldiers, but were also ready to act as merchants or engage in trade, particularly in horses. The Afghans generally retained
these characteristics until the beginning of the twentieth century…. Those who had engaged in trade often changed their profession and became
soldiers.9
”
It was during the period that the Mughal Empire began to disintegrate that provided the chaos in local governance to allow the Pashtun
colonists and their relatively newfound wealth to actually take control over broad regions of India, including the imperial capital, Delhi, and its entire
sultanate. It was in India’s northern region, today’s Uttar Pradesh state, that the aggressive Pashtuns, primarily Yusufzai tribesmen, were able to gain
full control and create an essentially independent principality.
Husain explains:
“The decay of the Mughal empire after Aurangzeb’s death accelerated the process of Afghan immigration into India. Local chiefs, contending
for supremacy against neighboring zamindars10, were increasingly tempted to recruit Afghans as mercenaries for their own needs. Alternately, the
Afghans having themselves become local potentates, invited their kinsmen and compatriots over from Roh11 both to aid them and to share in the gains.
Afghan settlements in the north, especially in Katehr12, therefore, continued to grow even without imperial patronage, as is shown by the profusion
with which the eighteenth century settlements appear….
“An early Afghan settlement after Aurangzeb’s death took place at Bioli which was assigned to Daud Khan Ruhela, an Afghan adventurer,
in the service of Madar Shah13, an important zamindar. Daud Khan and his companions gradually occupied neighboring villages. This encouraged
8. Ibid, pg. 3.
9. Ibid, pg. 4.
10. A landlord, the zamindar was an appointed official responsible for collecting rents from peasants. Many of them became quite powerful and wealthy over the years of
having access to significant amounts of funds.
11. Roh was the name of the area around Peshawar city, in today’s Pakistan.
12. The Pashtuns later called Katehr “Rohilkhand.” See Rheula Chieftaincies, pg. 4, for additional details. Katehr literally means soft well aerated loam that is extremely suitable
for cultivation.
13. The name “Madar” identifies this man as a Pashtun as it is probably derived from the “Madar Khel,” a subdivision of the Pashtun Dotani tribe.
Tribal Analysis Center, 6610-M Mooretown Road, Box 159. Williamsburg, VA, 23188
Hindustani Fanatics, India’s Pashtuns, and Deobandism – Connections
other Afghans to emigrate to Katehr. Originally a stronghold of the Katehriyas…. It continued to be held by the Katehriyas till A.D. 1730 when Ali
Muhammad Khan Ruhela killed Duja, chief of the clan, seized it, and made it his capital.
“The settlement of Mirganj (Bareilly) was established at about the same time as other Afghan settlements in Rohilkhand.14
“Useha, where the Afghans settled during the ascendancy of the Bangash15 Afghans of Furrukhabad, is described as an ancient place. Qaim
Khan, the Bangash chief, held the pargana16 till his defeat and death in the battle of Daunri in 1748, when victorious Ruhelas seized the pargana and
assigned it to Fath Khan….17”
The aggressive Rheulas, or Rohillas, and their martial experience soon dominated a wide region in north India after capturing lands belonging
to the Katehriyas. They soon turned their expansionist tendencies toward their Pashtun cousins, the Bangash Pashtuns who were also military
colonists and captured their territory that surrounded the major town of Furrukhabad. Their “Rohilkhand” consisted of independent “chieftaincies,”
as Husain labeled them, in an area that extended from the Himalayan foothills southward for approximately 600 kilometers and west of Delhi for
approximately 250 kilometers. They were able to defend their territorial gains with forces of experienced warrior tribesmen that numbered as high as
80,000 fighters, many of whom were cavalrymen.
The Imperial Gazetteer of India explains the growth of Rohilla supremacy that developed within the power vacuum following the death of
Aruangzeb, the Mughal ruler, and the break up of the Mughal Empire, in its discussion of the city where Sayed Ahmad Shah originated, Bareilly:
“…In 1657 Raja Makrand founded the new city of Bareilly, cut down the forest to the west of the old town and expelled all the Katehriyahas
from the neighborhood. A succession of regular governors followed during the palmy [sic] days of the great Mughal emperors; but after the death of
Aruangzeb, in 1707, when the unwieldy organization began to break asunder, the Hindus of Bareilly threw off the imperial yoke, refused their tribute,
and commenced a series of anarchic quarrels among themselves for supremacy.
“Their dissentions only afforded an opportunity for the rise of a new Muhammadan power. Ali Muhammad Khan, a leader of the Rohilla
Pathans, defeated the governors of Bareilly and Moradabad, and made himself supreme throughout the whole Katehr region. In 1744 the Rohilla
chieftain conquered Kumaun right up to Almora; but two years later the emperor Muhammad Shah marched against him, and Ali Muhammad was
taken a prisoner to Delhi. However, the empire was too much in need of vigorous generals to make his captivity a long one, and in 1748 he was
restored to his old post in Katehr….”18
14. Ibid, pp. 15-16.
15. The Bangash are also a large Pashtun tribe found in the same region as the Yusufzai tribe, Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province and its Federally Administered Tribal
Areas.
16. From Wikipedia: A pargana is a former administrative unit of the Indian subcontinent, used primarily, but not exclusively, by the Muslim kingdoms.
17. Ibid, pp. 17-18.
خلاصہ
ہندوستانی جنونی ، پشتون اور دیوبندی ازم ----- تعلقات
ٹرآئبل ریسورس سنٹر کی جانب سے 55 صفحات کا ایک تحقیقی پیپر مرے سامنے ہے اور اس پیپر میں بتایا گیا ہے کہ برٹش لٹریچر میں بار بار ان علاقوں میں فوجی مہم جوئی کا زکر کرتا ہے جو اسے افغانستان کی سرحد کے ساتھ رہنے والے پشتونوں کے خلاف کرنا پڑیں اور ان میں ایک اصطلاح " ہندوستانی جنونی " بار بار استعمال ہوتی ہے ، لیکن ان " ہندوستانی جنونیوں " کے بارے میں سمجھا بہت کم گیا ہے اور اس پیپر کا مقصد بھی یہی ہے کہ یہ دکھایا جائے کہ
یہ " ہندوستانی جنونی " تھے کون ؟
ان کا قبائل سے رشتہ کیا تھا ؟
اور ان دونوں یعنی ہندوستانی جنونیوں ، قبائل کا دیوبندی ازم سے رشتہ کیا تھا ؟
جب بھی عام لوگ کسی نئی تحریک کی جانب جھک رہے ہوتے ہیں تو وہاں کی جو سیاسی مذھبی قیادت ہوتی ہے ، مذھب کو بھی ویسے ہی ان خیالات کے مطابق موڈیفائی کردیتے ہیں
اس مقالے کو سمجھنے کچھ کنجیاں ہیں
ہندوستان میں بڑے پیمانے پر جو بے چینی اور طوائف الملوکی اس مقالے میں بار بار دکھائی گئی ہے ، اس کا سبب مغل سلطنت کا زوال تھا ، اور اسی زوال نے مقامی وار لارڑز کو اپنی چھوٹی چھوٹی ریاستیں قائم کرنے کا موقعہ دے دیا ، جبکہ اس اتھل پتھل سے جنگ مستقل ہوگئی اور بے ہنگم طریقے سے اتحاد بھی بدلتے رہے اور اس زمانے میں یوروپی ریشہ دوانیوں نے اس بے چینی کو اور بڑھا دیا
افغانستان سے ملحق شمالی مغربی علاقوں سے جن پشتونوں نے ابتداء می ہندوستان ہجرت کی ان میں بنگش اور یوسف زئی شامل تھے اور وہاں پر ان کو روہیلہ کہا گیا اور یہ وہاں پیشہ سپاہ گری یا تجارت سے منسلک ہوگئے
ہندوستان میں ان مہاجر پشتون نے اپنی الگ شناخت کو برقرار کھا ، 1774ء میں سید احمد شاہ نے اتر پردیش کے شہر بریلی سے اپنے ساتھیوں سمیت پاکستان کے شمال مشرقی سرحدی علاقوں میں آئے اور ان کے ساتھ ایک نئی مذھبی آئیڈیالوجی بھی تھی اور یہ آئیڈیالوجی ادنی سے فرق کے ساتھ وہابی ازم سے ملت تھی اور پھر سید احمد شاہ کے کئی سپاہی اور حامی 1857ء کی بغاوت میں بغاوت کا اہم کردار بنے اور آخرکار سید احمد شاہ کے دو شاگردوں نے دیوبندی ازم کی تشکیل کی
احمد شاہ کے افکار پشتونوں کے اندر تیزی سے مقبول کیونکر ہوئے ؟ اس سوال کا ایک جواب تو یہ ہے کہ ان کے بہت سارے ساتھی پشتون تھے اگرچہ سب نہیں ، پھر وہ جس آئیڈیالوجی کے ساتھ آئے ، وہ پشتونوں کے ہاں بدلے ، پشتون ولی کی روايت سے قریب تھی اور ان کا تعلق زیادہ تر ان علاقوں سے تھا جن کو روہیلہ کنٹرول کرتے تھے اور زیادہ تر یوسف زئی تھے اور ان کی واپسی بھی ان علاقوں میں ہوئی جہاں پر یوسف زئی زیادہ تھے
اقبال حسین نے اپنے مقالے
Rise and Fall of Rohila Chirftaincies in 18th Century
میں
روہیلاؤں کی ابتدائی مہاجرت شمالی ہندوستان کی جانب کرنے اور پھر 19 ویں صدی میں واپس شمالی مغربی سرحدی علاقوں میں دیوبندی شریعہ نافذکرنے کی تاریخ بیان کی ہے اور دکھایا ہے کہ کیسے وہ سکھوں ، مرہٹوں ، برٹش سے لڑتے رہے ، اقبال حسین کے مطابق ہندوستان میں پشتون کی آبادکاری اور ہجرت کی تاریخ غوری کے زمانے تک جاتی ہے اور سلاطین دھلی کے زمانے میں لودھی اور پھر شیر شاہ سوری کے زمانے میں یہ تخت دھلی کے کنٹرول میں بھی کامیاب ہوئے اور یہ 1200 ء سے شروع ہوتی ہے ، ابتدائی ہجرت باجوڑ ، تیران ، سوات سے ہوئی اور یہ دھلی اور موجودہ اتر پردیش میں جاکر بسے جبکہ پانی ، ٹیرن اور کاکٹر گجرات و دکن جاکر آباد ہوگئے ، مغلیہ سلطنت کا زوال ہوا تو کئی مقامی ریاستیں وجود میں آئیں ، روہیلہ نے بھی اپنی خودمختار ریاستیں قائم کیں اور روھیلہ اس دوران براہ راست مقامی گروہوں جیسے سکھ ، مرہٹہ اور ہندؤ راجاؤں سے تصادم میں آئے
