Military Text-Books
FROM THE BLACK MOUNTAIN TO WAZIRISTAN
[Illustration]
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO
FROM
THE BLACK MOUNTAIN TO WAZIRISTAN
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE BORDER COUNTRIES AND THE MORE TURBULENT OF THE
TRIBES CONTROLLED BY THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE, AND OF OUR
MILITARY RELATIONS WITH THEM IN THE PAST
BY
COLONEL H. C. WYLLY, C.B.
AUTHOR OF ‘THE CAMPAIGN OF MAGENTA AND SOLFERINO,’ ‘THE MILITARY MEMOIRS
OF LIEUT.-GEN. SIR JOSEPH THACKWELL, G.C.B., K.H.’
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
LIEUT.-GEN, SIR HORACE L. SMITH DORRIEN
K.C.B., D.S.O., A.D.C. GEN.
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON
1912
_COPYRIGHT_
TO
E. M. W.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREFACE
This book is the outcome of my own experience of the want of something
of the kind in the early autumn of 1897, when the Second Battalion of my
old Corps, the Sherwood Foresters, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire
Regiment, then serving at Bareilly, was ordered to join the Tirah
Expeditionary Force. The Battalion had then been in India for nearly
fifteen years, but only one or two of the officers, and none of the
other ranks, had ever been west of the Indus, and few of us therefore
knew anything of the wild men against whom we were to fight, or of the
equally wild country in which the operations were to be conducted.
The fault for such ignorance cannot fairly be said to have been ours.
There was at that time no single book, generally procurable and of an
up-to-date character, describing the country immediately beyond the
North-West border, the men who inhabited it, and the campaigns which,
since the decline of the Sikh power, have there become our natural and
our troublous inheritance. Paget and Mason’s monumental work,
_Expeditions against the North-West Frontier Tribes_, published in 1885,
was wholly admirable, but much of it was ancient history; it was an
enormous volume; it had for long been “confidential,” and had never been
placed on general sale. Mr. Oliver’s most fascinating book, _Across the
Border, or Pathan and Biluch_, had been published in 1890, but it
contained little more than a general mention of certain campaigns. It
was therefore almost inevitable that British officers—and especially
those serving in India in British regiments—had no idea where, in regard
to the Frontier, they could draw their knowledge or inspiration.
Even in the present day matters have not greatly improved. The cream has
been drawn from Paget and Mason’s book, it has been brought up-to-date,
and re-christened _Frontier and Overseas Expeditions from India_; but
the material is now contained in several large volumes, of which seven
have already appeared, and it does not seem to be intended that these
should be generally available, since each is labelled “For Official Use
only.”
It seemed then to me that there was room for a single volume, compiled
from official and other sources, describing the more turbulent of the
tribes beyond our Border, the countries they inhabit, and the campaigns
which the Indian Government has undertaken against them during the last
sixty-five years; and up to the time of completing the chapters which
follow, I believe this to have been the first attempt which has been
made to put such a record before the Army in one handy volume.
I wish to express my thanks to my old comrade, Sir Horace, for so kindly
acceding to my request to write an introduction to my book; to my
brother, Major Wylly, Librarian at the Royal United Service Institution,
for much help in research; and to Mr. J. H. Harper, of the staff of the
same Institution, for preparing nearly all the maps.
The appearance of this book has been delayed some four and a half months
by the request of the Government of India that it should be submitted to
Simla for scrutiny prior to publication; the delay is to be regretted,
but it has admitted of advantage being taken of certain suggestions
offered by the Indian authorities for adding to the instructional value
of the work.
H. C. W.
_March, 1912._
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION p. xix
CHAPTER I
THE BORDERLAND
The country of the Pathans; their traditionary descent;
their bad and good qualities; their loyalty as soldiers;
blood-feuds; tribal divisions; leaders, religious and
secular. Sunnis and Shiahs. Gar and Samil. Defence of the
border. Moveable columns, their sphere of action.
Punishment of offences. Pathans serving in Indian Army,
Militia, Police and Levies. The North-West Frontier
Province. Frontier communications. General frontier
policy pp. 1–23
CHAPTER II
BLACK MOUNTAIN TRIBES
The country surrounding the Black Mountain: _Allai_,
_Nandihar_, _Deshi_, _Tikari_—all Swatis; _Tanawal_; the
Yusafzai clans of the Mountain. Description of the range.
Routes. _Hassanzais_; _Akazais_; _Chagarzais_. Interior
communications. _Pariari Saiyids._ Expedition of 1852–3
against the Hassanzais. Expedition of 1868 against the
Black Mountain Tribes. Expedition of 1888. Expedition of
1891 against the Hassanzais and Akazais. Expedition of
1892 against the Hassanzais and Mada Khels pp. 24–53
CHAPTER III
YUSAFZAIS AND GADUNS
_Yusafzais_, descent; arrival in Peshawar valley; division
into two branches; occupation; character; sub-divisions
of the two main branches; the holdings of the
sub-divisions. Cis-border Yusafzais. Trans-border
Yusafzais; _Bunerwals_; _Gaduns_; their origin; probably
of Rajput descent; arrival in their present country;
description; tribal divisions. _Hindustani Fanatics._
Saiyid Ahmad of Bareilly pp. 54–70
CHAPTER IV
YUSAFZAIS AND GADUNS: OPERATIONS
Expedition of 1853 against the _Hindustani Fanatics_; the
mutineers of the 55th Native Infantry. Operations in 1857
against Narinji. Expedition of 1858 against the _Khudu
Khels_. Hindustanis expelled from Sitana. Ambela
Expedition of 1863. Expedition of 1898 against the
_Bunerwals_. Operations against the _Gaduns_. The
_Hindustani Fanatics_ pp. 71–106
CHAPTER V
AKOZAIS (SWAT)
District of Swat proper; Swat Kohistan; climate;
description of the country; character of the people;
early history of the valley; government of Swat. “The
Border Pope”; his life and rule. Divisions of the
_Akozais_; their sub-divisions. Other clans; _Dusha
Khels_; _Torwals_; _Garhwis_. Operations of 1847 against
the _Baizais_. Expedition of 1849 against the _Sam
Baizais_. Expedition of 1852 against the _Ranizais_. Umra
Khan. Attacks on the Malakand and Chakdara, 1897.
Operations of the Malakand Field Force pp. 107–142
CHAPTER VI
UTMAN KHELS
Their country and neighbours; origin; main tribal
divisions; Ismailzai. Communications. Operations.
Expedition of 1852. Expedition of 1878. Expedition of
1897 pp. 143–154
CHAPTER VII
CLANS OF BAJAUR AND DIR
Both Yusafzais; distinction. _Bajaur_, the country and
people; three main divisions; the valleys of Bajaur. Khan
of Nawagai. _Dir_, the country and people; ranges and
passes; divisions. Operations. Umra Khan. Chitral Relief
Expedition, 1895. Operations of the Malakand Field Force
in Dir and Bajaur, 1897 pp. 155–182
CHAPTER VIII
CHITRALIS
Description of the country; internal communications;
position on the frontier; of political rather than
strategic importance; origin of the people;
characteristics; government and rulers. British Missions.
Claimants to the Mehtarship. Umra Khan. Commencement of
hostilities. Events on the Chitral-Gilgit line. Advance
of the Gilgit Column. Siege of Chitral Fort. Raising of
the Siege pp. 183–210
CHAPTER IX
MOHMANDS
Main branches; origin; position of their country. The
Durand partition of the Mohmand territory. Kunar River
and Valley. Asmar. Communications from the east. Gandab
Valley; the people. Cis-frontier clans; clans of the
independent Mohmands. Vassal clans pp. 211–226
CHAPTER X
MOHMANDS: OPERATIONS
First dealings with British. Operations in 1851–52; Matta
threatened. Operations in 1854 against the Michni
Mohmands. Operations near Shabkadar. Affair at Kam Dakka
in 1879. Action on the Gara Heights. Attack on Shabkadar
in 1897. Operations in the Mohmand country. Renewed raids
by tribesmen. Matta fired into. Concentration of troops.
Expedition of 1908. Part of Mohmand Field Force
transferred to Lundi Kotal. Attack by Afghan _lashkar_ on
Michni Kandao. Gen. Willcocks defeats enemy who disperse.
Operations of the Mohmand Field Force resumed and
concluded. Loi Shilman Railway pp. 227–260
CHAPTER XI
AFRIDIS
Their country; origin; appearance; characteristics;
armament and fighting value; methods of punishment and
coercion; moral character; internal feuds; divided into
eight clans. _Khyber Afridis_; area of country; main
rivers. _Zakha Khels._ Tribal limits in Khyber Pass.
First contact with British Government. Arrangements for
keeping open Khyber Pass during both Afghan campaigns.
Description of Pass. _Adam Khels_ and Kohat Pass pp. 261–280
CHAPTER XII
AFRIDIS: OPERATIONS
_Adam Khels_; first trouble in 1850. Expedition against the
Kohat Pass Afridis in 1850. Continual difficulties about
safeguarding the Pass. Expedition against the _Jowaki_
Afridis, 1853. A second expedition in 1877. A third in
1877–78. Operations of a column from Peshawar. _Aka
Khels_; operations in 1855 pp. 281–300
CHAPTER XIII
KHYBER PASS AFRIDIS: OPERATIONS
Commenced giving trouble in 1857; continued up to year of
Afghan War. Expedition into Bazar Valley in 1878; second
expedition in 1879. Engagements made for keeping Pass
open held to for sixteen years. Sudden outbreak; some of
the reputed causes; action (or inaction) of Peshawar
authorities; precautionary measures; distribution of
Khyber Rifles on outbreak; attacks on the Khyber forts
and posts. Tirah expedition of 1897–98; composition and
distribution of force; actions of Dargai; capture of
Sampagha and Arhanga Passes; operations in Maidan and
Mastura; operations against _Chamkannis_ and westerly
_Orakzais_; evacuation of Afridi Tirah; re-occupation of
the Khyber; expedition to the Bazar Valley; action at
Shinkamar Pass. Expedition of 1908 to the Bazar Valley.
Note pp. 301–345
CHAPTER XIV
ORAKZAIS
Their country; origin; early struggles with the _Bangash_;
description of the people; appearance; character; their
rivers and valleys; their clans; holdings and
settlements. _Hamsaya_ clans. Certain divisions petition
to be taken under British administration; British
Government refuses request; reasons for same pp. 346–362
CHAPTER XV
ORAKZAIS: OPERATIONS
Outrages in 1855 in the Miranzai Valley. Attacks on the
_Bangash_. Expedition against the _Rabia Khel_ in 1855.
Operations against the _Bizotis_ in 1868. Raid across the
Ublan Pass by Col. Keyes in 1869. First Miranzai
Expedition in 1891. Second. Commencement of the troubles
in 1897; operations near Hangu, Sadda, and the Ublan
Pass; _Orakzais_ and _Afridis_ attack Samana forts;
relief of Fort Lockhart; and Gulistan pp. 363–388
CHAPTER XVI
BANGASH: ZAIMUKHTS: CHAMKANNIS: TURIS
Miranzai under Sikh rule. Attempted occupation by Kabul
Government. Description of Miranzai Valley. Kurram,
originally Afghan territory; description of Upper and
Lower Kurram. Importance of these valley routes.
_Bangash_; origin; characteristics; main clans.
_Zaimukhts_; origin; country; clans; operations;
expedition of 1879. _Chamkannis_; origin; country;
peculiarities; clans; operations in 1897. _Turis_;
obscurity of their origin; possession of the Kurram
Valley; characteristics; friendship for Englishmen;
curious family divisions; no tribal combination pp. 389–417
CHAPTER XVII
WAZIRISTAN AND ITS TRIBES
Description of the country; inhabitants; origin of Wazirs.
Tochi and Gomal Valleys. Wana. Horse-breeding. Wazirs
generally disliked by other Pathans. _Darwesh Khel_;
their country. _Mahsuds_; their country; chief towns;
their raiding propensities; priest-ridden. _Batannis_;
origin; country; clans; expedition of 1880. _Dawaris_;
dubious descent; former home; character; clans;
operations in 1872 pp. 418–434
CHAPTER XVIII
WAZIRS: OPERATIONS
Expedition against _Umarzai Wazirs_, 1852; against _Kabul
Khel Wazirs_, 1859–60. Raids near Thal. Expedition
against the _Malik Shahi Wazirs_, 1880. Attempt on Tank
by _Mahsuds_ in 1860. Expedition of same year; occupation
of Kaniguram. Attack on Tank by _Mahsuds_ in 1879.
Expedition against _Mahsuds_ in 1881. _Ahmadzai division
of Darwesh Khel_ ask to be allowed to become British
subjects. Waziristan delimitation operations. Wana.
Operations of Waziristan Field Force, 1894. Maizar
affair. Operations of the Tochi Field Force, 1897–98.
Operations against the _Mahsuds_, 1900–1901. Expedition
against the _Kabul Khels_, 1901–2 pp. 435–474
APPENDICES
A. The Arms Trade and the Tribesmen pp. 475–484
B. Table of Expeditions against the Frontier Tribes
mentioned in the preceding chapters pp. 485–488
C. Table showing by whom these Tribes are controlled p. 489
INDEX p. 490
LIST OF MAPS
I. GENERAL MAP OF THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE.
II. MAP SHOWING TRIBAL LIMITS.
III. THE BLACK MOUNTAIN.
IV. SWAT, BUNER AND BAJAUR.
V. DIR AND CHITRAL.
VI. UTMAN KHEL AND MOHMAND COUNTRIES.
VII. AFRIDI AND ORAKZAI COUNTRIES, MIRANZAI AND KURRAM.
VIII. TOCHI AND WAZIRISTAN.
INTRODUCTION
To do justice to an introduction to a book such as this, one requires to
have first-hand knowledge of all the tribes on the Indian Frontier; but
although I have served a good many years in India, and some six years
altogether in peace and war on the Frontier itself, I cannot even
pretend to possess the requisite knowledge to criticise this careful and
complete work.
Colonel Wylly has done me the honour of asking me to godfather his book,
I am sure more on account of our having been friends for some thirty-six
years, than by reason of the outside chance of my being regarded as an
authority on Indian Frontier inhabitants; added to which he is aware
that I hold the view that no army should undertake a war without doing
all in its power in peace time to become efficient up to the last
button, and that one of the most important buttons is an accurate
knowledge of the country and the people against whom a war may occur.
Let us suppose that our North-West Frontier were not, as it is,
bristling with fine fighting races, but were merely an open coast-line
with nothing beyond it but sea, and I ask in that case should we keep up
an army in India of its present size? and I think all will agree with me
that we certainly should not. The fair deduction then is that a very
important _raison d’être_ for the army in India is the possibility of
having to suppress recalcitrant tribes on the North-West Frontier. It is
therefore most important that our soldiers should study their habits,
countries, armed forces, etc.
Now all that Colonel Wylly says in his preface about the absence of
conveniently small books which will provide this information is
perfectly true, and the custom has been, when war against a tribe has
been imminent, for the Intelligence Department to circulate in the army
a _brochure_ dealing with the country and the people. This was very
useful, but the fact that it was most necessary suggests that
opportunities were lacking for studying the question thoroughly in the
piping times of peace.
This book, _From the Black Mountain to Waziristan_, seems to provide the
very want.
It is extremely well put together, the story of each tribe being
complete in itself, and with excellent maps, and written in the easy,
attractive style common to all Colonel Wylly’s books, is bound to appeal
to all who take an interest in this most important subject, and I
recommend it especially to the Army in India.
H. L. SMITH-DORRIEN,
_Lt. General._
HARNHAM CLIFF, SALISBURY,
_7th March, 1912_.
CHAPTER I.
THE BORDERLAND.
The whole of the country lying immediately to the west of the Punjab,
and between it and the kingdom of Afghanistan, is held by the two great
nations of Pathan and Baluch, the former lying to the north and the
latter to the south of a line drawn from the western face of the
Suleiman Mountains opposite Dera Ghazi Khan, almost due west to Quetta.
The land, then, of the Pathans may be said to comprise the regions of
the Sufed Koh and the Suleiman and adjacent mountains with their
numerous offshoots; and their territory may be considered roughly to be
enclosed by the River Indus on the east, by Afghanistan on the west,
Baluchistan on the south, and on the north by Kashmir and the Kunar
River—a veritable _tangle_ of brown hills.
“It is a long strip of unutterably rugged country; stony barren heights,
deep abrupt valleys seamed by occasional torrents; the farms represented
by a patch of corn on a hillside or a scrap of cultivation on a narrow
strip of alluvial soil alongside a mountain stream. No highways, save
those made by us; the village roads—mere tracks straggling over hills
and among the roughest ravines—always difficult and often dangerous. The
dwelling places, fortified towers or caves among the hills.” The Pathan
territories occupy many thousand square miles of mountainous country
through which flow the Gomal, the Kurram, the Zhob, the Kabul and other
smaller rivers with their tributaries, the principal tributaries of the
Kabul River being the Chitral, the Bara, the Swat and the Kalpani. The
rainfall in this region is scanty and uncertain, and agriculture can
only properly be carried on in those tracts watered by these rivers.
The language of the Pathan is called Pushtu or Pukhtu, according as it
is the softer Kandahari dialect or the hard guttural speech of the
Peshawar Valley, the line which separates the two being the northern
boundary of the Khattak tract in Kohat and the south-east corner of the
Peshawar District. It is only since the fourteenth century that Pushtu
has attained the dignity of a written language. And what of the men who
speak it? What is a Pathan?
[Sidenote: Pathan Descent]
In India all Pushtu-speaking people come under this designation—a
corruption of the word “Pukhtun”—the term being frequently used to
denote equally the Pathan proper, the Afghan, the Tajik, the Hazara and
the Ghilzai; but, strictly speaking, the title is not really applicable
to any of the four last, who, though related to the true Pathan by
historical, geographical and ethnological association, are none the less
distinct peoples. There is great conflict of opinion as to the original
stock from which the Pathans have sprung—the traditions of the people
themselves are conflicting, vague and misleading, but the Pathans
believe that they are descended from Saul, the first King of the Jews.
They speak of themselves as “Beni Israel,” the children of Israel, and
the greybeards of the Pathan tribes are fond of tracing their story back
to Ibrahim, Isak and Yakub. However far-fetched and mainly traditionary
the connection may be, there is, as discussed by Bellew, a savour of
Israelitish custom and an often remarkable similarity of name still
surviving—Amazites, Moabites and Hittites live again in Amazai, Muhibwal
and Hotiwal, to be found on Mount Morah, the hill Pehor, and the plain
of Galilee (Jalala); there is the valley of Sudum; the observance of the
“Passover,” offering sin and thank offerings, or driving off the
scapegoat laden with the sins of the people—with many other religious
and social observances which are Jewish rather than Islamic in their
origin. It would seem that the Pathan race is closely allied to the
Afghan on the one side, and, though perhaps not so closely, to certain
tribes of Aryan Indians on the other. (The language is a mixture of
partly Persian, partly Indian—Prakrit—origin.) The Pathan may be indeed
described as an Indian Afghan, and the probabilities are that he
represents an earlier eastern emigration of certain sections of the same
tribes as have given birth to the Afghan; and from this point of view
the Pathan and the Afghan are by origin one and the same. Whatever view
is correct, there can be no doubt that the Pathan differs from the
Afghan in the possession of certain Indian affinities not present in the
other. Whether these are due to an admixture of Indian blood, or whether
they are merely the result of close and prolonged political and social
contact with India, is a matter of no very particular importance.
Ibbetson favours the theory that the Pathans are in the main a race of
Indian extraction, that is, that the Pathan stock is decidedly Indian
despite the admixture of foreign blood. According to him, the true
Pathans are the modern representatives of an Aryan Indian race called by
Herodotus the Pactiyae, which gave birth to many of the tribes
represented to-day in and on the borders of the Peshawar Valley.
According to this view the Pathans proper are those Pathan tribes which
have a decidedly Pactiyan stock, in which the preponderating racial
element is Indian; while the mixed Pactiyan and foreign tribes in which
the stock is not Indian, but Afghan, Turk or Scythian, as the case may
be, are Pathan by virtue of their Pactiyan blood, as well as by their
geographical location, association, customs and language. But that the
stock is in the main Afghan rather than Indian, seems borne out by the
fact that from the earliest times of which historical records exist, we
find the Pathan ever arrayed against and despising the Indian—evincing
an antagonism which is not merely practical and political, but one of
ideals and sentiment. On the other hand, although the Pathan tribes have
had constant and bloody feuds with the Afghans, in their brief periods
of peace they display a marked similarity of sentiment, ideals and aims,
while the mental characteristics of the Pathan also approximate much
more closely to the Afghan than to those of any purely Indian tribe.
Of the other races and tribes to which the term Pathan is loosely
applied, the _Ghilzais_ are a race of mixed Turkish and Persian descent,
which has now become assimilated with the Afghans by sentiment and
association. The _Tajiks_, another to which the term Pathan is applied,
are of pure Persian origin, and are believed to be the remnants of
certain Persian tribes who once inhabited Afghanistan before the advent
of the Afghans by whom they were subdued. The Tajiks still retain their
Persian speech. The _Hazaras_ are Persian-speaking Tartars who have long
settled among the Afghans, but who hold among them a subordinate and
dependent position.
[Sidenote: Character]
The character of the Pathan is a favourite theme of disparagement
amongst the frontier officials of the last half-century and more. In
1855, Mr. Temple, then Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of the
Punjab, wrote thus of them: “Now these tribes are savages—noble savages
perhaps—and not without some tincture of virtue and generosity, but
still absolutely barbarians nevertheless.... They have nominally a
religion, but Muhammadanism, as understood by them, is no better, or
perhaps is actually worse, than the creeds of the wildest race on earth.
In their eyes the one great commandment is blood for blood, and fire and
sword for all infidels.... They are superstitious and priest-ridden. But
the priests are as ignorant as they are bigoted, and use their influence
simply for preaching crusades against unbelievers, and inculcate the
doctrine of rapine and bloodshed against the defenceless people of the
plain.... They are a sensual race. They are very avaricious; for gold
they will do almost anything, except betray a guest. They are thievish
and predatory to the last degree. The Pathan mother offers prayers that
her son may be a successful robber. They are utterly faithless to public
engagements; it would never even occur to their minds that an oath on
the Koran was binding, if against their own interests.... They are
fierce and bloodthirsty ... they are perpetually at war with each other.
Every tribe and section of a tribe has its internecine wars, every
family its hereditary blood-feuds, and every individual his personal
foes. There is hardly a man whose hands are unstained. Every person
counts up his murders. Each tribe has a debtor and creditor account with
its neighbours, life for life.... They consider retaliation and revenge
to be the strongest of all obligations. They possess gallantry and
courage themselves, and admire such qualities in others.... To their
minds hospitality is the first of virtues. Any person who can make his
way into their dwellings will not only be safe, but will be kindly
received. But as soon as he has left the roof of his entertainer he may
be robbed and killed.”
[Sidenote: Code of Honour]
Mr. Ibbetson wrote of the Pathan in 1881: “The true Pathan is perhaps
the most barbaric of all the races with which we are brought into
contact in the Punjab.... He is bloodthirsty, cruel and vindictive in
the highest degree; he does not know what truth or faith is, insomuch
that the saying _Afghan be iman_ (_i.e._ an Afghan is without
conscience) has passed into a proverb among his neighbours; and though
he is not without courage of a sort, and is often curiously reckless of
his life, he would scorn to face an enemy whom he could stab from
behind, or to meet him on equal terms if it were possible to take
advantage of him, however meanly. It is easy to convict him out of his
own mouth; here are some of his proverbs: ‘a Pathan’s enmity smoulders
like a dung fire’; ‘a cousin’s tooth breaks upon a cousin’;[1] ‘keep a
cousin poor but use him’; ‘when he is little play with him; when he is
grown up he is a cousin, fight him’; ‘speak good words to an enemy very
softly; gradually destroy him root and branch.’ At the same time he has
a code of honour which he strictly observes, and which he quotes with
pride under the name of _Pukhtunwali_. It imposes on him three chief
obligations—_Nanawatai_, or the right of asylum, which compels him to
shelter and protect even an enemy who comes as a suppliant; _Badal_, or
the necessity for revenge by retaliation; and _Mailmastai_, or
openhanded hospitality to all who may demand it. And of these three
perhaps the last is the greatest. And there is a charm about him,
especially about the leading men, which almost makes one forget his
treacherous nature. As the proverb says—‘the Pathan is one moment a
saint, and the next a devil.’ For centuries he has been, on our frontier
at least, subject to no man. He leads a wild, free, active life in the
rugged fastnesses of his mountains; and there is an air of masculine
independence about him which is refreshing in a country like India. He
is a bigot of the most fanatical type, exceedingly proud and
extraordinarily superstitious.” Holdich says of the Pathan that “he will
shoot his own relations just as soon as the relations of his
enemy—possibly sooner—and he will shoot them from behind. Yet the
individual Pathan may be trusted to be true to his salt and to his
engagements.”
Of one Pathan tribe Macgregor said that “there is no doubt, like other
Pathans, they would not shrink from any falsehood, however atrocious, to
gain an end. Money could buy their services for the foulest deed;
cruelty of the most revolting kind would mark their actions to a wounded
or helpless foe, as much as cowardice would stamp them against
determined resistance.” While Mr. Elsmie has spoken as follows of his
five years’ experience as a Commissioner and Judge among the Pathans of
the Peshawar border: “Crime of the worst conceivable kind is a matter of
almost daily occurrence; murder in all its phases, unblushing
assassination in broad daylight before a crowd of witnesses; the
carefully planned secret murder of the sleeping victim at dead of night,
murder by robbers, by rioters, by poisoners, by boys, and by women sword
in hand. Blood always crying for blood, revenge looked upon as a virtue,
the heritage of retribution passed on as a solemn duty from father to
son. It would seem that the spirit of murder is latent in the heart of
nearly every man in the valley.” But, on the other hand, Oliver tells us
in _Across the Border_, that the Pathan has sometimes been condemned in
what appear too sweeping terms, and that “there is a sort of charm about
the better sort that inclines many people to forget his treacherous
nature, and even his ‘vice is sometimes by action dignified.’”
[Sidenote: A Juster Judgment]
Probably what Lieut. Enriquez says about these tribesmen in his _Pathan
Borderland_ describes them with, on the whole, more justice, if less
vehemence, than have some of those other writers from whom quotations
have here been made. “The Pathan,” he says, “is not so black as he is
painted. It should not be overlooked that most of the tribes have only
been established three hundred years in their present territories, and
that their habits are not really much worse than were those of the
various English tribes during the first few centuries after their final
settlement. The conditions of a feudal system, under which each baron
lived in his own castle, and waged constant war with his neighbours over
disputes relating to land and women, are simply being repeated again
across our border. For stories of gross treachery, or cold-blooded
murder and inter-family strife, we have only to turn back the pages of
our own history book. In fact, it seems quite unfair to judge the Pathan
according to twentieth century standards. For him it is still the tenth
century. Moreover, it is ungenerous to assert that there are not many
noble exceptions amongst them.... When you meet a Pathan, you meet a man
like yourself.... He will never allow you to abuse him, but makes up for
it amply by never making you wish to do so. There is perhaps no native
of India who is less irritating to our nerves, and his ideas of tact
seem to run on quite the same lines as our own.... He takes his
independence for granted, and very seldom parades it in the garb of
rudeness.”
Take him for all in all, there is in the Pathan much to like, a good
deal to respect and much to detest. He is very susceptible to the
personal influence of Englishmen who are strong, resolute and
fearless—men of the type of Nicholson, Abbott, Cavagnari, Battye and
many others. In our service he has usually been a loyal and devoted
sepoy, and no better instance of the loyalty of the Pathan soldier can
be given than is furnished by that of the small body of Khyber Rifles in
1897, who, as Holdich has told us, “maintained British honour in the
Khyber, while 9,500 British troops about the Peshawar frontier looked
on.”
[Sidenote: Blood-feuds]
The Pathan enlists freely into our service—there are at the present
moment something like eleven thousand Pathans in the Indian Army, and
probably the recruiting among the tribesmen was never brisker than
during the few months immediately following the close of the operations
in Tirah of 1897–98—and he will march anywhere and fight anyone against
whom he may be led. Over and over again have Pathans fought in our ranks
against their fellow-tribesmen and their own homes. Not only against
fathers and brothers, but even against the still more potent religious
appeals from the local Ghazis. One thing, however, the Pathan recruit
does not give up, “but brings with him to his regiment, keeps through
his service, must have leave to look after, will resign promotion to
gratify, and looks forward to retiring to thoroughly enjoy—and that
is—his cherished feud.” If he has not got one when he joins, he may
inherit one which may become just as binding, though it concerns people
he has not seen for years, and hardly knew when he left home. In India
the white man wants leave to get married, he is sick, he needs a change,
or to avoid a bad station—for the Pathan soldier there is only one class
of “urgent private affairs,” but for this he must have leave. Everyone
knows for what purpose he goes; it is the only reason when the refusal
of leave would justify desertion. In many of the Punjab regiments which
recruit Pathans there are cases of trans-frontier soldiers who will
serve together in all amity for years, but between whom is so bitter a
feud that they must take their furlough at different times, since, if
they went together, not all would come back.
As to the personal appearance of “the raw material,” here is a picture
drawn from life by Oliver: “The style of the Tribesman is a little after
the manner of Rob Roy—‘my foot is on my native heath,’ and ‘am I not a
Pathan’? Even when he leaves his native heath behind, he takes his
manners with him. He will come down, a stalwart, manly-looking ruffian,
with frank and open manners, rather Jewish features, long hair
plentifully oiled under a high turban, with a loose tunic, blue for
choice—the better to hide the dirt—worn very long, baggy drawers, a
_lungi_ or sash across his shoulders, grass sandals, a sheepskin coat
with the hair inside, thickly populated, a long heavy knife, and a
rifle, if he is allowed to carry either. He is certain to be filthy and
he may be ragged, but he will saunter into a Viceregal _durbar_ as proud
as Lucifer, and with an air of unconcern a diplomatist might envy.”
[Sidenote: Leaders]
The Pathan tribes are partly agriculturists and partly nomads, but their
migrations are on a small and restricted scale, being no more than
annual moves within their own limits from one grazing ground to another,
or from their homes among the hills to the warmer and lower valleys.
Beyond and upon our frontier the Pathans live in fortified villages, to
which are attached stone towers in commanding positions serving as watch
towers and places of refuge for the inhabitants. A large number of the
men of each tribe obtain their livelihood as petty merchants or traders,
carrying goods in caravans between India, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
These wandering traders are called _Powindahs_, a term derived from the
Persian word _Parwindah_, which signifies a bale of goods. The villages
are divided into several distinct allotments of sub-divisions called
_Kandis_, according to the number of the sub-divisions of the tribe
residing in it. Thus in each village each group of families which goes
to form a _Khel_, or clan, has its own Kandi, at the head of which is a
_Malik_, who acts as its judge, manager or administrator. In each Kandi,
again, there is a _Jumaat_, or mosque, under a _Mullah_, or priest, and
an assembly room, called _hujra_, where the residents meet to discuss
their affairs, and where visitors and travellers are sheltered. At the
head of each clan is a chief styled _Khan_, to whom the _Maliks_ are
subordinate, but the tribesmen being intensely independent and impatient
of control, it is not surprising that neither Maliks nor Khans enjoy any
real power. They may be said indeed to possess influence rather than
power. All matters of general tribal interest are settled by the
decision of a _jirgah_ or council of Maliks and in this the real
controlling authority resides, the Khan, or tribal chief, merely acting
as president of the tribal jirgah, as their leader in time of war, and
during peace as their accredited agent for inter-tribal communication.
But among the Pathans there can be very little like ordered government,
and as a matter of fact the several clans decide their disputes
independently of any central controlling authority. The office of Malik
and Khan is usually hereditary, but by no means always.
It is not very uncommon for families of one tribe or clan to quarrel
with their brethren, and leaving their own tribe, to claim the
protection of a neighbouring one. They then become _hamsayas_, or
“dwellers beneath the shade,” and secure protection in return for
obedience. With the Pathans the action of this custom is chiefly
confined to traders, menials and other dependents of foreign extraction,
who are protected by, but not received into, the tribe.
The great majority of the Pathan tribes are Sunni[2] Muhammadans of a
bigoted sort, the exception being the Turis and some of the Bangash and
Orakzai clansmen, who are Shiahs. Of the different dignitaries of the
Pathan Church there is no occasion here to speak further than to remark
that the Mullah, to whom allusion has already been made, is the
ordinary, hard working parish priest, whose duties are to attend to the
services of the Church, teach the creed, and look after the schools. He
is the most important factor in Pathan life and his influence is
enormous, despite the fact, as Dr. Pennell points out, “that there is no
priesthood in Islam,” and that according to its tenets, there is no act
of worship and no religious rite which may not, in the absence of a
Mullah, be equally well performed by any pious layman. Since, however,
“knowledge has been almost limited to the priestly class, it is only
natural that in a village, where the Mullahs are almost the only men who
can lay claim to anything more than the most rudimentary learning, they
should have the people of the village entirely in their own control.”
The general security in which the Mullah lives is the best possible
evidence of the deference accorded to his office. “He is almost the only
man,” says Oliver, “whose life is sacred from the casual bullet or the
hasty knife, for whose blood the Pathan tariff does not provide a rate.”
His flock is generally ignorant of everything connected with the
Muhammadan religion beyond its most elementary doctrines. In matters of
faith the Pathans confine themselves to the belief that there is a God,
a prophet, a resurrection, and a day of judgment. They know there is a
Koran, but are probably wholly ignorant of its contents. Their practice
is un-Islamic. Though they repeat every day that there is one God only
who is worthy of worship, they almost invariably prefer to worship some
saint or tomb. Indeed, superstition is a more appropriate term for the
ordinary belief of the people than the name of religion.
[Sidenote: Gar and Samil]
Since mention has above been made of the religious divisions of the
tribesmen, I may perhaps briefly allude to their political factions,
since reports from beyond the border make frequent mention of the feuds
of Gar and Samil. In the fourteenth century a chief of the Bangash
tribe, Ismail by name, had two sons, Gar and Samil, whose quarrels led
to the tribe being split up into the two great factions which still
exist under these names. Bangash or Bankash means “root-destroyer,” and
this was adopted or bestowed as the tribal name by reason of the enmity
aroused between the rival factions. The distinction then established
still remains, and affects almost all the surrounding tribes; and since
some Sunnis by religion are Samil in politics, and some Shiahs are Gar,
while sometimes both cases are reversed, it may easily be realised how
prolific are the causes for private quarrels and tribal feuds beyond the
Bloody Border.
Of so turbulent a race what Temple said about them in 1855 might with
almost equal truth have been repeated of them annually up to the present
time: “They have kept up old quarrels, or picked new ones with our
subjects in the plains and valleys near the frontier; they have
descended from the hills and fought these battles out in our territory;
they have plundered and burnt our villages and slain our subjects; they
have committed minor robberies and isolated murders without number; they
have often levied blackmail from our villages; they have intrigued with
the disaffected everywhere and tempted our loyal subjects to rebel; and
they have for ages regarded the plain as their preserve and its
inhabitants as their game. When inclined for cruel sport they sally
forth to rob and murder, and occasionally to take prisoners into
captivity for ransom. They have fired upon our own troops, and even
killed our officers in our own territories. They have given an asylum to
every malcontent or proclaimed criminal who can escape from British
justice. They traverse at will our territories, enter our villages,
trade in our markets; but few British subjects, and no servant of the
British Government, would dare to enter their country on any account
whatever.”
Since the 400 miles of our borderland, comprised in the stretch from
Buner on the right to Waziristan on the left, is, as computed by the
Commander-in-Chief in India in 1897, inhabited by 200,000 first-rate
fighting men, of the quarrelsome character above described—every man at
all times ready and eager for blood-letting—it would be as well now to
recount the measures which the Government of India adopts for their
restraint; to state the composition and general distribution of the
instruments by means of which the peace of the frontier is more or less
preserved; and to note the manner in which offences committed by
independent tribes beyond the border are punished.
[Sidenote: Defence of the Frontier]
For the defence of the border, and to prevent the incursion of armed
robbers, the system generally followed—with some recent
modifications—has been the maintenance of a line of fortified posts
along the frontier, garrisoned by regulars and militia. In the year 1884
there were fifty-four such posts situated in the Hazara, Yusafzai,
Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts,
and of these sixteen were held by the Punjab Frontier Force, twenty-six
by militia, and the remainder by combined parties of both militia and
regulars. In those days the Punjab Frontier Force was generally
responsible—a responsibility which endured until 1903—for the military
defence of the frontier, with the exception of the Peshawar district.
The force was approximately 15,000 strong, and consisted of four
regiments of cavalry, the Guides (cavalry and infantry), four mountain
batteries, one garrison battery, and eleven infantry battalions, the
whole commanded by a Brigadier-General. At that time it was immediately
under the orders of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, but it was a
few years later placed under the Commander-in-Chief in India. With the
gradual extension of the frontier, and the general forward movement made
within recent years, it became apparent that the Punjab Frontier Force
could no longer remain a local and also a border force, and that in any
comprehensive scheme of frontier defence other regiments of the Indian
army must take their share. In 1903, then, the Punjab Frontier Force was
abolished.
Under Lord Curzon’s rule in India a change was inaugurated in the system
of frontier defence. Regular troops have been gradually withdrawn, as
far as possible, from advanced trans-frontier positions, and have been
concentrated in large centres within easy reach. Their places on the
border have been taken by various corps of militia, military police, and
levies raised locally; communications have been improved; strategic
railways have crept further forward; another bridge has been thrown
across the Indus; and the frontier is now defended by the Peshawar and
Quetta divisions and the Kohat, Derajat and Bannu brigades, moveable
columns being held always ready to move out at a moment’s notice from
Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan. The general sphere of
action prescribed for each of these columns is as under:
Peshawar Column, The Khyber and the Malakand.
Kohat Column, The Kurram.
Bannu Column, The Tochi.
Dera Ismail Khan Column, Waziristan.
It remains to note the manner in which offences committed by independent
tribes across the border are punished. The most simple way of dealing
with a refractory tribe, and in many cases the most effectual, is to
inflict a fine and demand compensation for plundered property or for
lives lost. When the tribe is dependent upon trade with British
territory, or when a portion resides within British limits, or is easily
accessible from the plains to an attack by a military force, the demand
for payment of fine or compensation is generally acceded to, and, being
paid, the tribe is again received into favour. Should the demand be
refused, hostages are demanded, or members of the tribe and their
property found within British territory are seized, until such time as
the compensation and fine are paid. Against some tribes, as in the case
of the Afridis of the Kohat Pass in 1876–77, a blockade is an effective
measure of punishment. It can, however, only be employed against such
tribes as trade with British territory, and, while it lasts, any member
of the offending tribe found within our border is at once seized and
detained. This means of punishment has often been found effectual, and
if effectual, it is preferable to a military expedition, which often
leaves behind it bitter memories in the destruction of property and loss
of life. Last as a measure of punishment comes the military expedition,
which is only resorted to in exceptional circumstances, and when every
other means of coercing a hostile tribe has failed.
[Sidenote: Coercive Measures]
The necessity, in certain circumstances, for military expeditions has
been admitted by the civil authorities of the Punjab in the following
statement made in 1864 by Mr. Davies, Secretary to the Punjab
Government: “The despatch of an expedition into the hills is always in
the nature of a judicial act. It is the delivery of a sentence, and the
infliction of a punishment for international offences. It is, as a rule,
not in assertion of any disputed right, or in ultimate arbitration of
any contested claim of its own, that the British Government resolves on
such measures, but simply as the only means by which retribution can be
obtained for acknowledged crimes by its neighbours, and by which justice
can be satisfied or future outrages prevented. In the extreme cases in
which expeditions are unavoidable, they are analogous to legal penalties
for civil crime—evils in themselves inevitable from deficiencies of
preventive police, but redeemed by their deterrent effects.
Considerations of expense, of military risk, of possible losses, of
incurring antagonism and combination against us on the part of the
tribes, all weigh heavily against expeditions; and to set them aside,
there must be irresistible obligation to protect and to vindicate the
outraged rights of subjects whom we debar from the revenge and
retaliation they formerly practised.”
At the present moment rather over 9000 Pathans are serving in our
militias, border military police and levies, while considerably more
than 10,000 are in the ranks of the regular regiments of the Indian
army; a certain number, too, are serving in the forces maintained by
native chiefs. Considering the readiness with which the Pathan accepts
military service, it cannot be said that these numbers are high, but the
fact would seem to be that while some tribes are supplying us with more
recruits than they can well afford, others have scarcely been drawn upon
at all, and many races along the Pathan borderland remain still
altogether unexploited.
[Sidenote: The N.W.F. Province]
[3]The North-West Frontier Province is, with the exception of Behar,
Chota Nagpur and Orissa, the youngest of the provinces into which
British India is divided, while in respect of population and extent of
territory administered according to British law, it is also the
smallest. It lies between the 31st and 36th degrees of latitude and the
69th and 74th degrees of longitude; its total length, as the crow flies,
is over 400 miles, its average breadth is from 100 to 150 miles, the
total area comprised within its limits being roughly 38,000 square
miles. Only 13,000 square miles, however, are under full British law and
administration, and 25,000 square miles are occupied by tribes who are
under British political control, but who maintain their internal or
municipal independence. The British territory part of the province is
divided into the five districts of Hazara, Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and
Dera Ismail Khan, whose western boundary, known as the administrative
border, is a sinuous line extending for some 600 miles. On the other
side of this administrative or inner provincial border dwell the
municipally independent tribes who are under the political control of
the Chief Commissioner, a control which he exercises with the aid of the
officers in charge of the political agencies, viz. Swat, Dir and
Chitral, the Khyber, the Kurram, and Northern and Southern Waziristan.
These agencies have been described as the tentacles of civilised order,
stretching into a mass of barbarism and savagery; and the remainder of
the space beyond the administrative border and as far as the “Durand
line” or “the outer provincial border,” separating the British and
Afghan spheres of influence, is occupied by the independent tribes. The
length of this outer border cannot be less than 800 miles.
The population of the five British districts is about 2,200,000, and of
the outer portion of the province probably a million and a half.
After the border war of 1897 a narrow-gauge line was laid from Nowshera,
on the Kabul River, to the foot of the Malakand; constructed in the
first instance for military reasons, it rapidly developed into an
important artery of commerce, justifying its conversion from a narrow to
a broad gauge. Another railway which, in 1897, stopped on the left bank
of the Indus at Kushalgarh, now crosses the Indus by a bridge, and has
been extended via Kohat and Hangu to Thal, at the southern end of the
Kurram Valley. A third line to the base of the hills is under
construction; it will be taken over the Indus at Kalabagh and carried to
Bannu. When the Thal railway has been extended to the head of the Kurram
Valley; when a short line has been constructed in the Hazara district;
and when a lateral branch has been provided from Bannu to Tank and Dera
Ismail Khan, the province will be fairly well equipped with railways of
a distinct commercial and strategic value.
[Sidenote: Frontier Policy]
A perusal of the chapters which follow will probably make it apparent
that the general policy of the Government of India in regard to the
frontier tribes is, and has been—as well described by a former Chief
Commissioner of the North-West Frontier Province—“a forward one only
when necessity compels, and stationary where circumstances permit.”