Neelo
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Response to Tariq Aqil’s dubious article “Punjabi Cheiftains & The 1857 Rebellion” - Friday Times, 08 August 2023
I’m convinced Tariq Aqil read my article (see below) and just wrote the opposite. He argues in his article that Punjabis and Pashtuns sided with the British during the 1857 War of Independence (which he oddly refers to as a ‘rebellion’). He then doesn’t explain why and immediately goes out of his way to mention certain names. The hit piece seems less interested in history and more interested in character assassinations of current politicIan’s in Pakistan whose ancestors played a role In that event.
Facts which were not mentioned in the article which I’ve highlighted in the article “The Story of Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal”.
1. Punjab had fallen to the British in 1849 and so colonial rule had only been in place for eight years up until May 1857. British occupied Punjab was still a work in progress.
2. Much of the British Punjabi colonial structure was being operated by non-Punjabis like schools, canals and especially the military regiments. Most of the soldiers of the British Raj Colonial Army stationed in Lahore, Sialkot and Jhelum were non-Punjabis during this period, who were transferred to Punjab from the northern Ganges plain.
3. When the 1857 War of Independence broke out, the regiments in Lahore, Sialkot and Jhelum did witness a mutiny, but poor coordination and a complete lack of sympathy from the local people of Punjab ensured that they were easily put down.
The question is why. Tariq Aqil never bothered to explore this.
The people of Punjab chose to support the British and rejected the uprising – but this was not done out of love for the British. Rather, both Punjabi Muslims and Punjabi Sikhs had political reasons to ally with the British.
From a Punjabi Muslim perspective, the British were initially seen as “liberators”, who had ended minority Sikh rule of Muslim majority Punjab and thus were not too keen on seeing the British leave right away.
On the contrary, Punjabi Sikhs also chose to ally with the British, since the hatred of the Mughuls was much greater than that of the British. Furthermore, the Sikhs were by and large treated generously by the British following the fall of Punjab in 1849, and so the Sikhs chose to remain loyal to the British.
Regionally outside of Punjab, a similar case occurred with the Pashtuns. The northwest Pashtun tribal regions had been keeping a close eye on the uprising and, like the Punjabis, chose to morally support the British initially, purely for political reasons. With the British having their hands full with an uprising, it was thought that the Pashtun tribal regions would be free from any British misadventure for the time being.
However, British support in Punjab wasn’t uniform, and some openly challenged the British – one of whom was Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal.
I’m not surprised NayaDaur published this ridiculous article, considering they’re lock and step with the GHQ Junta these days. Nevertheless, this article seems more interested in calling out certain ancestors of certain individuals in a party that’s being dismantled by the ‘Great Leader’ Asim Munir.
I’m not going to reply to @FOOLS_NIGHTMARE SOOR OF THE NIGHT’s article. From now on I’ll debunk him in separate topics. Since the moderators are okay with him spamming, I’lol do the same.
