ETHNICITY, ISLAM and NATIONALISM Muslim Politics in the North-West Frontier Province (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) 1937-1947
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ETHNICITY, ISLAM AND NATIONALISM Muslim Politics in the North-West Frontier Province (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) 1937-1947 Sayed Wiqar Ali Shah National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research Centre Of Excellence Quaid-I-Azam University (New Campus) Islamabad, Pakistan 2015 ETHNICITY, ISLAM AND NATIONALISM Muslim Politics in the North-West Frontier Province (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) 1937-1947 NIHCR Publication No.171 Copyright 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing from the Director, National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research. Enquiries concerning reproduction should be sent to NIHCR at the address below. National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, Centre of Excellence, Quaid-i-Azam University, (New Campus) P.O. Box No.1230, Islamabad - 44000, Pakistan. Email: [email protected] , [email protected] Website: www.nihcr.edu.pk Editing/Proofreading: Muhammad Saleem Title: Zahid Imran Published by Muhammad Munir Khawar, Publication Officer. Printed at M/s Roohani Art Press, Blue Area, Islamabad, Pakistan. Price Pak Rs.700.00 SAARC Countries Rs.900.00 ISBN: 978-969-415-113-7 US $.20.00 CONTENTS Map vi Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations x Introduction xii 1 NWFP and its Society 1 2 Government and Politics in the Province 15 3 The Frontier Congress in Office 1937-39 51 4 Revival of the Frontier Muslim League 91 5 Politics During the War Years 115 6 Moving Towards Communalization of Politics 153 7 Muslims of NWFP and Pakistan 183 Conclusion 233 Appendices I Statement of Khan Abdul Akbar Khan, President of the 241 Afghan Youth League and Mian Ahmad Shah, General Secretary of the Afghan Youth League, Charsadda II Speeches Delivered on the Occasion of the No-Confidence 249 Motion against Sir A. Qaiyum’s Ministry (3 September 1937) III A Reply to Hindu Critics (by Sardar Mohammad Aurangzeb 253 Khan, MLA) IV A ‘Red Shirt’ Camp (Ms F. Mary Baar) 257 V Khan Bahadur Saadullah Khan’s Letter to the Co nvenor, 261 Committee of Action, All-India Muslim League VI Letter from Mian Abdullah Shah, President District Muslim 265 League, Peshawar to M.A. Jinnah (6 August 1947) VII Dismissal of Dr Khan Sahib’s Ministry: Correspondence 267 between the Viceroy and the Secretary of State (8-9 August 1947) Glossary 271 Bibliography and Sources 273 Index 291 Map ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book is based on my D.Phil dissertation submitted to the University of Oxford titled ‘Muslim Politics in the North-West Frontier Province’. Therefore, my foremost thanks go to my supervisor Professor Judith M. Brown, whose wisdom, scholarly pursuits and encouragement have been a great source of inspiration to me throughout the period of this research. Without her guidance and support, this dissertation would not have been completed. I am greatly indebted to her for all that she did for me during my stay at the University of Oxford. I am also indebted to Dr David Washbrook (Oxford), Anil Sethi (Cambridge), Dr Sikandar Hayat (Islamabad), Dr Shah Jahan (Peshawar), Dr Gopal Krishna and Mrs E. Krishna (Oxford), Dr Lal Baha (Peshawar), Abdul Karim Khan (Hawaii), Dr Fazal-ur-Rahim Khan Marwat (Peshawar), and Dr Iftikhar H. Malik (Bath), for discussions and for their interest in the subject. My special thanks are also due to Dr John Stevenson (Oxford), Dr Nandini Gooptu (Oxford), M. Saleem Qureshi (IOLR, London), Professor Richard Gombrich and Sanjukata Gombrich (Oxford), Mr Roger Shilcock (Oxford), Dr Rafique Afzal (Islamabad), Dr Naeem Qureshi (Islamabad), Dr M. Anwar Khan (Peshawar), Dr Z. H. Zaidi (Islamabad), Dr Tariq Siddiqui (Islamabad), A. K. Gupta (New Delhi), Dr Sher Zaman Taizai (Peshawar), and Nigar Ali Khan (Peshawar). I am also thankful to Dr Peter Parkes (Kent), Dr Yunus Samad (Bradford), Dr M. Banerjee (Oxford), Mr David Page (London), Mr Javed Badshah (London), Dr M. Waseem (Oxford), Dr Raj Wali Shah Khattak (Peshawar), Dr Qasim Kamawal (Jalalabad), Mr Saifullah Aziz (Kabul), Dr Inayatullah Khan (Charsadda) Dr Arif Mahmood (Oxford), Professor M. Ayub (Bannu), Javed H. Syed, Aziz Ahmad Chaudhry, Dr Dushka Syed, and my other colleagues at the Department of History, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, for helping me at different stages during my research. My thanks are to Arif Ali Shah, my brother, who always took great pains in sending me material from Pakistan. My special thanks are to my friend Aimal Khattak, who shared with me the hardships of my research field trips, even in the rugged mountains of Waziristan. viii Ethnicity, Islam and Nationalism I am grateful to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom for their funding during my three-year stay at the University of Oxford. Moreover, I must also thank the Beit Fund (Oxford), Worcester College (Oxford), and Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust (London), for their financial support in the final stages of the completion of the dissertation. My thanks are to Tariq Mansoor Jalali, Director, and the staff of the NWFP Provincial Archives, Peshawar. I am grateful for the co- operation and great help provided by the staff at various archives, repositories, and libraries, notably by the Tribal Research Cell, Peshawar; the National Archives of Pakistan, National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, National Documentation Centre, Islamabad; National Archives of India, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi; Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge; India Office Records and Library, London, and the Indian Institute Library (New Bodleian), University of Oxford. In Pakistan certain individuals helped me in the collection of material and facilitated my visits to various parts of the NWFP. They included M. Ajmal Khan Khattak (Nowshera), Abdul Wali Khan (Charsadda), Dr M. Rehan (Nowshera), Shahzad Gul Bacha (Mardan), (late) Warris Khan (Rashakai), (late) Mir Mehdi Shah (Peshawar), Loe Khan and his family (Wana, Waziristan), Ghafoor Shah (Razmak, Waziristan), Mr Inamullah Khattak (Peshawar), Sayed Tajdar Shah (Rawalpindi), Alam Zeb (Germany), and Jehanzeb Malik (Tehkal, Peshawar). I must thank them for their support and encouragement. In India, I am thankful to Jagat Ram Sahni, M. Yunus, and particularly to Ishar Das Talwar, who despite his old age and poor health took great pains in coming to New Delhi from Rajasthan, to share the sweet memories of his ancestral land: Pashtoonkhwa. Through the encouragement and co-operation of my supervisor Professor Judith M. Brown, Professor Ravinder Kumar, Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, and, K. L. M. Singhvi, the Indian High Commissioner, London, I was able to visit India and consult the valuable material available in NMML, and other repositories. I am grateful to them for their courtesy and Acknowledgements ix help in that connection. Our stay at New Delhi with Mrs Lalita Sethi, Shikha, and their family was one of the best periods we ever spent abroad. In New Delhi, various individuals helped me in different ways. They included Surajit Roy and his family, Dr A. P. Sen, Umaish Jha, and Dr Jamal-ud-Din (Jamia Millia), J. L. Gera, D. S. Rautela, Jiwan, Baren Ray, Mr Manchanda (NMML); Raj Mohan Gandhi and his wife Usha, Rajiv Bhora (Gandhi Peace Foundation), and Iqbal Singh and his wife Rupinder Kaur. Whenever I got stuck with the computer, Dr Samia Kamal, our very close friend at Oxford came to my rescue at very short notice. She deserves many thanks. I must also thank my father Sayed Qamar Shah and mother Aapaji, who despite their old age allowed me to go to the University of Oxford to undertake this study. I am grateful to them for telling me so much about the culture and politics of Pashtoonkhwa. I must express my deep love to my two daughters, Pashmina and Zalanda, especially the former whose naughty and loving pranks helped me in finishing the book in her own way. Finally, I must thank my wife Nazia, who would be more pleased than anyone else on the successful completion of the book. I must confess that without her patience, encouragement, and help, this could never have been done so easily. ABBREVIATIONS AFM Archives of Freedom Movement AICC All-India Congress Committee AIHM All-India Hindu Mahasabha AIML All-India Muslim League AINC All-India National Congress CA Constituent Assembly CLAD Central Legislative Assembly Debates CD Cunningham Diaries CID Central Intelligence Department CP Central Provinces CSASC Centre for South Asian Studies Cambridge CWC Congress Working Committee FCR Frontier Crimes Regulations FPCC Frontier Province Congress Committee FPML Frontier Province Muslim League GR Governor’s Report HDP Hazara Democratic Party HMG Her Majesty’s Government HSNP Hindu-Sikh Nationalist Party Home/Poll Home and Political Record IAR Indian Annual Register IGP Inspector General of Police IOLR India Office Library and Records IPC Indian Penal Code JUH Jamiatul Ulema-i-Hind Abbreviations xi JUS Jamiatul Ulema-i-Sarhad MIP Muslim Independent Party MP Member of Parliament NAP National Archives of Pakistan NAI National Archives of India NMML Nehru Memorial Museum and Library NWFP North-West Frontier Province PLAD Provincial Legislative Assembly Debates QAP Quaid-i-Azam Papers SHC Shamsul Hasan Collection UMNP United Muslim Nationalist Party UP United Provinces INTRODUCTION This book deals with the complex political and ideological developments in the North-West Frontier Province named as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in April 2010 during the last decade of colonial rule. By focusing on the Khudai Khidmatgar movement it examines the emergence of modern styles of agitational and democratic politics among the NWFP Muslims, the majority of whom were Pashtoons. The issue of Pashtoon ethnicity, its interaction with subcontinental Muslim identity and Indian nationalism, are central themes of this study. This tripolar relationship had its ambiguities, especially in relating Pashtoon ethno-regionalism with Muslim nationalism as articulated by the All-India Muslim League.