Preface The present book brings together eight articles on various aspects of the history and politics of the North-West Frontier Province, published in major national and international journals and books during 1985-2005. Some editing has been done to bring the articles in conformity with each other. A detailed introduction explains their contents and significance which is produced here in the subsequent pages for the benefit of scholars, students and those who are interested to know more about the NWFP. I am grateful to Dr Sikandar Hayat for helping me in the selection of these eight articles from many others. In fact, the idea of publishing the articles in a book form came from long discussions with him. He also read the manuscript and made valuable suggestions regarding the style and presentation. My special thanks, however, go to Dr Naeem Qureshi who, despite his other pressing engagements, revised and edited the whole manuscript and moulded it into readable form. I am indebted to Dr Riaz Ahmad for accepting the book for publication under the auspices of National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research. Mr Naeem Khan typed the first draft and was always available for necessary input. I am thankful to him and to Mr Himayatullah and Mr Altafullah for their support and help during the preparation of this book. Mr M. Muneer Khawar and his staff at the NIHCR also deserves special thanks for their interest and help. Dr Shah Jehan and Tajdar Shah, my uncles, deserves a mention for their encouragement. Among my friends Dr Fazalur Rahim Marwat, Dr Abdul Karim Khan, Dr Qasim Jan, Dr Nasir Jamal Khattak, Dr Nasir Ali Khan, Dr Javed Haider Syed, Mr Farooq Ahmad Dar and Mr Ilhan Niaz showed special interest in the publication and completion of this book and, therefore, deserve special thanks. My three months’ stay in the summer of 2006 at History Department of South Asia Institute in University of Heidelberg (Germany), enabled me to go through the entire draft of the book and amend some of the articles. I must admit that I and my family always find Heidelberg as our second home. Few individuals, however, deserve special thanks for making our stay in Heidelberg pleasant and productive. They include Professor Dietmar Rothermund and his family, Professor Gita Dharampal-Frick, Ms Claudia Theis Passaro, Mr Manfred Hake, Miss Ursula Rott and Frau Michael and the support staff at the SAI. I must also thank Dr Gabi Thiokotter and her staff at the Heidelberg University Guest House, Sheerin Gardewal and family, Dr Inayatullah Baloch, Masood Mirza, Hidayat Bangash and his wife Anna Khan, Zarin Anzoor and family and Zeb’s family at Trier. Without their encouragement this book would not have been completed. It is unfair not to mention the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany) for their generous grant for our three months stay at the University of Heidelberg on many occasions which enabled me to complete this book. Besides Pashtaney (Islamabad, 2006), this is my second book which I completed during my stay in Heidelberg. AvH, therefore, deserve special thanks in providing these opportunities. Finally, a word of appreciation and gratitude to my wife and children without whose patience, encouragement and constant support, this work would never have seen the light of the day. Islamabad May 2007 Sayed Wiqar Ali Shah List of Abbreviations AICC : All India congress Committee AIML : All India Muslim League CID : Central Intelligence Department CLA : Central Legislative Assembly CP : Central Provinces CWC : Congress Working Committee FCR : Frontier Crimes Regulations FPCC : Frontier Province Congress Committee HMG : His Majesty’s Government INC : Indian National Congress K. B : Khan Bahadur MIP : Muslim Independent Party MLA : Member Legislative Assembly N-WFP : North-West Frontier Province R. B : Rai Bahadur R. S : Rai Sahib RTC : Round Table Conference UP : United Province USA : United States of America Introduction This book deals with the complex historical and political developments in the North-West Frontier Province of India before its partition and the establishment of Pakistan. The province is inhabited by people who are known as Pashtoons. They are all Muslims and have a kind of particularism that inculcates in them not just the feelings of identity and a passion for Islam but also a strong aversion for all kinds of domination. This is what impelled the Pashtoons to join their co-religionists in other parts of British India in the struggle for freedom during the crucial years before partition. The main concern here is to examine the growth of mass politics and study its impact on the people of the province by focusing on various phases of the history of the NWFP. The book, in fact, is a collection of articles published by the author in various journals or contributed to edited works in the course of several years. Keeping in view the importance of the subjects covered and the fact that most of the articles are now out of print, it was suggested by my colleagues to reproduce them in a book form so that scholars, students and those working on the region may benefit from them. The NWFP is situated between the parallels 31.4 and 36.57 north latitude and 69.16 and 74.4 east longitude. Its extreme length is 652.8 Kilometres (408 miles) and its greatest breadth is 446.4 Kilometres (279 miles), giving a total area of approximately 39, 900 square miles. In the north of the NWFP lies the Hindu Kush range, to its south are located Balochistan, to its east are Kashmir and the Punjab and on the west it is bordered by Afghanistan. The province has three main geographical divisions: (i) the cis–Indus district of Hazara; (ii) the settled districts of Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan; and (iii) the rugged mountainous region between these districts and the border with the neighbouring Afghanistan, known as the tribal belt. The province was originally divided into five administrative districts, namely Hazara, Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan (which have now increased to 24 districts), each under a deputy commissioner and a trans-border tribal belt made up of five political agencies (now eight) subject to the control of the chief commissioner in his capacity as agent to governor- general and administered by a political agent. As the NWFP is located on the ‘highway of conquest’, it was overrun again and again by successive invaders, beginning with the Aryans more than five thousands years ago. Then came the Persians, the Greeks, the Mauryans, the Bacterian Greeks, the Scythians, the Kushanas, the White Huns and the Guptas. In the middle of seventh century, the Pashtoons came into direct contact with the Muslims. By the tenth century the Muslim Turks had established themselves in the region and drove the Hindu Shahiya Kings of Kabul towards the south. Throughout the medieval period until the middle of eighteenth century, the province remained part of the Muslim empires of north India. In the second half of the eighteenth century the area came under the control of Ahmad Shah Abdali, who established the first national state of the Pashtoon, i.e. modern Afghanistan. The region remained part of Afghanistan till 1818, when the internal feuds for supremacy among various Pashtoon clans provided a chance to Ranjeet Singh, the Sikh ruler of the Punjab, to conquer and subjugate the trans-Indus region as far as Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu. Then, Peshawar was taken in 1834 and the Sikhs remained the lords of the region until 1849 when they were defeated by the British and the Punjab annexed to the Raj along with the NWFP. The region remained part of the Punjab till 1901 when Lord Curzon, the viceroy of India, separated the five settled districts of Hazara, Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan and joined them to the five agencies of Malakand, Khyber, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan, to form a separate province called the North-West Frontier Province of India. The total population of the province, according to the Census Report of 1921, was 50,76,476. Of these about 93 percent were Muslims while the remaining 7 per cent were non-Muslims. Numerically, the Pashtoons dominated the province. However, in Hazara, and in urban Dera Ismail Khan, the Pashtoons formed part of a mixed population of the Awans, the Gujars, the Jats and the Baloch. Pashto, the language of the Pashtoons, was spoken by over fifty six per cent of the population of the province. However, if one includes the tribal territory, then there is a preponderance of Pashto-speakers. So far as the socio-political arithmetic of the province is concerned, there was hardly any educated urban middle class among the Pashtoons. As such, unlike the rest of India, the nucleus of power, so necessary for political mobilization, rested with the elite in the rural areas—big landowners and the titled gentry, the ‘ulama and the sajjada nashins. They were followed by the educated elite in the urban areas which included lawyers, journalists, teachers and students. Being an overwhelmingly Muslim majority province, Islam constituted an integral part of the Pashtoon society. To the Pashtoons the Muslim way of life corresponded with the Pashtoon culture and lifestyle. As such, religion in the Frontier was a part of the Pashtoon identity that encouraged and sustained movements against the British. Unlike in the Punjab and some other Muslim majority provinces, the ‘ulama in the NWFP generally were anti-British, always preaching jihad against the foreigners and remained in the forefront of political movements. Yet, there was communal harmony in the province. The Muslims, who were 93 percent of the population, had no threat perceptions from the minority community, most of whom were traders and businessmen.