The Role of North West Frontier Province Women in the Freedom Struggle for Pakistan (1930-47) Shabana Shamaas Gul Khattak & Akhtar Hussain National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, Centre of Excellence, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad 2018 The Role of North West Frontier Province Women in the Freedom Struggle for Pakistan (1930-47) NIHCR Publication No.204 Copyright 2018 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, Centre of Excellence, New Campus, Quaid-i- Azam University, Islamabad. 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 P.O. Box 1230, Islamabad-44000. Tel: +92-51-2896153-54; Fax: +92-51-2896152 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Website: www.nihcr.edu.pk Published by Muhammad Munir Khawar, Publication Officer. Printed at I.F. Graphic, Fazlul Haq Road, Blue Area, Islamabad Price: Pakistan Rs. 500/- SAARC countries: Rs. 800/- ISBN: 978-969-415-130-4 Other countries: US$ 15/- We dedicated this book to our two eyes; our beloved parents Mammy aw Baba (Sonerin) Mr. & Mrs. Shamaas Gul Khattak And Mor aw Daji Mr. & Mrs. Rashid Ahmad Table of Contents Forewords viii Acknowledgements x List of Abbreviations xi Map of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and xii Tribal Territories Map of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Settled xiii Districts Introduction xv Chapter 1 Conceptualisation of Women’s 1 Movements in the Indian Subcontinent and the NWFP Women Chapter 2 Contextual Background of NWFP 15 Women, Society, Culture and Political Consciousness Chapter 3 Historical and Political Awakening of the 39 NWFP Chapter 4 The Emergence of Khudai Khidmatgar 65 Movement and Women Freedom Struggle through Literary Means Chapter 5 Pakistan Resolution and the NWFP 91 Politics Chapter 6 India, Pakistan or Pukhtunistan? 111 Conclusion 141 Bibliography 151 Appendix 163 Index 181 Foreword The National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research (NIHCR) has been publishing research works pertaining to history and culture of Pakistan with special focus on the Pakistan Movement since its inception in 1973. Taking the leap in this direction, the present work titled The Role of North West Frontier Province Women in the Freedom Struggle for Pakistan (1930-47) by Dr. Shabana Shamaas Gul Khattak and Dr. Akhtar Hussain has focussed on the domain of knowledge which had been comparatively neglected by the researchers. Moreover, in the traditional society of the then NWFP, now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the active participation of women in the freedom struggle had a unique sort of contribution vis-à-vis emancipation from the colonial rule. However, it was the great urge for freedom and wide spread hatred in the society against alien rule that attracted the women to play an active role, putting aside the social and cultural taboos of the locality. Consequently, rural, urban, educated and uneducated women took part in the freedom struggle. They worked shoulder to shoulder with the men folk for the larger national cause. Those freedom fighters may be little known or commonly unknown, but their contribution was great and at the same time they performed it with an admirable degree of sacrifices. Those women were deeply involved in the freedom struggle initially from the platform of the Khudai Khidmatgar Movement primarily during 1930’s and afterwards they joined the All-India Muslim League women workers during 1940’s. The women workers of the League actively worked to stimulate the campaign for Pakistan. They enthusiastically participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement against the then Chief Minister, Dr. Khan Sahib. Nonetheless, the efforts of those women contributed considerably to the success of the All- India Muslim League in the Referendum of July 1947. ix The Role of North West Frontier Province Women This book discusses at length the role of women under the Khudai Khidmatgar Movement as well as the Frontier Muslim League. This study analyses the events and circumstances, which led to women participation in the politics of the area and the sources of their inspiration, encouragement and support along with a discussion on their methods and techniques they adopted to contribute to the Freedom Struggle that eventually resulted into the creation of Pakistan. In the end, I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to Dr. Shabana Shamaas Gul Khattak and Dr. Akhtar Hussain, who throughout the various stages of publication process, cooperated closely with team of the NIHCR. I would also like to thank all the concerned scholars and other officials of the Institute for their valuable input in the manuscript. Thanks to the editorial and publication team, who worked hard in the process. 25 December 2017 Syed Umar Hayat Acknowledgements Praise be to ‘Rabbul Alameen’, the All-Knowing of the Universe, Who bestowed us the strength to complete this book. We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to all members of the NWFP Provincial Archives, Peshawar, NDC, Islamabad and the British Library, India Office Record section. We wish to express our warm and sincere thanks to Professor Sayed Wiqar Ali Shah. As a supervisor, teacher, mentor and critic, he was a constant source of encouragement for this project. Special thanks and appreciation goes to Professor Razia Sultana for her valuable suggestions and evaluation of the final draft of the book. We were whole heartedly supported by Mian Saeed-ur- Rehman, who extended his help and cooperation during our frequent visits to consult his home library. Uncle Saeed and his wife proved very loving and accommodating during the project. This work would never have seen the light of the day without the loving support of our parents, family and friends. We want to especially thank our interviewees for sharing their memorable life experiences of the freedom struggle. To them we are forever grateful! We are indebted to the NIHCR for considering and publishing this book; their evaluation and reviewing feedback gave new life to this manuscript. We extend to them our profound thanks for giving us the confidence to believe that we had something valuable to say. Shabana Shamaas Gul Khattak Akhtar Hussain List of Abbreviations AICC All-India Congress Committee AIML All-India Muslim League AINC All-India National Congress CID Central Intelligence Department CWC Congress Working Committee FCR Frontier Crimes Regulation FPCC Frontier Province Congress Committee FPML Frontier Province Muslim League FZML Frontier Zanana Muslim League HDP Hazara Democratic Party HSNP Hindu-Sikh Nationalist Party JUH Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind JUS Jamiat Ulema-i-Sarhad MIP Muslim Independent Party NWFP North West Frontier Province SBP Special Branch of Police MAPS North West Frontier Province and Tribal Territories xiii The Role of North West Frontier Province Women North West Frontier Province (Settled Districts) Introduction Women’s political participation is a long-fought battle that has involved legal and peaceful actions and voices to persuade both government’s administration and society’s traditional norms. Through political participation, women across the world have played and continue an influential role in the decision making of national policy. A great deal has been written on women’s political participation in the freedom struggle of the Muslims in the Indian subcontinent, but the bulk of this literature has been concerned with the familiar women leaders and the big events of the freedom struggle. Little has been written about more minor leaders and volunteers, both men and women, who functioned at grassroots level in various parts of the country and made an extremely valuable contribution to the freedom struggle. In particular, there is no major academic research that deals with the less-known leaders and activists of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).1 Particularly, there is no specific study dealing with the contribution made by the women leaders and volunteers of the freedom struggle, most of whom are unknown or little known even in the NWFP. Most of the visible women in our history books belonged to the elite or upper middle-classes of the society. Indeed they were backed by their family men to join the freedom movement.2 In contrast, there were also traditional women of enormous importance to the freedom struggle from poor conservative families with little or no schooling. 1 North West Frontier Province (NWFP) is renamed as Khyber Pukhtunkhwah in 2010 after the 18th amendment in the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan. However, for the purpose of this historical study, we chose to stick with its old name ‘NWFP’. 2 Thapar-Bjorkert, S. (2007) Women in the Indian National Movement: Unseen Faces and Unheard Voices, 1930-42, New Delhi: Sage. xvi The Role of North West Frontier Province Women These women committed themselves to the national cause, and whether they could be considered revolutionaries or not, no one can deny that they fought against great personal odds for the freedom of the country.3 Their courage and patience was profound, and at times tragic, for some of them were present at their own sons’ hanging. Many women participated indirectly in the political affairs of the country: they found a way around their domestic constraints, such as using secret envoys and messengers, passing on proscribed material, helping fugitives from the law shift from one place to another and ensuring that they were fed and looked after.4 Many stopped buying foreign factory-made clothes and wore Khaddar (hand-made clothes) by spinning the ‘charkha’ as a mark of support for the Khudai Khidmatgar Movement. Gul Marjana from Sawaldir was one who always saved money from the household expenses to give it to the Khudai Khidmatgar Movement.5 It is worthwhile to mention here that both the Pro-Congress nationalist women of Khudai Khidmatgar and Pro-Muslim League women struggled against British rule; they fought with the sole aim of freedom for their motherland, the Indian subcontinent.