The Poetic Resistance In Punjab Against The British Raj

The Punjab being the gateway to India had always remained an arena of the multi-racial and multi-sided conflict. It became the boiling cauldron of almost constant turmoil. The valour of Punjabis is shaped by the relentless struggle for existence or supremacy over the span of ages against outsiders or among themselves. But over the last many decades, an impression has been created that the Punjabis had all along been siding with the invaders from the west as well as from the east. The responsibility for spreading this view partly lies with the official or semi-official Delhi-based historians and the angry elements of those areas which considered that the 1857 uprising was let down by the reinforcements sent by the Sikh states and other Punjabi chiefs.

         This is not the whole truth. Anyhow, the Punjabis are also responsible – though partly – for strengthening this impression.

         A brief note in bulletin No.1 of the National Documentation Centre about the banned material throws ample light on the character and attitude of the Punjabis. According to the bulletin, Miss O.M Llyod writes: “From the passing of the Indian Press Act of 1910 to the establishment of independence in 1947, copies of certain printed material circulating in India which had been banned by government authorities were sent to the India Office and British Library and the present author to amalgamate the data and provide an introduction and indexes.”

         Miss Lloyd continues: “Material that was banned was published in a wide range of languages - in English, in other European languages, and in at least fifteen Indian tongues.

         “Much of the vernacular material was composed in verse form, glorifying nationalism and exhorting its readers to work for freedom from the British. Mass circulation of nationalist poetry broke out in particular after the Jillianwala Bagh shooting in 1919 and the execution of the revolutionary hero, Baghat Singh, in 1931. So prolific were these outbursts that “Nationalist songs” number nearly 700 in the catalog, almost half of the whole collection. The last sentence of this rather long quotation speaks to the magnitude of the resistance put up by the Punjabis against the British. But contrary to that, a strange impression has been created that the Punjabis welcomed and helped the invaders from whichever side they descended on the soil of the Indus valley.

         It goes without saying that if 700 songs were exclusively devoted to Jallianwala Bagh and Baghat Singh, several hundred must have been written about Dullah Bhatti, Jasrat Khokhar, Ahmad Khan Kharal, Murad Fatiana, Fazal Machi, Jeevana Mor, Nizam Lohar, Jabroo Nai, Malangi and others. What is left out of this huge corpus of the resistance poetry written during the last five hundred years is Var Dullah Bhatti, Var Nadir Shah,See Harfi Waris Shah, (about Ahmad Shah Abdali), Jang Hind- Punjab by Shah Mohammad and some dbolas about  Ahmad Khan Kharal and his comrades - in- arm.

         The Punajbis, particularly the Muslim Punjabis, were cut asunder from their rich political past just by removing their mother tongue from the curriculum. They had become rootless by 1947 and are so even today. The war poems of Najabat, Waris Shah, and Shah Mohammad as well as the Dholas about Ahmad Khan Khral the folktale of Dullah Bhatti, and the Dholas of Nizam Lohar and Jabroo are not taught to them. The strangest fact is that the top intellectuals of the Punjab have not heard of the catalog referred to above which carries 700 songs on Jallianwala Bagh, the Ghadar Party and Baghat Singh.

         This state of criminal ignorance continues even after the achievement of independence. However, a small group of Punjabi intellectuals and writers, who have constantly been urging the Government to introduce Punjabi as a medium of instruction at primary level and as a compulsory subject from the fifth to tenth standard, have made humble contributions to recapitulating their political past by recording and making public what Dullah Bhatti was, how the Sikh army was let down by the generals who belonged to non-Punjabi areas and who were inducted under a well-thought-out plan. They helped the British to humiliate the Sikh army at Subraon. Ahmad Saleem compiled the Var of Dullah Bhatti, A.D. Ejaz compiled the Dholas on 1857 heroes of the Sahiwal area who stood up against the British in 1857 and fell due to the threachy of the collaborators of the British in October 1857. The Punjabi Adabi Board has published this book as well as a book on the heroes of the Punjab (from Kharal to Bhagat Singh) compiled by Iqbal Asad.

         It is said that the Punjab had made a negative contribution towards the war of 1857. Too much stress is laid by the bigoted historians on this negative role. They forget the “confessions' ' of the British themselves that if the local forces which captured the Delhi Fort had not been erratic, it would have been difficult for them to strike and recapture India. Historical record shows that the deserting armies had no clear objective and the Delhi rulers were so weak that they could not give an alternative administration in the disturbed areas. It was they who actually failed their people.

         Anyhow, the positive role of the Punjabis and the Punjab-based British army has been kept in low profile. It could be justified till 1947. But there is no justification for this after independence. The feudal who ruled this area never wanted to expose the disgraceful role of their forefathers. These people never allowed the Punjab to know its history, culture and literature and the aspirations of the Punjabis who made a solid contribution to the Pakistan movement.

         As far as the role of the army (including the newly recruited Punjabis) stationed in the Punjab is concerned, The Mutiny Reports: Punjab Government Records, (Vol, VIII< Part I and II, Lahore, 1911, say:

-          At Umballa, the incendiary fire bagan in March and continued at intervals until the outbreak.

-          The sepoy guards at Phillaur and Ferozepur were specially set aside by European troops.

-          On June 8, the Jullunder Brigade mutinied and was in full march to the Sutlej.

-          Early in June an attempt was made in Kooloo to excite its population to rise in rebellion against us (the Europeans). This movement was organized by one Partap Singh who pretended to be the rightful Rajah or chief of the principality of Koolloo.

-          On May 3, the Mess House of 33rd Native Infantry at Hoshiarpur was burnt to the ground. There is every reason to suppose that this was the act of incendiaries.

-          On June 9, sepoys were blown from guns on the Anarkali (Lahore) parade ground for using mutinous language. Native regiments in Mian Mir had already been disarmed.

-          On July 7, the 14th Native Infantry at Jhelum refused to give up their arms and made a violent and determined resistance.

-          Within 48 hours of the outbreak at Jhelum the 9th Cavalry and 46th Infantry at Sialkot mutinied.

-          On July 30 and 26th Infantry at Mian Mir (Lahore) rode and went off in a body about 11 a.m during a dust storm.

         In the meantime, the Kharls and other turbulent tribes in the Gogera (Sahiwal) district rose in insurrection, disarmed the police and cut off the communication with Multan. Owing to the nature and extent of the country and the paucity of troops the disturbance was not very easily put down.”

         No doubt, the whole Punjab was disturbed in 1857. Sialkot, Jhelum, Rawalpindi and Ferozepur cantonments had bloodbaths but according to the Munity Reports the Kharls had cut the Punjab into two and the British were worried about the resistance which they met from the unarmed Kharls, Wattoos, Qureshis and Sials of the area who were being led by old man Ahmad Khan Kharl of Toba Tek Singh district. In the Montgomery District Gazetteer the Kharl chief has been painted as under:

         “Ahmad was a man above average – bold and crafty. In 1848 he had induced Dhara Singh of the Gogera Nakkai to hold Satghara against the English. It was this man who roused the tribes. All the important Ravi tribes rode. The first real precursor of the storm that was brewing occurred on the night of July 26 in the shape of an outbreak in the Gogera jail. This appears to have been, in all probability the work of Ahmad Khan as he had managed, with the connivance of the darogba, to pay an unauthorized visit to the jail during June when he, no doubt conferred with the more turbulent of its inmates. Fifty one prisoners were killed and wounded. Ahmad Khan, however, promptly fled away from Gogera as soon as the jail outbreak occurred.”

         This was the man about whom the bards of the area composed dholas. But most of the dholas could not be recorded due to the fear of the rulers. After more than a century, recording of oral tradition started, though in a hostile atmosphere. Neither newspapers nor radio gave any importance to this most important chapter of the history of the Punjab. The situation has not yet taken a turn for the better. The people of Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh and their representatives are not aware of the importance of the part played by this son of soil, Ahmad Khan Kharl of Jhamara. Nor do the Sahiwal people remember the battles fought in Gogera, Chichawatni, Harappa and on the bank of the Ravi.

         No monuments have been raised in Toba Tek Singh or Faisalabad in the memory of those who laid down their life to keep alive the traditional resistance of the Punjab against invaders and tyrants. All credit goes to the village bards who eulogized these heroes for whom no sophisticated poem came from the pen of our renowned poets.

“The kharls have been fighting with the previous governments. Ranjeet Singh avoided confrontation with them and used to bypass their areas. Their tribal leader Mirza - hero of a Punjabi love story Mirza Saheban - was murdered by the Sials (the tribe of Saheban). The Kharls squared accounts with the Sials. They attacked the Sial territory and destroyed them. They also engaged Emperor Akbar and never wavered in the battlefields. They snatched the wealth of Alexander the Great and never surrendered it.” 

After shedding some light on the tribal and regional background of Ahmad Khan Kharl the poet narrates the British-Kharl relationship in 1857. 

         “The Englishman Berkeley says: Provide me with horses and men. Rai Ahmad! I will secure a citation for you from London. Rai Ahmad says: No one ever shares wives, land and mares with others, Ahmad and Sarang refused pointblank and they went back to their village Jhamara.”

         Then the poet narrates the last part of the episode:

         “In the name of God the Kharl rides. Says nobody must waver. Rai Ahmad says: Draw your swords and advance; this is the real test for real men. That day the British army was forced to retreat throughout barren lands. There are traces of their retreat which can be seen. But Gulab Rai Bedi fired at Rai Ahmad when he was in prayer. Rai Ahmad has joined the Imam – Hussain.”

         Alas! The Punjabis have forgotten all those who had kept the tradition of Imam Hussain Alive.