THE NORTH WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE

1. Districts

The Province.—The N. W. F. Province consists of five British districts, Dera Ismail Khán, Bannu, Kohát, Pesháwar, and Hazára with a total area of 13,193 square miles, of which rather less than one-third is cultivated. Of the cultivated area 70 p.c. depends solely on the rainfall. In addition the Chief Commissioner as Agent to the Governor General controls beyond the administrative boundary territory occupied by independent tribes, which covers approximately an area of 25,500 square miles. In 1911 the population of British districts was 2,196,933 and that of tribal territory is estimated to exceed 1,600,000. In the districts 93 persons in every hundred profess the creed of Islam and over 38 p.c. are Patháns.

Area, 3780 sq. m. Cultd area, 851 sq. m. Pop. 256,120. Land Rev. Rs. 306,240 = £20,416.

Dera Ismail Khán lies to the north of Dera Gházi Khán and is very similar to it in its physical features. It is divided into the three tahsíls of Tánk, Dera Ismail Khán, and Kuláchi. It has a long river frontage on the west, and is bounded on the east by the Sulimán Range. The Kachchhí of Dera Ismail Khán corresponds to the Sindh of Dera Gházi Khán, but is much narrower and is not served by inundation canals, except in the extreme north, where the Pahárpur Canal has recently been dug. It depends on floods and wells. The Dáman or "Skirt" of the hills is like the Pachádh of Dera Ghází Khán a broad expanse of strong clayey loam or pat seamed by torrents and cultivated by means of dams and embanked fields. The climate is intensely hot in summer, and the average rainfall only amounts to ten inches. Between one-fourth and one-fifth of the area is cultivated. The Pachádh is a camel-breeding tract.

Fig. 126. Sir Harold Deane.

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Fig. 127. North-West Frontier-Province.

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128. Map of Dera Ismail Khán
with trans-border territory of Largha Sheránis and Ustaránas.

Patháns predominate in the Dáman and Jats in the Kachchhí. The Bhittannís in the north of the district are an interesting little tribe. The hill section lies outside our administrative border, but like the Lárgha Sheránís in the south are under the political control of the Deputy Commissioner. A good metalled road, on which there is a tonga service, runs northwards from Dera Ismail Khán to Bannu.

Area, 1641 sq. m. Cultd area, 818 sq. m. Pop. 250,086. Land Rev. Rs. 304,004 = £20,267.

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Fig. 129.

Bannu.—The small Bannu district occupies a basin surrounded by hills and drained by the Kurram and its affluent, the Tochí. It is cut off from the Indus by the Isakhel tahsíl of Mianwálí and by a horn of the Dera Ismail Khán district. Bannu is now connected with Kálabágh in Mianwálí by a narrow gauge railway. An extension of this line from Laki to Tánk in the Dera Ismail Khán district has been sanctioned. There are two tahsíls, Bannu and Marwat. The cultivated area is about one-half of the total area. About 30 p.c. of the cultivation is protected by irrigation from small canals taking out of the streams. Most of the irrigation is in the Bannu tahsíl. The greater part of Marwat is a dry sandy tract yielding in favourable seasons large crops of gram. But the harvests on unirrigated land are precarious, for the annual rainfall is only about 12 inches. The irrigated land in Bannu is heavily manured and is often double-cropped. Wheat accounts for nearly half of the whole crops of the district. The Marwats are a frank manly race of good physique. The Bannúchís are hard-working, but centuries of plodding toil on a wet soil has spoiled their bodily development, and had its share in imparting to their character qualities the reverse of admirable. The Deputy Commissioner has also political charge of some 17,884 tribesmen living across the border. There are good metalled roads to Dera Ismail Khán and Kohát, and also one on the Tochí route.

Area, 2973 sq. m. Cultd area, 512 sq. m. Pop. 222,690. Land Rev. Rs. 275,462 = £18,364.

Kohát is a large district, but most of it is unfit for tillage and only one-sixth is actually cultivated. The chief crops are wheat, 44, and bájra, 26 p.c. The district stretches east and west for 100 miles from Khushálgarh on the Indus to Thal at the mouth of the Kurram valley. The two places are now connected by a railway which passes through the district headquarters at Kohát close to the northern border. There are three tahsíls, Kohát, Hangu, and Terí, the last a wild tract of bare hills and ravines occupying the south of the district and covering more than half its area. Two small streams, the Kohát Toi and the Terí Toi, drain into the Indus. The rainfall is fair, but very capricious. The cold weather lasts long and the chill winds that blow during part of it are very trying. The chief tribes are the Bangash Patháns of Hangu and the Khattak Patháns of Terí. The Khán of Terí is head of the Khattaks, a manly race which sends many soldiers to our army. He enjoys the revenue of the tahsíl subject to a quit rent of Rs. 20,000.

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Fig. 130.

Hangu contains in Upper and Lower Miranzai the most fertile land in the district, but the culturable area of the tahsíl is small and only one-tenth of it is under the plough. Perennial streams run through the Miranzai valleys, and the neighbouring hills support large flocks of sheep and goats. Kohát contains a number of salt quarries, the most important being at Bahádur Khel near the Bannu border. The Thal subdivision consisting of the Hangu tahsíl is in charge of an Assistant Commissioner who manages our political relations with transfrontier tribes living west of Fort Lockhart on the Samána Range. The Deputy Commissioner is in direct charge of the Pass Afrídís and the Jowákís and Orakzais in the neighbourhood of Kohát. He and his Assistant between them look after our relations with 144,000 trans-border Patháns. The Samána Rifles, one of the useful irregular corps which keep the peace of the Borderland, have their headquarters at Hangu.

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Fig. 131.

Area, 2611 sq. m. Cultd area, 1398 sq. m. Pop. 865,000 Land Rev Rs. 11,37,504 = £75,834.

Pesháwar is a large basin encircled by hills. The gorge of the Indus separates it from Attock and Hazára. The basin is drained by the Kábul river, whose chief affluents in Pesháwar are the Swát and the Bára. The district is divided into the five tahsíls of Pesháwar, Charsadda, Naushahra, Mardán, and Swábí. The last two form the Mardán subdivision. Nearly 40 p.c. of the cultivation is protected by irrigation mainly from canals large and small. The most important are the Lower Swát, the Kábul River, and the Bára River, Canals. The irrigated area will soon be much increased by the opening of the Upper Swát Canal. The cold weather climate is on the whole pleasant, though too severe in December and January. The three months from August to October are a very unhealthy time. The soil except in the stony lands near the hills is a fertile loam. The cold weather rainfall is good, and the Spring harvest is by far the more important of the two. Wheat is the chief crop. Half of the people are Patháns, the rest are known generically as Hindkís. The principal Hindkí tribe is that of the Awáns. Besides managing his own people the Deputy Commissioner has to supervise our relations with 240,000 independent tribesmen across the border. The Assistant Commissioner at Mardán, where the Corps of Guides is stationed, is in charge of our dealings with the men of Buner and the Yúsafzai border. The N.W. Railway runs past the city of Pesháwar to Jamrúd, and there is a branch line from Naushahra to Dargai at the foot of the Malakand Pass.

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Fig. 132.

Area, 2858 sq. m. Cultd area, 673 sq. m. Pop. 603,028. Land Rev. Rs. 512,897 = £34,193.

Hazára is a typical montane and submontane district with a copious rainfall and a good climate. It has every kind of cultivation from narrow terraced kalsí fields built laboriously up steep mountain slopes to very rich lands watered by canal cuts from the Dor or Haro. Hazára is divided into three tahsíls, Haripur, Abbottábád, and Mansehra. Between a fourth and a fifth of this area is culturable and cultivated. In this crowded district the words are synonymous. The above figure does not include the 204 square miles of Feudal Tanáwal. The rainfall is copious and the crops generally speaking secure. The principal are maize 42 and wheat 25 p.c. Hazára was part of the territory made over to Rája Guláb Singh in 1846, but he handed it back in exchange for some districts near Jammu. The maintenance of British authority in Hazára in face of great odds by the Deputy Commissioner, Captain James Abbott, during the Second Sikh War is a bright page in Panjáb history, honourable alike to himself and his faithful local allies. The population is as mixed as the soils. Patháns are numerous, but they are split up into small tribes. The Swátís of Mansehra are the most important section. After Patháns Gújars and Awáns are the chief tribes. The Gakkhars, though few in number, hold much land and a dominant position in the Khánpur tract on the Ráwalpindí border. The Deputy Commissioner is also responsible for our relations with 98,000 trans-border tribesmen. The district is a wedge interposed between Kashmír on the east and Pesháwar and the tribal territory north of Pesháwar on the west. The Indus becomes the border about eight miles to the north of Amb, and the district consists mainly of the areas drained by its tributaries the Unhár, Siran, Dor, and Haro. On the eastern side the Jhelam is the boundary with Kashmir from Kohála to a point below Domel, where the Kunhár meets it. Thence the Kunhár is the boundary to near Garhí Habíbullah. To the south of Garhí the watershed of the Kunhár and Jhelam is close to these rivers and the country is very rough and poor. West of Garhí it is represented by the chain which separates the Kunhár and Siran Valleys and ends on the frontier at Musa ká Musalla (13,378 feet). This chain includes one peak over 17,000 feet, Málí ká Parvat, which is the highest in the district. The Kunhár rises at the top of the Kágan Glen, where it has a course of about 100 miles to Bálakot. Here the glen ends, for the fall between Bálakot and Garhí Habíbullah is comparatively small. There is a good mule road from Garhí Habíbullah to the Bábusar Pass at the top of the Kágan Glen, and beyond it to Chilás. There are rest-houses, some very small, at each stage from Bálakot to Chilás. The Kágan is a beautiful mountain glen. At places the narrow road looks sheer down on the river hundreds of feet below, rushing through a narrow gorge with the logs from the deodár forests tossing on the surface, and the sensation, it must be confessed, is not wholly pleasant. But again it passes close to some quiet pretty stretch of this same Kunhár. There are side glens, one of which opposite Naran contains the beautiful Safarmulk Lake. Near the top of the main glen the Lulusar Lake at a height of 11,167 feet and with an average depth of 150 feet is passed on the left. In the lower part of the glen much maize is grown. As one ascends almost the last crop to be seen is a coarse barley sown in June and reaped in August. Where the trees and the crops end the rich grass pastures begin. Kágan covers between one-third and one-fourth of the whole district. The Siran flows through the beautiful Bhogarmang Glen, at the foot of which it receives from the west the drainage of the Konsh Glen. Forcing its way through the rough Tanáwal hills, it leaves Feudal Tanáwal and Badhnak on its right, and finally after its junction with the Dor flows round the north of the Gandgarh Range and joins the Indus below Torbela. The bare Gandgarh Hills run south from Torbela parallel with the Indus. The Dor rises in the hills to the south of Abbottábád and drains the Haripur plain. A range of rough hills divides the Dor valley from that of the Haro, which again is separated from Ráwalpindí by the Khánpur Range. To the west of the Siran the Unhár flows through Agror and Feudal Tanáwal, and joins the Indus a little above Amb. Irrigation cuts are taken from all these streams, and the irrigated cultivation is often of a very high character. The best cultivation of the district is in the Haripur plain and the much smaller Orash and Pakhlí plains and in the Haro valley. There is much unirrigated cultivation in the first, and it is generally secure except in the dry tract in the south-west traversed by the new railway from Sarai Kála. The little Orash plain below Abbottábád is famous for its maize and the Pakhlí plain for its rice.

Feudal Tanáwal is a very rough hilly country between the Siran on the east and the Black Mountain and the river Indus on the west. It is the appanage of the Kháns of Amb and Phulra.

North of Feudal Tanáwal is Agror. In 1891 the rights of the last Khán were declared forfeit for abetment of raids by trans-bordermen.

There are fine forests in Hazára, but unfortunately the deodár is confined to the Kágan Glen and the Upper Siran. Nathiagalí, the summer headquarters of the Chief Commissioner, is in the Dungagalí Range. The Serai Kála-Srínagar railway will run through Hazára. There is a good mule road from Murree to Abbottábád through the Galís.

2. Tribal Territory

Fig. 133. Sir George Roos Keppel.

Feudal Tanáwal mentioned above occupies the southern corner of the tract of independent tribal territory lying between the Hazára border and the Indus. North of Tanáwal on the left bank of the river a long narrow chain known as the Black Mountain rises in its highest peaks to a height of nearly 10,000 feet. The western slopes are occupied by Hasanzais, Akazais, and Chagarzais, who are Patháns belonging to the great Yúsafzai clan, and these three sections also own lands on the right bank of the Indus. They have been very troublesome neighbours to the British Government. The eastern slopes of the Black Mountain are occupied by Saiyyids and Swátís, and the latter also hold the glens lying further north, the chief of which is Allai.

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Fig. 134.

The mountainous tract on the Pesháwar border lying to the west of Tanáwal and the territory of the Black Mountain tribes formed part of the ancient Udyána, and its archaeological remains are of much interest. It is drained by the Barandu, a tributary of the Indus. Its people are mainly Yúsafzai Patháns, the principal section being the Bunerwáls. These last bear a good character for honesty and courage, but are slaves to the teachings of their mullas. The Yúsafzais have been bad neighbours. The origin of the trouble is of old standing, dating back to the welcome given by the tribesmen in 1824 to a band of Hindústání fanatics, whose leader was Saiyyid Ahmad Sháh of Bareilly. Their headquarters, first at Sitána and afterwards at Malka, became Caves of Adullam for political refugees and escaped criminals, and their favourite pastime was the kidnapping of Hindu shopkeepers. In 1863 a strong punitive expedition under Sir Neville Chamberlain suffered heavy losses before it succeeded in occupying the Ambela Pass. The door being forced the Yúsafzais themselves destroyed Malka as a pledge of their submission. Our political relations with the Yúsafzais are managed by the Assistant Commissioner at Mardán.

The rest of the tribal territory between the Pesháwar district and the Hindu Kush is included in the Dír, Swát, and Chitrál political agency. It is a region of mountains and valleys drained by the Swát, Panjkora, and Chitrál or Yárkhun rivers, all three affluents of the Kábul river. Six tracts are included in the Agency.

(a) Swát.—A railway now runs from Naushahra in the Pesháwar district to Dargai, which lies at the foot of the Malakand, a little beyond our administrative boundary. An old Buddhist road crosses the pass and descends on the far side into Swát. We have a military post at Chakdarra on the Swát river, and a military road passing through Dír connects Chakdarra with Kila Drosh in Chitrál. Most of the Swátís, who are Yúsafzais of the Akozai section, occupy a rich valley above 70 miles in length watered by the Swát river above its junction with the Panjkora. Rice is extensively grown, and a malarious environment has affected the physique and the character of the people. The Swátí is priest-ridden and treacherous. Even his courage has been denied, probably unjustly. Swátí fanaticism has been a source of much trouble on the Pesháwar border. The last serious outbreak was in 1897, when a determined, but unsuccessful, attack was made on our posts at Chakdarra and the Malakand Pass. The Swátís are Yúsafzai Patháns of the Akozai clan, and are divided into five sections, one of which is known as Ránízai.

(b) Sam Ránízai.—A small tract between the Pesháwar border and the hills is occupied by the Sam Ránízais, who were formerly servants and tenants of the Ránízais, but are now independent.

(c) Utmán Khel.—The country of the Utmán Khels begins where the Pesháwar boundary turns to the south. This tribe occupies the tract on both sides of the Swát river to the west of Swát and Sam Ránízai. On the south-west the Swát river divides the Utmán Khels from the Mohmands. Their country is very barren, but a good many of them cultivate land in the Pesháwar district. The Utmán Khels are quite independent of the surrounding tribes and have been troublesome neighbours to ourselves.

(d) Bajaur.—Bajaur is a very mountainous tract lying to the north-west of the Utmán Khel country and between it and the Durand line. It includes four valleys, through which flow the Rud river and its affluents with the exception of that known as Jandol. The valley of the last is now included in Dír. The Rud, also known as the Bajaur, is a tributary of the Panjkora. The people consist mainly of Mamunds and other sections of the Tarkanrí clan, which is related to the Yúsafzais. They own a very nominal allegiance to the Khán of Nawagai, who is recognised as the hereditary head of the Tarkanrís. They manage their affairs in quasi-republican fashion through a council consisting of the particular party which for the time being has got the upper hand.

(e) Dír.—Dír is the mountainous country drained by the Panjkora and its tributaries, to the north of its junction with the Rud river in Bajaur. It is separated from Chitrál by the Uchiri Range, which forms the watershed of the Panjkora and Kunar rivers. The military road to Kila Drosh crosses this chain by the Lowari Pass at a height of 10,200 feet. The people of Dír are mostly Yúsafzais, relations of the Swátís, whom they much resemble in character. They pay one-tenth of their produce to their overlord, the Khán of Dír, when he is strong enough to take it. The higher parts of the country have a good climate and contain fine deodár forests. The Khán derives much of his income from the export of timber, which is floated down the Panjkora and Swát rivers.

(f) Chitrál.—The Pathán country ends at the Lowari Pass. Beyond, right up to the main axis of the Hindu Kush, is Chitrál. It comprises the basin of the Yárkhun or Chitrál river from its distant source in the Shawar Shur glacier to Arnawai, where it receives from the west the waters of the Bashgul, and is thenceforth known as the Kunar. Its western boundary is the Durand line, which follows a lofty chain sometimes called the Káfiristán range. Another great spur of the Hindu Kush known as the Shandur range divides Chitrál on the east from the basin of the Yasín river and the territories included in the Gilgit Agency (see Chapter XXVIII). Chitrál is a fine country with a few fertile valleys, good forests below 11,000 feet, and splendid, if desolate, mountains in the higher ranges. The Chitrálís are a quiet pleasure-loving people, fond of children and of dancing, hawking, and polo. They are no cowards and no fanatics, but have little regard for truth or good faith. The common language is Khowár (see page [112]). The chief, known as the Mehtar, has his headquarters at Chitrál, a large village on the river of the same name. It is dominated at a distance by the great snow peak of Tirach Mír (see page [22]). The British garrison is stationed at Kila Drosh on the river bank about halfway between Chitrál and the Lowari Pass [16].

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Fig. 135.

Mohmands and Mallagorís.—South of the Utmán Khel country and north of the Khaibar are the rugged and barren hills held by that part of the Mohmand tribe which lives inside the Durand line. The clan can muster about 20,000 fighting men and is as convenient a neighbour as a nest of hornets. The southern edge of the tract, where it abuts on the Khaibar, is held by the little Mallagorí tribe, which is independent of the Mohmands. Their country is important strategically because a route passes through it by which the Khaibar can be outflanked. It is included in the charge of the Political Agent for the Khaibar.

Afrídís.—The pass and the tract lying to the south of it including the Bazár valley and part of Tirah are the home of the six sections of the Pass Afrídís, the most important being the Zakha Khel, whose winter home is in the Khaibar and the Bazár valley, a barren glen hemmed in by barren hills, the entrance to which is not far from Ali Masjid. Its elevation is 3000 to 4000 feet. The valleys in Tirah proper, where the Pass Afrídís for the most part spend the summer, are two or three thousand feet higher. When the snow melts there is excellent pasturage. The climate is pleasant in summer, but bitterly cold in winter. The Bára river with its affluents drains the glens of Tirah. The Aka Khel Afrídís, who have no share in the Pass allowances, own a good dear of land in the lower Bára valley and winter in the adjoining hills. The fighting strength of the above seven sections may be put at 21,000. When they have been able to unite they have shown themselves formidable enemies, for they are a strong and manly race, and they inhabit a very difficult country [17]. But the Afrídí clan is torn by dissensions. Blood feuds divide house from house, and the sections are constantly at feud one with another. Apart from other causes of quarrel there is the standing division into two great factions, Gar and Samil, which prevails among Afrídís and Orakzais. Afrídís enlist freely in our regiments and in the Khaibar Rifles, and have proved themselves excellent soldiers. The eighth section of the Afrídís, the Adam Khel, who hold the Kohát Pass and the adjoining hills, have very little connection with the rest of the clan. The Jowákís, against whom an expedition had to be sent in the cold weather of 1877-78, are a sub-section of the Adam Khel.

Fig. 136. Khaibar Rifles.

Orakzais, Chamkannís, and Zaimukhts.—The Orakzais, who in numbers are even stronger than the Pass and Aka Khel Afrídís, occupy the south of Tirah, the Samáná Range on the border of Kohát, and the valley of the Khánkí river. The tribal territory extends westwards as far as the Khurmana, a tributary of the Kurram. The Orakzais do some trade and Sikh banias and artizans are to be found in some of their villages. The clan is honey-combed with feuds. North-west of the Orakzais beyond the Khurmana are the Chamkannís, and on the south is a small tribe of vigorous mountaineers called Zaimukhts. One of these Zaimukhts, Sarwar Khán, nicknamed Chikai, was a notorious frontier robber, and a person of considerable importance on the border till his death in 1903.

The Kurram Valley.—The Kurram Valley, which is drained by the Kurram river and its affluents, lies to the south of the lofty Safed Koh range, and reaches from Thal in Kohát to the Peiwar Kotal on the borders of Afghán Khost. It has an area of nearly 1300 square miles and in 1911 the population was estimated at 60,941 souls. Though under British administration, it does not form a part of any British district. The people are Patháns of various clans, the predominant element being the Turís, who are Shias by religion and probably of Turkish origin. It was at their request that the valley was annexed in 1892. The political agent has his headquarters at Parachinár in Upper Kurram, which is divided from Lower Kurram by a spur of the Khost hills, through which the river has cut a passage. Such part of the Indian penal law as is suitable has been introduced, and civil rights are governed by the customary law of the Turís. A complete record of rights in land and water has been framed, and the land revenue demand is 88,000 rupees (£5889). Upper Kurram is a wide and fertile valley set in a frame of pine-clad hills. It is not fully cultivated, but has great possibilities, especially in the matter of fruit growing. The snowfall is heavy in winter, but the summer climate is excellent. Lower Kurram is a poor and narrow glen unpleasantly hot and cold according to the season of the year. Parachinár is connected with the railhead at Thal by a good tonga road.

Wazíristán.—The country of the Darwesh Khel and Mahsud Wazírs extends from the Kurram valley to the Gomal river. It is divided into the North Wazíristán (2300 square miles) and the South Wazíristán (2700 square miles) Agencies. North Wazíristán consists of four valleys and some barren plateaux. The principal valley is that of Daur (700 square miles) drained by the Tochí. In 1894 the Dauris sought refuge from Darwesh Khel inroads by asking for British administration. In the eyes of the Darwesh Khel they are a race of clodhoppers. Their sole virtue consists in patient spade industry in the stiff rich soil of their valley, their vices are gross, and their fanaticism is extreme. The political agent's headquarters are at Miram Shah. South Wazíristán is the home of the troublesome Mahsuds, who can muster 11,000 fighting men. But parts of the country, e.g. the Wána plain, are held by the Darwesh Khel. Much of South Wazíristán consists of bare hills and valleys and stony plains scored with torrents, which are dry most of the year. The streams are salt. Part of the hinterland is however a more inviting tract with grassy uplands and hills clad with oak, pine, and deodár. Wána, where the political agent has his headquarters, was occupied on the invitation of the Darwesh Khel in 1894.

Sheránís.—The Sherání country stretches along the Dera Ismail Khán border from the Gomal to the Vihoa torrent. The Lárgha or lower part has been under direct administration since 1899, the Upper part belongs to the Biluchistán Agency.

Tribal Militias.—In the greater part of India beyond the border there is no British administration. Respect for our authority and the peace of the roads are upheld, and raiding on British territory is restrained, by irregular forces raised from among the tribesmen. There are Hunza and Nagar levies, Chitrál and Dír levies, Khaibar Rifles, Samána Rifles, and Kurram, North Wazíristán, and South Wazíristán militias.

Fig. 137. North Wazíristán Militia and Border Post.