The Hindustani Fanatics.[[24]]—Something has already been mentioned about the colonies of religious adventurers which are found among the hills and valleys of this part of the border; and a more detailed description must now be given of the particular colony or colonies of Hindustani fanatics, who have been responsible for, and have taken so prominent a part in, most of the operations in which British troops have here been engaged.

It was in the year 1823 that one Saiyid Ahmad Shah, of Bareilly, a religious adventurer, made his appearance on the Yusafzai frontier. He had been at one time a friend of the notorious Amir Khan Pindari—himself a Pathan born in Buner, who had fled before James Skinner and his “Yellow Boys” from Bhurtpore to the Himalayas. Saiyid Ahmad studied Arabic at Delhi, and made a pilgrimage to Mecca via Calcutta, and it was at this time that his doctrines gave him an influence over Bengali Muhammadans, which led them thenceforth to supply with recruits the colony which he founded. His doctrines at that time, whatever they may have become thereafter, were those of the Wahabi sect, and inculcated the original tenets of Islam, repudiating commentaries on the Koran and the adoration of relics. In 1823 then he appeared upon the Yusafzai border of the Peshawar district with some forty Hindustani followers, having arrived there by way of Kandahar and Kabul.

At this time the Pathans of the frontier were generally depressed by the crushing defeat which they and the Peshawar Sirdars had sustained at the hands of Ranjit Singh at the battle of Nowshera, so that when the Saiyid began to preach a jehad many people flocked to his standard, the number of his Hindustani followers grew to 900, and the Peshawar Sirdars also joined him. In the spring of 1827 Saiyid Ahmad proceeded to Nowshera with the intention of laying siege to Attock, but Ranjit Singh was ready for him. The great Sikh general, Hari Singh, with one army, awaited him on the Indus, while Budh Singh, crossing the river with another, marched to and entrenched himself at Saidu. Here Saiyid Ahmad surrounded his force, and in time reduced it to great straits, until Budh Singh, resolving to fight, warned the Peshawar Sirdars of the approach of another Sikh army under Ranjit Singh, and then joined battle. The Sirdars fled, and the Musalmans were routed with great slaughter. Saiyid Ahmad escaped with a handful of followers via Lundkhwar to Swat and thence to Buner, where the Saiyid was able to persuade the Pathans that treachery alone had been responsible for his defeat, and he was soon again joined by thousands. He then went to Panjtar, where he was cordially received by Fateh Khan, the chief of the Khudu Khels, and his position thereby greatly strengthened. Eventually he succeeded in getting the whole of Yusafzai and Peshawar under his control; he subdued the chiefs of Hund and Hoti; levied tithes; defeated a Barakzai force which had marched against him; took possession of Amb; and finally, in 1829, he occupied Peshawar.

Gaduns and Hindustanis

He had now come to the end of his tether; his exactions had made him unpopular with his Pathan following, and there was a general revolt against his authority. The Sikhs organised expeditions against him and his men, which, as Oliver says, “were exterminative rather than punitive. The villagers turned out and hunted back the fugitives into the mountains, destroying them like wild beasts. The history of the time is a record of the bitterest hatred. The traditions tell of massacre without mercy. Hunter quotes one instance in which the very land tenure was a tenure by blood, certain village lands being held by the Hindu borderer on payment to the Sikh grantees of an annual hundred heads of the Hassan Khel. The decline of Saiyid Ahmad’s fame as an apostle came after his ill-advised effort to reform the Pathan marriage customs, which was really an attempt to provide wives for his own Hindustanis. Something like the Sicilian Vespers was repeated, the fiery cross was passed round the hills as the signal for the massacre of his agents, and in one hour—the hour of evening prayer—they were murdered by the tribesmen almost to a man.”

With the men who were left, Saiyid Ahmad crossed the Indus and proceeded to Balakot, where the believers again rallied to him, and he gave battle once more to a Sikh army under Sher Singh. He was, however, signally defeated, he himself being slain, and, out of the 1600 Hindustanis who had taken the field with him, only 300 escaping to Sitana. This was a refuge for outlaws and for offenders of all kinds from Yusafzai and Hazara, and belonged to one Saiyid Akbar, who had been Ahmad’s counsellor and treasurer. Here the Hindustanis established a colony and built a fort which they called Mandi.

CHAPTER IV.
YUSAFZAIS AND GADUNS: OPERATIONS.[[25]]

None of the dwellers in the territories described in the last chapter gave us any trouble during the first few years which followed upon the taking over of the frontier by the British. In 1853, however, it became necessary to punish the Hindustani fanatics, who had afforded some assistance to the Hassanzais during the expedition which the British Government undertook against them in the previous year, and who had seized the fort at Kotla on the right bank of the Indus, belonging to the Nawab of Amb. Early in January 1853, Lieutenant-Colonel Mackeson, C.B., moved the following force down to the Indus opposite Kotla:

Two guns, Mountain Train Battery. 1st Sikh Infantry. 3rd Sikh Infantry. Two Dogra regiments of the Kashmir Army. Six Wallpieces. Six Zamburaks.

On the 6th the force was ferried across from Kirpilian in two large boats, and the Sikh regiments and mountain guns advanced, when the Hindustanis evacuated the fort and fled, being pursued and having considerable loss inflicted upon them by the Nawab of Amb’s men. There was no more trouble in the Peshawar district until the year of the Mutiny, and it was then almost entirely due to the presence on the Yusafzai frontier of the Hindustani fanatics, who were supported by contributions of men and money from traitorous princes and private individuals in India.