Swat State, 1908
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Swat State
One of the tracts comprised in the Dir, Swat, and Chitral Agency, North-west Frontier Province, lying between 34° 40' and 35° N. and 72° and 74° 6' E. It forms the valley of the Swat river, which, rising in the lofty ranges bordering on Chitral, flows south- south-west from its source to Chakdarra, thence south-west to the Malakand, thence north-west to its junction with the Panjkora, thence south-west again till it meets the Ambahar, thence south-east to Abazai in Peshawar District. Below its junction with the Panjkora the valley is not, politically speaking, Swat but Utman Khel. Swat is divided into two distinct tracts : one, the Swat Kohistan, or mountain country on the upper reaches of the Swat river and its affluents as far south as Ain ; and the other, Swat proper, which is further subdivided into Bar (' Upper ') and Kuz (' Lower ') Swat, the latter extending from Landakai to kalangai, a few miles above the junction of the Swat and Panjkora rivers. The area of Swat, including Swat Kohistan, is about the same as that of Dir ; but the river valley does not exceed 130 miles in length, with an average breadth of about 12 miles. The valley contains a series of rich alluvial tracts, extensively cultivated and extending for 70 miles along the river banks, while in the Kohistan are vast forests of deodar. Starting from an elevation of 2,000 feet, at the junction of the Swat and Panjkora rivers, the valley rises rapidly, and the peaks to the north range from 15,000 to 22,000 feet above the sea. The climate of the lower valleys is malarious and unhealthy, especially in autumn.
The histories of Dir, Swat, Bajaur, and Utman Khel are so inextricably intermingled that it has been found impossible to treat them separately.
The first historical mention of these countries is made by Arrian, who records that in 326 B.C. Alexander led his army through Kunar, Bajaur, Swat, and Buner ; but his successor, Seleucus, twenty years later made over these territories to Chandragupta. The inhabitants were in those days of Indian origin. Buddhism being the prevailing religion ; and they remained thus almost undisturbed under their own kings until the fifteenth century. They were the ancestors of the non- Pathan tribes — e. g. Gujars, Torwals, Garhwis, &c. — who are now con- fined to Bashkar of Dir and the Swat Kohistan.
The invasion of the Yusufzai and other Pathan tribes of Khakhai descent, aided by the Utman Khel, then began ; and by the sixteenth century the Yusufzai were in possession of Buner, Lower Swat, and the Panjkora valley ; the Gigianis and Tarkilanris had established them- selves in Bajaur, and the Utman Khel in the country still occupied by them. The advent of these Pathan invaders introduced the Muham- madan religion throughout these countries. At this time the emperor Babar, by a diplomatic marriage with the daughter of Malik Shah Mansur, the head of the Yusufzai clans, and by force of arms, established his sovereignty throughout Bajaur (except Jandol), the Panjkora valley as far as its junction with the Bajaur, and Lower Swat. Upper Swat, which was still held by the aboriginal Swatis under Sultan Udais or Wais, tendered a voluntary submission, claiming protection from the invader, which Babar gave. In Humaytin's reign, however, the advance was continued, and the Yusufzai overran the Sheringal portion of Dir and Upper Swat as far as Ain, beyond which they have scarcely advanced to this day. Humayun's yoke was rejected by them, and even Akbar in 1584 could exact no more than a nominal submis- sion. Such degree of peace as obtains among independent Pathan tribes was enjoyed by the Yusufzai and their neighbours, until a fruitful cause of dissension arose in Dir in the person of a religious reformer named Bazid, called by his adherents the Pir-i-Roshan, whose chiet opponent was Akhund Darweza Baba, the historian of the Yusufzai, The heresy of the Pir and the constant depredations of the combatants on either side at length compelled interference. Zain Khan, Kokaltash, was deputed by the governor of Kabul to bring the tribes to reason, and after five years' fighting and fort-building he effected in 1595 a thorough conquest of the country. By 1658, however, in which year Aurangzeb ascended the throne, the lesson had been forgotten. The tribes refused to pay revenue, declared their independence, and main- tained it till the time of Nadir Shah, whose successors, Ahmad Shah Durrani and Timur Shah, kept their hold on the country. The grasp was not altogether lost by those who came after ; and, when Azim Khan attacked the Sikhs in 1823, the Yusufzai sent a large contingent with his army. They were defeated, and RanjTt Singh entered Peshawar, but did not essay a farther advance into the northern hills.
In 1829 the colony of Hindustani fanatics, which still exists in the Amarzai country, was founded by Mir Saiyid Ahmad Shah of Bareilly. But the austerities enjoined by the Mir were his undoing. A con- spiracy was formed ; his chief followers were murdered in a single night, and he himself was hunted down and killed at Balakot in Hazara in 1831. The primacy then passed to Abdul Ghafur, the famous Akhund, who established himself in 1835 at Saidu in Upper Swat, where he lived until his death in 1877, the most powerful man in the country.
On the establishment of British rule in the Peshawar valley (1849), no attempt was made to penetrate into the hill country. But the raids of the tribesmen in British territory, and the asylum which they afforded to outlaws and desperadoes, could not be suffered to pass unnoticed ; and punitive expeditions were sent in 1849 against the Utman Khel, and in 1852 against both this tribe and the inhabitants of Sam Ranizai, the country between the District border and the Malakand Pass. Severe punishment was inflicted in the second expedition. 'I'he year of the Mutiny (1857) passed off without disturbance, a refuge in Swat being actually denied to the mutineers of the 55th Native Infantry by the Akhund, who, however, adopted this course for reasons of local policy, not from love of the British Government. In 1863 took place the expedition against the Hindustani fanatics resulting in what is known as the Ambela campaign, in which the united forces of Swat, Bajaur, Kunar, and Dir were arrayed under the banner of the Akhund against the invading force. In 1866 another small expedition was sent to punish the Utman Khel, after which there was peace on the border till, in 1878, force had again to be used. The Guides were sent against the people of Ranizai and the Utman Khel, with complete success in the restoration of order. Early in 1877 the Akhund died ; and his son, attempting to succeed to his position, was bitterly opposed by the Khan of Dir. The whole country as far as Nawagai in Bajaur was embroiled ; and in the confused fighting and tortuous diplomacy that followed Umra Khan of Jandol, a scion of the royal house of Bajaur, took a prominent part. Allying himself first with the Mian Gul, the son of the Akhund, by 1882 he had conquered and taken from the Khan of Dir nearly half his country. In 1882 the Mian Gul became jealous and fell out with Umra Khan, making terms with the Khan of Dir. Umra Khan's position was rendered more difficult next year by the arrival in the Utman Khel country of a religious leader, said to have been sent from Kabul to thwart him, and known as the Makrani MuUa. His denunciations effected in 1887 a combination of the whole country-side, including Dir, Nawagai, Swat, Utman Khel, Salarzai, and Mamund, against Umra Khan. But the allies were defeated, quarrelled one with another, and dispersed ; and by 1890, the Mulla having fled the country, Umra Khan was master of the whole of Dir territory, the Khan (Muhammad Sharif) being in exile in Swat. Ever since 1884 Umra Khan had been coquetting with the British authorities, in the hope of being furnished with rifles and ammunition. In 1892 he accepted, in return for a subsidy, the task of keeping postal communi- cations open with Chitral, and thereafter began to intrigue, on the death of the great Mehtar Aman-ul-mulk, in the affairs of that country. The Asmar boundary commission in 1894 augmented the coolness between the Government and Umra Khan, which came to open hostility in the next year (see Chitral), and as a result of his defeat Umra Khan fled in 1896 to Kabul. The Khan of Dir at once returned to power and entered into agreements with the Government for keeping the Chitral road open, without toll, as also did the clans of Swat, subsidies being granted to both. In the year after the Chitral expedition, the Political Agency of Dir and Swat was constituted, and posts were built at Chakdarra, in Lower Swat, the Malakand, and Dargai in the Ranizai country. Chitral was shortly added as an apanage of the Agency, having hitherto been connected with Gilgit. The disturbance of the country caused by the events of 1895, the intrigues of Afghan officials, and the natural animosity of the religious classes after a period of apparent calm, during which the title of Nawab was conferred on the Khan of Dir, led to the rising of 1897, in which a determined effort was made by the tribesmen, mustered by the Mulla Mastan ('Mad Mulla ') of Swat, to storm the posts at Chakdarra and the Malakand. Their attacks were repulsed, though not without difficulty ; and in the punitive operations which followed columns were sent to enforce the submission of the Mamunds in Bajaur, the Yusufzai of Swat, and the Bunerwals. No action against Dir was necessary, for the Nawab had been able to restrain his people from overt hostility.
In 1901 a railway was opened from Naushahra to Dargai at the foot of the Malakand Pass. Tribal fighting has continued intermittently, but no event of importance took place in the Agency after 1897, until the death of the Nawab of Dir in 1904. His eldest son Aurang- zeb (Badshah Khan) has been recognized as the successor, but the succession is disputed by Mian Gul Jan, his younger brother.
Swat proper is now peopled by the Akazai branch of the Yusufzai Pathans (about 150,000 in number), and the Kohistan by Torwals and Garhwis (estimated at 20,000). The Vusufzai comprise various clans. On the left bank of the river lie the Ranizai and Khan Khel in Lower Swat, and the Sulizai and Babuzai in Upper Swat. On the right bank are the Shamizai, Sabujni, Nikbi Khel, and Shamozai in Upper Swat, and in Lower Swat the Adinzai, Abazai, and Khadakzai clans. All the clans on the right bank, except the two last named, are collectively known as the Khwazozai ; and all except the Ranizai on the left are collectively called the Baezai. The whole valley and the Kohistan are well populated; but before 1897 the Svvati Palhans had not the reputation of being a fighting race, and owing to the un- healthiness of the valley their physique is inferior to that of Pathans generally. The language of the people is the pure Yusufzai Pashtu, except in the Kohistan, where the Torwals and Garhwis speak dialects of their own, which is said to resemble very closely the dialect of Hindkl used by the Gujars of Hazara.
The people are by religion Muhammadans of the Sunni sect, those of the Kohistan, as recent converts, being peculiarly ignorant and fanatical. The shrine of the great Akhund of Swat, at Saidu, is one of the most important in Northern India. Born of Gujar parents, probably in Upper Swat, Abdul Ghafur began life as a herd-boy, but soon acquired the titles of Akhund and Buzurg by his sanctity, and for many years resided at Saidu, where he exercised an irresistible influence over the Yusufzai and their neighbours. His grandsons have inherited some of his spiritual influence. The offerings at the Akhund shrine and subscriptions received from their followers afford them a consider- able income. A still living religious leader is the Mulla Mastan, or ' Mad Mulla ' (also called the sartor or ' bare,' literally ' black-headed,' fakir), Sad-ullah Khan. By birth the son of a Bunerwal malik and a great athlete in his youth, he spent some years at Ajmer and returned to Buner in 1895. His piety soon made him widely known in the Swat and Indus Kohistan, and his religious fervour earned him his title of Mastan.
