Daily Times

The State came into being soon after Nadir Shah’s conquest of Dera Ghazi Khan in 1739. He bestowed a vast area between Muzaffargarh to Thatta, including Shikarpur and Larkana south of Rivers Sutlej and along the Indus, upon Amir Sadiq Mohammad Khan of Bahawalpur and knighted him as Nawab for his invaluable support during that campaign. In a few years, his successor founded Bahawalpur City on an old site in 1748. The State prospered and expanded, while Multan and its territories continued to wallow in anarchy as the overlordship changed hands between Lahore, Kandahar and Delhi in a tug of war over suzerainty.

In the politically expedient but typically harebrained current talk about a so-called Seraiki province, the old configuration of the State of Bahawalpur could be the strongest and natural contender as its moral and physical integrity is intact. However, a nameless apprehension was found lurking in the hearts of non-Seraiki citizens of the State, as one could feel, if an ethnically- and not-historically-inspired Seraiki province came about. Such a parochial thought was impossible in the times of the Nawabs as they welcomed men of letters, warriors, administrators and craftsmen not only from deep inside the Indian Subcontinent but also Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. Like much else, a lot depends on the nobility or otherwise of the intentions of the leadership. Such vulgarity of thought and poverty of intention on the pain and cost of their subjects were utterly out of the character of the Nawabs of Bahawalpur. But times and masters change in the Orient, normally for worse.

The State had a unique character of its own. Despite being on one of the main invasion routes to Delhi and a history of valiant battles, the warrior spirit of its rulers did not overly militarise society. A general ambience of benevolence and mellowness prevailed. State offices and official residences were comfortable, ample and unostentatious. The only structures that spoke of a reasonable grandeur were Noor Mahal, Guzar Palace and Darbar Mahal, besides the Reading Library, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, State Courts and the world class Cricket Stadium. There was an air of harmony and a soothing mix of plenty and tranquillity in keeping with the ethos of a little kingdom that was irrigated by two rivers and mainly consisted of a vast desert tract extending into Baikaner and Jaisalmer.

The State of Bahawalpur had been genetically different in its chemistry and character from most sister states in our part of the subcontinent. Rajput states to the east into the Great Indian Desert and beyond were predominantly martial and territorially aggressive. Those in Sindh were richer and more placid and that of the Northern Areas still living with the hangover of the Great Game. Swat was peaceful but ruled with an iron hand under a curious semi-religious dispensation. This ginger Swati model was to cost dearly almost a hundred years later to the successor state of Pakistan. Larger states in Balochistan were extremely despotic with no inclination towards public works, education, arts and architecture. In this mixed brew, Bahawalpur stood out for its more benevolent style of governance, which did not mean lax administration.

Rivers Beas, Hakra, Sutlej and Indus once irrigated the territories that finally came to comprise this State. That nearly explains why it helped in the evolution of the Harappan civilisation and how prosperous it must have been. Between the 7th and 14th centuries AD, the rivers began to change course. Beas and Hakra eventually dried up and the Sutlej and Indus moved up further northwest. Agrarian towns and dwellings began to die and the predatory desert swept over them, burying them under sand for centuries to come. The tragic loss of Hakra River almost choked the life out of Cholistan as it had flowed through the middle and was central to the region’s thriving agricultural economy. Yet Cholistanis contested these calamities tenaciously and survived.

Where once the Hakra River flowed in all its life giving sweetness is a great, parched depression bisecting the State from east to west. Lizards, snakes and porcupines scurry around in the dry bed, scorpions and hunting spiders lie in ambush under the distant but forlorn Acacia trees where once endless green fields used to be. During hot summer days, dusty whirlwinds spin madly over desolate salty flats like possessed desert dervishes, dancing to a mysterious music that none can hear. Nothing grows here anymore except bramble bushes and bitter jojoba. However in 1929, British engineers began to dig a network of canals that became famous as the Sutlej Valley Project, once again under the patronage of that outstanding ruler, Nawab Sadiq Mohammad Khan V. This will remain his greatest and the most lasting parting gift to his people for a long, long time to come. Acts like these are called true benevolence and are remembered with gratefulness for generations. The Nawab was a man of few words, unlike the shrill political sirens of today. Empty vessels perhaps, and arid too maybe.

This time around, the view had changed qualitatively in many ways. The cantonment had come up very well but the city was a reprehensible eyesore. There were potholed roads, choked sewers, mounds of filth and ugly encroachments everywhere. It looked as if Bahawalpur itself had sunk into a great depression and was about to be swept under by the unforgiving desert. What marred the garrison’s sprightliness were miles upon miles of barbed wire fence, military check posts, weapon bunkers, armed sentries and a premonition of impending terrorist attack, all over the place. Inside there are lush green patches, thick clumps of shady trees, neat, carpeted roads, tastefully laid out parks and bustling markets. A contradiction of sorts.

There is a lot of talk of the Punjabi Taliban finding host and home here, which does not really go with the nature of these people. Why are those vipers here? There is a background to it, which shows how its inferior recipients for base motives could misuse kindness. The Nawabs of Bahawalpur were known for their philanthropy and patronage of religious and modern education. While institutions like the modern Sadiq Public School and Sadiq Egerton College were being set up, they also extended their non-discriminating financial support to madrassas in Nadvah and Deoband, and that attracted their graduates to mosques and madrassas in the State. Proliferation of the Punjabi version of the Taliban in south Punjab is partly a result of the largesse of the Nawabs of Bahawalpur and certain weak-kneed subedars of Multan.

(Concluded)

The writer is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan Army and can be
reached at clay.potter@hotmail.com