The War of 1857-58, which shook foundations of the British rule in India, was a watershed development in the history of the Indian sub-continent. People of different regions reacted to the war in different ways. As it was not a centrally organized movement, people and rulers of different areas responded to it according to their peculiar circumstances. It is generally suggested that the province of the Punjab as a whole not only remained loyal towards the colonial power, but also provided crucial support to it to quell disturbances in other parts of the country. The reason for such an assumption is that no serious attempt has been made so far to analyze the myriad factors which shaped the respective responses and reactions of different regions, classes and communities in the country during the war against the foreign administration. Recently a book entitled “Punjab and the Ward of Independence 1857-58: From Collaboration to Resistance” has been published by Oxford University Press. The author of the Book Dr. Turab-ul-Hassan Sargana has focused on the role of the Punjab during the war. This study explores the role of landed aristocracy and influential families of the Punjab who collaborated with the British during the war, and also examines factors which convinced them to collaborate. It has investigated events of resistance at different places in the Punjab, explored and analyzed causes of the war in the province and also examined steps taken by the British to suppress the war in that region. It has also scrutinized factors which played an important role in the failure of the war in the Punjab.
The Punjab had already become a partially separated entity by the middle of the eighteenth century. Maharaja Ranjit Singh was nominated its ruler with the blessings of Afghanistan, not of Delhi. With this change, the traditional Muslim elite sought cooperation with the British as a way of retribution. According to Dr. Sargana, first resistance against the British actually came from the Punjab. They fought against the British at a number of places in 1845-49 much before the actual war of independence started. In that earlier phase, no other state sided with the Punjabis and they found themselves alone. The central argument of this study is that resistance to the British in the Punjab during 1857-58 has been under-emphasized in historical works and the role of the masses in the Punjab, who resisted the Raj, has not been adequately highlighted in the historiographical studies conducted on the colonial era. Therefore, the present study is an attempt to bring the role of the Punjabi masses at the forefront, along with that of the elite, in order to present a complete picture of the role of the Punjab in the war of independence. This book also helps in understanding the role of the landed elite in contemporary politics of Pakistan, especially in the Punjab and NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as it was a part of the Punjab in 1857) because the families who collaborated with the British during the war, are still playing an important role in the political mainstream of Pakistan.
The Punjab had already become a partially separated entity by the middle of the eighteenth century. Maharaja Ranjit Singh was nominated its ruler with the blessings of Afghanistan, not of Delhi. With this change, the traditional Muslim elite sought cooperation with the British as a way of retribution
This book consists of five chapters in addition to introduction, conclusion, notes, appendices, glossary, bibliography and index. Chapter one presents a historical survey of the history of the Punjab from the decline of the Mughal power in India to the annexation of the Punjab by the British in 1849. It analyses the administrative changes and policies adopted by the Board of Administration and later, the policies of John Lawrence as the first Chief Commissioner of the Punjab. It also explores how polices of the British East India Company affected people in the province. In addition, it compares British policies with those of the Sikh rulers, especially in the post-Ranjit Singh period. Chapter two deals with ruling families and personalities who collaborated with the British authorities and helped them in quelling the war. Among them the rajas of Patiala, Jind, Nabha, Kapurthla and the Nawab of Bahawalpur were the most prominent. Similarly, many landlords and jagirdar families like those of the Qureshis, Gilanis, and Khakwanis of Multan, Tiwanas of Sargodha, Awan, Ghebnas and Khattars of Attock, Qazilbash of Lahore, Lungrials of Sahiwal, Dahas and Hirajs of Khanewal, Kharral of Kamalia, Choudharys of Chakri, Sials of Jhang, and many others also collaborated with the British.
Chapter three investigates how and why the elite of the Punjab supported the British, and the ways in which the British government rewarded them for their services. These causes range from political to economic and from social to ethnic. Chapter four deals with the struggle of the people in the Punjab against the British in 1857-58. There is no denying the fact that most of the rulers of Princely States of the Punjab and landed aristocracy supported the British, but there were many heroic souls who fought against them. Apart from the sepoys, the civilian population of the Punjab also resisted the colonial government. This chapter further examines popular resistance against the British in the Punjab. The most powerful of these resistance efforts took place at District Gugera near modern Sahiwal. Similarly, people of Murree (District Rawalpindi) also rose up against the British. This chapter also evaluates the causes of resistance in the Punjab and discusses how the British quelled resistance in the province. Chapter five analyses reasons of the failure of the war of Independence in the province of the Punjab. It also explores how far these causes were different from the causes of failure of the war in Delhi.
It is true that the war in the Punjab was not fought on a large scale, as it was in northern or central India, but it is also a fact that the people of the Punjab resisted British rule with their backs to the wall. In some areas, such as Gugera, Murree, Jhajjar, Harayana and Ludhiana, they fiercely resisted the British. Dr. Sargana tells us that most princes, rulers and nawabs of the Princely States such as Patiala, Jind, Nabha and Kapurthla, and many chiefs of feudal of the Punjab, collaborated with the British. Their response was not different from that of the rulers of other state, such as Hyderabad, Bhopal and Gwalior, etc. Dr. Sargana is of the opinion that the response and attitude of the princes and nawabs towards the British should not be generalized as an expression of the opinion of the entire province. The rulers were not true representatives of the wishes of the people. The galaxy of war heroes included Rai Ahmad Khan Kharral, Sarang Kharral, Bahawal Fatiana, Murad Fatiana, Muhammad Khatia, Lal Kathia, Nathu Kathia, Bahlak Wattoo, Nadir Shah Qureshi, Walidad Murdana and Salabat Tarhana etc. of Gugera, Sardar Baz Khan Dhoond Abbasi of Murree, and Moulana Abdul Qadir of Ludhiana who led the resistance movement at various places in the Punjab province. They were neither rulers nor sepoys, but freedom fighters. They had no personal grievances against the British; their jagirs were not confiscated, nor were their pensions stopped. They fought for a noble cause, which was to eliminate foreign rule from their homeland. By highlighting the resistance of the people of the Punjab against Greek Emperor Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C and Nadir Shah of Afghanistan in the eighteenth century, Dr. Sargana tries to dispel the general impression that Punjabis always welcomed invaders with open arms.
The writer is a civil servant by profession, a writer by choice and a motivational speaker by passion!