H. C. Wylly

“ As the proverb says—‘the Pathan is one moment a saint, and the next a devil.’ 8For centuries he has been, on our frontier at least, subject to no man. He leads a wild, free, active life in the rugged fastnesses of his mountains; and there is an air of masculine independence about him which is refreshing in a country like India. He is a bigot of the most fanatical type, exceedingly proud and extraordinarily superstitious.” Holdich says of the Pathan that “he will shoot his own relations just as soon as the relations of his enemy—possibly sooner—and he will shoot them from behind. ”

“ The Government of Swat The Government of Swat, like that of all Pathan tribes, is an almost complete democracy. The country is split up into nearly as many factions as there are villages. Each sub-division of each division of each clan has its separate quarrels, and supports its own chief, who is generally at mortal feud with either his own relations or his neighbours, and who is seldom obeyed one instant longer than is convenient; so that nothing short of pressing danger to the whole community from without could ever bring together all the divisions into which Swat is separated. ”

“ Unlike most other independent border tribes, the Wazirs have had the good sense to avoid, to a large extent, internal feuds, and their unity as a tribe is proverbial. Their blood-feuds are consequently not so indiscriminate as those of some of their neighbours, it being ruled that the slaying of the actual murderer is sufficient. They are satisfied also with what they call “make-up money,” the price of a male adult being Rs. 1300; a woman is only half-price, while the tariff for sword-cuts is on a graduated scale—some twelve rupees for the first half inch! ”

“ Of the Gandab Valley, Lieutenant Enriquez says that “it is certainly a hopeless wilderness. Mile after mile the scenery offers nothing but dreary boulder-strewn mountains. The streams in summer disappear under ground and only rise to the surface at intervals. The purity of the water is not above suspicion. ”

“ Against some tribes, as in the case of the Afridis of the Kohat Pass in 1876–77, a blockade is an effective measure of punishment. It can, however, only be employed against such tribes as trade with British territory, and, while it lasts, any member of the offending tribe found within our border is at once seized and detained. This means of punishment has often been found effectual, and if effectual, it is preferable to a military expedition, which often leaves behind it bitter memories in the destruction of property and loss of life. ”

“ But, on the other hand, it can hardly be expected that men who have become again merged in their tribe, and who, according to their own ideas, are no longer bound to us by any obligation, should maintain an attitude of complete aloofness from any tribal movement prompted by racial feeling, or by that fanaticism which, on the border, has been defined as “a sentiment of religious intolerance excited into reckless action.” ”

“ The conditions of a feudal system, under which each baron lived in his own castle, and waged constant war with his neighbours over disputes relating to land and women, are simply being repeated again across our border. For stories of gross treachery, or cold-blooded murder and inter-family strife, we have only to turn back the pages of our own history book. In fact, it seems quite unfair to judge the Pathan according to twentieth century standards. ”

“ Since, however, “knowledge has been almost limited to the priestly class, it is only natural that in a village, where the Mullahs are almost the only men who can lay claim to anything more than the most rudimentary learning, they should have the people of the village entirely in their own control.” The general security in which the Mullah lives is the best possible evidence of the deference accorded to his office. “He is almost the only man,” says Oliver, “whose life is sacred from the casual bullet or the hasty knife, for whose blood the Pathan tariff does not provide a rate.” ”

“ Of the approach to Ghazni by the Tochi we know that it is easy enough, for we have made it so, as far as Sheranni, and thence onward to the Katanni Kotal very difficult, steep and broken; but we know practically nothing of the road between the head of the Katanni Pass and Ghazni. Of the Gomal route, so far as Domandi and Wana is familiar enough, but we would give much to know more than we do of the country beyond.
Physically the Wazirs are tall and muscular, and they are also courageous, while, though poor, they are hospitable. ”

“ In the matter of small arms we have not invariably possessed the conspicuous superiority which might have been expected of a highly-civilised nation warring against a semi-savage people. Readers of Kaye’s History of the War in Afghanistan will not need to be reminded how frequently both the Afghans, and the tribes which followed our columns, proved that their firearms were better in range and in man-killing power than were the weapons with which in those days, and even for some years after, our soldiers were armed. ”

“ The Deputy-Commissioner of Peshawar urged that a military force should be sent into the country, pointing out that, whereas the Sikhs collected their annual revenue under the cover of a considerable military force, none of our troops had ever been seen near this part of our border, and the hill tribes therefore imagined we had either no force to employ, or were afraid to entangle it in those fastnesses. ”

“ There is, perhaps, no other clan between the Kabul and the Kurram Rivers, so much under the influence of their mullahs and so fanatical as are these people; they also rather take the lead among the Orakzais.
The Massuzais are contained in three divisions, of which one is Gar and the other two are Samil, while all three are Sunnis. They can put 2000 men in the field, but have not a great reputation for courage. Their holdings are in the Kharmana Valley—the Kharmana River flows into the Kurram near our frontier post at Sadda—and they have a number of Afridi hamsayas settled amongst them. ”

“ The infantry and guns now arrived and assurances of submission were repeated, but on the force advancing to destroy some of the towers—the destruction of which was part of our conditions of peace—the enemy suddenly opened fire on the troops from behind walls and houses. The 1st Sikhs at once stormed the closed gates of the village of Haidar Khel, the 4th Sikhs and 1st Punjab Infantry took the defenders on either flank, while the cavalry, moving round in rear, sabred the men who were now evacuating the village. ”

“ Many an old raider’s heart must have beat quicker as he thought of the past, when he had ridden forth in just the same way on some foray far across the border. Breech-loaders were very scarce, but two-thirds of the men had jazails, and all of them had the long Pathan knife stuck through their kummerbunds, while here and there was a revolver or pistol, the latter generally of native workmanship. ”

“ The river from which the district takes its name, probably the Suastos of Arrian, debouches on British territory near the fort of Abazai, whence, up to its junction with the Panjkora—the ancient Gauraios—it is a swift, deep torrent, rushing between precipitous banks; the surrounding hills impracticable for any except foot passengers, and not easy for them, being in the hands of the Utman Khels.... The whole valley is highly cultivated and densely populated, each glen or gorge has its village or hamlet, and the total population has been estimated at not far short of 100,000 souls. ”

“ But it is probably sufficient to surmise that they are a tribe of Pactiyan stock, who have been established in their present country for many centuries—far longer than the majority of Pathan tribes—and that living as they do on the high road from Central Asia to India, it is likely that they have a large admixture of Turkish and Scythian blood.
The Afridi country being bleak and sterile, and the rainfall but small, agriculture is only scantily pursued, although they raise a coarse kind of rice in the Bara Valley, a considerable amount of which finds its way to the Peshawar market. ”

“ The Gomal is the most important pass between the Khyber and the Bolan. It gives access to the very centre of Afghanistan from India. It is the regular highway for thousands of trading and fighting people who bring their Kafilas yearly to India.... From Wana we not only dominate the southern Waziri valleys, but we round off the line of frontier outposts 424which hold all the wild people of the Suleiman mountains in check from Quetta to Waziristan. It secures the end of the chain, and can itself be supported and fed either from India by the Gomal Pass, or from Quetta by the Zhob Valley. ”

“ The tribe has three clans—the Salar, Mansur and Hassazai—of which the last is unrepresented among the trans-frontier Gaduns, while the other two are continually at feud. The trans-frontier clans contain about 2000 fighting men; they do not enlist freely nor are they much in request, being considered to be of smaller fighting value than other Pathans. The trans-Indus Gaduns are bounded on the east by the Utmanzais, on the north by the Amazais, on the west by the Khudu Khels, and on the south by British territory. The tribesmen are all cultivators or cattle-owners. ”

“ When inclined for cruel sport they sally forth to rob and murder, and occasionally to take prisoners into captivity for ransom. They have fired upon our own troops, and even killed our officers in our own territories. They have given an asylum to every malcontent or proclaimed criminal who can escape from British justice. They traverse at will our territories, enter our villages, trade in our markets; but few British subjects, and no servant of the British Government, would dare to enter their country on any account whatever. ”

“ It was, therefore, decided to destroy the towers of the large villages about Kandi Mishti, in the Khanki Valley, and lying at the foot of the Sampagha Pass. Sir William Lockhart, then, taking No. 2 Column, marched from Gulistan on the Samana by the Tsalai Spur and the Chagru Kotal to Kharappa, blew up three of the Kandi Mishti towers in the presence of the jirgahs, and from Kharappa marched through the country of some of the more westerly clans, sections of which had been concerned in the risings, and who had hitherto imagined that their position rendered them inaccessible. ”

“ On the 3rd, before the news of the advance of reinforcements had been confirmed by letter, bands upon bands of friendly Turis, horse and foot, could be seen making their way from Upper Kurram to Sadda, and other points likely to be attacked in Lower Kurram. The big attack was expected on the night of the 3rd September; all these men were going down to help to beat off the common enemy; they all gladly responded to the call of the Political Officer, and every village sent a contingent, just as they would have done in the old days before we took over the safe custody of the valley. ”

“ The Roads to Chitral There are two main routes from Chitral to India: that which has been followed in the preceding chapter, from Chitral over the Lowari Pass, through Dir and Swat, and across the Malakand to railhead at Dargai; and another from Chitral across the Shandur Pass to the Gilgit road, and thence through Kashmir and the Jhelum Valley to the rail at Rawal Pindi. Those passes leading to the north or to the west are for the most part very difficult; some are impracticable for pack animals, some are only passable at all during certain brief seasons of the year ”

“ General Unpopularity Of the Wazirs, Enriquez tells us that they “are held in abomination by all their Pathan neighbours, who have a common saying to the effect that ‘a Wazir will murder you for the sake of your pugaree.’ ... To the poor of their own community they are said to be charitable, and they do not offer violence to the wives and children of their personal foes. ”

“ If he has not got one when he joins, he may inherit one which may become just as binding, though it concerns people he has not seen for years, and hardly knew when he left home. In India the white man wants leave to get married, he is sick, he needs a change, or to avoid a bad station—for the Pathan soldier there is only one class of “urgent private affairs,” but for this he must have leave. Everyone knows for what purpose he goes; it is the only reason when the refusal of leave would justify desertion. ”

“ The Batannis claim descent from Baitan, the third son of Kais, who was the founder of the Pathan race. They live in the hill country on the borders of Tank and Bannu, from the Gabar Mountain on the north to the Gomal Valley on the south. They are the hereditary enemies of the Mahsuds, but have on occasion aided and abetted them in their attacks upon and raids into British territory; usually, however, on these occasions they have played the part of jackal to their more powerful neighbours. Though an insignificant tribe, numbering only 6000 fighting men, they have always been troublesome. ”

“ Of one Pathan tribe Macgregor said that “there is no doubt, like other Pathans, they would not shrink from any falsehood, however atrocious, to gain an end. Money could buy their services for the foulest deed; cruelty of the most revolting kind would mark their actions to a wounded or helpless foe, as much as cowardice would stamp them against determined resistance.” While Mr. Elsmie has spoken as follows of his five years’ experience as a Commissioner and Judge among the Pathans of the Peshawar border: “Crime of the worst conceivable kind is a matter of almost daily occurrence ”

“ Two companies of infantry were sent to seize a small detached hill commanding the village on the north-west, and when, at daybreak, the remainder of the force advanced, the headmen of Shakot, seeing the hopelessness of resistance, came forward and made an unconditional surrender, no shot having been fired on either side. All our demands were at once agreed to without demur, thirty-three hostages were selected, and no attempt to assist Shakot was made by any of the neighbouring villages, whose headmen now arrived to pay their respects. ”