 |
|
|
It is difficult to understand why a controversy on Ahmad Shah Abdali's role during his Indian campaigns is being raised these days and the Afghan king being presented as a hero by some and an invader and a marauder by others. Whatever the reasons, the fact remains that those who judge him from an ethnocentric point of view, for them he was the founder of modern Afghanistan and a great Afghan (popularly he is called baba) who defeated the Indians and conquered their territories.
And those who see his achievements in religious perspective, for them he was a great conqueror who defeated the Marathas at the Battle of Panipat in 1761 and liberated the Muslims from their political domination. But those who assess his career purely from a historical point of view, they will find him an aggressor who invaded India only for the sake of plunder and loot and inflicted great political, social and economic losses on the people of the Indian subcontinent.
We need to understand that foreign invasions always bring havoc, chaos, and disruption to occupied territories. If we absolve our (Muslim) invaders from crimes and instead start eulogizing them, it creates false historical consciousness leaving no space for us to learn anything from history. In case of invaders and aggressors there should be no distinction between 'ours' and 'theirs'. They should be treated purely within historical parameters and their crimes should be exposed and condemned.
Ahmad Shah Abdali (1722-1773) was with Nadir Shah when the latter invaded India in 1739 and participated in all his Indian campaigns and subsequent lootings. Therefore, his main motive to invade India, when he assumed power after the assassination of Nadir Shah, was purely to plunder what his patron had left behind and nothing else.
Leaving aside the accounts of his Punjab, Sindh and Blochistan campaigns, I would like to concentrate on his invasion of North India and occupation of Delhi in 1757 and in 1761. That was the period when the Mughal Empire had lost its military power and failed to protect its imperial capital from the Afghan army. After the invasion, Abdali's first victim was the population of Mathura, the holy city of the Hindus. The contemporary chronicles describe that the occupation army demolished the houses, broke the idols, massacred male population and raped helpless women.
Next was the Gokul city and then Agra where his general Jahan Khan not only slaughtered the inhabitants but also levied heavy fines on those who were fortunate enough to survive. Leaving a trail of devastation and destruction behind him, Abdali entered the imperial capital and launched a systematic campaign to plunder the city. The author of Tarikh-i-Alamgiri gives details of looting.
According to him, a centre was set up to collect fines from the citizens near Katra Roshan-al-Daula. Letters were sent to the rich people to come to the office and pay the imposed fine. On every street and market a kulahposh was posted who counted the houses and shops and demanded money according their financial status. Torture and beating was a common practice to extort money. As a result, many people committed suicide; many died because of torture. To find hidden treasure, the soldiers demolished the houses and dug the floors and no one was spared.
It is estimated that a total amount of money which Abdali took from India was between 3 and 12 cores of rupees. The booty not only included jewels, ornaments, diamonds, and other precious things but also the Mughal princesses. He wanted to marry Hazrat Mahal, the daughter of Muhammad Shah.
According to J.Sarkar in his The Fall of the Mughal Empire: " This tender lamb was to be pounced upon by a fierce Afghan of grandfatherly age whose two ears docked and nose was rotting from a leprous carbuncle." There was resistance in the harem. The royal family threatened to kill her. He was told that she was not beautiful and was already engaged to a prince. However, all efforts to save her from the clutches of the Afghan failed. He married her forcibly.
Two widows of Muhammad Shah and the daughter of Ahmad Shah accompanied her to Afghanistan. Besides them, there were other Mughal princesses who were forced to accompany the Afghan army. They included Affatun Nisa, who was married to Nadir Shah's son in 1739 and whom Ahmad Shah married after the death of Nadir. Sarkar quotes from a Marathi letter which says: "The Pathan has taken away the handsome wives of the Amirs". There was such a large-scale loot of the capital that it took 28,000 camels, elephants, mules, and carts to carry Abdali's booty.
Shah Waliuallah (d.1762), who later invited Abdali to invade India, was in Delhi and wrote letters to his friends seeking help for his safety. In one of his letters he writes, " When the Shah (Durrani) marches against India, you should write to some of your sincere friends in the Durrani's army that so and so (Shah Wali-Allah) is in Delhi.
Should the Durrani's army suddenly enter Delhi, some of his guards should be posted for his (Shah Wali-Allah's) protection. By way of protection it would be better to depute a student to the Durrani's army, in order that he might warn the army in time to protect the sincere friend (Shah Wali-Allah)." In spite of his acts of plunder and atrocities, which was personally witnessed by Shah Waliullah, he wrote a letter to Abdali to invade India against the Marathas.
Most of the Pakistani textbook historians eulogize Abdali as a great mujahid who defeated the 'kafir' Marathas in the third battle of Panipat (1761). However, historians of South Asia point out that the benefit of the Marathas' defeat went to the East India Company and not the Mughals. After the battle of Panipat, Abdali came to Delhi as a conqueror and resided at the Red Fort along with his wives and held court in the Diwan-i-Khass of Shahjahan. He and his army did not spare the city from pillage and rapine.
Mir Taqi Mir narrates the tribulations of the inhabitants of Delhi in his autobiography Zikr-i-Mir, in these words: "In the evening Raja Nagar Mal (Mir's patron) left the city, and in due course reached the fort of Suraj Mal (the Jat ruler). I stayed behind to look after my family. After evening, a proclamation was made that Shah Abdali had granted security to all, and that none of citizens should be in any fear. But as night had scarcely fallen when the outrages began. Fires were started in the city and houses were burnt down and looted.
"The following morning there was all uproar and confusion. The Afghans and Rohillas (Najib's soldiers) started the work of slaughter and plunder, breaking down doors, tying up those they found inside, and in many cases burning them alive or cutting off their heads. Everywhere was bloodshed and destruction, and for three days and three nights this savagery continued. The Afghans would leave no article of food or clothing untouched.
"They broke down walls and roofs of the houses, ill-treated and tormented the inhabitants. The city was swarming with them. Men who were pillars of the state were brought to nothing, men of noble rank left destitute, family men bereft of all their loved ones. Most of them moved the streets amid insult and humiliation. Men's wives and children were made captive, and the killing and looting went on unchecked. The Afghans humiliated and abused their victims and practised all kinds of atrocities upon them. Nothing that could be looted was spared, and some would strip their victims even of their underclothing. The new city (Shahjahanabad) was ransacked."
Mir Taqi Mir further writes how the old city of Delhi was plundered by the occupation army of Abdali." For seven or eight days the tumult raged. Nobody was left with cloth to wear or with enough food even for a single meal. Many died of the wounds that they had received, while others suffered greatly from the cold. The looter would carry off men's stores of grain and then sell it at an extortionate price to those who needed it.
The cry of the oppressed rose to heaven, but the king (Abdali), who considered himself a pillar of true religion, was quite unmoved. A large number of people left the city and fled into the open country, where many of them died. Others were carried off by force to the invader's camp. I, who was already poor, became poorer...my house, which stood on the main road was razed to ground."
This was the legacy of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the great warrior and conqueror that he left behind in India. If still he is to be regarded as a hero or saint, then we shall have to change the meaning of both words. (Those who wish to know more about Abdali may refer to Ganda Singh's excellent book Ahmad Shah Abdali).
The writer is an eminent historian
of Pakistan and has written several books on South Asian history.
|
|
|