Colonial Encounter on the North-West Frontier Province: Myth and Mystification

Author(s): Akbar S. Ahmed

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 14, No. 51/52 (Dec. 22-29, 1979), pp. 2092-2097
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4368262
Accessed: 07-04-2015 04:59 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic and Political
Weekly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 111.68.96.57 on Tue, 07 Apr 2015 04:59:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

SPECIALARTICLES

Colonial

Encounter

Frontier

on

the

North

West

Province

Myth and Mystification

Akbar S Ahmed
The colonial encounter on the north-west frontier of undivided India was one of the most barren
encounters. For the Pathan, colonisation meant destroyed villages, water tanks and grain storesl;it meamt
electrified fences, block houses and unending series -of 'butcher and bolt' raids. When the British finally
left in 1947, the legacy they left behind did not consist of schools or colleges or such other symbols of
development, but of repressive institutions like Frontier Scouts and Constabulary. The barrenness of
the colonial encounter in the Frontier is in notable contrast to that in Bengal, across the sub-continent,
or even across the Indus in the Punjab.
Nevertheless, the Pathan-Britishencounter has been permeated with a strong element of 'romance'
which is reflected in the memoirs and accounts left by the British as well as in the creative works by
writers like Kipling - though the Pathan himself has never been able to see the noble and romantic
aspects of the encounter.
This aeticle examines the causal factors that led to the mystificationof the colonial encounter,and
the social and political needs that such mystificationfulfilled.
THE story of colonisation is not a pretty
one. To the Pathans living in the
North-West Fron-tier Province of Pakistan (NWFP) and particularly in its
Tribal Areas, it has meant destroyed
villages, water-tanks and grain-stores; it
has meant electric-fences, block houses
and a non-ending series of 'butcher and
bolt' raids.
Colonisation scars the colonised as it
dehumanises the coloniser. To the
Pathan in the Tribal Areas it meant a
complete rejection of the twentieth century which in his eyes the British represented. For instance, in 1947 when
the British left there was not a single
school, dispensary, electric bulb or government post In (what is now) the
Mohmand Agency area. There were
no hospitals, schools, colleges, railways
or electricity in the Tribal Areas, except,
of course facilities like electricity locally
generated within British cantonments
and for the exclusive use of the British.
ITe instibutionsthe British left behind
were Instrumentsof repression and subversion: the Frontier Scouts and Constabulary, block-houses and barbed wire,
political allowances and titles.
Today remnants of the British cultural
legacy are reduced to adjuncts of war
- the bag-pipes the Frontier Constabulary plays and the shorts it still
wears for its uniform. Here was one of
the most barren meetings of cultures
possible. The lack of synthesis does

not indicate an inherent structural flaw

or weakness in either culture; it merely
reflects on the form of the encounter.
Nevertheless a miasma of romance and
mystification enveloped the encounter
on the Frontier. I shall examine in
this paper the causal factors that created
this mystification and the social needs
they satisfied.
British influence over the last century
made its greatest impact at the most
distant and encompassing four points of
the Indian sub-continent: the great
Presidency cities of Calcutta, Madras,
Bombay and the capital (after 1911)
Delhi. These cities produced universities which in turn educated native lawyers, doctors, civil servants, politicians,
often more English than the English, a
consequence of Macaulay's Minute on
Education, 1835, considered_"the most
far-reaching single measures in the
nineteienth century". Perhaps the
Minute's most important aspect was that
the English language entered into the
mainstream of Indian social and political life as its lingua franca. A religious and cultural synthesis inspired from
the West produced the Derozians, the
Brahmo Samaj, the Servants of India
and the Theosophical Society. In turn
neo-revivajist Hindu ideology like the
work of Ramkrishna and Vivekananda
became popular in the West. By the
beginning of the 20th century Indians,
the makers of modern India and them-

selves a product of the synthesis, were

acquiring international names: Gokhale,
Jinnah, Nehnu, Gandhi, Iqbal and
Tagore.
The barren cultural encounter in the
Frontier is in notable contrast to Bengal,
across the sub-continent, where whole
groups not only interacted to but entirely adopted the ideas, manners and
language of the British. The intellectual eclecticism and synthesis created a
new class, the bhadralok, literally 'cultivated, class', often in the forefront of
sophisticated political philosophies on
the sub-continent. The hundred years
of British rule on the Frontier failed to
prodice bhadralok groups of any kind.
The grand, clubs like the Madras Club
(the last to allow natives), the United
Services Club and the Bengal Club of
Calcutta, the race clubs, the sea-ports,
the railway stations, the law courts and
the restaurants reflected the glory of
Empire. These vast and grand edifices
reflected a cultural moment when the
East and the West appeared to coalesce
and come together in harmony.
The Punjab Province was the 'model
province' of the Empire. By the latter
half of the last century and the newlyopened 'canal colonies' were converting
Punjab into an area of agricultural
surplus. New townships named after
Victorian heroes, like Abbottabad, Montgomery and Lyallpur, were appearing on
the map; new educational institutions

2092

This content downloaded from 111.68.96.57 on Tue, 07 Apr 2015 04:59:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY

December 22-29, 1979

like Aitchison or Chiefs College, Forman Regiments, the Frontier Scouts and Pass in 1672 (10,000 killed, 20,000
Christian College, St Anthony's College Frontier Constabulary.
captured) and in the Mohmand areas in
were beginning to produce a new kind
The North-West 'FrontierProvince re- 1673 and 1674. In 1920 an entire
of elite. Fehnale education got off to 'mains one of the most fascinating British brigade was destroyed at Ahnai
a start in the last century in the Jesus areas and memories of the British Em- Thngi in WazIristan: 366 including 43
and Mary Convents located in most big pire. Myth, legend and reality over- officers were killed and 1,683 were
towns of the Purriaband their main lap here and one is not sure where one wounded. During the same campaign
boarding school and centre at Murree. stops and the other begins. The Fron- near Makin a British regiment was
Agricul.tural development and adminis- tier was where carees, including those mauled with 60 killed and 90 wounded;
trative security made life in that Pro- of Indian Viceroys and British Prie
in contrast only 22 Mabsud were killed
vince secure and sta;ble for all ethnic Ministers, could be made and unmade; and 48 were wounded. In other parts
and religious groups during what has where a simple incident could escalate of the Empire the balance of soldiers
been called the 'Pluniabi Century.
rapidly into an international crisis and was always againstNthe British: in the
The synthesis was in stark contrast where in 1897 in the general uprisings Tribal Areas for once it was the British
to life across the Indus in the Frontier in the Tribal Areas (Ahmed 1976) the who far outnumbered native enemies:
and in the Tribal Areas. Here the en- British faced their greatest crisis in for instance Clive fought and won at
counter was real and the bullets never India after 1857. "The North-West Plassey in 1757 with only 2,100 soldiers
stopped. Military forts, columns, bugles Frontier of India must surely be one against an army of 50,000. Mughals
and sudden death preoccupied the of the most legendary of places on the too were accustomed to victory over
British. Here it was the Britisher who earth's surface.. . Both Alexander the superior numbers. Babar, the first
learned the language of his subject and Great and Field Marshal Alexander of Mughal Emperor, faced Lodhi's 100,000
it was a rare Pathan from the Tribal Tunis served here; and between them men at Panipat in 1526 with only
Areas -who spoke, dressed or ate like a great scroll of names - Tamerlane, 12,000 troops. But on the Frontier, by
the British. The only encounter of any Babar, Akbar, and with the coming of 1915 all eight British battalions in
sort took place in dark ravines or on the British, Pollock, Napier, Lumsden, India were on duty. By 1936, 80,000
rough mountain crags or perhaps in the Nicholson, Roberts, Robertson, Blook, British troops were deployed in Waziexchange of wit with political officers. Churchill, Wavell, Slim, Auchinleck, ristan alone more than all the rest in
The Tribal Areas remained closed and even Lawrence of Arabia. Apart the sub-continent. In the last major
systems in the most profound sense of from soldiers, the iFlontier has i-nvolved campaign against the Mohmand in 1935
the term. It was not only a different generations of administrators,politicians, General Auchinleck led 30,000 British
world, it was almost a different century. and statesmen: Palmerston, Disraeli, troops into their country. The fighting
Let me hasten to add that I speak Gladstone,.Dalhousie, Lawrence, Lytton, strength of Mohmand as assessed by
of larger cultural encounters and im- Curzon, Gandhi, Nehru, Attlee, Jinnab, General Staff may be gauged by the
perial systems that leave little room for and Mountbatten have come to power 'fighting men' of their two major clans:
the role and charadter of individuals. or fallen, through their Frontier policies. Gandab Halimzai, 3,500 and Tarakzai,
On the latter level the Frontfer has' The Frontier has not only been the 3,100 (General Staff 1926: 38).
produced some of ithe most celebrated concern of Britain, India and AfghanisPathans in the Tribal Areas who have
officers in the Empire. The legendary tan _(and in recent years of Pakistan); humbled the arrnies of two of the greaheroes of Victorian India grew to the mysterious pressures it generates test empires knotvn in India, the Mughal
stature here: Edwards of Bannu, have involved Russia, China, Persia, and the British, have never been conAbbott of Hazara and Nicholson, one Tuirkey and even France; on two occa- quered, Pathan tribes in Afghanistan
of the heroes, of Delhi. These officers sions these pressures have brought the before their 'assimilation'by Amir Abdur
provided the Victorian era with a proto- world to the brink of war" (Swinson. Rabman provided British military history
type: dashing, bold and often killed on 1967: 11).
with one of its most dramatic and
duty in the prime of their lives like
world's greatest conquerors, chilling moments with the appearance
The
Burnes, Nicholson, Mackeson, Cavag- Alexander, Taimur, and Babar have not of the half-dead and half-crazed Doctor
nan. Initially "the officials with the succeeded in su-biugatingthe pathan and Brydon on the cold January morning in
British force who could claim any ac- have had to come to terms with him to 1842 at the Jalalabad garrison - a
quaintance with the Afghan language use his passes to the sub-continent. He moment immortalised in Lady Butler's
were to be counted on the digits" has made and unmade kings in Kabul. famous painting in the Tate Gallery,
(Bellew 1867: vii) but the position He is aware of being an empire-builder London. The doctor was the sole
changed drastically after the creation and destroyer, of helping found the survivor of the grand Army of the
of the North-West Frontier Province in great Mughal Empire. In the words of Indus. Th,e impossible had happened
1901, largely from the trans-Indus areas Kbushal Khan Khattak, the Patban poet, in the Victorian era and at the highof the Punjab Province, when officials "After him was' Babar King of Delhi, noon of British military might: an enon the Frontier not only had to pass who owed his place to the Pathans".
tire British army had been wiped out.
tests in Pushto but also, became immersWith ym'all populations and severely It may be recalled that in 1672 a simied in the ways of the Frontier. Later limited resources the Pathan has shatter- lar fate had overtaken an entire Mughal
years produced Frontier officers like ed the armniesof the world's mighviest Army in the Khyber Pass and the
Howell, Cunningham and Caroe Empires. Akbar the Great's army was Emperor Aurangzeb's Governor, Amin
to
Pathans
often more Pathan than the
annihilated while returning from Swat Khan survived with just four others
Peshawar.
to
way
themselves. Along with' the men, in 1586 (8,000 killed including Akbar's make his lonely
In 1897 the Frontier erupted; in what
Frontier institutions acquired world favounrte minister Birbal). Aurangzeb's
fame: the Guides, the Frontier Force army was shattered in the Khyber can abe seenl as local response to pro-

This content downloaded from 111.68.96.57 on Tue, 07 Apr 2015 04:59:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

December 22-29, 1979

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY

mises of visionary religious leaders of

a millennium and utopia in/ the near
future (Ahmed 1976). Its failure saw
among other troops the Mohinand Field
Force in 1897 roaming at will in the
most inaccessible areas of the' Mohrnand
Agency up to the Baezai Jarobi glen
after the followers of the Adda Mullah,
destroying villages, water tanks and
grain stores. This was the first and
last invasion of the deepest area of
Mobmand country in history. Churchill, who accompanied the Force, was
moved to write: "Far beneath, was a
valley upon which perhaps no white
man had looked since Alexander crossed the mountains on his march to
India" (Churchill 1972: 81). It was to
be almost another 76 years before outsiders would be permitted to cross the
Nahakki Pass again this time without a
.shot being fired (Ahbned 1977 a).
During the 1908 Mohmand expedition' into the Gandab valley 38,000
maunds of grain were destroyed and
the British lost 89 deadl and 184 wounded. 1916 saw the high watermark of
determination to keep the Mohmands
from the Empire. Two wires, one of
which was charged with electricity,
were put up between the Kabul and
Swat rivers along a length of about
seventeen miles. In between and at
every 600 yards strongly guarded
block-houses were constructed and as
a 'final solution' nearby villages were
destroyed. 400 Mohmands were electrocuted that year. Mohmands still carry
a bitter memory of this period and
date events from the 'year of expulsion'
(sharonkay kal).
In' a top secret assessment called
"Secret Appreciation by Offloer Commanding No 2 (Indian) wing of the
possibilities of the coercion of the
Mohmand tribes by air action" watertanks (the store of the year's water
in the village mud and clay pond from
rains) whole villages and towers were
listed as targets. Also listed was the
Safi Chamarkand area where Russian
influences were suspected. In the.1933
and 19.35 campaigns air strikes and
tanks were tused against the Mohmand.
A leader called 'Ethics of bombing' in
The Statesman (September 9, 1935) supported the action: "If the Government of India have to teach the
marauders a lesson, what from the
point of view of the party attacked is
the difference between being bombed
from a'bove or shelled from opposite or
being attacked by mnachine-gunor rifle
fire"?
The economic consequenoes of a
blockade had far greater impact than
its immdiate military aims of defeat-

ing the enemy in battle. "A blockade Pathan and India the history of conof the Mohmands had been proclaimed quest, took a final turn against Muslim
.by the Chief Commissioner in. August, dynasties in Delhi.
afid its effect,was beginning to be most
Structurally, the British bolstered and
seriously felt. Cloth was soon practi- enoouraged the growth of a 'chiefly'
cally unobtainable in Lower Mohmnand Malik class in the Tribal Areas. Their
country, the. Upper' Mobmands only efforts met with little success. But
obtained it at great cost through Kana the foundation of conflict, contradiction
and' Kunar; salt was being sold in and, dysfunction in Pathan society betPandiali and Kamadi at two seers per ween the elders (mashar, political
rupee, antl' the cost of soap, tea, sugar haves) and youngers (kashar, political
and other commodities had risen in have-nots) was created. The very core
proportion.
Above all, the annual of tribal democracy was touched. But
winter migration to be Peshawar valley the Maliks with all their secret allowfor labour and trade, u-pon which the ances' and political privileges remained
Khwaezai, Baezai and other up-country little more than glorified 'tourist' chiefs.
clans depend in great measure for their In the interior, of' the Agencies tfie
subsistence during the rest of the year, weight of their word depended to a
was stopped. Numerous arrests of great deal on tbeir personal influence.
Mohmands had also been made, and The Tribal Areas remnaineda 'closed
property of considerable value seized system'.
by the Frontier Constabulary, who were
Two types of writers created the
constantly engaged in patrolling the myth of the Frontier: people who had
Mohamand border by night.in search of lived and served' in. the area and those
tribesmen attempting to evade the who howderlirised the subject for
blockade, was. sold by auction and the popular appeal. The Romance of the
proceeds credited to Government". Frontier was to reach its literary
(PBP July 1916, Nos 6-13 A: 7). ITe apogee with Kipling, troubador of Emstandard 'Military Report on Mobh- pire. Kipling reflects sympathy for the
mand Country' General Staff, India,. re- underdog and his ethnic references are
comnmendsthat "the only means by not wilfully malicious, though the Afriwhich the submission of the tribes can can native prototype is still 'Fuzzybe secured are the temporary occupa- Wuzzy' and a 'big black boudi,n begtion of the country and the destruction gar'; andl the Indian the low-caste
of crops and villages" and has sections 'Gunga Din' is "of all them blackfaced
entitled "Best Seasons for Operations" crew the finest man I knew". The Afriwhich recommend autumn so that "the can and the Asian are the White Man's
chief harvest of the year can then be Burden, "new-caught, sullen peoples,
taken for the use of the expedition, half devil and half child".
anv surplus destroyed and the sowing
Contrastin,g strongly in theme and
of the next crop disturbed or preven- tone of address' is the encounter betted" (General Staff 1926: 34).
ween the Pathan, in this case an Afridi
Bitterness for the twentieth-century outlaw, land the Britisher in perhaps
'civilisation' and 'modernisation' process the best known of his imperial poems,
in Pathan minds results from their asso- 'The Ballad' of East and West'. The
ciation of these processes with. the theme and literary tone are grand and
colonising British. An American scho- imperial, they manifestly transcend
lar conmnents: "As far as the Frontier colour and race. Here is a meeting of
is concerned, however, the story two races on equal footing reflecting a
throughout is one of a struggle for mutual admiration and acceptance of
control - a control wihich was never each other's ways:
completely established and a struggle
But there is neither East nor West,
which ended only when the British
Border,, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand
departed in 1947. In this context, the
f,aoe to face, though they come
political history of the Frontier under
from the ends of the earth.
British rule hangs more on 'milestones At the end of the poem "the two'strong
of suppression than on those of reform" men" have come to terms:
(Spear 1963: 145).
They have taken the Oath of the
Brother-in-Blood on fire and fresh
Local Pukhtun memory of imperial
cut sod,
conflict is reinforced by the memory
On the hilt and the haft of the
of three events on the larger stage: it
Khyber knife, and the wondrous
was a Pathar who replaced the M;ughal
names of God.
Emperor by force of arms, it was a There is in''Kipling a certain respect
Pathan who fought and won the last for the rough and wild tribesmen that
battle of Panipat shattering the finest contrasts' with his open and general
Maratha forces, and with the Sikh contempt for natives in the Empire. It
kQingdomforming a hedge between the is the, Pathan in the Khyber that forces

This content downloaded from 111.68.96.57 on Tue, 07 Apr 2015 04:59:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

December 22-Z9, 1979

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY

questions and doubts about the 'Arithmetic on the Frontier' where "Two
thousand pounds of education drops to
a ten rupee jezail".
Missionaries, doctors, soldiers, administrators and women have contributed over a century to multi-dimensional and intimate accounts of Pathan
social and political life wherein he
emerges as an Indian version of the
'noble savage'.* There is a peculiar lovehate relationship inherent in the concept. The two main points that emerge
from these accounts are divided between the 'noble' half of the concept,
a 'different' type of native, his 'likeability', democracy, frankness, sense of
humour and the other half of the concept, his 'savageness', 'treachery' an4
the dangers of duty on the Frontier. I
reproduce the quality Qf. this kind of
danger on the Frontier and the form of
divided loyalties it could generate.
Irene Edwards, a nurse in the early
1930s in Peshawar, relates how she and
Captain Coldstream were having
coffee and talking about golf:

He knew that I was very keen

on golf and asked me if I'd like a
lesson from him. I said yes, I'd
be very grateful, and he arranged
to pick me up at five that afternoon. Then he wett downstairs.
When he got to the bottom he
waved to me and said, 'I'll pick
you up then, at five' I said, 'Right',
and I turned round to walk back
to the duty room. Then I heard
a peculiar sort of scuffling noise.
SuddenlV I heard shouts of 'Sister,
Sister, come quicklyl' I rushed to
the top of the stairs and looked
down and there were two of the
babus carrying Captain Coldstream
upstairs. I could see blood streaming from his neck and I said,
'What has happened ?' 'He's been
beaten' one b&lbusaid. The other
habu said in Hindustani, 'No, he
has been knifed'. I looked down
at Captain Coldstream and I knew
that he was dying. When assistance came I went iback into the
duty room and I saw our coffee
cups. I looked at Captain Coldstream's coffee cup and I picked
up mine, which was still warm. I
sat there and cried and cried, till
another sister came and put her
arms around me. We then walked
otut on to the verandah and we
Pennel, 1909; Bellew, 1864; 1867,
1880; Holland, 1958; Churchill,
1972; Elliott, 1968; Masters, 1965;
North, 1945; Raverty, 1862, 1888;
Ridgeway, 1918; Roberts, 1897;
Robertson, 1899; Wylly, 1912;
Burnes, 1834, 1836; Caroe, 1965;
Edwards, 1851; Elphinstone, 1972;
Mason,
1976;
Fraser-Tytler,
1969; Goodwin, 1969; Howell,
1931; Ibberson, 1883; King, 1900;
Merk, 1898; Stein, 1929; Warburton, 1900: Woodraft, 1965; Starr,
1920, 1924.

saw Abdul Rashid, the orderly,

standing there with blood pouring
down his arm. . I went up to him
and said, 'Oh, Albdul Rashid, have
vou been hurt ?' and they all looked at me queerly. I thbught A:b(lul Rashid had gone to Captain
Coldstream's assistance. Actually,
he was the mturderer(Allen 1977a:
201).
This incident of sudden violence and
death took place in Peshawar, the
military and civil heart of the Province.
Outside the city it was an even more
dangerous wogld. Every Frontier
band had similar tales of sudden and
violent death to tell (Pettigrew: 80).
Nonetheless and on balance, "everyone
liked the Pathan, his courage and his
sense of 'humour... although there was
always the chance of a bullet and often
a great deal of discomfort" (Woodruff
1965, Vol II: 292).
The second category of writings are
highly romanticised novels with titles
like 'Lean Brown Men', 'King of the
Khyber Rifles' and 'Khyber Calling' (see
North 1945). It is not surprising that
Flashman begins his adventures in the
first Afghan War. These novels were
complemented by popular 'B' films like,
the 'Brigand of Kandahar' or 'NorthWest Frontier'. The worst novels of
the genre create names for people,
places and situations not evenly remotely accurate. In such novels the economic, sociological and historical
attempts at approximating to reality are
thrown to the wind. A good example
is the currently popular series written
by Duncan Macneil with titles like
'Drum-s Along the Khyber' and 'Sadhu
on the Mountain Peak'. Their inaccuracies may gratify and conform to
images of rebellious tribesmen East of
Suez living a life of luxury and sin. I
shall resist the temptation to quote
from the adventures of the intrepid officer Ogilvie in the heart of Waziristan,
a puritanical, isolated, economically
backward zone in the Tribal Areas,
who comes across Maliks named Ram
Surangar, who is housed in palaces
with malrble floors, statues of "wellbreasted naked women", ceilings depicting paintings of deibaucheryand who is
sent a chosen girl to keep him' conwany
at ni-ght by his host (Macneil 1971: 78).
On' the Frontier today the, romance
eiigendered bv the' colonial encounter
is still preserved. It began from the
moment of the Independence of Pakistan in 1947 when Sir George Cunningham, an ex-Governor of the NWFP,
was re-called from Glasgow by Jinnah
to become the first Governor of the
Province. Memories of the colonial
encounter remain untouched. The Billiards Room in the Miran Shah, North

Waziristan, Scouts Mess is still dominated by the portrait of Captain G

Moynel1 V C, Guides Frontier Force,
"killed in action Mohrnand operations29 September 1935". Lt-Colonel Harnan stares from a painting in the Dining Room of the Wana Mess in South
Waziristan. A note in T E Lawrence's
hand thanking the South Waziristan
'Scouts for their hospitality is enshrined
in a glass box in the Wana Mess library.
Shabkadar tower that
On the
do"minates the entire area the plaques
commnem.oratingfallen soldiers are still
clear. The graveyard, too, is undisturbed and the head-stones tell their tale
clearly. Both bear testimony to the
Mohmand encounters between 1897 and
1915.
The continuing romanoe of the Frontier is best captured by a story Askar
Ali Shah, the editor of The Khyber
Mlail (Peshawar) recounted of an old
retired British officer who had served
in the Frontier Scouts and who was
given permission, obtained, with difficulty, to visit Razmak, North Waziristan, with his wife. He requested the
comnianding officer to be allowed to
accompany the local Scouts on a 'recce'
trip (gasht) and wore his uniform still
splendid after all the years. He observed that evening that he would go
homneand was now ready to die. Perha.ps with the dea,th of his generation
the r-omancewill also fade and die.
It is important to distinguish that
the symbols

of the romance

of the

Frontier are maintained by the political and military administration. Parpetuation of tradition is itself part of the
romance. No such symbols of Frontier
romance or nostalgia are visible among
the tribes themselves. It is essential to
underline that this is a one-way nostalgia. Pathan tribes saw the encounter as
extra-ethnic, extra-religious and, as illustratied above in many cases, extrasavage. Because tribesmnenwere by and
large left to themselves in the Tribal
Areas and social contact and administrative control was at a minimum, they
remained tribal in the most profound
sense, unencapsulated by larger state
systems and civilisations. At the same
time, colonisation on the Frontier was
not the total uprooting and destruction
of a civilisation as in other parts of the
world.
What caused this great halo of
romance to float over British endeavour
on the Frontier and continue to grow
after it was all over? The answers are
many and I shall consider them on
British
various levels.
Racially the
found that across the Indus there was
a different world, the people were fairer
2095

This content downloaded from 111.68.96.57 on Tue, 07 Apr 2015 04:59:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

December 22-29, 1979

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY

and taller and some, like Afridis, had

blue eyes and blonde hair which helped
create and perpetuate romantic theories
of Greek origin (Bellew 1864, 1867;
1.880). Geographically, the climate and
the physical environment reminded the
British of home (Ahmed 1974, 1977b:
123-148). Psychologically the British by
the turn of the century found-themselves with no new worlds to conquer
India lay pason the sub-continent:
sive and quiet. The major military preoccupation was with the unruly NorthWest. Frontier triibes; peripheral crises
on the periphery of Empire. Imperial
security bred a confidence in one's
values and as a consequence of this
confidence an understanding of the
values of a remote and tribal people.
Socially, the type of civil and military
officer after India became a colony of
the Crown in 1858 and no longer the
business of a comm?ercialcompany, represented the mniddleand upper classes
of the most powerful nation on earth
who were often driven with a zeal to
serve, civilise or convert and thereby
make a name for themselves.
The cream of the Indian Civil Service and the military formecd the new
Indian Political Service Cadre serving
mainly on the Frontier (Coen 1971).
The mystification of the Frontier
encounter was bred by changed im-perial
circumstances and the type of its personnel. It was not always so. Early contacts with Pathans in the middle of
the nineteenth century after the subjugation of more complex, sophisticated
and affluent Indian states and people
spoke of them as "absolute barbarians .. . avaricious, thievish and predatory to the last degree" (Temple,
Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of
the Punjab in 1855, quoted in Wylly
1912: 5). Ibbetson thought the Pathan
"blood-thirsty, cruel and vindictive in
the highest degree; he does not know
what truth or faith is, in so much that
the saying Afghan be iman (an Afghan
is without conscience) has passed into a
proverb among his neighbours" (Ibbetson 1883: 219). These attitudes were to
be converted to those bordering affection, respect and even admiration two
generations later.
Like schoolboys in a state of boredom
and security the new br,eed of officers
at the turn of the Frontier century
craved some excitement: the Frontier
was the French leave, the excitement
involving an out-of-bounds adventure,
the forbidden, smoke, the forbidden
drink; the innocently exciting infringement of school laws and social taboos
that the 'likeable rogue' at school attem,pted without bein.g caught. Social

reality drew its symbols from public

school life of which it appeared on extension, a confirmation and a parody.
The concepts of 'sportsmanship', 'games',
'honour', 'word', 'playing the referee',
'gentlemanly' and 'winning fairly or
losing honourably' - key symbols of
idealised British social behaviour found almost exact conti;apuntal equivalents in Pathan society: 'word' (jaba),
'honour' (nang), 'gentlemanly' (Pukhtun)
and 'courage' (tora). Certain things
were either 'done' or 'not done'. Life
was seen and understood in these
mutually recognised symbols. There was
a particular Frontier code of its own
that evolved as a cornsequence of the
encounter: "It became, therefore, a
point of honour with us never to leave
a wounded man behind. So if one of
our nmen was wounded we counterattacked in order to get that wounded
man back." Above all the Frontier
tested the man: "To run away or to
show cowardice on a Frontier campaign
and come and wine or dine with your
brother officers in the evening was a
far worse punishbment than risking
death" (Alien 1977a: 207).

we felt they often carried it too far.

At the end of one day of fighting the
Political Agent's young awsistantcame
into our camp mess for a drink. M L,
in command, was in a good humour.
After a confused beginning, the battalion had fought skilfully and well
and several 'men were certain to win
decorations.
The young political put down his
glass. 'I thought our chaps fought
very well today, sir, he said.
M L beamed. 'So did I. Not at all
bad'.
'And outnumbered about three to
one, too, I should say.
M L looked a little puzzled. 'Well,
onily in one or two places. On the
whole I think the tribesmen were
outnumbered'.
The political said, 'Oh, I'm sorry.
It's the tribesmen I was talking about'
(Masters 1965: 157).
The Pathan-British encounter is thus
seen in straight,'game' analogy: "It is
a game - a contest with rules in
which men kill without compunction
and will die in order to win, in which
kinship and friendship count less than
winning -but in which there is no
malice when the whistle blows andl the
game is over. And the transfer of an
important player may be arranged at
half-time
while the lemons are being
The Pathan was just the sort of person to fit in with concepts of 'honour' Sucked" (Mason 1976: 337).
Life on the Frontier was itself part
and the 'code' with his own equivalent
concepts:
"Frontier officers were a of the great game played on three conrather special breed of the British and tinents by intemational players. Even
they were sometimes almost converted tihe sordid business of bombing tribesto the Pathan's sense of honour and men was cast in a 'sportsman-like'
usually to his sense of hum-our; it did mould and a proper 'warning notice'
not often happen the other way round. was issued before air-raids. Otherwise
The same kind of stories recur when- it simply would not be cricket:
Whereas laskars (war parties) have
ever people talk about the Frontier;
they rememnber,for ingtance, the Zakka - collected to attack Gandab (Mohmand) and are to this end concentraKhel men in 1908 crowding round Roosted in your villages and lands, you
Keppel, once their Political agent, when
are hereby wamed that the area
lying between Khapak-Nahakkiline
the expedition against them was successand the line Mullah Killi-Sam
ful and the fighting over. 'Did we fight
Chakai will be bombed on the mornwell?' they asked and he replied: 'I
ing of (date) beginning at 7 a m and
wouldn't have shaken hands with you
daily till further notice.
if you hadn't" (Mason 1976: 337-8).
You are hereby warned to remove
all persons from allI the villages
The Pathan was placed in a different
named' and from the area lying besocial category to the other natives on
tween them, and the Khapak and
the sdbcontinent: "There was among
Nahakki Passes and not to return till
the Pathans something that called to
further written notice is sent to you.
Any person who returns before rethe Englishman or the Scotsman ceiving such further written notice
partly that the people looked you
will do so at his own risk.
straight in the eye, that there was no
Signed Griffith - Governor dated
equivocation and that you couldn't
4th September 1933.
browbeat them even if you - wished
Little wonder that a leader in The
to. When we crossed the bridge at Statesman
(September 13, 1935) disAttock we felt we'd come home" (Allen
approved of this stance and warned
1977a: 197-8).
that "war is not a sentimental business
The colonial encounter was reduced
and there will be no end to it so long
to the nature of a cricket matcbh,it
as there is the least tendency
to
was 'our chaps' versu.s 'your chaps':
romanticise it as a gentlemanly and
The Political Agents would have heroic and admirable pastime".
been useless if they had not identiAbove all,
the
FroIntier
repr,esented
fied themselves thoroughly with the
a
male
world
and
its masculine symbols
tribesen's thoughts and feelings, but

2096

This content downloaded from 111.68.96.57 on Tue, 07 Apr 2015 04:59:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

a system that translated easily into

classic British public school life.
Women, on both sides, were generally
invisible and when encountered
honoured. No stories of rapes, abductions and mistresses are told on either
side. In any case almost the entire
Tribal Area was strictly a 'no families'
area for officials. In perhaps the
most famous and unique affair
of its kind, Miss Ellis was kidnapped in 1923 from Kohat by an
Afridi, Ajab Khan, as revenge for a
British raid on his village and what he
considered the violation of the Code
by exposing his women to the presence
of British troops. All accounts of Miss
Ellis' treatment corroborate her own
statements that her honour was never
violated and she found respect and protetion
at the house of Akhundzada
Mahmud among the Orakzai (Swinson
1967). It was this absence of the 'MemSahi,b' that gave life on the Frontier
its special public-schoolboy flavour and
their presence in large numbrs after
the opening of the Suez Canal late last
century may be considered as the final
ethnic and social barrier between Indians and the British (Allen 1977a,
19771b;Spear 1963).
In spite of the regular engagements
with the colonial power the tribal
structure in the interior remained
whole, symmetrical and unitary in the
traditional classic anthropological sense.
Raids and reprisals did not recreate or
reorder social structure and remained
extrinsic to it. They may have even
served to confirm it. The mystification
of the Frontier encounter created a mythical tribesman worthy of the honour to
play opposite the British in the Frontier Game. The mystifoation and romanticisation of the colonial encounter on
the Frontier helped to popularise a
universal image of the Pathan embodying the finest qualities of loyalty, courage and honour that transcended race,
colour and creed (Caroe 1965: 344;
Mason 1976: 338-339) and one that approximated to the Pathan's own notions
of ideal Pathan behaviour as understood
in terms of his Code. Contemporary
British accounts end on a romantic and
emotional note of a contact with a
people "who looked him in the face"
(Caroe 1965: xiii; Elliott 1968: 293) and
speak of "an affinity born of a hundred
years of conflict, a mutual sense of
honour, affection and esteem" (Caroe in
Preface to Elliott 1968: v). This romantic nostalgia is not restricted to British
writers alone; for most writin.g on the
Frontier in Pakistan too is in a similar
ven.
This romantic gloss dloes not dha.nge
the savagery or determination of the
encounfter:

do not win friends, but for the British

it helped create a special ethnic category of people who they could elevate
to 'noble savages' above the general
run of 'savages'. I;t was an elevation
not based on sophisticated intellectual
or cultural criteria but an extension of
the public school analogy: someone not
at your school but who could take a
beating in the boxing ring or rugger
without complaining and give as good
as he got. The map of British India
was dyed with various colours: red for
British India, yellow for the 'protected
areas' of the Indian gates and so on.
To these categories was added a special
one, an acknowledged 'no-man's land',
of the Tribal Areas - a land beyond
the pale.

References

Ahmed, A S [1974] "Mansehra: a

Journey", Ferozons, Lahore.
Ahmed, A S [1976] "Millennium and
Charisma among Pathans: A Cnrtical Essay in Social Anthropology",
Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
Ahmed, A S [1977a] "Socal and Economic Change in the Tribal Areas",
Oxford University Press, Karachi.
Ahmed, A S [1977b] "Pieces of Green:
The Sociology of Change in Pakis&
tan", Royal Book Co, Karachi.
Allen, C [1977a] "Plain Tales from
the Raj", Futura Publications,
London.
Allen, C [1977b] "Raj: A Scrapbook
of British India, 1877-1947", Andre
Deutsch, London.
Bailey, F G [1970] "Stratagems and
Spoils", Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Bellew, H W [1864] "A General
Report on the Yusufzai", Government Press, Lahore.
Bellew, H W [1867] "A Grammar of
the Pukhto or Pashto language",
W H Allen, London.
Bellew, H W [1880] "The Races of
Afghanistan", Thacker, London.
Burnes, A [1834] "Travels into
Bokhara", John Murray, London.
Burnes, A [19.61] "Cabool", Ferozsons, Lahore, Originally printed in
1836.
Caroe, 0 [1965] "The Pathans", Macmillan, London.
Churchill, W S [1972] "The Malakand Field Force', in "Frontiers and
Wars", Penguin, Harmondsworth.
Coen, T C [1971] "The Indian Political Service" Chatto and Windcus,
London.
Edwardes, H B [1963] "A year on the
Punjab Frontier, 1848-49", Reprinted by Ferozsons, Lahore.
Originally published in 1851.
Elliott, j G [1968] "The Frontier 18391947: The Story of the NorthWest Frontier of India", Cassell,
London.
Elphinstone, M [1972] "An Account of
the Kingdom of Caubul", Oxford
University Press, Karachi.
Fraser-Tytler, W K [1969] "Afghanistan", Oxford University Press.
General Staff [1926] "Military Report
on the Mobmand Country", Government of India, Calcutta.
B [1969] "Life among the
barbd wires anzdbomnbing Goodwin,
Pathans (Khattaks)". The Owl

Printing, Tollesbury, Essex.

Holland, H [1958] "Frontier Doctor:
An Autobiography", Hodder and
Stoughton, London.
Home Department, Government of
NWFP, Tribal Research Cell: Political Branch Proceedings; (PBP),
Continuous.
Howell, E [1931] "Mizh: a Monograph
on Government Relations with the
Mabsud Tribe", Government of
India Press, Simla.
Howell, E and Caroe, 0 (trs), [1963]
"The Poems of Khushal Khan
Khattak", Pashto Academy, University of Peshawar.
Ibbetson, DCJ [1883] "Outlines of
Panjab Ethnography, being Extracts from the Panjab Census
Report of 1881 treating of Religion, Language and Caste", Government Printing Press, Calcutta.
King, L W [1900] "Monograph on th&
Orakzai Country and Clans",
Punjab Government Press, Lahore.
Mason, P [1976] "A Matter of Honour", Penguin, Harmondsworth.
England.
Masters, J [1965] "Bugles and a Tiger",
Four Square, London.
Merk W R H [1898] Report on the
Mohmands, Punjab Government
Press, Lahore.
North, R E [1945] "The Literature of
the North-WVestFrontier of India:
A Select Bibliography", Peshawar.
Pennnell, T L [1909] "Among the
Wild Tribes of the Afighan Frontier", Seeley, London.
Raverty, H G [1862] "Selections from
the Poetry of the Afghans",
London.
Ravelty, H G [1888] "Notes on AfghanBaluehistan,
istan and Part of
Geographical, Ethnographical and
Historical", Eyre and Spottiswoode, London.
Ridgeway, Major R T I [1918] Pathans,
Calcutta Government Press.
Roberts, F M [1897] "Forty-One Years.
in India", London.
The
Robertson, G C [18991 "Chitral
Study of a Minor Siege", Methuen, London.
Spear, P [1963] "The Nabobs: A Study
of the Social Life of the English
in 18th Century India", Oxford
University Press.
Starr, L A [ 1920] "Frontier Folk of
the Afghan Border and Beyond",
Church Missionary Society, London.
Starr, L A [1924] "Tales of Tirah and
Lesser Tibet" with forewords by
Lord Rawlinson and Sir John
Maffey, (ed) by Basil Mathews
Holder and Stoughton, London.
Stein, A [1929] "On Alexander's Track
to the Indus: Personal Narrative
of Explorations to the North-West
Frontier of India", Macmillan.
Swinson, A [1967] "North-West Frontier", Hutchinson, London.
Warburton, R [1900] "Eighteen Years
in the Khyber 1879-1898", Oxford
University Press Lahore, Karachi,
Dacca. Originally printed in 1900,
John Murray.
Woodruff, P [1965] "The Men Who
Ruled India: The Founders, (Vol
1), The Guardians (Vol 2)", Jonathan Cape, London.
Wylly, H C [1912] "From the Black
Mountain to Waziristan", Macrmillan, London.
2097

This content downloaded from 111.68.96.57 on Tue, 07 Apr 2015 04:59:22 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions