|
The first of the Saddozai rulers' of Afghanistan and founder of
the Durrani empire, belonged to the Saddozai section of the Popalzal
clan of the Abdali tribe of Afghans.
In the 18th century the Abdalis were to be found chiefly around
Herat. Under their leader Zaman Khan, father of Ahmad Khan, they
resisted Persian attempts to take Herat until, in 1728, they were
forced to submit to Nadir Shah. Recognizing the fighting qualities
of the Abdalis, Nadir Shah enlisted them in his army. Ahmad Khan
Abdali distinguished himself in Nadir's service and quickly rose
from the position of a personal attendant to the command of Nadir's
Abdali contingent in which capacity he accompanied the Persian conqueror
on his Indian expedition in 1739.
In June 1747, Nadir Shah was assassinated by Qizilbashi conspirators
at Kuchan in Khurasan. This prompted Ahmad Khan and the Afghan soldiery
to set out for Qandahar. On the way they elected Ahmad Khan as their
leader, hailing him as Ahmad Shah. Ahmad Shah assumed the title
of Durri-Durran (Pearl of Pearls) after which the Abdali tribe were
known as Durranis. He was crowned at Qandahar where coins were struck
in his name. With Qandahar as his base, he easily extended his control
over Ghazni, Kabul and Peshawar. As for himself, he, as heir to
Nadir Shah's eastern dominions, laid claim to the provinces which
Nadir had wrested from the Mugal emperor. He invaded India nine
times between 1747 and 1769. He set out from Peshawar on his first
Indian expedition in December 1747. By January 1748, Lahore and
Sirhind had been captured. Eventually Mughal forces were sent from
Delhi to resist his advance. Lacking artillery and vastly outnumbered,
he was defeated at Manupur in March, 1748 by Mu'in-ul-Mulk, the
son of the Wazir Qamar ud-Din who had been killed in a preliminary
skirmish. Ahmad Shah retreated to Afghanistan and Win ul-Mulk was
appointed governor of the Punjab. Before Mu'in ul-Mulk could consolidate
his position, Ahmad Shah, in December 1749, again crossed the Indus.
Receiving no reinforcements from Delhi, Mu'in ul-Mulk was forced
to make 'terms
with him. In accordance with instructions from Delhi, Ahmad Shah
was promised the revenues of the Chahar Mahal (Gujrat, Aurangabad,
Sialkot and Pasrur) which had been granted by the Mughal emperor
Muhammad Shah to Nadir Shah in 1739.
The non-payment of the revenues of the Chahar Mahal was the reason
for his third Indian expedition of 1751-52. Lahore was besieged
for four months and the surrounding country devastated. Muin ul-Mulk
was defeated in March 1752, but was reinstated by Ahmad Shah to
whom the emperor formally ceded the two subahs of Lahore and Multan
. During this expedition Kashmir was annexed to the. Durrani empire.
By April 1752 Ahmad Shah was back in Afghanistan. Mu'in ul-Mulk
found the Punjab a troublesome charge and his death in November
1753. only served to intensify the anarchy. All power was for "a
time in the hands of his widow, Mughlani Begam, whose profligacy
signalled many a rebellion. The Mughal Wazir Imad ul-Mulk took advantage
of this anarchy to recover the Punjab for the empire and entrusted
its administration to Adina Beg. Ahmad Shah immediately set out
to recover his lost province. He reached Lahore towards the end
of December 1756, and, after an unopposed march, entered Delhi on
28 January 1757. The city was plundered and the defenceless inhabitants
massacred. A similar fate befell the inhabitants of Mathuri, Vrindavan
and Agra. Towards the end of March 1757, an outbreak of cholera
amongst his troops forced Ahmad Shah to leave India. The territory
of Sirhind was annexed to the Afghan empire. Najib ud-Daula, the
Ruhili leader who had supported him, was left in charge of Delhi
and his own son, Taimur, appointed viceroy of the Punjab. He had
no sooner left India than the Sikhs, together with Adina Beg, rose
in revolt against Taimur. Early in 1758 Adina Beg invited Marathas
to expel the Afghans from the- Punjab. This was accom-
plished by the Marathas who actually crossed the Indus and held
Peshawar for a few months. These events brought Ahmad Shah to India
once again (1759-61). The Marathas rapidly evacuated the Punjab
before the Afghan advance and retreated towards Delhi. They were
routed with enormous losses at Panipat on 14 January 1761.
After Panipat the main factor to reckon with was the growing power
of the Sikhs who had constantly been assailing Ahmad Shah's lines
of communication. It was against them that the Afghan invader's
sixth expedition (1762) was specifically directed. News had reached
him in Afghanistan of the defeat, after his withdrawal from the
country, of his general, Nur ud-Din Bamezai, at the hands of the
Sikhs who were fast spreading themselves out over the Punjab and
had declared their leader, Jassa Singh Ahluvalia, king of Lahore
(1761). To rid his Indian dominions of them once for all, he set
out from Qandahar. Marching with alacrity, he overtook the Sikhs
as they were withdrawing into the Malva after crossing the Sutlej.
The moving caravan comprised a substantial portion of the total
Sikh population and contained, besides active fighters, a large
body of old men, women and children who were being escorted to the
safety of the interior of the country. Surprised by Ahmad Shah,
the Sikhs threw a cordon round those who needed protection, and
prepared for the battle. Continuing their march in this form, they
fought the invaders and their Indian allies desperately. Ahmad Shah
succeeded, in the end, in breaking through the ring and glutted
his spite by carrying out a full-scale butchery. Near the village
of Kup, near Malerkotla, nearly 25, 000 Sikhs were killed in a single
day's battle (5 February 1762), known in Sikh history as Vadda Ghallughara,
the Great Killing. But the Sikhs were by no means crushed. Within
four months of the Great Carnage, the Sikhs had inflicted a severe
defeat on the Afghan governor of Sirhind. Four months later they
were celebrating Divali in the Harimandar (Amritsar) which the Shah
had blown up by gunpowder in April 1762, and were fighting with
him again a pitched battle forcing him to withdraw from Amritsar
undercover of darkness (17 October). Ahmad Shah left Lahore for
Afghanistan on 12 December 1762.
Ahmad Shah planned another crusade against the Sikhs and he invited
this time his Baluch ally, Amir Nasir Khan , to join him in the
adventure. He started from Afghanistan in October 1764 and reaching
Lahore attacked Amritsar on 1 December 1764. A small batch of thirty
Sikhs, in the words of Qazi Nur Muhammad, the author of the Jangnamah,
who happened to be in the imperial train accompanying the Baluch
division,
"grappled with,
the ghazis, spilt their blood and sacrificed their own lives for
their Guru."
Ahmad Shah came down to Sirhind without
encountering anywhere the main body of the Khalsa. This time he
went no farther than Sirhind. As he was marching homewards through
the Jalandhar Doab, Sikh sardars, including Jassa Singh Ahluvalia,
Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, Charhat Singh Sukkarchakkia, Jhanda Singh
Bhangi and Jai Singh Kanhaiya, kept a close trail constantly raiding
the imperial caravan. Their depredations caused great annoyance
to the Shah who lost much of his baggage to the Sikhs. The floods
in the River Chenab took a further toll of his men and property,
and he returned to Afghanistan mauled and considerably shaken.
The fear of his Indian empire falling to the Sikhs continued to
obsess the Shah's mind and he led out yet another punitive campaign
against them towards the close of 1766. This was his eighth invasion
into India. The Sikhs had recourse to their old game of hide-and-seek.
Vacating Lahore which they had wrested from Afghan nominees, Kabull
Mall and his nephew Amir Singh, they faced squarely the Afghan general,
Jahan Khan at Amritsar, forcing him to retreat, with 6,000 of the
Durrani soldiers killed. Ahmad Shah offered the governorship of
Lahore to Sikh sardar, Lahina Singh Bhangi, but the latter declined
the proposal. Jassa Singh Ahluvalia, with an army of 30,000 Sikhs,
roamed about the neighbourhood of the Afghan camp plundering it
to his heart's content. Never before had Ahmad Shah felt so helpless.
The outcome of the unequal, but bitter, contest now lay clearly
in favour of the Sikhs. The Shah had realized that his Indian dominions
were at the mercy of the Sikhs and he bowed to the inevitable. His
own soldiers were getting restive and the summer heat of the Punjab
was becoming unbearable. He, at last, decided to return home, but
took a different route this time to avoid molestation by the Sikhs.
As soon as Ahmad Shah retired, Sikhs reoccupied their territories.
The Shah led out his last expedition in the beginning of 1769. He
crossed the Indus and the Jehlum and reached as far as the right
bank of the Chenab and fixed his camp at Jukalian to the northwest
of Gujrat. By this time the Sikhs had established themselves more
firmly in the country. Moreover, dissensions broke out among the
Shah's followers and he was compelled to return to Afghanistan.
On Ahmad Shah's death in 1772 of the cancerous wound said to have
been caused on his nose by a flying piece of brick when the Harimandar
Sahib was destroyed with gunpowder, his empire roughly extended
from the Oxus to the Indus and from Tibet to Khurasan. It embraced
Kashmir, Peshawar, Multan, Sindh, Baluchistan, Khurasan, Herat,
Qandahar, Kabul and Balkh.
|
|
