(Part 3)
Dr. Humam Khan
The Role of Pakistani Soldiers Against the 1857 Jihad and Mujahideen
No honorable Muslim in India was willing to live under British rule. Moreover, the British attempts to spread Christianity and their ongoing brutal oppression of the people had deepened the hatred in people’s hearts. Scholars associated with the Mujahideen’s movement channeled this hatred in an organized way, guiding it correctly, and encouraged Muslims serving in the British army to revolt.
On one hand, in Bengal, the students and followers of Maulana Inayat Ali and Maulana Wilayat Ali (may Allah have mercy on them) made full efforts within the military units, and on the other hand, great scholars of the time, such as Maulana Qasim Nanotvi and Maulana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi (may Allah have mercy on them), also led their followers to the battlefield of jihad. Ultimately, on May 10, 1857, a fire of rebellion broke out within two infantry and one cavalry regiments of the Bengal Army at Meerut.
The local soldiers killed their European officers and established control over Meerut and the surrounding areas. Afterward, they advanced toward Delhi, and within just twenty-four hours, the British were expelled from key parts of the city, and Bahadur Shah Zafar was declared the sovereign ruler of all India. The fire of this rebellion quickly spread to all regions of central and northern India.
This was the greatest threat to British rule in India. The British leadership faced an extremely difficult and complex situation. On one hand, they had lost effective control over northern and central India, and on the other hand, there was a significant risk that the fire of the rebellion could spread to the Bengal Army stationed in Punjab, the Frontier, and Sindh.
In this situation, the British military leadership took immediate action and decided to first secure Punjab and the Frontier (Pakhtunkhwa).
In Punjab and the Frontier, the number of European officers was 10,326. With the help of 13,430 local soldiers from the Frontier Force, these officers first took control of all the heavy weapons and military supplies of the Punjab military garrisons. Later, all weapons were reclaimed from the non-European soldiers of the Bengal Army in the region, most of whom were connected to Bengal and its surrounding areas.
Thus, with the support of the Frontier Corps, the process of retrieving weapons from all 13,000 stationed soldiers in Amritsar, Lahore, Multan, and Jhelum was completed peacefully.
After consolidating their control over Western India, the British leadership decided to send reinforcements from Punjab to support the army in Delhi and its surrounding areas, mostly consisting of European troops. However, the commander of the Delhi forces, General Arthur Wilson, stated that without immediate assistance, not only would recapturing Delhi be impossible, but defending it would also be unfeasible. Therefore, he requested urgent reinforcements.
In these delicate and historic moments, when the future of all India hung in the balance and Indian Muslims risked everything to free themselves from British rule, Britain decided to create a new military force to suppress this sacred jihadi movement.
From May to December 1857, 34,000 new soldiers were recruited from Punjab and the Frontier regions, including a large number of Sikhs, Hindus, and even some who identified as Muslims. These troops replaced the soldiers of the Bengal Army whose weapons had been confiscated, and based on them, eighteen (18) new infantry brigades were formed to maintain order.
This was the military force through which Britain, with the help of these troops, recaptured Delhi and, by June 1858, crushed this sacred jihadi movement. With the assistance of these wretched soldiers, Muslims in India were massacred, their wealth and homes were destroyed, thousands of scholars were hanged, and the honor of Muslim women was trampled. Many women, to protect their dignity, threw themselves into wells.
After the occupation of Delhi, British General Lord Roberts described the scene in these words:
“Delhi had, in reality, become a silent and ruined city. Without the sound of our horses’ hooves, no other sound could be heard there. Corpses were scattered everywhere, each body beginning to decay. The scenes were terrifying and heartbreaking. Dogs gnawed at the corpses’ limbs, and some bodies were eaten by scavengers. Even our horses were frightened; they would rear, their nostrils flared, and they would emit strange, fearful noises.”
(Forty-one Years in India, by Roberts)
The “victorious army” looted the homes of Muslims, taking trade goods, gold and silver, cash, books, household items, and even beds. In other words, every possible method of oppression was used to ensure that Muslims would no longer have the courage for jihad. The despicable role played by the military units of Western India (present-day Pakistan) in suppressing the 1857 jihadist movement was a source of both satisfaction and astonishment for the British leadership.
A famous English author of that time writes:
“The most astonishing thing was that during the ‘rebellion’ (jihad), although it was generally assumed that the British were fighting against the Indians, the responsibility for sustaining and supporting the conflict also fell on the local people… Every task assigned to them was carried out with great effort and loyalty. It seemed as if there were no deep enmity or clash of interests between us and them. Without these local workers, our army would not have received food, our horses would not have been fed, our cannons would not have been supplied with ammunition, and heavy weapons could not have been transported from one place to another.”
“In fact, we would not have been able to evacuate our dead and wounded from the battlefield. Yet these local officials remained loyal under all circumstances and stood by us for just a few months’ wages, never once considering how humiliating this work was for them!”
Therefore, the British army decided to retain these loyal soldiers in service even after the conflict. Additionally, due to the rebellious tendencies of the Bengali soldiers, it was decided to gradually increase the number of troops from Punjab and the Frontier in the Bengal Army while reducing the role of the Bengali soldiers.
This was the first time that people from Western India were withdrawn from the “Frontier Force” (a semi-military unit) and incorporated into the official British army. This process of recruitment continued gradually, and by 1870, the share of Punjab and Frontier troops in the Bengal Army had reached 35 percent. Additionally, a small number of Baloch people were also recruited into the army. These military units recruited from Western India continue to exist in the Pakistan Army under the same names that the British had assigned to them during the 1857 Jihad.
