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August 07, 2009 07:15 PM EDT

THE AGA KHAN IN BALOCH HISTORY

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The following is the piece of history is taken from the book " Sindh Revisited " written by Christopher Ondaatje following the track of Sir Richard Francis Burton (The India Years 1842-1849). Mr. Burton was a British agent and writer in that period.

For further detail of Talpur Baloch rulers in Sindh please visit:

http://royaltalpur.tripod.com/

THE AGA KHAN IN BALOCH HISTORY

 

The Late Aga Hassan Ali Shah, the infamous " Persian Prince ", who fought with British in the First Afghan War and became their ally in conquering and controlling Sindh. Called Aga for Lord, and Khan for conqueror, this hereditary chieftain of the Iranian Ismaili Shiite Muslim gained ascendancy through interfamily intrigues and rebellion
against the emperor Muhammad Shah. The Aga's dealings with the British were complex. John McNeil, the British envoy in Persia, and Major Henry Rawlinson, posted to Persia from 1835 to 1839, were
secretly negotiating with Aga.

 In 1840, though ousted from Persia, he retained his close alliance
with the British. By late 1841, he was busy; in his own words "patrolling and gathering intelligence" for Rawlinson for a fee of 100 rupees a day. In the autumn of 1842, the Aga Khan had reached Sindh. Involved with General Charles Napier, plotting to dethrone the Sindhi amirs (Talpur Balochis) and annex their territories along Indus. This was the situation from which the British and the Aga both stood to benefit. Placing himself and his cavalry at the service of James Outram, the British political agent, the Aga began gathering military intelligence against the amirs.


He also advised them to surrender to British, but they refused. Napier then attacked without mercy and defeated them at Miani in February of 1843 and Dubba a month later. It was then that the Aga came here to Jherruck, assigned by Napier both to guard the village and to keep eye on the route to Karachi, on which restless Baloch tribes based in Balochistan were attacking British soldiers.


The Aga again proved useful, reporting to Napier on the movements of the Balochis and offering them same advice he'd given to the Sindhi Talpur Balochis (amirs): surrender to the British. He dispatched his brother on mission into interior of Balochistan, but suffered a retaliatory raid, related tongue-in-cheek by Burton:

"Some weeks the Agha spent in his kingdom, leading a life after Sancho Panza's own heart; perhaps exceeding a little in the drinking and love-making lines. His followers "eat, swilled, and played," till Jarak became another Nineveh on a very small scale. The Balochis, having nothing better to do, had threatened to attack it a dozen times or so, but the Agha laughed at their beards. Were they not hogs of Sunnis? Had he not dishonored all their mothers? And had he not done the strangest possible things to their father's graves? Whose dogs were that they should dare to face the death-dealing scimitar of Iroonee?
One evening the Agha had just finished his dinner, and was preparing for a game of backgammon or chess, which he was sure to win, as no man dared to win it from him; the drinking-cups and bottles were arranged in line before him; the musicians were twanging and howling in a corner of the room…when all of sudden, half-mad with fear, rushed in an unfortunate Scindee, bringing the intelligence that a body of at least fifty thousand Balochis…had arrived within mile of Jherruk, that he himself had seen them and hurried on to give the Agha warning, lest he and his heroes should be attacked unawares."
The Aga ignored the warning, choosing instead to punish the bearer of bad tidings. He had the messenger tied to a staff held by two of his men, while other lashed his soles and toes. Eventually the messenger fainted from loss of blood, and Aga signaled his men to stop. But the
Messenger's warning was correct:
"Scarcely had the wretched sindh's lacerated stumps been stuck in a neighboring dunghill, the recognized treatment for the complaint under which he was suffering, when down came the Balochis upon Jarak in the most ferocious and rapacious of moods. Finding no arrangements made to oppose them, they scaled the puddle parapet, dashed into the town, cut to pieces every beardless man they met; and although they failed to secure the august person of the khan, they did not fail to appropriate the contents of his cellar and harem. The potentate lost much valuable property in wines and liquors. It was some weeks afterwards that he recovered his wives; and when he did, he did not…appreciate the value of the goods in question.
The Agha departed from Sindh in October 1844, his brother Abul Hasan was one of his retinue who remained behind to continue the skirmishes against the Balochis and it was he who became Burton's munshee (Clerk). Not surprisingly, Burton was secretive about his own mysterious espionage missions for Napier in Sindh and parts of Balochistan. Neither did he reveal anything about the exact nature of his relationship with Aga Khan. It is certainly reasonable to conclude that Burton was assigned to gather intelligence with Sindh surveyor Walter Scott in the territory of the same tribesmen whom Aga's brother was subjugating with the continued support of British.
This seems far too strategic to be coincidence, despite Burton's light, humorous references to his " Moonshee". The arrangements Napier had made with Aga Khan, the military exploits of Abul Hasan among Balochis and Burton's own orders in Sindh were connected, and they were no laughing matter.
For considerable time after Aga had left the military theatre of the
north and reached the safety of Bombay, the British remained proactive of him. They eventually conferred on him the title "His Highness" and arranged an audience with visiting Prince of Wales, the future King Edward 7th.

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