The British Colonial Encounter with the Pukhtuns: An Appraisal of Faqir Ippi’s Struggle against the British Raj (1936-1947)

The North-West Frontier region of the British Empire in India during the Great Game was part of the ‘Ring Fence Strategy’, framed by the Raj against its adversaries and rivals in Central and South Asia. To protect her ‘Jewel in the Crown’- India, the British Raj made several moves in the strategically placed Pukhtun1 land. The Pukhtun populace, adherent to their centuries old code of conduct, Puḳhtūnwali, consistently resisted the British encroachment of their territory. Mirza Ali Khan, popularly known as Faqir Ippi, was one of the many freedom fighters who challenged the imperialist power in this region. Taking notice of Islam Bibi’s case, a Hindu Convert, Faqir Ippi mobilized the Pukhtuns of Waziristan in defying and fighting the British. He was a serious contestant to the British authority with his well-known fighting skills, effective planning and guerilla tactics in one of the most difficult terrains. The entire Tribal Belt, especially Waziristan, proved to be a ‘turbulent frontier’ for nearly eleven years, i.e. 1936-1947. This insurgency started bringing bad name to the crown and encouraging others to rise against the British. To contain and end Faqir Ippi’s resistance, Governor George Cunningham hired the locals to instigate and bribe his followers to rise and fight against him. The aim of this paper is a critical evaluation of the British strategy in this region and an appraisal of Faqir Ippi’s response and assessment of how successful he was in invigorating Pukhtun resistance to defend their motherland, using both colonial and local sources.

Iran-Afghan Relations in Historical Perspective

This scholarly work on Iran- Afghan relations in historical perspective is to find out the reasons and causes for the fluctuated relations of both the countries, who historically remain important players in shaping the history and structuring the political, social and administrative spheres of the region. Iran, Known in history as Persia and Afghanistan are located in such territory, which always had important geographical and strategic position. Since long there has always competition between both the states for holding authorities on their own land and even to occupy the vast territory of Central Asia and more importantly to come towards the plane areas of India. Most of the time in the course of the history, the other regional and global powers had their role in maximizing the differences between both the neighboring states and supported one against the other. In such circumstances Iran in general and Afghanistan in particular could not pay proper attention for the structural, political and social developments of their respective countries. In the recent past specially after the Sour revolution of 1978 in Afghanistan, Iran along with the rest of the countries of the world put her share in fighting against the revolutionary Government of Afghanistan, which was followed by civil war in Afghanistan in the start of 1990s, which let the way open for establishing the Taliban Government in Afghanistan. During the Taliban government the relation between the Iran and Afghanistan became too worse, however, the tragic event of 9/11 somehow provided an opportunity to both Iran and Afghanistan to come close and to establish good relations by supporting each other. Iran since 9/11 had investment in Afghanistan in different fields and positively played her role in accomplishment of UN peace plane and Iran positively played her role in 8the development of Afghanistan despite of the opposition and objection by USA and other Western countries.