Status of Northern Areas

Professor Ahmad Hassan Dani

The term "Northern Areas of Pakistan", was unknown before 1947 but its geographic entity existed separately apart from Kashmir, or a little-known word "Kashir", which actually means "The Land of Saffron"--a fragrance so well extracted from musk deer that even now roam about in Deosai Plane. As the northern part is subdivided into a number of valleys, there were kingdoms occupying different valleys and these valleys were remembered after these kingdoms. And thus we

had Chitral, Gilgit, Hunza, Nagar, Skardu, Khapalu, Shigar and Kargil. But in Sanskrit literature the people were generally referred to as "Dard", from which Dr Leitner coined the term "Dardistan" for this region in the 19th century.

However, there was an older generic name for this entire region as we learn from ancient inscriptions, and that is "Palol" or correctly "Bolor". This name is recorded in all the accounts of the Chinese pilgrims as well as in the Arabic and Persian books of the Muslim historians. The most important reference can be seen in Alberuni's account and in "Tarikh-i-Rashidi" of Mirza Haider Dauglat, who conquered Kashmir for the Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1586 and thus for

the first time Kashmir became a part of Mughal India. Even then the northern part remained separate, ruled by different kings. These kings had independent relationship with the Mughal emperors.

Since the time of the British we are talking together in terms of Kashmir and Gilgit region because of the Russo-British game in Central Asia. Before this imperial game started, the British were not interested even in Kashmir and hence they sold Kashmir to Raja Ghulab Singh in 1844 after the first Anglo-Sikh war. The Russian advance into Central Asia led the British to interfere into the affairs of Afghanistan and Kashgaria and when the Russians established province of Turkistan with Tashkent as its capital in 1866, the British started taking interest in the kingdom of the North.

When the Russians finished with the Kokand state in Central Asia in 1876 and incorporated Farghana within their empire, the Central Asian game became intense: the Russians on the northern side of the Pamir and the British on the south. There was a chance that the two imperial powers might encounter in this far-flung area but the two imperial powers at home compromised to leave Afghanistan for the British just to play a neutral role between imperial Russia and British Indian Empire and hence was created a long strip of Wakhan in between the two imperial territories.

The issue of northern kingdoms still remained vague and as this region was too far away from the British Indian capital in Calcutta, the then British policy took a new turn and they decided not to rule this northern region directly but to encourage the Raja of Kashmir to advance into the north with their help and establish a tributary system. And hence the Madhupur Settlement of 1876 when Lord Lytton came all the way from Calcutta to Lahore and titled the Kashmir Raja as 'Maharajadhiraja' but at the same time they established a new political agent in Gilgit from 1877 onward by which they controlled the actual political administration of the region.

A number of wars were fought between the Maharaja and the rulers of the northern part with indecisive result but the British remained the final deciding factor. The last battle was fought jointly by the British and Maharaja forces in 1893 against the rulers of Hunza and Nagar, in which the native rulers were succumbed and they accepted the tributary relation under the Maharaja. Even then the Hunza Mir continued his dual policy and maintained his tributary relation with Chinese emperor as well.

The British political agent in Gilgit remained the deciding factor for the Maharaja. While these changes were taking place in the east, the position was growing complicated in Chitral where the British, Russia and Afghanistan all played their own games. The issue was finally decided with the demarcation of Durand Line in 1893 and the establishment of Malakand Agency in 1895, when for the first time Chitral was taken away from Gilgit and brought under the control of the British political agent at Malakand. This was the beginning of relation of Chitral with the Pashtu states in this part and later with the North West Frontier Province. ven then Chitral's relation with Kashmir, that was started at this time by the British, continued and the actual position remained undetermined right till 1947.

Thus the whole relation of the kingdom of the northern part either with the Maharaja of Kashmir or with the British had nothing to do with the sale of Kashmir in 1844. But the new relation that developed there depended upon the new military conquest in the later half of the 19th century jointly by the forces of the British and the Maharaja. The British reluctance to have a direct control over this region led to the practice of tributary relation--a practice that was

already in vogue between Hunza and China but the real administration remained in the hand of the British political agent in Gilgit who was established in 1877 in the personality of John Biddulph. This dual control continued even later because of the menace first of imperial Russia and later of the Soviets.

Many administrative adjustments were made between 1877 and 1935 when finally a new scheme was developed by which a new lease deed was signed between the Maharaja and the British government in which the Gilgit Agency was leased out in 1935 for sixty years. Even then the responsibility of the Gilgit Agency remained entirely with the British viceroy in India. As the British records show, the ownership of the northern part never belonged to the Maharaja of Kashmir, and the local rulers were fully responsible to the British political agent. Even when the Gilgit Scouts were formed to maintain peace in the region, they were paid by the central government and not by the Maharaja.

It is these Gilgit Scouts together with the people of the region who revolted when the then Viceroy Lord Mountbatten handed over the agency to the Maharaja on August 1, 1947, even before the independence of India and Pakistan. The revolt spread so widely that when the Maharaja's governor, Ghansara Singh, came to Gilgit, the local scouts took up arms, arrested the governor, and formed the local council with Shah Rais Khan as its president and support of the entire population behind it. It is this council which unanimously voted to accede to Pakistan in November 1947. The government of Pakistan, as expressed in the council,

accepted this request of the general people, and Sardar Mohammad Alam was sent as the first political agent. Thus the Northern Areas joined with Pakistan long before the issue of war in Kashmir was decided by ceasefire in 1948.

It is a result of the ceasefire that the government of Azad Kashmir was formed but the administration of the Northern Areas of Pakistan has remained separate directly under the central government of Pakistan, although many changes have been made in actual management of the region. Thus the government of Pakistan has maintained the separate identity of the Northern Areas of Pakistan in view of long historical sequences that have been traced above. It is for this historical reason that the people of the Northern Areas have been demanding for complete political rights so that they can establish their own provincial government with full autonomy. Such a demand is their legitimate right, as they out of their own will acceded to Pakistan. In this expression of their will not only the people but also all the local rajas have been directly involved. As they were all free to do so, and not under the Maharaja particularly after the military defeat of the Maharaja's forces, their willingness was approved by the government of Pakistan as the region constituted a separate identity. In this struggle of independence, Chitral forces were also involved and thus they expressed their identity of interest with the people of the Northern Areas of Pakistan.

Two more evidences can be produced to show that this region has been treated as separate from Azad Kashmir. The first is the construction of the Karakoram Highway and fixing of the boundary with the Republic of China and the second is the abolition of the states in the Northern Areas, including Chitral, by the order of the government of Pakistan. It is only after this abolition that the Council for the Northern Areas has been formed in order to give some kind of representation to the people of the region.

Time has come that the political desire of the people should be completely met and the old name of the Northern Areas of Pakistan, Bolor, should be restored. The local population has expressed its opinion that the region may be called Baluristan and its proper boundary should be permanently demarcated. Before 1947 the territory, which is now called Kohistan, before its conquest by the Wali of Swat in the beginning of this century with the connivance of the British, was known as "Yaghistan" and it was beyond the control of the Maharaja of Kashmir. Similarly Chitral has been in long historical relations with Gilgit before it was merged with the Malakand Agency in 1895 for administrative purposes. Such old relations can be revived certainly with the will of the people. And thus it is possible to rebuild politically and culturally the Northern Areas of Pakistan according to the wishes of the people.