Talk:Khairpur, Pakistan
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Some usefull Information on the history of Khairpur, Sindh and the Talpur dynasty by Arsalan Kazi.
Contents |
[edit] Introduction
The contents of this page reveals the hidden history of Khairpursindh (Khairpur State). As history is often rewritten by conquerors, the history of khairpur suffered firstly from imperial expansion of the British East India Company and secondly from the take over of the state by the Pakistan Military Establishment. It is to correct historical inaccuracies about Khairpursindh that this material has been placed here.
[edit] History of Khairpur State
Khairpur (formerly a village named Boira) was founded in 1786 by Meer Sohrab Khan Talpur as the capital of the Kingdom of Upper Sindh (founded 1783) which was part of the Confederacy of Talpur kingdoms ruled independently from Khairpur, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas. The Talpurs a noble clan of Baloch origin, had settled in Sindh for more than a century before attaining sovereignty. Prior to that they were settled in the Moghul province of Multan where Seraiki language became their mother tongue. This was gradually replaced by Sindhi as their primary language as all Talpurs speak no Balochi or Seraiki today. The Talpurs came to power by defeating the last Kalhora Sovereign Mian Abdunabi and foreign allies in 1783 after a period of war that began in 1775 with the murder of Mir Bahram Khan the chief of the Talpur clan. The son and grandson of Mir Bahram, who had succeeded him as chief, were also assassinated despite there pledge of allegiance to Abdunabi. The Kalhora ruler marched on the leaderless Talpurs with an army over 30,000 strong which included the foreign forces of Afghanistan, Baloachistan and Jodhpur along with native noblemen. In the turmoil that followed, Mir Fateh Ali, was elected by a council of elders as head of the Talpur tribe to organize a force of 6000 to meet the enemy at the battlefield of Halani. Mir Sohrab, who had been delayed in gathering his supporters, joined later in the thick of the battle with a surprise charge of 3000 men. The victory at Halani allowed Mir Fateh Ali to established himself at Hyderabad, the former Kalhora capital of Sindh. From this city he ruled the larger part of southern and western Sindh. His cousin Mir Tharah took over South-eastern Sindh from Mirpurkhas while Mir Sohrab marched north routing any remaining resistance and claiming northern Sindh for himself.
Historians have often inaccurately stated that Mir Sohrab was a nephew of Mir Fateh Ali ruler of south-western Sindh. A study of the Talpur family tree reveals that Sohrab was actually the eldest son of Mir Chaker who was the older brother of the elected chief Mir Bahram and therefore a senior and not junior branch of the Talpur clan. It was for this reason perhaps, that Mir Sohrab disapproved of Mir Fateh's election as chief of the tribe and rejected the supremacy of Hyderabad.
While Mir Fateh Ali, a grandson of the assassinated Bahram, forced the ameer of Kabul to reject the Kalhora vassal, and recognise him as the ruler of Sindh in 1792 AD, he was unable to assert his authority over his uncle Mir Sohrab who offered violent opposition. Compromising with Sohrab and the Mir Tharah of Mirpurkhas a confederacy of three Kingdoms was formed. Mirpurkhas however acknowledged the supremacy of Mir Fateh Ali, letting him control all matters of foreign affairs, but Khairpur did not. Mir Sohrab established himself as the Rais-ul-ummarrah (Paramount Ruler in Arabic) of Upper Sindh maintained independent Sovereignty and his own currency separate from Lower Sindh (Hyderabad). To the north it possessed Kashmore and Subzalkot of Bahawalpur, and by 1791 it included the autonomous Mazari tribal area up till mithankot, now in the Punjab, while to the south it possessed Noushero Firoze and bordered the Kingdom of Jodhpur at its southeastern tip. At its greatest extent, Khairpur ranged from Gandava (now in Balochistan) to Shahgarh (now in India). Its area was well over 50,000 sq. kilometers.
In the initial period of Talpur rule the Afghan kings claimed suzerainty over and an annual 'tribute' from Sindh which the ameers rarely paid. The Afghans had no contribution in nation building such as road, schools, canals that were built by the Mirs. Indeed their claim on Sindh was a farce since they had absolutely no control over the ameers as Khairpur and Hyderabad established direct relations with foreign nations and empires. The Afghans had no representation in the administrative set-up or even any form of political or diplomatic representation in Sindh. Often when Sindh came under attack from its enemies not one Afghan soldier was there to defend their supposed interests as they had for the Kalhora. How could the Afghan king be even nominally suzerain of the Talpurs if he was never even allowed to set foot in their dominions and his armies either defeated or chased out?! The Talpurs had a closer relationship with the Persian empire then it had with the Afghans. Indeed they were provided with Persian engineers to build forts and irrigation systems. Historians today, not afflicted with an imperialist bias or a drive to over simplify the historical map of the world, have renamed afghan relationship with the ameers as that of Sindh being under Afghan "sphere of influence" although "sphere of plundering" would be more accurate.
The rulers of the Talpur Confederacy of Sindh jointly fended of Afghan aggression on Sindh by a combination of war and negotiated tributes - whenever such payment was the cheaper alternative to war. The Afghans could only claim tribute when attacking and pillaging villages in Sindh. This they would commit along with their Baloach allies. Every battle that was fought with the Afghan invaders, however, resulted in their slaughter and victory for the Ameers of Sindh, but the cost to Sindh was very high. Thus a ransom would be paid to avert war, at times negotiated to a tenth of what was claimed by the Afghan king. This is what British historians term as ‘irregular tribute' although ransom would be the correct term. Nevertheless, by 1813, taking advantage of the troubles in Kabul incidental to the establishment of the Barakzai dynasty, this payment was completely stopped. In 1823 the joint forces of Mir Sohrab of Khairpur and the Rais of Hyderabad laid siege to the fort at Shikarpur, the last Afghan stronghold in Sindh. Although the Talpur forces suffered serious losses in the battle, they managed to take over Shikarpur after a settlement by which the Mirs paid a single payment of three hundred thousand rupees in exchange for which the Afghan king surrendered all claims on Shikarpur and Sindh forever, guaranteeing it in writing on the Holy Quran. Shikarpur City was brought under the joint control of Hyderabad and Khairpur, while areas immediately to the city's East, North and West belonged wholly to Khairpur.
In an effort to end the threat of future harassment from Afghanistan as well as other neighbours, the Rais of Hyderabad entered into treaty of ‘eternal friendship’ with the British Empire of the capricious East India Company, permitting them commercial access in 1832. Soon afterwards, in the same year, Mir Rustom, then Paramount Ameer of Khairpur, entered into a similar treaty with the British. With this began the downfall and conquest of the Talpur Confederacy (1843) as it led to the gradual increase of British preponderance. To make matters worse, Hyderabad disintegrated into petty states as the Paramount Ameer was unable resist British interference in his Kingdom. In 1838, Mir Rustom surrendered control over foreign affairs to the British Empire and came under British protection by treaty. This relationship of subordinate alliance brought Khairpur under British “paramountcy” and the empire began to recognize the kingdom as a “princely” state as it had the other countries of the Indian subcontinent.
| Of the lack of respect of native sovereigns Ed Haynes says it best, “It should be pointed out that the habitual terminology of "Princely States" is significantly flawed. These states were not ruled by "princes", but rather by "kings", some of whom enjoyed a truly ancient heritage of political power. For the British -- and their ideology of imperialism -- there was but one significant "king" (and he lived in London); Indian rulers were (and had to be) "princes." Despite the unfortunate origins, this terminology has become common,….” ("Indian Princely States" Winthrop University site maintained by Ed Haynes, Associate Professor of History, Winthrop University, South Carolina.) The ruler the empire recognized as ‘king’ was the mughal ruler of Delhi, descendent of the emperors of the defunct mughal empire. Although mughal territory had shrunk so greatly that it didn’t even possess Agra and the Taj Mahal, the company, it seems, fancied itself to be the rightful inheritors of a long dead empire by deposing the last mughal king. States of the Indian subcontinent were lowered in stature to justify imperial expansion.
The only word the British translated as "king" was the persian term Shah or Badshah". In a subcontinent of over 30 languages their were certainly more titles for kings than one persian term adobted by an emperor. Furthermore the informality with which the same titles were used or granted amongst the nobility led perhaps to more confusion. The Nizam of Hyderabad, like his Moghul predecessors, would give the title of Maharaja ('Great King') to his a noblemen in order to elavate himself over a Hindu Soveriegn. The Khan (Balochi for 'king') would give the Title of Nizam to his nobleman etc. What should have actually been taken into account was the independence of the ruler from other rulers, for example could a foriegn ruler legaly apply a law in another state without the permission of the native ruler. Barbara N. Ramusack, in her book "The Indian Princes and their States"(Cambridge University Press, 2004), includes categorisation of princely states before 1800 as: 1) antique, including Rajput states; 2) successor, such as Hyderabad and Awadh; and 3) warrior or conquest states, such as Gwalior and Mysore. Later on, the British elevated many feudatories of the truly independent States, to the 'rank' of "prince" as reward for their support of British expansion, raising the number of 'princes' from around 30 to an absurd 562 of which over a hundred were recognized as sovereign.
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The “princely state” gradually lost most of its territory to the Company.
By 1851 its territory was reduced to 15669 sq kilometers. It was under Mir Ali Murad I that Khairpur survived these dark times. In 1842, Sir Charles Napier arrived in Sindh with the predetermined objective to conquer Sindh on any pretext whatsoever. Mir Ali Murad had already established himself as the most powerful ameer in Upper Sindh much before the arrival of the British and apprehending the eventual fall of the Talpur Confederacy was determined to survive. Historical record reveals many times over the fact that Mir Ali Murad was against the alliance with the British but when no other Talpur ameer listened to him he allied with the British as well but remained steadfast. The rest of the Ameers of Sindh, despite all their submission to British demands, were provoked and conquered after a series of short battles between February 1843 to June of the same year. The first and most decisive battle was that of Miani (17 February 1843) at which the Ameers of Hyderabad surrendered while the Ruler of Mirpur was defeated later. At Miani, British force of only 2,500 soldiers crushed the Talpur force of about 30'000, where the Ameers surrendered after 6'000 Baloachies were killed, while the losses of the British were only 63! British victory was largely due to superior arms and a disciplined (strategically united) army as opposed to the disorganized Baloach forces. The primary weapon of the ameers was the sword and a limited number of primitive matchlock rifles while the British had the advanced musket. For the Talpurs, any hope of recovering their kingdoms was lost as the Baloach Sardars quickly shifted to the British side.
Mir Ali Murad survived the annexation of Sindh as the Rais-ul-ummarah of Upper Sindh. His Survival was due to his being organized and strong enough to be a serious, albeit short term threat to the British Empire during the annexation. He was the only ameer in Sindh with a standing skilled army of Afghan and Persian mercenaries and he was considered a "mortal threat" to the British army. It was for this reason that the British chose to have peace with Khairpur. The survival of Khairpur as a state was purely the result of Mir Ali Murad's tact in handling and understanding the hypocritical policies of the East India Company. By nature, he was a man of boundless ambition and cunning--the necessary ingredients for survival. He was unique amongst the ameers of Sindh in understanding the British empire, its strengths and weaknesses. He travelled to England and made or bought allies in the parliament. His capacity to understand and manipulate a system far more advanced and powerful than his own kingdom allowed for the continued survival of his dynasty.
After the first war for independence in 1857 led to the demise of the East India Company, the Indian empire came directly under the crown and parliament of Britain. A far more dependable and steadfast institution represented in the person of the viceroy. These changes led India into the most progressive phase in its history and Khairpur developed a fruitful relationship with the empire.
| It is important to note that vicious propaganda by the Congress party during and after independence (1947) has led many to believe that the princely states including Khairpur were a creation of the British. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Indian sub-continent is a large land mass which consist of many nations although it appears small on commonly available maps of the world. This is because these maps are flattened projections of the world where areas far north and south of the equator have been stretched to appear much larger then they actually are in order to show both sides of the planet on one page. In fact the distance between Rome and London can comfortably fit with in the subcontinent.
The creation of modern India as one state instead of several countries is primarily due to the policies of the British empire. Firstly, the uniting of the different peoples of sub-continent by the roads and railways built by the British empire. Secondly, the education provided to the natives introduced western ideas of freedom and democracy rather than inducing loyalty. Finally, the struggle to overthrow the British united all nationalities of the sub-continent providing them with a common Identity. With out the British influence there would have been no India today. In actual fact, the term 'India' derives from the word hindustan which gets its name from the river Indus. India or Hindustan was the name given to the "mysterious" land east of the river, by western peoples in Medieval times. Like Europe, the sub-continent also consists of many nationalities and languages. It was only in the Mughal era that modern Hindi evolved as the language of the central Gangetic plain between the Punjab and Bengal. It was India and Pakistan that were the children of the British empire. One empire divided into two. To call India one country is like calling Europe or Africa one state and is a travesty of history. India is still an empire. |
[edit] Recent History
In 1947, on the 15th of August, British paramountcy over the foreign affairs of the Princely States of India came to an end, leaving them fully independent but also surprised and unprepared. All sovereign rulers had the choice of remaining fully independent or accede to either of the newly formed dominions of India and Pakistan. The States were misled into believing that they would continue to exist in the same relations with the newly formed dominions as they did with the British Empire, if they acceded to either dominion. This they believed until the very last days before independence for India and Pakistan. It was this erroneous belief that led the vast majority of rulers to reject the proposal of a union of princely states such as the United Arab Emirates today, as put forward by the Nawab of Bhopal. After Accession however, the states lost everything except the Ex-Ruler’s titles, privileges and a privy purse which was promised to them by an agreement.
As India failed as a large centralized state in maintaining the higher quality of life that the former subjects of the princely states were used to, there came a great resurgence in the popularity of the princes and they began to participate in politics. ( Even today 300 to 350 million people live below the 'poverty line' in India. The poverty line being 300 Indian Rupees or under 7 US Dollars per month! assuming those earning more than $7 a month are not poor! ) Foreseeing certain defeat in the upcoming elections, Indhira Gandhi (prime minister of India) violated the agreement made with the princes by treacherously abolishing all the privileges and privy purses on 28th December, 1971. These priviliges were guaranteed by the Government of India, and her own father Nehru, the first prime minister of India. The princes were financially destroyed as most of them had not made personal investments during their reign. Suffering great economic hardships they were forced to abandon politics. Furthermore, Bollywood movies were used as propaganda tool with great success, to villianize and discredit the princes. In Pakistan too, in 1972, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto did the same to the rulers even though they had mostly stayed away from politics. The truth was that despite all the palaces and fabulous jewels that the princes had aquired, the cost of maintaining the government along with all the state institutions including the monarchy, was significantly less then the expenditure on comparable areas by the Indian government due to a much smaller bureaucracy. This spared more revenue to be spent on public welfare then the Indian districts could muster. Commisioners, majistrates, governors, even prime ministers and presidents of India could only dream of the legitimacy the Indian Monarchs had in the eyes of their subjects.
In 1947 accession was the only feasible option because the states were given absolutely no opportunity to organize their independence and while many had excellent military forces; their defenses had been completely crippled due to fighting the powerful armies of Hitler and the axis-powers, in alliance with the British in the Second World War. Ironically, it was the British, under labour party control, that were coercing the rulers to surrender to the new successor ‘empires’ of Pakistan and India. (The Kingdom of Bhutan is the only Princely State that survives to this day).
The Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had publicly declared that Pakistan “was not going to coerce, intimidate or put any pressure on any State making its choice. But those States which wish to join the Pakistan Constituent Assembly will find us ready and willing to negotiate with them an agreement for the mutual advantage of both the parties.” When India usurped the states Mr. Jinnah did not, although he did take over those functions of these states that might possibly have posed a threat to Pakistan in the future. These functions were foreign affairs, defense, and communications to some degree. It was a treaty called an “instrument of accession” signed by the rulers and Mr. Jinnah that permitted Pakistan to manage the above mentioned functions on the rulers behalf. However, the rulers were guaranteed sovereignty over all other matters. The instrument specifically promised no coercion to enter into any other agreement with or recognition of any constitution of Pakistan. Furthermore, by taking over the function of Defense from Khairpur for the sake of Pakistan’s security it became incumbent on Pakistan to protect the sovereignty of Khairpur.
The States that successfully acceded to Pakistan were; Khairpur, Bahawalpur, Swat, Dir, Amb, Chitral, and Kalat with its sub-states, between 1947 to 1949. Junagarh and Manavadar were forcefully taken over by India on the grounds that the majority of their population was Hindu. Together, these states (not including Junagarh and Manavadar) contributed one third of Pakistan’s area. (After Junagarh, Khairpur and Bahawalpur were the first States to accede simultaneously to Pakistan on the 3rd of October 1947. At a time when no other state including Baloachistan had joined Pakistan, Khairpur was essential because 1) The State bordered India; 2) Khairpur lay on the Indus River and India could easily nullify the Sukker Barrage had the State acceded to It. ( The boundary of Khairpur lies just 40 yards from the Barrage.) ; 3) The canals Nara and Rohri, that water southern Sindh pass through Khairpur; 4) The Railway and the Grand Trunk Road which connected the capital of that time (Karachi) with the military base in the north, passed through Khairpur).
The Eighth Sovereign of Khairpur, Mir Ali Murad Khan Talpur II (the present Ex-Ruler) acceded to Pakistan on the 3rd of October 1947 while in his minority through his Regent.
Even before accession, Pakistan Day (14th August) was celebrated by Khairpur although both the royal family and citizens of Khairpur greatly lamented the migration of fellow Sindhis who were Hindu. From 1947 till mid-1955, Pakistan was a soft amalgam of the paramount State with that of the dependent Sovereign States of the Princes who enjoyed the full support and friendship of the illustrious founders of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan. The States were part of Pakistan, although autonomous and sovereign. In other words they were not administered from the federal capital of Pakistan as the provinces are today.
It should be noted that like other Princely States, Khairpur had also surpassed Pakistan in practically all fields of social development. Khairpur had made it its goal to match the economic development of the West and it had made more than sufficient advances towards this goal in the period after Partition, for example:
- The State had the first democratic elections based on universal adult franchise in Nov.1950, before they were held in Pakistan. Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, and a personal friend of the Mir of Khairpur inaugurated the Khairpur Legislative Assembly. The Mir protected this fledgling democracy from dominance by feudal forces. It was his support of Mr. Kizilbash a non-Sindhi yet progressive administrator that allowed for his election as chief minister. The young monarch even forced his own relatives to wholly follow the policies of Kizilbash. Soon afterwards, following Khairpurs example and much to the chagrin of the dictatorship of Pakistan, the rulers of Bahawalpur and Kalat introduced democracy in their countries as well.
- The State provided better quality free health care for its citizens, far superior than that provided in Pakistan. Free health care meant free consultations with doctors, free medicine, and free operations. Even food was provided free, both for the patient and his visitors! Eminent foreign doctors were invited to train local doctors by performing operations with them.
- It had the highest per capita expenditure on education of all units that joined Pakistan. The state spent 22% of its budget on education. European teachers were employed to train local teachers of primary and high schools. The best and most qualified teachers were concentrated in Khairpur for college education. Primary education was compulsory while it was genuinely free up till metric, to all who came. The poorest students were provided with free books, housing, clothing and even food. After metric, scholarships were given generously. Many of these very students attained prominence not just in Khairpur but Sindh, Pakistan and abroad. Indeed, some of these very students that received free clothing and food later became ministers, chief ministers, justices and chief justices. (free education of dubious quality is just now being provided in the Punjab and still remains to become a reality in Sindh - 50 years later! ). After the merger with Pakistan this education came to an end and the children had no choice but to join the oppressive child labour force of Pakistan.
- Adult education was given attention as well with the setting up of special schools. Furthermore, an industrial school for women was set up with a German lady as principal.
- Khairpur had a post partition (1947-1955) revenue growth of 310%. The highest of any area in Pakistan was the Punjab at 40%, while Sindh had only 13%.
- Despite having negligible taxes, its budget per capita was more than double than that of the highest found in Pakistan.
- It had an extremely low crime rate due to the expeditious disposal of criminal and civil cases, while there were widespread complaints about such in adjoining regions.
- The State had a swiftly growing industrial base, which formed the main part of its revenue. It was the state’s heavy investment in its human resources through education that provided it with a concentration of skilled labour force technicians and engineers. This allowed for its industrial development as private enterprises began to invest in Khairpur as it provided the necessary workforce. Perhaps the greatest testimony of Khairpur's economic success was that there were negligible agricultural taxes such as dhull etc. despite it being deep in the rural interior of Sindh! Mir Ali Murad had personally toured Europe and chosen the machinery for industry. Khairpur had only built one industrial zone that had led to so much economic growth and welfare. It had developed a new 5 year program to build eight more industrial zones for which roads and power houses were already being built. Loans were being provided to private industry to set up in the new zones, plots of land were already taken over by private firms. God only knows what was in store for the next five year plan after that. But alas it was not to be.
A few years after the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan (1951), facing a brutishly aggressive government of Pakistan, the Mir, now at the age of 22, was forced to “merge” Khairpur with the “One Unit” of West Pakistan, a political reorganization designed to support dictatorship. Khairpur and Bahawalpur were the first states to be annexed in 1955 through a Merger Agreement which their rulers were forced to sign in 1954 on threat of military invasion. This threat was made by then defense minister, General Iskander Mirza (Dictator-Governor General 1955-1958) while his right hand man, General Ayub (Dictator-President 1958-1969) was the chief of the armed forces at the time. The Khan of Kalat who had simultaneously received this threat, refused to accept any such illegal agreement and this lead to a military invasion beginning on the 6th October 1958, causing a massacre of unarmed civilians in Kalat city along with numerous other human rights violations, mass murder and atrocities throughout Balochistan. Curiously enough, none of the other states, which had not introduced democracy, were asked to merge and surrender their sovereignty to the 'One Unit' until 1969; a fact about which most historians are unaware.
The merger agreement violated the very agreement that the rulers had with the founders of Pakistan. The people of Khairpur offered to fight for their independence but the odds were impossible. Mir Ali Murad refused to accept the suggestions that he move abroad to Britain or Switzerland with his personal assets and government and not sign the agreement; thereby not giving Pakistan even the pretext of legitimacy and letting the people fight. However, it was to spare his subjects the horrors of a military invasion that the ruler signed agreement after taking guarantees for their welfare and continuance of the benefits that the state provided to its people as well as his royal privileges.
After the merger of the State, this agreement too was violated and all developments were brought to an end, retarded into non-existence. To the corrupt military controlled government of Pakistan of that time, social and economic development of these states was seen as a threat, particularly because development of the provinces bordering the states was pathetic and this eventually would have led to unrest. Inside Pakistan, Khairpur was relegated to the backwaters.(By 1985 the real income of this area fell to a 50th of what it was!!) Virtually every promise of the merger agreement was broken. During the regime of general Ayub Khan, dictator of Pakistan, practically all the industrial units were shut down as soldiers marched into factories and stole their assets. The suddenly unemployed workforce, under great duress, fled to Karachi and Lahore, while many were reduced to starvation and begging.
The devastating “one unit” fiasco officially came to an end on the 1st of July, 1970. It had led to the genocide of over a million Pakistanis of Bengal, the break up of Pakistan and the formation of Bangladesh. Soon afterwards, the remaining provinces were allowed a mock existence, however, the States were not even permitted that. The catastrophe brought on by the Pakistan government not only destroyed the well-being and once bright future of the citizens of Khairpur in the 1950's but also that of the successive generations of their children as well. What is worse there seems to be no end in sight to their miseries.
Pakistan reduced the people of Khairpur to a worse condition than even its own miserable citizens. Unemployment rose limitlessly and the law and order situation became a nightmare with corrupt Pakistani officials being complicit in crimes, a condition that remains to this day, unabated. Rather than securing his own future, Ali Murad, apprehending such treachery from the Government of Pakistan, established the Khairpur Welfare Trust with the last remains of his personal wealth in the hope of providing a little relief to his former subjects. This Trust was usurped and its assets handed over to a military fund. Furthermore, without any provocation whatsoever, Ali Murad's personal revenue providing assets such as agricultural lands and factories were seized by the Pakistan government. Having been already deprived of his jewels he had spent the remains of his wealth on his former subjects as they turned to him for aid when economic and social catastrophe was brought on by the Pakistan government. Soon Ali Murad was financially destroyed. Embarrassed to face his own people as he was unable to help or protect them he became a hermit in his own palace where he lives to this day in isolation.
Today his once beautiful palaces are crumbling and on the verge of collapse. Mir Ali Murad refuses to meet anyone except one or two friends and that too very rarely. He has two sons, prince Mir Abbas Raza Talpur and prince Mir Mehdi Raza Talpur. The younger son, prince Mehdi, is in charge of his father’s estate and is trying to convert it into revenue producing assets against considerable odds. Much to the discomfort of established polititians the younger son has become the public face of the last royal family of Sindh, and has recently started to give audience to people. Of his family's present situation he says:
"It is one thing to surrender crown and country and then to live a life of an ordinary citizen in ones homeland, but another of having to live in Pakistan that is one of the most corrupt states of the world. What ever personal assets remain are mainly in Sindh, our homeland and we have no desire to leave it, but life inside of Pakistan is full of uncertainty and constant political and economic instability bringing misery to the vast majority of the population. This is thanks primarily to the military establishment that rules Pakistan directly or indirectly. Our personal wealth has been taken from us by one means or other, and we live on earnings which would be considered as middle class income in an industrially developed country. We are now in financial crises and find ourselves unable to protect our heritage. The lawlessness in Sindh is such that benefiting from tourism is out of the question. What is very painful is the fact that attacks on the meagre remains of our private property continues, unabated, to this day causing us to live in constant fear for our livelihood. My family has continuously lived in a constant state of traumatic tension and I have found that it has affected both their physical and mental health as they suffer from severe depression."
[edit] Bibliography
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by Allen, Charles; Dwivedi, Sharada Publisher: Random House Value Pub, Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A. Date Published: 1987 ISBN:
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Benedict Andersen.
Ruling Princes and Chiefs of India
With introduction by Sir Walter Lawrence Originally published by the Times of India 1930 Reprinted by Sang-e-Meel Publications, Lahore 2005.
INSTRUMENTS OF ACCESSION AND SCHEDULES OF STATES ACCEDING TO PAKISTAN
Presented by The Honourable Minister for the States and Frontier Regions to The constitutional Assembly (legislature), on the 14th February , 1949. Printed and Published by the Assisstant Manager Governor-General's Press and Publications, Karachi, 1949.
MEMORANDUM.... (Submitted to the Chairman and Members of the Basic Principles Committee of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on
behalf of The Government and The People of Khairpur State on 25th day of May, 1954.)
FACTS AND FIGURES OF KHAIRPUR STATE (West Pakistan)
Published by The Department of Industrial Development, Khairpur State. 31st July 1954.
LUMINARIES OF THE LAND SIND MADRESSAH'S ROLL OF HONOUR Alma Mater of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Author; Muhammad Ali Shaikh,Sind Madressatul Islam. Shahrah-e-Liaquat Karachi. Published in November 1999 By Sind Madressatul Islam As part of the Golden Jubilee Celeberations Programme of Pakistan.
Travels, Tales, and Encounters in Sindh and Balochistan 1840-1843.
Marianne Postans. With Introduction by R.A. Raza. Reprinted by Oxford University Press.2003.
PARTITION OF INDIA
Legend and Reality H.M Seervai. Oxford University Press 2005.
The Last Wali of Swat
An Autobiography as told to Fredrick Barth. White Orchid Press Bangkok, 1995 First Edition 1985 Second Edition 1995
The Oxford History Of India
By the Late Vincent A. Smith, C.I.E., Edited by Percival Spear. Fourth Edition. Oxford University Press Karachi.
Travels in Beloochistan and Sinde
Henry Pottinger with an introduction by Rosie Vaughan. First published by Longman ,Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown Peternoster-Row, 1816. Oxford University Press , Karachi. 2002.
INSIDE BALUCHISTAN.
Political Autobiography of Khan-e-Azam Mir Ahmed Yar Khan Baluch, Ex-Ruler of Kalat State. Publishers Royal Book Company P.O Box No. 7737 Karachi-3, 1975. First Edition 1975 Printed at MAAREF PRINTERS Karachi (Pakistan.)
A JOURNEY TO DISILLUSIONMENT
Sherbaz Khan Mazari. As told to Shehryar Khan Mazari. Oxford University Press 1999. Second Impression 2000.
[edit] External Links
History and Wildlife at UNDP(United Nations) site
[edit] See Also
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