Karlal

The Karlal (Urdu کرڑال also known as Karral, or Kiraal) is a Hindko speaking tribe in Hazara Division, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The Karlals mostly inhabit the highlands of the Nara tract and the Galiyat area of the Abbottabad District, parts of the Haripur District, and parts of the Bagh District of Azad Kashmir.^[1]

Etymology and Origins

The Karlal oral tradition states that the tribe descents from a man named Karral Shah who had migrated from present day Southern Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions.

History

Mughal Empire

During the reign of the third Mughal Emperor Akbar, the Karlal country along with much of Hazara, came under the Mughal rule. The Mughal emperors sought the help of powerful local tribes to keep the area subdued rather than have direct control over the region. The Gakhar tribe of the Potohar plateau (who now refer to themselves as Kayani Mughals), which was loyal to the Mughals at the time, got the Mughal support to rule the Hazara region. The Gakhars therefore, backed by the Mughal Empire, started ruling over the Karlal country by the late 16th century. However, the Gakhars found it hard to control the turbulent and hostile Karlals for very long which resulted in the Gakhar rule coming to an end during the mid 17th century with which the Mughal rule also came to an end over the Karlals.

Durrani Empire

In the mid 18th century, the Afghan King Ahmad Shah Durrani extended his rule over the Hazara Division of modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Hazara remained a part of the Afghan Durrani Empire from the mid-18th to the early 19th centuries. During this time, the Karlal country was attached to the to the Durrani 'Subah' (Province) or governorship of Kashmir. Durranis considered it wise to rule the region through the local tribal chiefs due to which no attempt was made by the Durrani Empire to subdue the Karlals. Due to this, the Karlals enjoyed sovereignty over their country till the end of Durrani rule.

Sikh Empire

The rising power of the Sikh Empire was able to dethrone the Durrani Empire in Hazara in the year 1819. This was perhaps the most turbulent period in Hazara's recent history. The plains of Hazara were subdued by the Sikh Empire after a couple of failures. However, the hilly areas of Hazara where the Karlals lived were yet to be subdued by the Sikhs. In order to subdue the Karlals, in the year 1822, the King of the Sikh Empire, Maharajah Ranjit Singh, sent a large force under the command of the then general and governor of Hazara, Amar Singh Majithia. The attempt was rendered unsuccessful by the Karlals as they were able to kill Amar Singh and his force.^[2] Amar Singh had now become the second governor and general of Hazara who was killed in action by the local tribesmen. Alarmed by the situation in hand, Maharajah Ranjit Singh decided to send Hari Singh Nalwa, the Commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Army, the army of the Sikh Empire, to Hazara in order to subdue the local tribes. In 1831, Hari Singh was partially successful in subduing the Karlals by allocating land or 'jagirs' to Hasan Ali Khan, the influential Karlal tribal chief of Dewal Manal, and by constructing a fort at the Nara tract inhabited by the Karlals.

In the spring of 1836, the fort built in Nara by Hari Singh Nalwa was destroyed by the Karlals led by Ahmad Ali Karral and Fateh Ali Karral, the Karlal chiefs of Satora. The Sikhs took action by marching into Satora and destroying the houses of the two chiefs involved in leading the attack which resulted in the destruction of the Nara fort and by constructing a new fort as well as deploying a 100 Sikh soldiers at where the houses of these chiefs once stood. However, the very next year, the Sikh fort was attacked by the Karlals led by Hasan Ali Khan of Dewal Manal leading to the destruction of the new fort and the deaths of all of the 100 Sikh soldiers garrisoned in the fort.

In 1844, once again, the Lahore Darbar sent a large force under Diwan Mulraj Dilwalia to subdue the unrest in Karlal country. Taking advantage of the hard terrain they inhabited, the Karlals were able to defeat the Sikh army at Nah, killing more than 150 Sikh soldiers. Despite the Sikh Empire holding parts of lower Hazara, including some Karlal territory, the Karlal tribe paid no tribute to the Sikh Empire and remained independent through most of the Sikh rule. In the beginning of 1846, following the news of the disorganization in the Sikh capital of Lahore, the tribes of Hazara including the Karlals seized and attacked the main Sikh fort located in Haripur. The Karlals along with the Dilazak and Jadun tribesmen encamped east of Haripur at Sarai Saleh and cut of a channel of the Dor river that supplied the Haripur fort with water resulting in the tanks of the fort being exhausted within 12 days. The Sikhs now had no other option but to fight their way out and were able to escape. This led to the Sikh governor Diwan Mulraj Dilwalia losing heart, abandoning the fort, and retreating back to Hasan Abdal with his forces.

Annexation of Karlal Country and Hazara to Kashmir

On 9 March 1846, following the victory of the British forces over the Sikhs in the First Anglo-Sikh War, the Karlal country came under the nominal control of the East India Company for about one week. The British forces asked the Sikhs to pay an indemnity of 15 million rupee following the Sikh defeat. The Sikhs could not readily raise this sum and ended up ceding Kashmir, Hazara and all the forts, territories, rights and interests in the hill countries situated between the Rivers Beas and Indus to the East India Company, as equivalent to ten million of rupees.^[3] However, on 16 March 1846, the British decided to sell of Hazara and Kashmir to Maharajah Gulab Singh, the first Dogra ruler of the newly formed Princely state of Kashmir. This was extremely distasteful to the Karlals and the people of Hazara which resulted in fighting and skirmishes with the Dogra forces of the newly installed king of Kashmir. In September 1847, the newly appointed Maharajah of the newly formed state of Kashmir sent the Jammu troops to quell the rebellion in the Karlal country. However, the Jammu troops were badly defeated by the Karlals inhabiting the Namli Maira area of Nathia Gali. After this, no attempt was made by the Maharajah of Kashmir to subdue the Karlals or the Karlal country and the Karlals were able to retain sovereignty over their country.

East India Company

Following the skirmishes with the local tribes of Hazara, the newly appointed Maharajah of Kashmir was reluctant to keep Hazara as a part of his newly formed Princely state. The Maharajah thus induced and pleaded to the East India Company to take back Hazara from him and give him Jammu instead, to which the East India Company obliged. By May 1847, all of Hazara Division, including the Karlal country, was deputed to James Abbott to administer. James Abbott was able to win over the local tribes of the region who in return welcomed him to their villages and homes. Five months later in Novembor 1847, Abbott visited the Karlal country and established an administration system. However, dissatisfaction and rebellion of the Karlals was recorded by the East India Company in May 1848. James Abbott stayed in Hazara and administered Hazara including the Karlal country till 1853. During his tenure, he established the city and district of Abbottabad, which today the Karlal country makes a part of as well.

1857 Rebellion

When the British first arrived in Hazara, the local tribes welcomed them as they considered the British to be better than the Sikhs they were at war with for 30 years. However, almost 10 years after the arrival of the British in Hazara, the animosity between them and the local tribes grew. The tribes of Hazara were unhappy with the colonial policies of the newly arrived British and decided to revolt. This coincided with the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The Karlals and their neighboring tribe the Dhund Abbasis made an alliance and decided to attack the Murree garrison situated in the British summer capital. The mastermind of the plan was the Karlal chief of Dewal Manal, Hasan Ali Khan. The attack however, failed due to the fidelity of one of Lady Lawrence's personal attendants, named Hakim Khan, himself an influential man of the Dhund Abbasi tribe that had risen and rebelled. Hakim Khan had made Lady Lawrence aware of the plot hatched by the Karlals and the Dhund Abbasis to attack the Murree garrison. Alerted to the danger the British organised defenses, and quickly rallied volunteers commanded by Major Luard of the 55th Northern Infantry and Captain HC Johnstone of the 5th Northern Infantry. On the night of the attack, when the tribesmen were stealing up the hill-sides in the dead of the night, a cordon of sentries surrounded the station and the three weakest points were held in some force, so the tribesmen, to their surprise, found the whole garrison waiting for them.

Although the British had managed to repulse the attack on Murree town, two neighbouring heights were held by the revolting tribesmen. The British in Murree were unable to send men to tackle the tribesmen in the hills as these were needed for the defence of the main garrison of Murree. For the whole of 2 September 1857 the heights around Murree were held by the tribesmen. It was not until 3 September with the arrival of reinforcements that the tribesmen were repulsed from the hills.^[4] The reinforcements themselves were almost ambushed. They had to cross difficult country full or morasses and defiles. The tribesmen belonging from various tribes of Murree who had scattered into the forest laid an ambush to cut them off; However, the road on which the trap was laid became impassable from the rains. The force turned off, and not till it had passed the ambush spot. Murree was garrisoned with extra troops and supplies of food; the British then burnt the rebellious villages, confiscated cattle and men were seized and hung.^[4] After the attack on Murree, the British shifted their summer capital to Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.

British Raj (1857 to 1947)

Following the unsuccessful attack on the Murree garrison, the British were very critical of the Karlals. Different accounts of British officers show the dislike they had for the tribe. During the British Raj, the Karlals had two leading families. First one being the jagirdars of Dewal Manal, and second one being the jagirdars of [[Dabran. The famous Karlal tribal chief, Hasan Ali Khan, was from the family of the jagirdars of Dewal Manal. Hassan Ali Khan was succeeded by his son Azad Khan who died in 1901. Azad Khan was then succeeded by his son, Rahmatullah Khan. However, Rahmatullah Khan could not live long enough to have an inheritor as he was killed by his cousins at a young age in a family quarrel in 1905. The other leading family of Dabran was being represented by Saeed Mohammad Khan in 1907. It was reported that like the leading family of Dewal Manal, the leading family of Dabran was also involved in bitter family feuds with each other.

Pakistan Movement

During the time of Indian independence movement, the entire Karlal tribe joined the flanks of the All-India Muslim League and strived hard for the creation of Pakistan. In the elections of 1946, which was fought on the single point of the division of British India, Karlals were forerunners in defeating the Indian National Congress candidates who had the backing of more populace tribes like the Jaduns. The representative and leader of the Karlals at that time was Captain Sardar Zain Muhammad Khan Karlal. Sardar Zain Muhammad Khan Karlal was able to motivate his entire tribe for the cause of the creation of Pakistan and along with the help of other Muslim league leaders of that time like Jalal-ud-din Jalal Baba, Maulvi Muhammad Ishaq and Fakira Khan, was able to make Muslim league as the most popular political party of District Hazara and the only political party having following in the hilly areas of Abbottabad known as Galyat or Gallies. In 1945, Sardar Zain Muhammad Khan Karlal was appointed as a member of the All-India Muslim League organizing committee by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. In the elections of 1946 Sardar Zain Muhammad Khan Karlal was not only made a member of the frontier Muslim league parliamentary board by Jinnah but was also awarded a Muslim league ticket for the lone rural constituency of Abbottabad. In the aforementioned elections, he defeated his congress rival with a huge margin and became the first parliamentarian from the Karlal tribe and also a member of the North-West Frontier Province legislative assembly. Sardar Zain Muhammad Khan Karlal also has the unique honor of representing Hazara District in the historic Delhi All India Muslim Parliamentarians convention held in April 1946 under the chairmanship of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah which finally voted for the partition of India and creation of Pakistan.^[5]

Another Karlal who had a prominent role in the Pakistan movement was the Mohammad Abdul Ghafoor Hazarvi. He was one of the provincial delegates to the Lahore Resolution of the All India Muslim League session which he was a part of on 22–24 March 1940.^[6][7] During the Pakistan Movement, Hazarvi was among the scholars who sided with Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the All-India Muslim League, on the platform of the "All India Sunni Conference″ held at Banaras in 1946.^[6][7] When Pakistan movement began for the independence of India, the Indian National Congress was supported by many Muslim scholars, leaders and the learned who stood side by side with the Hindu leaders of the Congress. Abdul Ghafoor Hazarvi announced his assistance and loyalty to Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the struggle to acquire Pakistan.^[6][7] After the passage of Lahore Resolution he gave an all out support to Mohammad Ali Jinnah for the achievement of Pakistan. He made intensive tours of the country to generate support for the All-India Muslim League. He advised his tribe and followers to work for the All-India Muslim League and emphatically declared that he would not lead the funeral prayers of any devotee if he had not participated in the Pakistan Movement in any capacity.^[6][7] His sincere campaign in the election of 1945-46 resulted in grand success of the All-India Muslims League candidates. During the referendum of 1947 in NWFP, Hazarvi toured the province and mustered his support for the All-India Muslim League.^[8][9][10]

Post Pakistan and Present

Following the formation of Pakistan, the Karlals have been living peaceful lives with little to no wars, battles, or violence, something that they were accustomed to since their recorded history. In the year 1957, Mohammad Abdul Ghafoor Hazarvi, a Karlal, became the first ever recipient of the highest civilian award of Pakistan, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz.^[11] Most Karlals today are still living in their ancestral villages in the Galiyat and the Nara tract of the Abbottabad District whereas some have moved out to different cities of Pakistan and the world for a better livelihood. More recently, the Karlals along with some other tribesmen of Hazara, have engaged in a political struggle to separate the Hazara Division from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in order to form a Hazara Province.^[12][13]

Notable people

• Mohammad Abdul Ghafoor Hazarvi (founder of Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan and Majlis-e-Tahaffuz-e-Khatme Nabuwwat)

References