Anti-Colonial Movement Essay

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Anti-Colonial Movement: The Struggle of the Haji Sahib Turangzai to do away with the authority of the British Raj Altaf Qadir, Lecturer, Department of History, University of Peshawar, Pakistan The North West Frontier Province of formerly British India and now Pakistan is situated in a geo-strategic region of the world. Majority of the inhabitants are ethnically Pukhtuns (also Pushtun). Though their region remained a gateway to India and Central Asia serving as a route to invaders, but being freedom lover they always resisted such invaders and aliens. During the sixteenth century the politics of the region changed as the Mughals led by Babur, ruler of Kabul, Ghazni and Qandahar occupied Delhi. Later his successors from Akbar onward tried to incorporate in their domain Pukhtun area as well, which resulted strained relations between them and most of the Pukhtuns.1 With Aurangzeb’s death (1707), process of disintegration of the Mughal empire began and local forces and the English asserted their power. In the meantime Ahmad Shah Durrani came into power in Afghanistan, with which the modern State of Afghanistan came into being. After consolidating his power in Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah invaded India a number of times, in the course of which he extended his domain up till Jhelum and parts of Sindh. At Ahmad Shah’s death, process of disintegration started in Afghanistan as a result of civil war among his successors. During this time, Ranjit Singh organized the Sikhs, established his rule and embarked to expand his dominions, in the course of which his forces crossed the Indus and occupied the city of Peshawar, the Peshawar valley, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan by third decade of the nineteenth century. The main concern of the Sikhs, however, was collection of revenue, loot and plunder. Although the area was loosely held by the Sikhs, it was considered part of the
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