Sandal Bar

Sandal Bar (Punjabi: ساندل بار), also known as the Jungle Bar, is the section of the Bar region in western Punjab in Pakistan and is located between the rivers Ravi and Chenab, and comprises the southern part of Rechna Doab.

The Sandal bar falls within the lower half of Rechna Doab (grey colour) in this map

It corresponds to the present-day Faisalabad Division (Faisalabad, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh and Chiniot districts) in Pakistani Punjab.

Etymology

Sandal Bar is named after Sandal, grandfather of the 16th-century Punjabi chieftain Dulla Bhatti who, according to the popular folklores, led a revolt against the Mughal rule in the Sandal Bar during the reign of Akbar.

History

Medieval Era

Map of Punjab in 1780, depicting Sial capital of Jhang in the Rachna Doab.

Jhang has been historically the stronghold of the Punjabi Sial tribe for centuries. The 13th Sial chief, Walidad Khan, established a strong regional state in the early-18th century following the decline of the Mughal Empire, which was supported by a large agricultural base along river Chenab. He gradually gained control of the lower Rachna Doab, including the cities of Chiniot, Pindi Bhattian, Jhang and Mankera. The next chief, Inayatullah Khan (r. 1747–1787), was a successful general who won 22 battles against Bhangi Misl and the Multan chiefs. His son, Sultan Kabir Khan was a mild ruler and his reign was peaceful. In 1798, he abdicated in the favour of his son, Ahmed Khan, who proved to be the last Sial ruler.

Sikh invasions and Rule

In 1803, the Sikh ruler, Ranjit Singh, sent his agents to Jhang to demand tribute from Ahmed Khan. Upon his refusal Ranjit Singh marched with his Khalsa Army to Jhang. Ahmed Khan collected a force consisting of Sials, Kharrals and Bharwanas, but was defeated, ultimately being forced to pay a tribute of 60,000 rupees per year. Ranjit Singh annexed the Sial capital of Jhang in 1807, on the pretext that Ahmad Khan Sial was making an alliance with Muzaffar Khan Sadozai of Multan and had signed a secret treaty with the latter. However, Ahmed Khan seized control of Jhang again in 1808 with the help of Pathans of Multan. Ranjit Singh again invaded Sial-ruled territories in 1817 while going on campaign against the Nawab of Multan, and defeated the Sials. The Sial rule came to end in 1818, and Ahmed Khan was awarded a small jagir by Ranjit Singh worth 12,000 rupees in the Amritsar District as compensation.

British annexation

At the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849, the entire Punjab region became administered as Punjab province, firstly by the East India Company and after 1858 as part of the British Raj.

War of Independence of 1857

On July 8, the British arrested a large number of Johiya tribesmen, women and children after they refused to pay the heavy taxes. When Ahmad Khan Kharal received the news, he planned to break into the Gugera Jail and rescue the innocent people imprisoned there. With help of his Baghela, Fatyana, Wattoo and Kathia allies, Ahmad Khan Kharal attacked the jail around 26 July. According to British records, 17 prisoners were killed, 33 were injured and 18 fled; native accounts held that 145 prisoners died and over a hundred East India Company troops were also killed. The British arrested Ahmad Khan Kharal but released him due to the pressure from local tribesmen and insufficient evidence available to charge him. Kharal continued resisting against the British after being released.

In order to arrest Ahmad Khan Kharal, Berkley attacked Jhamra but was unsuccessful although he imprisoned 20 civilians including Ahmad Khan Kharal's youngest son Bala Khan Kharal. The British also took with them a large number of cattle. Ahmad Khan Kharal with the help of Baghela, Kathia, Wattoo, Fatayana and Joiya tribesmen started a guerrilla campaign against the British. According to the Punjab government records, the rebels numbered 20,000 to 30,000 men at their height. Colonial official John Cave-Browne wrote that these rebels took refuge in thick jungles and grass and attacked in groups of 3,000–5,000 guerrillas. The sound of drum beating was the sign that they would attack. The connection of Jhang to Lahore was completely cut on account of their actions. Ahmad Khan Kharal planned a major assault on Gugera with other tribal leaders in a secret meeting but the information was leaked by Sarfraz Kharal of Kamalia to the British. The British prepared themselves to face the upcoming assault and when the rebels attacked they were repulsed with heavy losses.

Ahmad Khan Kharal with his companions retreated to the jungles of Gashkori and continued the guerrilla warfare. The British received news about Ahmad Khan Kharal's presence in the jungles of Gashkori and a force under Captain Black was sent there. The detachment succeeded in killing Ahmad Khan Kharal while he was offering afternoon prayers on 21 September 1857. Many of his close companions, such as his deputy Sarang Khan Kharal, were also killed in this engagement.

Acknowledging the profound impact of the fallen chief, Lieutenant N.W. Elphinstone wrote in his official report:

This expedition, though attended with severe loss on our side, thus ended in irreparable disaster for to the insurgents. Ahmad Khan (Kharral) had been chief instigator of the movement; his reputation for success in former insurrections was considerable, and his influence over the tribes on the Ravee unbounded.

Murad Fatyana, a trusted associate of Ahmad Khan Kharal, took revenge of Ahmad Khan's killing and killed Lord Berkley alongside fifty Anglo-Indian troops in a successful attack two days after Kharal's death. The rebellion continued until it was put down in 1858 by the British reinforcements.

British Raj

Until the late-19th century it was sparsely populated, when it was brought under irrigation after the establishment of Chenab Colony (Lyallpur) in 1892.

In the 1880s, the Punjab government began an irrigation scheme to cultivate large tracts of western Punjab through the creation of canal colonies. The Chenab colony was the largest of these colonisation projects, and covered the entirety of the Lyallpur District. Popham Young, the colonisation officer, managing the project, identified the site of the current city to establish headquarters for the colony.

Notable People

References

  1. ↑ Latif, Syad Muhammad (1997). History of the Punjab from the Remotest Antiquity to the Present Time. Sang-e-Meel Publications. p. 294. ISBN 9789693507355.
  2. ↑ Soofi, Mushtaq (13 June 2014). "Punjab Notes: Bar: forgotten glory of Punjab". Dawn. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
  3. ↑ Singh, Surinder (2008). "Mughal Centralization and Local Resistance in North-Western India: An Exploration in the Ballad of Dulla Bhatti". In Singh, Surinder; Gaur, Ishwar Dayal (eds.). Popular Literature and Pre-modern Societies in South Asia. Pearson Education India. pp. 89–112. ISBN 978-81-317-1358-7.
  4. ↑ "Our History". District Jhang. Government of the Punjab.
  5. 1 2 3 "Chapter II – History". Gazetteer Of The Jhang District. Punjab Government. 1883–84. pp. 23–39.
  6. 1 2 3 Yasmin, Robina (2022). Muslims Under Sikh Rule in the Nineteenth Century. I.B. Tauris. pp. 45–46. ISBN 978-0-7556-4035-5.
  7. ↑ Singh, Rishi (2014). State Formation and the Establishment of Non-Muslim Hegemony: Post-Mughal 19th-century Punjab. SAGE Publications India. ISBN 978-9-3515-0504-4. When Ranjit Singh realised that Ahmad Khan Sial of Jhang had concluded a secret treaty with Nawab Muzaffar Khan of Multan, he annexed Jhang in 1807 and gave Ahmad Khan a jagir at Mirowal near Amritsar.
  8. ↑ Grewal, J. S. (1998). The Sikhs of the Punjab (revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 4, 102–10, 248. ISBN 978-0-521-63764-0. LCCN 99158580.
  9. ↑ Stein, Burton (2010). A History of India. John Wiley & Sons. p. 107. ISBN 978-1-4443-2351-1. Quote: "When the formal rule of the Company was replaced by the direct rule of the British Crown in 1858, ...."
  10. ↑ Lowe, Lisa (2015). The Intimacies of Four Continents. Duke University Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-8223-7564-7. Quote: "... Company rule in India lasted effectively from the Battle of Plassey in 1757 until 1858, when following the 1857 Indian Rebellion, the British Crown assumed direct colonial rule of India in the new British Raj."
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6
  12. ↑ General Report on the Administration of the Punjab Territories, from 1856-57 to 1857-58 Inclusive: Together with a Brief Account of the Administration of the Delhi Territory, from the Re-occupation of Delhi Up to May 1858. Printed at the Chronicle Press, by Mahomed Azeem. 1854.
  13. 1 2 3 Government Records: Mutiny records. Correspondence and reports. Lahore, India: Punjab Government Press. 1911. p. 49.
  14. 1 2 "Tributes to A.D. Aijaz, the oral historian of Kharal's resistance". Dawn. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  15. 1 2
  16. 1 2 3 4 Cave-Browne, John (1861). The Punjab and Delhi in 1857: Being a Narrative of the Measures by which the Punjab was Saved and Delhi Recovered During the Indian Mutiny. William Blackwood and Sons.
  17. ↑ Punjab (India) (1911). Government Records: Mutiny records. Correspondence and reports. Punjab Government Press. p. 51.
  18. ↑ Gilmartin, David (2015). Blood and Water: The Indus River Basin in Modern History. University of California Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-520-35553-8.
  19. ↑ Gazetteer of the Chenab Colony, 1904. p. 29.
  20. ↑
  21. ↑ "Brief History of Faisalabad". District Court of Faisalabad. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  22. ↑ Miraj, Muhammad Hassan (22 April 2013). "Kharal and Berkley II". Dawn. Archived from the original on 19 June 2013.
  23. ↑ Eaton, Richard M. (July 2009). "Shrines, Cultivators, and Muslim 'Conversion' in Punjab, 1300–1700". The Medieval History Journal. 12 (2): 191–220. doi:10.1177/097194580901200202. ISSN 0971-9458.
  24. ↑ Punjab (India) (1911). Government Records: Mutiny records. Correspondence and reports. Punjab Government Press. p. 51.
  25. ↑ Singh 2010, p. 179.

Further reading