Home  |  Punjab Newsroom   |  PakistanSouth Asia  | Global Issues  | Opinions  |  Business  |  Immigration  | Technology | Punjabics Discussion Forum


Afghan invaders and Waris Shah
Shafqat Tanvir Mirza


THE sectarian and religious prejudices of Aurangzeb had played a major part in the destabilization of the subcontinent and Kabul which was then part of the Delhi empire. The insights of the Mughal dynasty and the failure of the economic structure of the state were also responsible for the deterioration which ultimately led to its complete collapse. But one of the other major factors was the role of the Afghan invaders, including Nadir Shah, Ahmad Shah Abdali and his two successors. The invaders were called Turks and the great Punjabi poet Waris Shah depicts the social conditions of the era:

Waris kurri na pind vich rahee kai, fojan Hind noon Turk nein chahrrian nay.

Waris Shah was born in the most troublesome period after the death of Aurangzeb and Shah Alam and it was the Punjab which suffered the most. First come Nadir Shah with the lame excuse that Islam was no more safe in India and he wanted to strengthen the Muslim rulers of Delhi who were getting weak against the Sikhs and the Marhattas.

The hatred against the Afghan invaders had reached an extent that Waris Shah was obliged to say:

Wang Kabuli kuttian gird hoyan dow dow alalhisab laga gayyan.

A Persian poet, Muhammad Bukhsh Aashob, laments the destruction of the city of Lahore:

Za bedad-i-Afghan kiran ta kiran,


Azan shehr bar shud bagardoon fughan.

Hazar az chunan dushmani purstaiz,

Aman al-aman az chunan rustkhez.


Waris Shah, though engaged in teaching and leading prayers in the mosque of Malka Haans in Deepalpur tehsil, was a distant witness to the oppression committed by Nadir Shah in Delhi and later in southern Punjab and Sindh. Waris Shah had referred to the massacre in Delhi.
Qizalbash, jallad, aswar khooni, nikal dorria Urd bazar vichon.

Nadir Shah’s invasion was followed by Ahmad Shah Abdali, a Multan-born warlord whose lust for loot was limitless. In that time, peaceful people like Waris Shah resisted him. He joined the force of Lahore governor Shahnawaz Khan, a debauch who had keeps, including a Sikh and Hindu women. He had murdered a religious emissary of Ahmad Shah and thus invited the wrath of the Afghan tyrant.
As Shahnawaz had killed the emissary, it was expected that an all-out war was inevitable between Lahore and the Afghans. Waris Shah had also joined the Mughal forces as a volunteer. But after insignificant clashes on the Booti Bund side in which Waris Shah was also involved, governor Shahnawaz left the city at the mercy of Afghans who plundered it for a month.
Waris Shah calls the Afghans ‘thieves’.

The Delhi rulers had refused to extend military support to Shahnawaz who was not in the good books of prime minister Qamruddin at Delhi. The reason was a family feud. Shahnawaz had defeated his elder brother Yahya Khan who was the son-in-law of Qamruddin. As was the practice of the Afghan invaders, Abdali and his forces mercilessly plundered the city and the citizens at large. Waris Shah narrates the conditions prevailing in the Punjab capital:

Tay, tor Lahore day vaikh kay ji daur-i-zameen tey sakht bhoochal hoya,
Waris Shah jiven jal bahj mahi, tivain shehr Lahore da haal hoya.
Being a nationalist, Waris was very happy when Ahmad Shah Abdali was defeated by the Mughal forces near Delhi and he had to retreat to Kabul through Lahore, where he was never welcomed. It was only Shah Waliullah, a renowned religious intellectual of Delhi, who had invited Ahmad Shah to strengthen the Delhi Mughal rulers at whose success Waris Shah was tremendously happy:

Yey, ya Rab toon mehrban hoyon, tadey pher Choghatian da raj hoya,


Toen diti shikast Qandharian noon, Dilli walian day sir taj hoya.

Waris Shah Qandhari khidar naheen, akheen vaikh, bazi hun harda ee.

In Waris Shah’s view, the whole of the Punjab was devastated by the Afghans and in their absence the Sikhs ruled supreme. It was the turn of the Sikhs marauders.—STM
Curtsey:DAWN.COM,July 22,2003

 

 

 

 

About Punjabics
Aims & Objectives
Submit an Event
Submit Articles
Feedback
Privacy Policy
Site Map

send email to nazeerkahut@punjabics.com with questions, comment or suggestions

Punjabics is a literary, non-profit and non-Political, non-affiliated organization funded from individual membership and contribution


Punjabics.com @ Copyright 2008 - 2015 Punjabics.Com All Rights Reserved     

Website Design & SEO by The Dotxperts Software House

Terms of Services
Disclaimers
Advertise with US
Facebook
Twitter
Volunteer
Contact US