Yaghistan Explained

Yaghistan (Urdu: یاغستان; "The land of the rebellious and hostility") was a key frontier region between Afghanistan and British India.^[1]

This was an area where rebels lived, on either side of the Durand Line, roughly corresponding to the later tribal areas of Pakistan.^[1]

The term, in use since at least 1868, was also used in Afghanistan where Amir Abdur Rehman characterized eastern Pashtun population as "Unruly" and "Rebels".

History

Yāg͟histān was originally inhabited by Indo-Aryan Kōhistānī speakers.^[2] According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam:

Initially, any frontier region outside the direct control of the British colonial government was known as Yaghistan, which at its widest extent, included Balochistan and Sarhad.^[3] Between 1844 and 1900, the term came to be used for the independent tribes of Hindu Kush, who were considered "impossible to be administered", as they were always outside the sphere of influence of either British Raj or the Emirate of Afghanistan.

Yāghistān was the center of Syed Ahmad Barelvi's movement against the Sikh empire^[4] as well as Mahmud Hasan Deobandi's Silk Letter Movement.^[5] The area was never conquered by the British Raj and its people and the unadministered tribes always remained hostile towards the British.^[6]

References

Sources

• Book: Nile Green. Afghanistan's Islam: From Conversion to the Taliban . 2017 . Univ of California Press . 978-0-520-29413-4 . en.
• Book: Sana Haroon. Frontier of Faith: Islam in the Indo-Afghan Borderland . 2007 . C. Hurst (Publishers) Limited . 978-1-84904-183-6 . en.
• Book: Christine Noelle. State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan (1826-1863) . 2012 . Routledge . 978-1-136-60317-4 . en.

Further reading

• Book: Qasuri . Muhammad Ali . Mushahidat Kabul-o-Yaghistan . . Karachi .
• Book: Wazirabadi . Fazal Ilahi . Fazal Ilahi Wazirabadi . Kavāʼif-i Yāg̲h̲istān : yaʻnī, Mujāhidīn-i Yāg̲h̲istān kī ṣad sālah ḍāʼirī . 1981 . Idārah-yi Iḥyāʼ al-Sunnat . Gujranwala. 11598882 . ur.

Notes and References

1. Hyman . Anthony . Nationalism in Afghanistan . International Journal of Middle East Studies . 2002 . 34 . 2 . 306 . 3879829 . 29 July 2021.
2. Book: Grierson, George Abraham . Linguistic Survey of India: Volume X, Specimens of Languages of the Eranian Family . Superintendent of Government Printing . 1921 . 5.
3. Book: Bruns . Bettina . Subverting Borders: Doing Research on Smuggling and Small-Scale Trade . Miggelbrink . Judith . 2011-10-08 . Springer Science & Business Media . 978-3-531-93273-6 . en. 42.
4. Book: Altaf Qadir. Sayyid Ahmad Barailvi: His Movement and Legacy from the Pukhtun Perspective . 2014 . SAGE Publishing India . 978-93-5150-486-3 . en. Archived
5. Book: Tabassum, Farhat. Deoband Ulema's Movement for the Freedom of India . 2006. Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind in association with Manak Publications. New Delhi. 81-7827-147-8. 1st. 47.
6. Indus Kohistan An Historical and Ethnographie Outline . Central Asiatic Journal . 1999 . 43 . 1 . 70–71 . Harrassowitz Verlag. 41928174 . Frembgen . Jürgen Wasim .