Famous Punjabis before 1947, Part 3: Sir Chhotu Ram

Sir Chhotu Ram  

Sir Chhotu Ram (1881-1945) was one of the most prominent

Pre-partition politicians in Punjab and an ideologue of the Jat peasantry and a

champion of its interests. He was born on 24 November 1881 in Ghari Sampla in

Rohtak district in Jat Gotra Ohlan family.

He was associated with organizations representing peasant interests like the

Zamindar League and the Unionist Party (after resigning from the Congress in

1920). He was one of the founders of the Unionist Party (along with Sir Sikander

Hayat Khan). The Unionists ruled Punjab for its first two decades of (limited)

democracy. They represented a coalition between Hindu farmers in the eastern

part of the province and feudal Muslim landlords in the west. As an important

minister (he held the revenue portfolio) in the then Unionist Party Government

in Punjab, he did a lot to improve the economic status of the peasants through

numerous legislative measures.

Sir Chhotu Ram was part of a massive recruiting drive for the army during World War II

across Punjab, led by Punjab Premier Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan. His support of the British war effort (during World War II) is often seen as a controversial step as the Congress had given a call not to provide any help to the British. He actively promoted recruitment of Jats in the army as he felt that it was economically beneficial to the community.

The recurring theme of his campaigns was India's independence after the war. He

said: "My hope is that after this war Hindustan will be free. And it will be

free in a real sense."

Growing up in the prevailing economic misery at his time, he was strongly

influenced and motivated by the slights and insults, intended and otherwise,

that he had undergo on the path to achieving an education. In his time the Jat

peasants were victims at the hands of the usurious Mahajans. He exhorted

peasants to shed their inferiority complex and fatalistic outlook and become

assertive and self-confident.

He played a very significant role in the organization of the Jats as a

self-conscious community and helped them acquire self-confidence and

self-respect. As he was outside the political mainstream (Congress), his

contributions have been rather unfairly neglected from Indian history.

His own understanding of the Jat identity combined the themes of caste

(Kshatriya) assertions and land ownership. "The Jats are a quam of warriors and

zamindars", he wrote. His political language drew upon peasant culture and the warrior traditions of the Jats. In this respect, he differed from the other Unionist leaders whose

activities were confined to the formal imperial structures and not connected

with any mass movement in Punjab. He worked to project the Jats as a community lacking in self-confidence and in need for both protection and recognition, to bolster their self-confidence and transform them into a politically, culturally and economically viable entity.

Equally he broadened the meaning of Jat identity by unifying the cultural

strands of the Hindu Jats of Rajasthan, UP and southeast Punjab by providing

them with a common language against the cultural subordination of the

brahman-bania castes. He did not confine Jatness to a class but rather projected

it as a homogeneous cultural community with its distinct identity. Moreover, he

was able to establish a direct and close connection with other peasant groupings

in Punjab. The sahukar or bania (moneylender) was a major motif in his narratives. Portrayed as an 'evil force' within the countryside with his easy access to law, land and capital, the moneylender was constantly chided and ridiculed for manipulating

prices and controlling marketing and debt relations. He bemoaned the Jat

peasants' subservience to the banias.

He employed the bhajniks to propagate the concept of biradari (peasant

brotherhood) among the different peasant groups, who in turn saw him as a leader

who spoke their language and responded to their needs and aspirations.

After his death in 1945, he was equated with Dayanand Saraswati, their names

evoking notions of heroism and serving as reference points for the collective

identity of the Jats. Muslim Jats too gave him the title of Rehbar-i-Azam (great guide).

( MAIN SOURCES: FAMOUS JATS WEBSITE AND WIKIPEDIA)

Famous Punjabis before 1947, Part 2: Sardar Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan

Sardar Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, KBE, KCSI, Doctor of Oriental Lit etc (5 June

1892 in Multan – 25/26 December 1942) was , as we have noted below, a renowned statesman from the Punjab; and the son of late Nawab Muhammad Hayat Khan CSI, of Wah, a close associate of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, and a prominent scion of the Khattar

tribe of Attock, North Punjab.

Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan is chiefly remembered today as he led the Unionist Party, an all-Punjab political party formed to represent the interests of the landed gentry and landlords, as well as farmer agrarian class of Punjab, which included Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Hindus. He had taken over leadership of this group from Sir Fazli Husein. Khan led his party in the 1937 elections, held under the Government of India Act 1935. He governed the Punjab as Premier in coalition with the Sikh Akali Dal and the Indian National Congress. Being basically an all-Punjab party, for and by great Punjabis including (in addition to Sir Sikandar) Sir Chotu Ram, Malik Sir Khizar Hayat Tiwana, and other stalwarts, the Unionists did their utmost to save above all that most important asset of the Punjab, its fertile land, ‘’dharti’’, and tillers of the soil, ‘’zamindars’’, from ruin and utter destruction at the hands of usurers and money-lenders. It passed many ‘golden laws’ to save and salvage the peasants and their agrarian areas, so that these could go on being the bread-basket for all the subcontinent and the nursery of future generations of honest and strong men and women.

Khan opposed the Quit India Movement of 1942, and supported the Allied powers

during World War II. Khan believed in politically cooperating with the British

for the independence of India and the unity of Punjab.

In 1937, Khan signed the famous Sikandar-Jinnah Pact at Lucknow, which led to the

Lahore Resolution of 1940, calling for an autonomous or semi-independent Muslim majority region within the larger Indian confederation-- which demand later after his death, led to the demand for an independent Pakistan. In his lifetime, he controlled the Muslim League too, and with his sagacity, saw that this move of reconciling Muslim interests with Indian and Punjabi unity was paramount. “I am a Punjabi first, and then a Muslim”, he used to say.

Khan died in 1942. He is buried at the footsteps of the Badshahi Masjid in

Lahore, commemorated for his contributions to Islam by having restored and

revitalized the grand mosque, which had been in a very poor state when he became Premier/CM.

 His son, late Shaukat Hayat Khan, continued the family's political role in

post-Independence Pakistan. Among Sir Sikandar's famous grandchildren, are Yawar Hayat Khan, the Pakistani television director/producer and Tariq Ali a British -Pakistani writer and lecturer of international repute. Among his great-grandchildren, is the noted Pakistani poet, writer, research scholar and social activist Omer Tarin.

Main Sources: Wikipedia, Shaukat Hayat Khan’s ‘’Memoirs’’ (1995) and Dr Iftikhar H Malik’s ‘’Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan: A Political Biography’’ (1985).

Famous Punjabis before 1947, Part 1: Sardar Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan

The most Right Honourable Capt (r) Sardar Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, KBE, KCSI etc (1892-1942) was probably one of the greatest Punjabis in modern times, in the true great mould of the ancient and old glorious leaders of the Punjabi people, such as Raja Porus who defied Alexander the Macedonian, Maharaja Ranjit Singh who wrought out the Sikh Khalsa Kingdom  of Punjab and Raja (later Maharaja) Gulab Singh, Dogra, of  Kashmir and Jammu, who established his own semi-independent rule --all great men of action, and true sons of this soil.

Honble Sardar Sir Sikandar Hayat was the son of  Nawab Muhammad Hayat Khan, CSI, of Wah, a small but very beautiful village in the Northern Punjab , now area of Attock district of Pakistani Punjab. The old name of this village, settled by the noble ancestors of Sir Sikandar, was 'Jalalsar' (after the name of Sardar Jalal Khan) but later the Mughal Emperor Jahangir visited here en route to spend hus summer holidays in the magical vale of Kashmir; and seeing this beautiful location on his way, where he stopped , he said 'Wah!' (Great/Splendid/Superb) --and thus the name was forever changed in history. Later, Jahangir's son, Shah Jahan, built a delightful garden here , with running springs of water and silver and gold fish swimming in calm  lakes and this place became a 'pleasure garden' of the Mughals and the ancestors of Sir Sikandar, chiefs and Sardars of 'Wah' became official custodians of these gardens, and were further enobled over the ages.

Sir Sikandar's family, Hayats of  Wah, are a famous family of Punjab, feudal aristocrats and landlords, and they originally belong to ''KHATTAR' tribe of this area. About the noble and warlike Khattars, there are many stories and tales, and many later embelishments and strange fictitious accounts etc. Some say they are 'Arabs' (relative of Awan tribe of Punjab), some say they are 'Afghans' or 'Pashtuns' (Pathans in India) , some say they are Jatts, like many indigenous races of  this Land of  Five Rivers, and some even claim  they are 'Turkish' people. The ancient history is covered in many veils and sagas and the saga is very very long and ancient. However, briefly, in truth, as all pedigrees and genuine old records show and prove to us, the Khattars are in fact Rajputs by origin, descended from  'Chauhan' or 'Chohan' , a major branch or clan of the Rajputs. Prior to 1890s and early 1900s,  this account of the true origins prevailed --but later on, when some Muslim  Khattars became ashamed of their true roots and wished to be believed as 'Invader Muslims', they began to adopt a fictitious account of their basis.

Luckily, some of the true old accounts of  Khattars still survive in old volumes and archives.  And especially those of some major or main families of the tribe, also noted down and translated by early British officers in Punjab. Here, now, below, is given probably one of the earliest-preserved and translated accounts of the Hayat Khattar Family of  WAH; as recorded by (a) Colonel Hall and (b) later pedigrees and notices uptil 1947 or 1948.

---  

Original Pedigree and Genealogy of the Hayat, Khattar Family of Wah, as per the Account Given to Col. CH Hall, by Mullah Sarwar, Genealogist to Sardar (later Nawab) Muhammad Hayat Khan, 1866 and duly recorded at the Residence of the Sardar, in his company, in October of that year.

1.      Chauhan (or Chohan) Agnivanshi Rajput, Remote Progenitor –probably of Hun/Central Asian ancestry who came via Kashmir and settled with his clan/tribe in various parts of the areas that were later Punjab, UP and Rajputana.

    (Several generations)

2.      Rai Shiv Dayal Chauhan (came from Kashmir or upper/hills of Punjab and settled at Bagh Nilab, near Indus River, c. 1750 AD)

    (Several generations)

3.      Rai Kishan Dayal

4.      Rai Har Dayal

5.      Rai Ram Dayal

6.      Had two (2) sons, Rai Sukh Dayal (supposedly remote ancestor of Tiwanas, Noons etc) and Rai or Raja Jai Dayal (direct line)

7.      Raja Jiwan (son of Raja Jai Dayal)

8.      Raja Mahinder

9.      Raja Gajinder

10.  Raja Rajinder

11.  Raja Harnarain

12.  Raja Badrinath

13.  Had two (2) sons, Raja Dayanand who via his descendant Raja/Rai Alyas, was progenitor of the Ghebas, Jodhras etc; and Raja Raghunand (direct line)

14.  Raja Kaidarnath (alias ‘Kaidu Raja’ or ‘Khattar Raja’) son of Raja Raghunand, converted to Islam around 11^th-12^th AD, and received title of ‘KHATTAR KHAN’. All Khattars today, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh, descended from him, in Pakistan and India and elsewhere.

15.   Khattar Raja/Khattar Khan had 6 sons, and they divided into two (2) groups (a) KALA SECTION (led by Kalay Khan) and (b) CHITTA SECTION  or ‘FEROZAL’ SECTION (led by Feroz Khan)

16.  From Chitta/Ferozal Section over the next many generations, with frequent inter-marriages and inter-relations with various Afghan, Persian and Turki (Turkish/Central Asian) settlers, was RAJA SARBULAND KHAN , who received also the title of ‘Sardar’ and was also known as ‘Sardar Sarbuland Khan’.

(From line of Sarbuland Khan)

17.  Said Ahmad Khan

18.  Ghazan Khan

19.  Jamal Khan (founded village of ‘Jalalsar’ after his son, now ‘Wah’)

20.  Jalal Khan (lived under the reign of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir)

21.  Had two sons, Inayat Khan and Habeeb Khan; and from Habeeb Khan are:

22.  Kamil Khan and Ghazi Khan; and from Kamil Khan:

23.  Shah Wali Khan (also known as ‘Shah Wali Mansabdar’ as he was in Mughal service and enjoyed ‘Mansab’ or rank of Haft-Hazari, commander over 7000); and from him:

    (3-4 generations)

24.  Several sons, (a) Sardar Karam Khan (b) Hassan Khan (c) Fatteh Khan (d) Kaim Khan and (e) Noor Khan. Sardar Karam Khan was murdered by his half-brother, Fatteh Khan; and he too was later murdered by Fatteh Khan, Khattar of Dharek. The sons of late Sardar Karam Khan are as follows;

25.  (a) Gulab Khan (b) Bahadur Khan (c) SARDAR MUHAMMAD HAYAT KHAN, ASST. COMMISSIONER (THE MAIN SUBJECT OF THIS PEDIGREE) born: 1833/34; (d) Ghulam Khan’ and (e) Sikandar Khan.

-------------------- Ends Here--------------------

Subsequent Pedigree from Sardar (later Nawab) Muhammad Hayat Khan, CSI, of Wah (until 1947-48)

26.  Nawab Muhammad Hayat Khan (1833/34-1901) had many children from various wives and concubines, and from his Senior Wife, Begum Zainab Khanam, daughter of Ghulam Jilani, Ansari, employee and minister of Kapurthala State, he had the following sons: (a) Nawabzada Muhammad Aslam Hayat Khan (died 1924); (b) Sardar Mahmood Hayat Khan (died 1910) (c) Khan-Bahadur (later Nawab-Bahadur) Sir Liaquat Hayat Khan, ex-Prime Minister of Patiala State, British Punjab  (1887-1948) (d) Sardar Ghairat Hayat Khan (died 1911); and (e) CAPT ® SARDAR SIR SIKANDAR HAYAT KHAN, KBE, KCSI etc , former Premier of the Punjab (1892-1942)—the noblest and most distinguished of the sons of his notable father and the most brilliant of the scions of Khattar race, the true pride of all Punjabis, Hindu, Muslim or Sikh.

  27. Some details of Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan’s sons (5) are:

 

(a)   Major ® Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan (born 1915) , a most prominent Muslim Leaguer of Punjab;

(b)   Major Sardar Azmat Hayat Khan (born 1921), of the 4/12 Frontier Force Regiment (old 54^th Sikhs), serving in the Pakistan Army now.

(c)    Sardar Riffat Hayat Khan (born 1926);

(d)   Sardar Izzet Hayat Khan (born 1929);

(e)   Sardar Ghairat Hayat Khan (born 1932).

------------------Ends -----------------------------------

(Subsequent offspring of the above, in Pakistan)

This,  then, is the true and most noble account of this puissant and ancient household of  Khattar Rajputs--and of its most famous scion, Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, more will be said in the next part.

Punjab

Im  a Punjabi, first and last, of the Dogra tribe/race. In all the vast diversity of India, and the South Asian subcontinent, you will not find anything like this region--my native region--the Punjab: "The Land of  Five Rivers".

Originally, the 'Five Rivers' which made up the 'Punj' (Five) and 'Ab' (water/s) were --the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej;  sadly, after the old (British) Punjab was truncated by the independence/partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the whole Punjab was riven by chaos and in this chaos our five rivers were also divided.  Most of the headwaters of these rivers spring up from Tibet, or the Himalayas,  and pass through Kashmir (itself sadly truncated too) and Jammu (the homeland of my ancestors) and, by and large, some parts of all five are still flowing through parts of modern/contemporary India; whereas the Pakistani Punjab now only has four of the fiver flowing through its territory i.e. Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej.

The old, pre-British Punjab, although a lingustic entity, roughly speaking, ws not really a geographical teriitory united as one. Later on, between, 1819-1839, the Sikh Maharaja of Lahore, Ranjit Singhji, tried to forge a unity of sorts, which was to an extent achieved; although most of what is 'East Punjab' (Indian) fell under the sway of the Britsih East India Company and areas on the fringes, which had once been also part of the Afghan/Durrani kingdom  of Afghanistan (such as Hazara and the Peshawar valley, now both in NWFP or 'Khyber Pakhtunkhwa' Pakistan, were never properly absorbed into this entity or territory.

It is only after the 2nd Anglo-Sikh War of  1848-49, that in March 1849 finally the whole Punjab was annexed as part of British India and in time developed into a dynamic, rich, prosperous, fertile and highly significant province. So, desite all the 'negatives' of colonialism , the British must get their due credit.

Then population of this Punjab and its topography and lingustic dialectical diversity was simply amazing-- more of that later-- and the ethnic variety of its inhabitants,  of  so many diverse origins, ranging from  Pashtun/Afghan races in the North and North West to the Jatts and Rajputs and a host of other indigenous peoples , was and is astounding. More on that too, sometime. I n terms of creeds and religious belief, Punjabis are Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, primrarily, and although they have fought each other too, they mostly still retain a common 'Punjabi' bond or identity, which transcends many borders.

Of this Punjab, with its many special things and aspects, we shall talk from  time to time and share information from  various sources, too.

Hello, Welcome

Hello and welcome,  one and all to my 'Dograkahani'. This will be a page wehere occasional old historical stories and views and ideas and analyses and all manners of historical stuff, in other words, relating to the history and culture of the kashmir and Northern Punjab areas of India and Pakistan shall be made available.

I hope you will enjoy this. Please, if you have any positive comments or constructive criticism etc, lave any comments and if its ok, shall check and publish in time.

Thanks!