Myths ,Distortions and Misconceptions of India Pakistan History

Abstract

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In 1960s a Pakistan Army general officer Major General Fazal Muqeem Khan made the historically absolutely false assertion that " One measure of the lack of British trust in the Muslims was evident in the British Indian Army. While there were several wholly Hindu and Sikh infantry battalions in the army, there was never a single combatant all Muslim unit. The Muslims were ever mindful of their nobler past , resisted the new western influence at every turn.Most Hindus had no such scruples" . This is from page .9 of Fazal Muqeems classic officially sponsored book " The Story of the Pakistan Army " published in 1961. All of what Major General Fazal Muqeem stated had nothing to do with the truth ! Not white lies as many erroneously state but lies in black ink on white paper ! Firstly Muslims were actually saved by the English East India Company from total political extinction in all parts of India ! Delhi the Muslim capital was in hands of Hindu Marathas in 1803 when the English Company captured it. Punjab whose Muslims later became martial thanks to British policy was ruled by a 8 0r 9 % Sikh minority and many Muslim mosques were used as horse stables and gunpowder magazines and plastered with cow dung and sometimes washed with cow urine ! Peshawar,Kohat,Bannu,Nowshera,Dera Ismail Khan was ruled by Sikhs whose French and Italian governors hobbies was cutting off and collecting heads of unruly Pashtun tribesmen ! Thus the Pashtun Mullahs of Peshawar and Bannu hailed English East India Company as liberator of Muslims in their Friday sermons ! Sindh was only saved by Treaty of Amritsar forced on Ranjeet Singh by the English Company in 1809 wherein the Sikh was ordered not to attack and occupy Sindh. Hindus constituted 80 % of the Bengal Army units which rebelled in 1857 although the leaders of the rebellion were the Hindustani and Ranghar Muslim cavalrymen who constituted just about 4 % of the Bengal Army.Note that the Bengal Army had no Bengalis by race. On the other hand Muslims from Punjab and present Pakistans KP province constituted some 40 to 50 % of all Indian troops who loyally fought for the British troops against the Hindu and Muslim rebels of 1857. Now the more specific distortions of Fazal Muqeem which were picked up without investigation by Stephen Cohen when he wrote his Pakistan Army in 1980s. That there were no all Muslim units in the British Indian Army ? Yes there were ! 1st Bengal Cavalry also known as Skinners Horse was all along Hindustani Muslim and Ranghar as early as 1857 and all along till First World War. 15 Lancers was all along all Muslim regiment from its raising in 1857 till 1916. 17th Lancers was an All Muslim unit in the reorganization of 1892 till the end of First World War. In addition the Bengal Army had six All Muslim infantry Battalions in 1893 i.e the 5th, 12th, 17th, 18th, 33rd and 40th. The 5th , 12th and 17th Infantry were entirely Hindustani and Ranghar Muslim units .The 18th and 33rd Infnatry were 100 % Punjabi Muslim units and the 40th Infantry were entirely Pathan Muslim. In addition there was the There was the 126th Harazra Pioneers an All Muslim Mongol Shia Hazara unit. As late as 1945, there was the 4th Battalion of Indian Parachute Regiment , an all Muslim unit. The 15th Lancers was only made a mixed regiment after its Pathan Muslim squadrons refused to fight against the Turks in Iraq in 1916. The 5th Light Infantry was only disbanded after it rebelled under a false impression that it was being sent to fight the Turks and rebelled and captured Singapore for two days in 1915. After First World War only all Muslim units were discontinued as Muslim troops had bayoneted British officers , defected to German and Turkish lines in actual fighting and refused orders to fight. Fazal Muqeems total dismissal of existence of all Muslim units in the British Indian Army has no basis and should not have been re-confirmed by a man as eminent as Stephen Cohen