Pakistan: A Hard Country (87 page)

recognized by the state as one of the representatives of a given clan.

maulana

Graduate of a religious school, a learned cleric.

A person who migrates for the sake of Islam; in Mohajir

Paki stan, applied to those who migrated from India after partition.

The first month of the Islamic calendar, especial y sacred to Shia because of the anniversary of the Moharram

death of Imam Hussain on the 10th Moharram (Ashura).

mujahid

A warrior of Islam.

Muslim cleric; usual y, the cleric of a vil age mullah

mosque.

murid

Fol ower of a saint.

nom

Name, reputation, prestige.

(Pashto)

panchayat

(Punjabi), a vil age council.

The traditional moral and behavioural code of the pashtunwali

Pathan tribes.

pir

A hereditary saint (in the Maghrib, marabout).

qaum

Community, ethnicity, nation.

qazi

Islamic judge.

Quaid-e—

Great Leader: The honorary title of Muhammad Ali Azam

Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.

Raj

Rule, kingdom.

Paramilitary force under the Ministry of the Interior, Rangers

responsible for internal and border security in Sindh and Punjab.

sajjada

Literal y, he who sits on the prayer carpet; the her nashin

editary guardian of a shrine.

Sardar

A hereditary tribal chieftain.

Sayyid (or

A descendant of the Prophet.

Syed)

Language widely spoken in southern Punjab and Seraiki

part of northern Sindh.

Shariah

Islamic law.

Talib

A religious student.

Shia tradition permitting the concealing of your true taqiyya

faith in times of persecution.

tehsil

Administrative subdivision of a district.

thana

Local police station.

Ummah

The universal world community of Muslims.

urs

Death anniversaries of saints

wadero

A hereditary landowner in Sindh.

Islamic tradition based in Saudi Arabia, adhering to an ultra-strict version of the Koran and Shariah Wahabi

and bitterly hostile both to Shia and to the worship of shrines.

zamindar

A landowner (in Punjab and northern India).

Appendix One: Chronology of Muslim South Asia c. 3300 BCE – 1300 BCE Indus Val ey civilization in what is now Pakistan.

After 1500 BCE Aryan migrations into South Asia (presumed).

Sixth – fifth centuries BCE Life of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha).

Fifth – fourth centuries BCE Afghanistan and Punjab come under the dominion of the Persian empire (satrapies of Gandhara and Kamboja).

327/326 BCE Alexander the Great invades Afghanistan and Punjab, and defeats the Indian king Porus. Alexander founds Greek settlements in Afghanistan (Bactria) which survive for several hundred years.

321 – 185 BCE Mauryan empire conquers most of northern India and Afghanistan. Under this and subsequent dynasties, the Gandharan Buddhist civilization flourishes in what is now Afghanistan and northern Pakistan.

First century BCE – sixth century CE Kushan and Gupta empires.

632 CE Death of the Prophet Mohammed.

Late seventh century CE Muslim invasions of Sindh.

711 CE Mohammed bin Qasim, a general of the Muslim Ummayad dynasty, invades Sindh by sea and initiates Muslim rule in South Asia.

He extends Muslim rule as far north as Multan in southern Punjab.

971 – 1030 Life of Mahmud of Ghazni (in Afghanistan), the first Muslim invader of northern India.

c. 990 – 1077 Life of Abul Hassan Ali Hajvery (Data Ganj Baksh), a Sufi Muslim saint who initiates conversion of people of northern Punjab to Islam and is buried in Lahore.

1162 – 1206 Muhammad of Ghor (in Afghanistan) leads Muslim campaigns in northern India. In 1186 he captures Lahore.

1193 Muhammad of Ghor’s general Qutb-ud-Din Aybakh captures Delhi. He founds the Delhi sultanate, and is buried in Lahore.

1206 – 1526 A succession of Muslim dynasties rule northern India from Delhi.

1398 Tamerlaine sacks Delhi.

1469 – 1538 Life of Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism.

1526 Zahiruddin Babur invades India through Afghanistan, defeats the last Lodhi sultan of Delhi, and founds the Mughal empire.

1556 – 1605 Rule of the Mughal emperor Jalaluddin Akbar ‘the Great’.

1703 – 62 Life of the great South Asian Muslim religious thinker and reformer Shah Waliul ah.

1707 Death of the last great Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb.

1739 Delhi sacked by the Persian ruler Nadir Shah.

1761 Delhi sacked by Ahmed Shah Abdali, founder of the Durrani kingdom in Afghanistan.

Eighteenth century Rise of Sikh power in Punjab.

1801 – 39 Rule of the Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Punjab.

1803 The Mughal ruler Shah Alam I accepts the protection of the British East India Company, which by now rules most of India.

1817 – 98 Life of the Muslim reformist educator and politician Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.

1840 – 42 First British – Afghan war.

1843 British conquest of Sindh.

1845 – 9 British defeat the Sikhs and conquer Punjab.

1856 British annex Awadh, the last major autonomous Muslim state in northern India.

1857 Muslim and Hindu revolt against British rule, cal ed by the British the ‘Indian Mutiny’. Delhi and Lucknow are largely destroyed. The last Mughal emperor is deposed. Savage reprisals against the Muslims of north India.

1866 Shah Waliul ah’s spiritual descendants found a madrasah at Deoband in northern India and lay basis for Deoband movement in South Asian Sunni Islam.

1875 Sir Syed founds the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental Col ege (later Aligarh Muslim University) at Aligarh, south-east of Delhi.

1876 – 1948 Life of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.

1878 – 80 Second British – Afghan war.

1885 Foundation of the Indian National Congress.

1893 British draw the ‘Durand Line’ marking the frontier between British India and Afghanistan. It is never accepted by the Afghans.

1896 Jinnah joins the Congress.

1896 – 9 Major revolts in the name of Islam among the Pathan tribes against British domination.

1906 Foundation of Muslim League in Dhaka, east Bengal (now Bangladesh).

1914 – 18 First World War.

1916 Jinnah becomes president of the Muslim League and initiates ‘Lucknow Pact’ with the Congress.

1919 – 24 Khilafat movement of South Asian Muslims against British rule and in defence of the Ottoman Caliphate (formal leadership of the Muslim world community, or Ummah).

1920 Jinnah resigns from the Congress.

1930 Sir Muhammad Iqbal, president of the Muslim League, speaks for the first time of the possibility of a separate Muslim state in north-western India.

1936 – 9 The British conduct major campaigns in Waziristan against Islamist rebels led by the Faqir of Ipi.

1938 Elections under British rule. Split between Congress and the Muslim League after the Congress refuses to include the League in provincial governments.

1939 – 45 Second World War.

1940 Muslim League passes ‘Lahore Resolution’ cal ing for an ‘autonomous and sovereign’ state of Pakistan.

1946 British Cabinet Mission fails to negotiate an agreement with Congress and the Muslim League on a united independent India with a loose federal constitution and guaranteed power-sharing between Hindus and Muslims.

August 1947 Independence of India and Pakistan: communal massacres in Punjab and Bengal claim between 200,000 and 1 mil ion lives. Around 12 mil ion people become refugees in India or Pakistan.

October 1947 Beginning of conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

September 1948 Death of Jinnah.

1951 Assassination of his successor, Liaquat Ali Khan.

1952 Language riots in East Pakistan initiate movement for the separation of the region from West Pakistan.

1953 Riots in Punjab against the Ahmadi religious minority show the strength of the Islamist parties on the streets. Martial law declared.

Pakistani army enters into internal politics.

1958 Military coup by the commander-in-chief, General Mohammed Ayub Khan.

1958 – 69 Administration of Ayub Khan. The economy grows successful y. Limited land reform carried out in West Pakistan. In foreign policy, Ayub aligns Pakistan closely with the United States, but also cultivates ties with China. The capital is moved from Karachi to the new city of Islamabad, near Rawalpindi in northern Punjab.

1965 War with India over Kashmir ends in stalemate, seen in Pakistan as a defeat. Opposition to Ayub Khan grows, increasingly led by his former Foreign Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

1969 Ayub Khan resigns in the face of growing public protests against his rule, and is succeeded by the army chief of staff, General Muhammad Yahya Khan.

1969 – 71 Growth of agitation for de facto independence of East Pakistan.

1970 National elections lead to the victory of Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman’s pro-independence Awami League in East Pakistan (with a majority in Pakistan overal ) and of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party in West Pakistan.

March 1971 Pakistan army begins a savage campaign against the separatist movement in East Pakistan. Civil war begins. Mil ions of refugees flee to India.

December 1971 ‘Bangladesh War’. India invades East Pakistan, and defeats and captures the Pakistani forces there. East Pakistan becomes independent as Bangladesh. Resignation of Yahya Khan.

1971 – 7 Government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the Pakistan People’s Party. The government carries out limited land reform and a more radical nationalization of banks and industries. The dismissal of the provincial government of Balochistan leads to a Baloch revolt which is suppressed by the army. Bhutto distances Pakistan from the United States and moves closer to China.

1977 Al egations of the rigging of elections by the government lead to a mass movement against Bhutto’s rule.

July 1977 The army chief of staff, General Zia-ul-Haq, carries out military coup.

1977 – 88 Administration of Zia-ul-Haq. His government greatly extends Bhutto’s moves to make Pakistan an Islamic state. The role of the Shariah in the legal system is strengthened. Partial reversal of Bhutto’s populist economic measures.

April 1979 Bhutto hanged after being convicted of responsibility for the murder of a political opponent (charges which are fiercely contested by Bhutto’s supporters). His daughter Benazir succeeds to leadership of PPP.

December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The United States extends massive aid to Pakistan as a bulwark against supposed Soviet expansionism. Together with Saudi Arabia and other states, the US and Pakistan build up the Afghan Mujahidin forces to fight against the Soviet troops and Afghan Communist government. First beginnings of the Taleban in southern Afghanistan. Some 3 mil ion Afghan refugees flee to Pakistan.

1981 Violent protests in Sindh against Zia’s rule are suppressed by the military, leaving around 1,500 dead.

1984 Foundation of the Muhajir Qaumi Movement to represent Urdu-speaking migrants from India in Karachi and other cities of Sindh.

1985 Ethnic riots in Karachi begin years of ethnic violence in that city.

1988 Protests against rigged elections in Indian Kashmir are bloodily suppressed by Indian troops, leading to a long-running insurgency in which tens of thousands are kil ed. Pakistan supports the insurgents with arms and volunteers from Islamist militant groups.

August 1988 General Zia and leading staff kil ed in an air crash, general y presumed to be sabotage. The military and civil service manage a ‘transition to democracy’.

November 1988 The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) under Benazir Bhutto wins national elections and forms a coalition government. The IJI (Islami Jamhoori Ittehad) coalition, led by the Muslim League headed by Mian Nawaz Sharif, wins the provincial elections in Punjab and forms the government there.

January 1989 Soviet forces withdraw from Afghanistan. In March, a Mujahidin attempt to defeat the Communist forces there suffers a bloody setback at Jalalabad.

April 1989 Riots against the publication of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses leave five dead in Islamabad.

1990 The US imposes economic sanctions against Pakistan after it fails to show that it is not conducting a nuclear weapons programme.

President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismisses the PPP government on charges of corruption and incompetence. Caretaker administration.

The Muslim League wins the subsequent national elections and forms a coalition government.

1991 – 3 First government of Nawaz Sharif begins liberalization of the economy. A military campaign launched in Karachi to bring ethnic conflict there to an end.

March 1992 Fal of the Communist government of Afghanistan.

Mujahidin parties seize power and soon begin bloody civil war among themselves. Pakistan backs the Pathan forces of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e-Islami.

December 1992 A Hindu mob encouraged by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) destroys the Babri Mosque in the north Indian city of Ayodhya, on the grounds that it was original y the site of a Hindu temple. This increases Hindu – Muslim tension and violence in India.

1993 Ishaq Khan and Nawaz Sharif fal out. After prolonged political confusion, both are forced to resign by the military. The PPP wins the subsequent national elections.

1993 – 96 Second government of Benazir Bhutto. The government regains control of Karachi. Pakistan switches its support in the Afghan civil war to the newly reformed Taleban of Kandahar.