Читать книгу The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir - Sir James McCrone Douie - Страница 4

Fig. 1. Arms of Panjáb.

Introductory.—Of the provinces of India the Panjáb must always have a peculiar interest for Englishmen. Invasions by land from the west have perforce been launched across its great plains. The English were the first invaders who, possessing sea power, were able to outflank the mountain ranges which guard the north and west of India. Hence the Panjáb was the last, and not the first, of their Indian conquests, and the courage and efficiency of the Sikh soldiery, even after the guiding hand of the old Mahárája Ranjít Singh was withdrawn, made it also one of the hardest. The success of the early administration of the province, which a few years after annexation made it possible to use its resources in fighting men to help in the task of putting down the mutiny, has always been a matter of just pride, while the less familiar story of the conquests of peace in the first sixty years of British rule may well arouse similar feelings.

Scope of work.—A geography of the Panjáb will fitly embrace an account also of the North-West Frontier Province, which in 1901 was severed from it and formed into a separate administration, of the small area recently placed directly under the government of India on the transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi, and of the native states in political dependence on the Panjáb Government. It will also be convenient to include Kashmír and the tribal territory beyond the frontier of British India which is politically controlled from Pesháwar. The whole tract covers ten degrees of latitude and eleven of longitude. The furthest point of the Kashmír frontier is in 37° 2' N., which is much the same as the latitude of Syracuse. In the south-east the Panjáb ends at 27° 4' N., corresponding roughly to the position of the southernmost of the Canary Islands. Lines drawn west from Pesháwar and Lahore would pass to the north of Beirut and Jerusalem respectively. Multán and Cairo are in the same latitude, and so are Delhi and Teneriffe. Kashmír stretches eastwards to longitude 80° 3' and the westernmost part of Wazíristán is in 69° 2' E.

Distribution of Area.—The area dealt with is roughly 253,000 square miles. This is but two-thirteenths of the area of the Indian Empire, and yet it is less by only 10,000 square miles than that of Austria-Hungary including Bosnia and Herzegovina. The area consists of:

		sq. miles
(1)	The Panjáb	97,000
(2)	Native States dependent on Panjáb Government	36,500
(3)	Kashmír	81,000
(4)	North West Frontier Province	13,000
(5)	Tribal territory under the political control of the Chief Commissioner of North West Frontier Province, roughly	25,500

Approximately 136,000 square miles may be classed as highlands and 117,000 as plains, and these may be distributed as follows over the above divisions:

		Highlands sq. miles	Plains sq. miles
(1)	Panjáb, British	11,000	86,000
(2)	Panjáb, Native States	12,000	24,500
(3)	Kashmír	81,000	—
(4)	North West Frontier Province	6,500	6,500
(5)	Tribal Territory	25,500	—

On the north the highlands include the Himalayan and sub-Himalayan (Siwálik) tracts to the south and east of the Indus, and north of that river the Muztagh-Karakoram range and the bleak salt plateau beyond that range reaching almost up to the Kuenlun mountains. To the west of the Indus they include those spurs of the Hindu Kush which run into Chitrál and Dir, the Buner and Swát hills, the Safed Koh, the Wazíristán hills, the Sulimán range, and the low hills in the trans-Indus districts of the North West Frontier Province.

Boundary with China.—There is a point to the north of Hunza in Kashmír where three great mountain chains, the Muztagh from the south-east, the Hindu Kush from the south-west, and the Sarikol (an offshoot of the Kuenlun) from the north-east, meet. It is also the meeting-place of the Indian, Chinese, and Russian empires and of Afghánistán. Westwards from this the boundary of Kashmír and Chinese Turkestán runs for 350 miles (omitting curves) through a desolate upland lying well to the north of the Muztagh-Karakoram range. Finally in the north-east corner of Kashmír the frontier impinges on the great Central Asian axis of the Kuenlun. From this point it turns southwards and separates Chinese Tibet from the salt Lingzi Thang plains and the Indus valley in Kashmír, and the eastern part of the native state of Bashahr, which physically form a portion of Tibet.

Boundary with United Provinces.—The south-east corner of Bashahr is a little to the north of the great Kedárnáth peak in the Central Himálaya and of the source of the Jamna. Here the frontier strikes to the west dividing Bashahr from Teri Garhwál, a native state under the control of the government of the United Provinces. Turning again to the south it runs to the junction of the Tons and Jamna, separating Teri Garhwál from Sirmúr and some of the smaller Simla Hill States. Henceforth the Jamna is with small exceptions the boundary between the Panjáb and the United Provinces.

Boundary with Afghánistán.—We must now return to our starting-point at the eastern extremity of the Hindu Kush, and trace the boundary with Afghánistán. The frontier runs west and south-west along the Hindu Kush to the Dorah pass dividing Chitrál from the Afghán province of Wakhan, and streams which drain into the Indus from the head waters of the Oxus. At the Dorah pass it turns sharply to the south, following a great spur which parts the valley of the Chitrál river (British) from that of its Afghán affluent, the Bashgol. Below the junction of the two streams at Arnawai the Chitrál changes its name and becomes the Kunar. Near this point the "Durand" line begins. In 1893 an agreement was made between the Amir Abdurrahman and Sir Mortimer Durand as representative of the British Government determining the frontier line from Chandak in the valley of the Kunar, twelve miles north of Asmar, to the Persian border. Asmar is an Afghán village on the left bank of the Kunar to the south of Arnawai. In 1894 the line was demarcated along the eastern watershed of the Kunar valley to Nawakotal on the confines of Bajaur and the country of the Mohmands.

Thence the frontier, which has not been demarcated, passes through the heart of the Mohmand country to the Kábul river and beyond it to our frontier post in the Khaibar at Landikhána.

From this point the line, still undemarcated, runs on in a south-westerly direction to the Safed Koh, and then strikes west along it to the Sikarám mountain near the Paiwar Kotal at the head of the Kurram valley. From Sikarám the frontier runs south and south-east crossing the upper waters of the Kurram, and dividing our possessions from the Afghán province of Khost. This line was demarcated in 1894.

At the south of the Kurram valley the frontier sweeps round to the west leaving in the British sphere the valley of the Tochí. Turning again to the south it crosses the upper waters of the Tochí and passes round the back of Wazíristán by the Shawal valley and the plains about Wána to Domandí on the Gomal river, where Afghánistán, Biluchistán, and the North West Frontier Province meet. The Wazíristán boundary was demarcated in 1895.

Political and Administrative Boundaries.—The boundary described above defines spheres of influence, and only in the Kurram valley does it coincide with that of the districts for whose orderly administration we hold ourselves responsible. All we ask of Wazírs, Afrídís, or Mohmands is to leave our people at peace; we have no concern with their quarrels or blood feuds, so long as they abide in their mountains or only leave them for the sake of lawful gain. Our administrative boundary, which speaking broadly we took over from the Sikhs, usually runs at the foot of the hills. A glance at the map will show that between Pesháwar and Kohát the territory of the independent tribes comes down almost to the Indus. At this point the hills occupied by the Jowákí section of the Afrídí tribe push out a great tongue eastwards. Our military frontier road runs through these hills, and we actually pay the tribesmen of the Kohát pass for our right of way. Another tongue of tribal territory reaches right down to the Indus, and almost severs the Pesháwar and Hazára districts. Further north the frontier of Hazára lies well to the east of the Indus.

Frontier with Biluchistán.—At Domandí the frontier turns to the east, and following the Gomal river to its junction with the Zhob at Kajúrí Kach forms the boundary of the two British administrations. Henceforth the general direction of the line is determined by the trend of the Sulimán range. It runs south to the Vehoa pass, where the country of the Patháns of the North West Frontier Province ends and that of the Hill and Plain Biluches subject to the Panjáb Government begins. From the Vehoa pass to the Kahá torrent the line is drawn so as to leave Biluch tribes with the Panjáb and Pathán tribes with the Biluchistán Agency. South of the Kahá the division is between Biluch tribes, the Marrís and Bugtís to the west being managed from Quetta, and the Gurchánís and Mazárís, who are largely settled in the plains, being included in Dera Gházi Khán, the trans-Indus district of the Panjáb. At the south-west corner of the Dera Ghází Khán district the Panjáb, Sind, and Biluchistán meet. From this point the short common boundary of the Panjáb and Sind runs east to the Indus.

The Southern Boundary.—East of the Indus the frontier runs south-east for about fifty miles parting Sind from the Baháwalpur State, till a point is reached where Sind, Rájputána, and Baháwalpur join. A little further to the east is the southern extremity of Baháwalpur at 70° 8' E. and 27° 5' N. From this point a line drawn due east would at a distance of 370 miles pass a few miles to the north of the south end of Gurgaon and a few miles to the south of the border of the Narnaul tract of Patiála. Between Narnaul and the south-east corner of the Baháwalpur State the great Rájputána desert, mainly occupied in this quarter by Bikaner, thrusts northwards a huge wedge reaching almost up to the Sutlej. To the west of the wedge is Baháwalpur and to the east the British district of Hissár. The apex is less than 100 miles from Lahore, while a line drawn due south from that city to latitude 27'5° north would exceed 270 miles in length. The Jaipur State lies to the south and west of Narnaul, while Gurgaon has across its southern frontiers Alwar and Bharatpur, and near the Jamna the Muttra district of the United Provinces.