HARKING BACK: The ‘Khufia Jasoos’ office that works away unseen

Opposite the Punjab Civil Secretariat, the original headquarters of Maharajah Ranjit Singh’s French generals and their Fauj-e-Khaas, is a small building to the left on Nabha Road. This is the famous, or should we say infamous, ‘Khufia Jasoos’ office, better known as the Robert’s Club.

Field Marshal Earl Robert was the commander-in-chief of the Royal Indian Army and spent his entire life in India, where he was born. He and Winston Churchill are the only two non-Royals to be buried in Westminster’s Abbey in London. Such was his importance to the British Empire. This small building, now a full-fledged office of the secret police, did exist during Sikh days when it served very much the same function watching the French. When the British took over Punjab in 1849, the first thing they did was to put into place what was known then as ‘Daftar Khufia Jasoos’ in local parlance. In an earlier piece I have dwelt on the ‘thugee’ operation which was also run from this place.

The sheer scale of the tasks that the British faced was staggering to say the least. The objectives they framed were strangely similar to the challenges Pakistan faces today. The British were very clear about what needed to be done in Punjab. The report by Sir Henry Lawrence, the head of the Board of Administration, clearly stated: “The disbursed Sikh militants can at any time attack the Empire from within and given the scale of the weapons available to them, they need to be crushed. Not a single one of them will be tolerated. They must be eliminated no matter what the means used.” By current ethical standards this is chilling stuff, but then given the number of militants in the country the challenge today is many times greater, especially since every operation has to stay within the law that prevails, which is the way it should be.

So in a way the colonial power had an advantage in terms of scale. But then how did the new colonial power start off? They earmarked three objectives. Firstly, as the majority of the people were farmers, a major boost to the rural economy was essential. Secondly, as the judicial process was corrupt and inefficient, they set into motion a five-tier administrative system in which even the ‘kardar’ at the local level working with the ‘tehsildar’ had judicial and financial powers with strict time limits for cases to be decided. In a loose sort of way that structure remains. Thirdly, education was to be spread to the village level with teacher training being a top priority. Religion and education were not to be mixed.

To get this plan into action 50,000 men were recruited to different levels of governance. The ‘Khufia Jasoos’ department recruited 8,000 persons. The idea was to spread out to every village and to quietly find out who had arms, be it swords or daggers or rifles of any variety. Within the first three months over 300,000 weapons were seized, including 12 cannons. Those who tried to hide them had their houses raided, and if the suspected weapon was found the head of the family was rounded up and shot in the village square and his house blown up.

The most interesting aspect of this ‘Khufia Jasoos’ operation was that they recruited, after a long interview and screening process, even thieves and crooks and even suspected murderers. The reason given by John Lawrence, as stated by Reginald B. Smith in his book ‘Life of Lord Lawrence’, was that scoundrels are very intelligent and innovative and have ways of operating that defies all logic. As Punjab was, and remains, an agricultural economy, theft of wheat and cattle and sometimes horses, posed a major problem. So ‘paggees’, ‘khogees’ and ‘khorre patts’ were hired to track stolen animals. For major intelligence operations the ‘scoundrels’ did an amazing amount of work. Within six months peace in a war-ravaged country was restored. So it was that the ‘Khufia Jasoos’ office in Lahore planned and executed an amazing variety of plans, all of which worked.

But the most amazing operation that was launched from this Robert’s Club was the anti-thugee operation. A total of 875 ‘thugee pharr’ recruits joined gangs of thugs and got them arrested. Almost every thug was shot dead. The fate of thugs was depicted in Punjabi saying “thugee tay maut aye” (To be a thug is to invite death). The report by M. Brereton (Punjab FC259 of 14.1.1853) points out how thugs were finally eliminated. If you visit Robert’s Club a picture of Brereton can be seen in their main hall.

To consolidate their three main objectives, rural economy taxes were immediately halved. The amazing result was that revenue collection doubled as almost everyone paid their taxes. To help out new varieties of seed were introduced and the per acre output rose manifold. Suddenly the peasants of Punjab saw prosperity which had eluded their forefathers. This translated in rapid urban growth as agro-based raw materials flooded the markets.

New water projects, laced with the condition that every farmer was to grow new trees every year, further revolutionised agriculture, with fruit being an additional income generator. These developments were to help the British in the 1857 War of Independence as most Punjab land owners sided with the British.

On the educational front this ‘khufia jasoos’ department played, initially, a very important role. They reported on all teachers, especially the ‘madressah’ and religion-based schools that dotted the countryside. Once teachers were cleared they were all given short refresher courses and taught the importance of secular scientific education. So it was that Punjab was ready to receive modern education, even though it had its own traditional methods.