The Ghakkars and their amazing relentless struggle

In our history books we read a lot about the ‘grand’ emperors and kings who conquered our city and land, in the process most of them also destroyed it, flattened it and took away slaves to be sold in the markets of Central Asia and Turkey.

But what we miss often is how the people of our soil ultimately managed to make good and defeat foreign invaders to rule their city themselves. It was like a people reclaiming their heritage. The last such group were the Sikhs, who finally managed to unite and reconquer their land. Sadly, the traitors within undid this achievement when in 1849 the British took over. Once the exploiting British could not find any juice to extract from the subcontinent, they left quickly in 1947. The recent events in Afghanistan somewhat remind one of such an eventuality.

In this piece let us look at heroes that we have forgotten, and let us tie up such remembrance to how our dear city was plundered, raped and flattened. How many of us really know the details of the story of Abdullah Bhatti, best known in folklore as Dullah Bhatti. He rose against the Mughals, more so Akbar, over the massive tax rates imposed. He was lured to discuss the issue to the Lahore Fort and skinned alive and for a whole week his body hung outside the Akbari Gate that faces eastwards. It was the grand Mughal’s real face.

But let us go further back in time and see how a large group of Punjabis united to face the wrath of the Mongol invader Timur, known better as Timurlane, who as a matter of ‘mad method’ killed entire populations of cities conquered. One research says he murdered 17 million people, then five per cent of the known world. He entered the subcontinent in 1398 AD and after decimating Multan and murdering its entire population, he headed towards the north taking every town, including Delhi, massacring all who opposed.

Earlier, Lahore had been conquered by the chief of the Ghakkars, namely Sheikha Ghakkar, who tried to rebuild the already destroyed city. In his time the city, with its mud walls, had been destroyed time and again. Earlier, we see in the Tughlaq period that Sheikha was opposed by various royal commanders and finally a few miles from Lahore, Sarang Khan defeated the Ghakkars and left Adil Khan to govern Lahore.

Here we see a strategic move because the forces of the Mongol Timur were ravaging the Punjab countryside. Sheikha Ghakkar submitted and joined forces after Timur’s sons extracted considerable sums from every resident of Lahore. The Ghakkar Rajputs assisted Timur in the retaking of Delhi and then sought permission to return to Lahore. That was allowed and in a letter Timur mentions that “the Ghakkars are unreliable, but helpful in time of need”.

Back in Lahore the Ghakkar rule continued. Then followed a period in which the proud Rajputs of the Ghakkar tribe started ignoring the unending demands of the ‘bloodthirsty’ Mongols. This upset Timur who vowed to flatten the city “till even owls would not howl there”. He sent four commanders with four forces, headed by Prince Pir Muhammad, Prince Rustam, Amir Suleiman and Amir Jahan Shah. The order was to arrest Sheikha and his entire family, kill everyone else and collect whatever could be removed.

So from four sides four armies approached the walled city and its mud fort. Each and every house was flattened, every wall knocked down, every living soul butchered and everything that could be said to constitute wealth was removed. Later, Timur was to come to make sure the city was no more. Never has Lahore, before or afterwards, faced such wrath.

In the process Sheikha Khokhar, the ruler of Lahore, was taken prisoner, as were all his wives and children. Here conflicting accounts come forth. Firishta quoting ‘Tarikh-e-Mubarakshahi’ (p180) claims the Sheikha was skinned alive and his wives distributed among his chiefs. However, the ‘Zafarnama’ of Babar claims that he and his son were imprisoned. The exact end of Sheikha Ghakkar remains a mystery.

What we do know is that on hearing of the death of Timur in 1405 in Samarkand, Sheikha’s son Jasrat escaped from prison and returned home and collected the entire Ghakkar clan and set up their rule in Sialkot. The Ghakkars soon became a major influence in the affairs of Kashmir. Mind you another Ghakkar chief named Jhanda Khan Ghakkar restored in 1493 the village of Rawal – today’s Rawalpindi - which remained under Ghakkar rule for a very long time.

Once Timur had decided that it was time to return to Samarkand, he left the governor of Multan, Khizr Khan, as the new governor of Lahore, and so we see that with the Mongols out of the picture, their offspring took over. So it was that power shifted from the Ghakkars to the new Sayyid Dynasty. The first ruler Mubarak Khan declare that they had a direct connection to the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) and thus the dynasty is even today remembered as the Sayyid Dynasty. Such religiosity still persists.

With time the Ghakkars under Jasrath continued to oppose these new rulers, an extension of Timur. When Lahore was given to Bahlol Khan Lodi, Jasrath made a shrewd move and joined forces with the promise of conquering Delhi, making Bahlol the emperor of Hindustan. Flattery can achieve a lot. The attempt failed and we see the Ghakkars disappear from the scene. But very soon the Sayyid Dynasty imploded and the Lodi Dynasty started and lasted for another 80 years, again imploding.

The lesson of this discourse is that foreign rule succeeds when we betray our own people. Take Alexander the ‘Great’ as an example. He would have been destroyed in North Waziristan in the first instance. It was help from within that saw him through, even though we miss the fact that in the end the women of Waziristan fought him till death.

As a depleted Alexander came to Taxila we see that the ‘puru’ of that place helped him on the promise of taking over the lands ruled by Porus (a Greek name for the Puru – king). That failed and Alexander promised to assist Porus take the lands of the Puru of Lahore. The joint rulers of five kingdoms saw him run back to Greece, dying in Egypt. So it was with the Sikh Empire where the military commanders time and again turned victories into defeat, especially after Chillianwala. Yes, as a soldier famously said: “Ajj Ranjit Singh mar gaya” (Today Ranjit Singh has died).

The history of our land needs to be rewritten keeping in mind the poor and dispossessed of our oft-plundered land. To write only about the victories of ‘grand’ foreign invaders, disguised in religiosity, is to miss the events that led to their gains. Who cares any longer about the Ghakkars, or the Khokhars, or the Bhattis, or the cavalry might of the Sandhu Jats, or even the contribution of the Arain and even the Sheikh ‘toopchis’ (artillery) in the lands between Lahore and Amritsar. Our bravest are eventually buried and then forgotten. The land and its ancient language are today under serious stress, and the threat comes from within.