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The oldest evidence of human life (8,000 to 6,000 years ago) in what is now Pakistan was found in the Soan River valley of Pothohar region of Punjab. This human activity, called Soan Culture, discovered in the form of pebble tools scattered long the river. In Peshawar Valley of ancient Gandhara, there is evidence of existence of Stone Age men found at Sanghao near Mardan. Stone tools and burnt bones dated 7,000 years were found near caves. Cave dwellers of middle Stone Age used quartz flakes tools.
Pakistan, the Indus land, is the child of the Indus in the same way as Egypt is the gift of Nile. The Indus has provided unity, fertility, communication, direction and the entire landscape to the country. Its location marks it as a great divide as well as a link between Central Asia and South Asia. However, the historical movements of the people from Central Asia and South Asia have given to it a character of its own and have established a close relation between the people of Pakistan and those of Iran, Afghanistan and Turkistan.
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The Bronze age
Indus Valley civilization
Main article: Indus Valley Civilization
The founders of this civilisation are believed to be a Dravidian people, but this remains difficult to verify as the Indus Valley script has not yet been deciphered. To date, over 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the general region to the east of the Indus River in Pakistan and India.
The Kulli culture was a prehistoric culture in Southern Baluchistan, Pakistan (Gedrosia), ca. 2500 - 2000 B.C.E. The culture was named after an archaeological site discovered by Sir Aurel Stein. Several settlement sites are known to have existed there however very few were excavated. Some of them have the size of small towns and are similar to those of the Indus Valley Civilization. The house are built of local stone. Agriculture was the economical base of this people. At several places dams were found, providing evidence for a highly developed water management. The pottery and other artifacts are similar to those of the Indus Valley Civilization and it not sure whether the Kulli culture is a local variation of the Indus Valley Civilization or an own culture complex.
Vedic Civilization
Main article: Vedic civilization
The origin of the Vedic civilization and its relation to the Indus Valley Civilization remains highly controversial and politically charged. There exist much controversy surrounding the Aryan Invasion Theory. Mainstream scholarship places the Vedic civilization into the second and first millennias BCE, with some claims dating it as early as the fifth millennium BCE based on astronomical information in the texts, supporting an Out of India theory. Historical records set in only after the end of the Vedic period, and remain scarce throughout the Middle Ages. The end of Vedic period is marked by linguistic, cultural and political changes. The grammar of Panini (born in Shalatula, in present-day Pakistan, ca. 520–460 BC) marks a final apex in the codification of sacred texts, and at the same time the beginning of Classical Sanskrit.
"While settled in the Punjab the Aryans had not yet become Hindu.... The distinctive Brahmanical System appears to have been evolved after the Sutlej had been passed. To the east of Sutlej the Indo-Aryans were usually safe from foreign invasions and free to work out their own rule of life undisturbed." (Oxford history of India, By V.A. Smith, 3rd edition).
Persian & Greek Invasion
Achaemenid's Empire
Main article: Achaemenid dynasty
Alexander's Empire
Main article: Alexander the Great
Greco-Buddhist Period
Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Græco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between the culture of Classical Greece and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the fourth century BCE and the fifth century CE. Greco-Buddhism influenced the artistic (and, possibly, conceptual) development of Buddhism, and in particular Mahayana Buddhism, before it was adopted by Central and Northeastern Asia from the 1st century AD, ultimately spreading to China, Korea and Japan.The Magadha empire
Main article: Magadha Empire
Amongst the sixteen Mahajanapadas, the kingdom of Magadha rose greatly under a number of dynasties that reached a peak under the power of Asoka Maurya. The kingdom of Magadha had emerged as a major power following the subjugation of two neighbouring kingdoms, and possessed an unparalleled military.The Mauryan dynasty
Main article: Mauryan Empire
The Mauryan dynasty lasted about 180 years, nearly as long as Achaemenid rule, and began with Chandragupta Maurya, not to be confused with Chandragupta I of the much-later Gupta Dynasty. Chandragupta Maurya lived in Taxila and met Alexander and had many opportunities to observe the Macedonian army there. According to Plutarch, Alexander encouraged him to invade the Gangetic Kingdom (of Magadha) by capitalizing on the extreme unpopularity of the reigning monarch. Chandragupta recruited warriors from among the northwestern hill tribes and trained them in Macedonian fighting techniques, With this army, and with Macedonian mercenaries, Chandragupta went east to the Gangetic plain to overthrow the Nanda dynasty in Magadha, thereby founding the Maurya dynasty. Following Alexander's death on June 10, 323 BCE, his Diadochi (generals) founded their own kingdoms in Asia Minor and Central Asia. General Seleucus set up the Seleucid Kingdom, which included ancient Pakistan. Chandragupta Maurya, taking advantage of the fragmentation of power that followed Alexander's death, invaded and captured the Punjab and Gandhara. Later, the Eastern part of the Seleucid Kingdom broke away to form the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (third century–second century BCE).Chandragupta's grandson Asoka (273-232 BCE), is said to have been the greatest of the Mauryan emperors. Ashoka the Great was the ruler of the Mauryan empire from 273 BCE to 232 BCE. A convert to Buddhism, Ashoka reigned over most of South Asia and parts of Central Asia, from present-day Afghanistan to Bengal and as far south as Mysore. He converted to the Buddhist faith following remorse for his bloody conquest of the kingdom of Kalinga in Orissa. He became a great proselytiser of Buddhism and sent Buddhist emissaries to many lands. He set in stone the Edicts of Asoka. In ancient Pakistan, nearly all of the Asokan edicts are written either in the Aramaic script (Aramiac had been the lingua franca of the Achaemenid Empire) or in Kharosthi, a script derived from Aramaic.
Brhadrata, the last ruler of the Mauryan dynasty, ruled territories that had shrunk considerably from the time of emperor Ashoka, but he was still upholding the Buddhist faith. He was assassinated in 185 BCE by his general Pusyamitra Sunga, who made himself the ruler and established the Sunga dynasty. The assassination of Brhadrata and the rise of the Sunga empire led to a wave of decline of Buddhists in eastern South Asia, but not in what is today Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Golden Age
From 2nd century BC to 5th century AD Pakistan and West India came under continuous invasions of different Turko-Iranian, Bacterians, Sakas, Parthians, Kushans, and Huns.During those centuries ethnic composition of the area now comprised Pakistan remained in flex until the 7th century it was stabilized. Rajputs, Jats, and Gujjars became integral part of the population. With the introduction of the Iranian people a physical feature became predominated which resemble to Iranian or other Caucasoid races to the west. This made people of Pakistan and West India distinct from the rest of the South Asia. These Caucasoid physical features beccome more prominent with the movement of Pakhtunes and Balochis. [citation needed]
It is surmised that Iranian tribes existed in what is today western Pakistan during a very early age and that Pakhtun tribes were inhabitants around the area of Peshawar prior to the period of Alexander the Great as Herodotus refers to the local peoples as the "Paktui" and as a fearsome pagan tribe similar to the Bactrians. Iranian Balochi tribes did not arrive at least until the first millennium CE and would not expand as far as Sindh until the 2nd millennium.
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
Main article: Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
Menander I was one of the Greek kings of the Indo-Greek Kingdom in ancient Pakistan from 155 to 130 BCE. He had been a general under King Demetrius, who was killed in battle. As a general, Menader drove the Greco-Bactrians out of Gandhara and beyond the Hindu Kush, becoming king shortly after his victory. Menander's territories covered the eastern dominions of the divided Greek empire of Bactria (from the areas of Panjshir and Kapisa) and extended to the modern Pakistani province of Punjab, with diffuse tributaries to the south and east, possibly even as far as Mathura. Sagala (modern Sialkot) became his capital and prospered greatly under Menander's rule. Menander is one of the few Bactrian kings mentioned by Greek authors, among them Apollodorus of Artemita, who claimed that he was an even greater conqueror than Alexander the Great. Strabo[1] says Menander was one of the two Bactrian kings who extended their power farthest into South Asia. Sagala (modern Sialkot) became his capital and propered greatly under Menander's rule. His reign was long and successful (c.155 BCE - c.80 BCE). Generous findings of coins testify to the prosperity and extension of his empire.
Obv: King Menander throwing a spear.
Rev: Athena with thunderbolt. Greek legend: BASILEOS SOTIROS MENANDROY "King Menander, the Saviour".
Menander's empire survived him in a fragmented manner until the last independent Greek king, Strato II, disappeared around 10 CE. The Indo-Greeks suffered a new attack from the descendants of Eucratides around 125 BCE, as the Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles, son of Eucratides, was fleeing from the invasion of the Yuezhi in Bactria and trying to relocate in Gandhara. The Indo-Greeks retreated to their territories east of the Jhelum River as far as Mathura, and the two houses coexisted in the northern South Asia. Various kings ruled into the beginning of the first century CE, as petty rulers (such as Theodamas) and as administrators, after the conquests of the Scythians (see also Indo-Scythians), Parthians (see also Indo-Parthians) and Yuezhi, a Central Asian people possibly of Tocharian origins who founded the Kushan dynasty.
Indo-Greek kingdom
Main article: Indo-Greek kingdom
The Indo-Greek Kingdom (or sometimes Greco-Indian Kingdom) covered almost all regions of Pakistan from 180 BCE to around 10 CE, and was ruled by a succession of more than thirty Greek kings. The kingdom was founded when the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius who invaded Pakistan and India in 180 BCE, creating an entity which seceded from the powerful Greco-Bactrian Kingdom centred in Bactria (today's northern Afghanistan).The last known mention of an Indo-Greek ruler is suggested by an inscription on a signet ring of the 1st century CE in the name of a king Theodamas, from the Bajaur area of Gandhara, in modern Pakistan. No coins of him are known, but the signet bears in kharoshthi script the inscription "Su Theodamasa", "Su" being explained as the Greek transliteration of the ubiquitous Kushan royal title "Shau" ("Shah", "King").
Indo-Scythians
Main article: Indo-Scythians
The Indo-Scythians are a branch of the Indo-European Sakas (Scythians), who migrated from southern Siberia into Bactria, Sogdiana, Kashmir and finally into Arachosia and Pakistan then India from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century BCE. They displaced the Indo-Greeks and ruled in northern India from Gandhara in Pakistan to Mathura.Indo-Parthians
Main article: Indo-Parthian Kingdom
Kushan Empire
Main article: Kushan Empire
The kingdom was founded by King Heraios, and greatly expanded by his successor, Kujula Kadphises. Kadphises' son Vima Takto conquered territory now in India, but lost much of the western parts of the kingdom, including Gandhara, to the Parthian king Gondophares. The rule of Kanishka I, the fourth Kushan emperor, who flourished for at least 28 years from c. 127, was administered from a winter capital in Purushapura (now Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan) and a summer capital in Bagram (then known as Kapisa).The rule of the Kushans linked the seagoing trade of the Indian Ocean with the commerce of the Silk Road through the long-civilized Indus Valley. At the height of the dynasty, the Kushans loosely oversaw a territory that extended to the Aral Sea through present-day Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan into northern India. The loose unity and comparative peace of such a vast expanse encouraged long-distance trade, brought Chinese silks to Rome, and created strings of flourishing urban centers. Kanishka is renowed in Buddhist tradition for having convened a great Buddhist council in Kashmir. This council is attributed with having marked the official beginning of the pantheistic Mahayana Buddhism and its scission with Nikaya Buddhism. Kanishka also had the original Gandhari vernacular, or Prakrit, Mahayana Buddhist texts translated into the high literary language of Sanskrit. Along with the Indian king Ashoka, the Indo-Greek king Menander I (Milinda), and Harsha Vardhana, Kanishka is considered by Buddhism as one of its greatest benefactors.
The art and culture of Gandhara, at the crossroads of the Kushan hegemony, are the best known expressions of Kushan influences to Westerners. The interaction of Greek and Buddhist cultures continued over several centuries until it ended in the fifth century CE with the invasions of the White Huns (see also Indo-Hephthalites), and later the expansion of Islam. During the remaining centuries before the coming of Islam in 711, the White Huns, Indo-Parthians, and Kushans shared control of what is today Pakistan with the Sassanid Persian empire which dominated much of western and southern Pakistan.
The Gupta Empire
Main article: Gupta Empire
The Gupta Empire arose in northern India around the second century CE and much of what is today Sindh made up the northwesternmost province of the empire. The era of the Guptas was marked by Hindu revival, although Buddhism continued to flourish.Indo-Sassanians
Main article: Indo-Sassanians
The Sassanian empire of Persia, who were close contemporaries of the Guptas, began to expand into the north-western part of ancient India (now Pakistan), where they established their rule. The mingling of Indian and Persian cultures in this region gave birth to the Indo-Sassanian culture, which flourished in the western part of the Punjab and the areas now known in Pakistan as the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan. The last Hindu kingdom in this region, the Shahis, also may have arisen from this culture.The Middle Age
During the eighth to fifteenth century CE saw the arrival of Islam to the Indian subcontinent region from Arabia more specifically Syria. Muhammad bin Qasim was the first muslim general to bring the religion to the region.Arab Rule
Main article: Caliph
Muhammad Bin Qasim's conquests up to Kashmir could not be sustained by the Muslim Arabs for very long. Umayyad rule stretched too far and any further conquests without consolidation would prove futile. From Lisbon, Portugal to Lahore in the Punjab were the apogee of this vast Muslim empire. Following Muhammad Bin Qasim's departure and demise, after being recalled to Baghdad, Muslim rule shrank to Sindh and southern Punjab where consolidation took place and conversion to Islam was widespread, especially amongst the Buddhist majority. In many regions several non-Muslim groups (largely Buddhists and Hindus as well as pagans further north) would remain numerous north of Multan. However, from this period (8th century) onward Pakistan was divided into two parts: the northern region comprising the Panjab remained under the control of Hindu Rajas while the southern area came under Muslim control and comprised Multan, Sindh and Balochistan until Mahmud Ghaznavi appeared on the scene and conquered all of what is today Pakistan. During this 300-year period (712-1000) both the northern and southern parts had their own independent governments --- the latter owing nominal allegiance to the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphs. During the Arab rule, the territories of Pakistan were known as 'Sindh' and India was known as 'Hind'.
The Ghaznavid Dynasty
Main article: Ghaznavid Empire
The Sultan is to the right, shaking the hand of the sheykh, with Ayaz standing behind him. The figure to his right is Shah Abbas I who reigned about 600 years later.
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran
On 1010 Mahmud captured what is today the Ghowr Province (Ghor) and by 1011 annexed Balochistan. Sultan Mahmud had already had relationships with the leadership in Balkh through marriage and its local emir Abu Nasr Mohammad offered his services to Sultan Mahmud and offered his daughter to Muhammad son of Sultan Mahmud. After Nasr’s death Mahmud brought Balkh under his leadership. This alliance greatly helped Mahmud during his expeditions into Pakistan and northern India.
In 1030 Sultan Mahmud fell gravely ill and died at the age of 59. Sultan Mahmud was an accomplished military commander and speaker as well as a patron of poetry, astronomy, and math. Mahmud had no tolerance for other religions however and only praised Islam. Universities were formed to study various subjects such as math, religion, the humanities and medicine were taught, but only within the laws of the Sharia. Islam was the main religion of his kingdom and the Perso-Afghan dialect of Dari language was made the official language.
Ghaznavid rule in Pakistan lasted for over one hundred and seventy five years from 1010 to 1187. It was during this period that Lahore assumed considerable importance as the eastern-most bastion of Muslim power and as an outpost for further advance towards the riches of the east. Apart from being the second capital and later the only capital of the Ghaznavid kingdom, Lahore had great military and strategic significance. Whoever controlled this city could look forward to and be in a position to sweep the whole of East Punjab to Panipat and Delhi.
By the end of his reign, Mahmud's empire extended from Kurdistan in the west to Samarkand in the northeast, and from the Caspian Sea to the Yamuna. All of what is today Pakistan and Kashmir came under the Ghaznavid empire. The wealth brought back to Ghazni was enormous, and contemporary historians (e.g. Abolfazl Beyhaghi , Ferdowsi) give detailed descriptions of the building activity and importance of Lahore, as well as of the conqueror's support of literature.
Often reviled as a persecutor of Hindus (and in many cases Hindu temples were looted and destroyed) much of Mahmud's army consisted of Hindus and some of the commanders of his army were also of Hindu origin. Sonday Rai was the Commander of Mahmud's crack regiment and took part in several important campaigns with him. The coins struck during Mahmud's reign bore his own image on one side and the figure of a Hindu deity on the other.
Mahmud, as a patron of learning, filled his court with scholars including Ferdowsi the poet, Abolfazl Beyhaghi the historian (whose work on the Ghanavid Empire is perhaps the most substantive primary source of the period) and Al-Biruni the versatile scholar who wrote the informative Ta'rikh al-Hind ("Chronicles of India"). It was said that he spent over four hundred thousand golden dinars rewarding scholars. He invited the scholars from all over the world and was thus known as an abductor of scholars. During his rule, Lahore also became a great center of learning and culture. Lahore was called 'Small Ghazni' as Ghazni received far more attention during Mahmud's reign. Saad Salman, a poet of those times, also wrote about the academic and cultural life of Muslim Lahore and its growing importance.
The Islamic sultanates
Muhammad of Ghor
Muhammad Ghori was a Perso-Afghan conqueror from the region of Ghor in Afghanistan. Before 1160, the Ghaznavid Empire covered an area running from central Afghanistan east to the Punjab, with capitals at Ghazni, a city on the banks of Ghazni river in present-day Afghanistan, and at Lahore in present-day Pakistan. In 1160, the Ghorids conquered Ghazni from the Ghaznevids, and in 1173 Muhammad was made governor of Ghazni. He raided eastwards into the remaining Ghaznevid territory, and invaded Gujarat in the 1180's, but was rebuffed by Gujarat's Solanki rulers. In 1186-7 he conquered Lahore, ending the Ghaznevid empire and bringing the last of Ghaznevid territory under his control.In 1191, he invaded the territory of Prithviraj III, the Chauhan Rajput Emperor of Ajmer and Delhi, who ruled much of present-day Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab, but was defeated at Tarain, near Bhatinda, by Govinda-raja of Delhi, Prithviraj's vassal. Being brought before Prithviraj he was pardoned and allowed to return to Ghor on promising no further trouble. The following year Muhammad Ghori assembled 120,000 horsemen and once again invaded the Kingdom of Ajmer. Muhammad's army met Prithviraj's army again at Tarain, and this time Muhammad was victorious; Govinda-raja was slain, Prithviraj captured and subsequently executed, and Muhammad advanced on Delhi, capturing it soon after. Within a year Muhammad controlled northern Rajasthan and the northern part of the Ganges-Yamuna Doab. Muhammad returned east to Ghazni to deal with the threat to his eastern frontiers from the Turks and Mongols, but his armies, mostly under Turkish generals, continued to advance through northern India, raiding as far east as Bengal.
Muhammad returned to Lahore after 1200 to deal with a revolt of the Rajput Ghakkar tribe in the Punjab. He suppressed the revolt, but was killed during a Ghakkar raid on his camp on the Jhelum River in 1206. Upon his death, his most capable general, Qutb-ud-din Aybak took control of Muhammad Ghori's Indian conquests and declared himself the first Sultan of Delhi.
Delhi Sultanate
Main article: Delhi Sultanate
Muhammad's successors established the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, while the Mamluk Dynasty (mamluk means "slave" and referred to the Turkic slave soldiers who became rulers throughout the Islamic world) in 1211 (however, the Delhi Sultanate is traditionally held to have been founded in 1206) seized the reins of empire. The territory under control of the Muslim rulers in Delhi expanded rapidly. By mid-century, Bengal and much of central India was under the Delhi Sultanate. Several Turko-Afghan dynasties ruled from Delhi: the Mamluk (1211-90), the Khalji (1290-1320), the Tughlaq (1320-1413), the Sayyid (1414-51), and the Lodhi (1451-1526). As Muslims extended their rule into southern India, only the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar remained immune, until it too fell in 1565. Although some kingdoms remained independent of Delhi in the Deccan and in Gujarat, Malwa (central India), and Bengal, almost all of the area in present-day Pakistan came under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate.The sultans of Delhi enjoyed cordial relations with Muslim rulers in the Near East but owed them no allegiance. The sultans based their laws on the Quran and the sharia and permitted non-Muslim subjects to practice their religion only if they paid the jizya or head tax. The sultans ruled from urban centers--while military camps and trading posts provided the nuclei for towns that sprang up in the countryside. Perhaps the greatest contribution of the sultanate was its temporary success in insulating the South Asia from the potential devastation of the Mongol invasion from Central Asia in the thirteenth century, which nonetheless led to the loss of Afghanistan and western Pakistan to the Mongols (see the Ilkhanate Dynasty). The sultanate ushered in a period of Indian cultural renaissance resulting from the stimulation of Islam by Hinduism. The resulting "Indo-Muslim" fusion left lasting monuments in architecture, music, literature, and religion. In addition it is surmised that the language of Urdu (literally meaning "horde" or "camp" in various Turkic dialects) was born during the Dehli Sultanate period as a result of the mingling of Sanskritic prakrits and the Persian, Turkish, Arabic favored by the Muslim invaders of India. The sultanate suffered from the sacking of Delhi in 1398 by Timur (Tamerlane) but revived briefly under the Lodhis before it was conquered by the Mughals in 1526.
The Early Modern Period
During the start of the 16th to the 19th century CE saw the arrivals of the moghal empire, which played a huge role in the development of the region not only economically but also culturally.The Mughal Empire
The Mughals were the descendants of Persianized Central Asian Turks (with significant Mongol admixture) and would establish a formidable empire over the breadth of South Asia and beyond. The Mughal Empire included modern Pakistan and reached as far north as eastern Afghanistan and as far south as southern India. It was one of the three major Islamic empires of its day and sometimes contested its northwestern holdings such as Qandahar against invasions from the Uzbeks and the Safavid Persians. Although the first Mughal emperor Babur favored the cool hills of Kabul, his conquests would lay the foundations for a dynasty that would hold sway over South Asia for over two centuries. Most of his successors were capable rulers and during the Mughal period the Shalimar Gardens were built in Lahore (during the reign of Shah Jehan and the Badshahi Mosque was erected during the reign of Aurangzeb. One notable emperor, Akbar the Great was both a capable ruler and an early proponent of religious and ethnic tolerance and favored an early form of multiculturalism.
Pakistan still bears marvellous architectural monuments built by the Mughal emperors. During the Mughal period, the cities of Delhi (present-day India) and Lahore (present-day Pakistan) were made the capitals of the empire. The Taj Mahal and other architectural marvels were the results of the growth of Islamic culture and rule over the South Asia. The Mughals also implemented federal regulations including taxation, social welfare reforms, justice, development of the transport and agricultural system and water canals. The mansabdar system gained prominence during the Mughal Empire and was used to implement a form of ranking military official and landowners throughout the empire and in many ways inspired similar systems in other major Islamic empires of the day such as the Ottoman Empire's tanzimat reforms.
Durrani Empire
When the Abdali kingdom weakened early in the 19th century due to internecine warfare, the Abdali kingdom began to decline and an independent kingdom arose in Punjab headed by the Sikh leader Ranjit Singh. The British who had established their control over Delhi in 1803 warned Ranjit Singh not to try to impose his authority on the Sikh Sardars of East Punjab i.e., beyond Sutlej. As for Sind, from as early as the last days of Aurangzeb, it had begun to assert its independence and a succession of semi-independent dynasties under the Daudpotas, Kalhoras and Talpurs continued to rule over this province till British conquest in 1843 A.D. Meanwhile, Balochistan came under the sway of the Khan of Kalat with a few coastal cities such as Gwadar coming under the control of the Sultan of Oman.
The Punjab
In the early 19th century, the Mughal empire and the Afghan Durrani empire weakened in power. Taking advantage of the situation, Sikhs conquered most of the Punjab, and parts of Kashmir and Eastern Afghanistan. Sikh warrior Ranjit Singh defeated the Afghans and took the title of Maharaja (High King) of the Punjab and eventually sovereign of the Sikh empire, stretching from within the shadows of Delhi to beyond Peshawar, with his capital at Lahore. It was also the last territory of South Asia to fall to the British Empire mainly due to the betrayal by its top Dogra Generals, during the two bloody Anglo-Sikh wars in 1845-6 and 1848-49. The outcome was a very narrow victory for the British resulting in the annexition of the Punjab and the fall of Sikh rule.Colonial era
Main article: Anglo-Sikh wars
During the middle of the second millennium, several European countries, such as Great Britain, Portugal, Holland and France were initially interested in trade with South Asian rulers including the Mughals and leaders of other independent Kingdoms. The Europeans took advantage of the fractured kingdoms and the divided rule to colonize the country. Most of India came under the crown of the British Empire in 1857 after a failed insurrection, popularly known as the First War of Indian Independence, against the British East India Company by Bahadur Shah Zafar. Present-day Pakistan remained part of British South Asia until August 14, 1947.The Anglo-Afghan wars and the Great Game
For Afghan ruler Abdur Rahman Khan, delineating the boundary with India (through the Pashtun area) was far more significant, and it was during his reign that the Durand Line was drawn. Under pressure, Abdur Rahman agreed in 1893 to accept a mission headed by the British Indian foreign secretary, Sir Mortimer Durand, to define the limits of British and Afghan control in the Pashtun territories. Boundary limits were agreed on by Durand and Abdur Rahman before the end of 1893, but there is some question about the degree to which Abdur Rahman willingly ceded certain regions. There were indications that he regarded the Durand Line as a delimitation of separate areas of political responsibility, not a permanent international frontier, and that he did not explicitly cede control over certain parts (such as Kurram and Chitral) that were already in British control under the Treaty of Gandamak.
The Durand Line cut through both tribes and villages and bore little relation to the realities of topography, demography, or even military strategy. The line laid the foundation, not for peace between the border regions, but for heated disagreement between the governments of Afghanistan and British India, and later, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The issue revolves around the Pashtun nationalist movement known as Pashtunistan.
During much of the 19th century, the British and Russian Empires engaged in what came to be known as the Great Game as both sides intrigued over Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Often arming local Pashtun and Tajik tribesmen, both sides sought to undermine the other, while the rulers of Afghanistan were able to maintain some measure of independence in-spite of the loss of territories to the east to British India.
The British Raj
Pakistan movement
Main article: Pakistan Movement
By 1930, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who ultimately led the movement for a separate state, had despaired of Indian politics and particularly of getting mainstream parties like the Congress (of which he was a member much longer than the League) to be sensitive to minority priorities. Among the first to make the demand for a separate state was the writer/philosopher Allama Iqbal, who, in his presidential address to the 1930 convention of the Muslim League said that he felt that a separate nation for Muslims was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated South Asia. The Sindh Assembly passed a resolution making it a demand in 1935.Iqbal, Jauhar and others then worked hard to draft Mohammad Ali Jinnah to lead the movement for this new nation. Jinnah later went on to become known as the Father of the Nation, with Pakistan officially giving him the title Quaid-e-Azam or "Great Leader".
Pakistan Resolution
Main article: Lahore Resolution
In 1940, Jinnah called a general session of the All India Muslim League in Lahore to discuss the situation that had arisen due to the outbreak of the Second World War and the Government of India joining the war without taking the opinion of the Indian leaders. The meeting was also aimed at analyzing the reasons that led to the defeat of the Muslim League in the general election of 1937 in the Muslim majority provinces. Jinnah, in his speech, criticised the Congress and the nationalist Muslims, and espoused the Two-Nation Theory and the reasons for the demand for separate Muslim homelands. Sikandar Hayat Khan, the Chief Minister of the Punjab, drafted the original Lahore Resolution, which was placed before the Subject Committee of the All India Muslim League for discussion and amendments. The resolution, radically amended by the subject committee, was moved in the general session by Shere-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Huq, the Chief Minister of Bengal, on 23 March and was supported by Choudhury Khaliquzzaman and other Muslim leaders. The Lahore Resolution ran as follows:That the areas where the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the Northwestern and Eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute 'independent states' in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign. The Resolution was adopted on 23 March 1940 with great enthusiasm.Origin of Name
The name was coined by Cambridge student and Muslim nationalist Choudhary Rahmat Ali. He devised the word and first published it on January 28, 1933 in the pamphlet Now or Never [2]. He saw it as an acronym formed from the names of the "homelands" of Muslims in South Asia. (P for Punjab, A for the Afghan areas of the region, K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and tan for Baluchistan, thus forming 'Pakstan.' An i was later added to the English rendition of the name to ease pronunciation, producing Pakistan.) The word also captured in the Persian language the concepts of "pak", meaning "pure", and "stan", meaning "land" or "home", thus giving it the meaning "Land of the Pure". All Arabic-speaking countries refer to Pakistan as Bakstaan (باکستان), as the Arabic language lacks the phoneme [p].Partition of the British Indian Empire
Main article: Partition of India
As the British granted independence to their dominions in India in mid-August 1947, the two nations joined the British Commonwealth as self-governing dominions. The partition left Punjab and Bengal, two of the biggest provinces, divided between India and Pakistan. In the early days of independence, more than two million people migrated across the new border and more than one hundred thousand died in a spate of communal violence. The partition also resulted in tensions over Kashmir leading to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947.The Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Main article: Pakistan
Pakistan's independence was won through a democratic and constitutional struggle. Although the country's record with parliamentary democracy has been mixed, Pakistan, after lapses, has returned to this form of government. Pakistani political history is divided into alternating periods of authoritarian military government and democratic civilian/parliamentary rule. Since independence, Pakistan has also been in constant dispute with India over the territory of Kashmir. The Kashmir dispute has complicated relations between Pakistan and India. In addition, Pakistan has been at odds with Afghanistan over the Pashtunistan issue for much of its history as well.Military coup and wars (1956-1968)
Just two years following the formation of a Constitution and a declaration as an Islamic Republic, the military took control of the nation in 1958. Field Marshall Ayub Khan also started Basic Democracy in which the people elected electors who in turn voted to select the President. He nearly lost the national elections to Fatima Jinnah. During Ayub's rule, relations with the United States and the West grew stronger. A formal alliance including Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey was formed during the Ayub Khan period and was called the Baghdad Pact (later known as CENTO), which was to defend the Middle East and Persian Gulf from Soviet designs. Pakistan engaged in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 with India over Kashmir and the Rann of Kutch.The War of 1971 and Separation of Bangladesh
Main article: Bangladesh Liberation War
After a nationwide uprising in 1969, Ayub Khan stepped down and handed over power to General Yahya Khan who promised general elections to be held at the end of 1970. On the eve of the 1970 elections, approximately 500,000 people died when a cyclone hit East Pakistan on 12 November 1970. Despite the tragedy, elections went on, and the results showed a clear division between the Eastern and the Western provinces of the country. The Awami League led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won a majority in the National Assembly, with 167 of the 169 East Pakistani seats, but with no seats from West Pakistan, where the Pakistan Peoples Party led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, won 85 seats in the National Assembly. Khan and Bhutto refused to hand over power to Mujib. Meanwhile, Mujib initiated a civil disobedience movement, strongly supported by the general population of East Pakistan and most of its government workers. A round-table conference between Yahya, Bhutto and Mujib was convened in Dhaka, and after it ended without a solution, the Pakistani Army started Operation Searchlight, an organized and brutal crackdown on the East Pakistani army, police, politicians, innocent civilians and students in Dhaka. Mujib and many other Awami League leaders were arrested, while others fled to India. On March 27, 1971, Major Ziaur Rahman, a decorated Bengali war-veteran of the East Bengal Regiment of Pakistan Army, declared the independence of Bangladesh on behalf of Mujib. The crackdown broadened and later escalated into a guerrilla warfare between the Pakistani Army and the Mukti Bahini-Bengali "freedom fighters". Although the killing of Bengalis was mostly unsupported by the people of West Pakistan, it continued for 9 months. India supplied the Bengali rebels with arms and training, and also hosted more than 10 million Bengali refugees who fled the turmoil. The Indian Army officially joined the war (Indo-Pakistani War of 1971), and launched a massive assault into East Pakistan, where, by that time, the Pakistani Army led by General A. A. K. Niazi, had been weakened and exhausted. Being outflanked by the Indian Army and overwhelmed, it surrendered to the Indian Army-Mukti Bahini joint command on December 16, 1971, in one of the largest surrenders since WW2 - as nearly 90,000 soldiers become PoWs. The official figure of Bengali civilian death toll from the war is reported to be 3 million, although some other sources put the number between 1.25 to 1.5 million. The result was the emergence of the new nation of Bangladesh. Discredited by the defeat, President Gen. Yahya Khan resigned.
Civilian rule and the 1973 Constitution
Civilian rule returned after the war when General Yahya Khan handed over power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. In 1972, Pakistani intelligence learned that India was close to developing a nuclear bomb, and in response, Bhutto formed a group of engineers and scientists, headed by nuclear scientist Abdus Salam - who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics -to develop nuclear devices. In 1973, Parliament approved the 1973 Constitution. Pakistan was alarmed by the Indian nuclear test of 1974, and Bhutto promised that Pakistan would also have a nuclear device "even if we have to eat grass and leaves." During Bhutto's rule, a serious rebellion also took place in Balochistan and led to harsh suppression of Baloch rebels with purported assistance from the Shah of Iran lending air support in order to avoid a spilling over the conflit into Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. (The escalating conflict would later end after an amnesty and subsequent stabilization by provincial military ruler Rahimuddin Khan.) Elections were held in 1977, with Bhutto winning. Bhutto's victory was challenged by the opposition, which accused him of rigging the vote. General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq took power in a bloodless coup, Bhutto was later executed, after being convicted of authorizing the murder of a political opponent, in a controversial 4-3 split decision by Pakistan's Supreme Court.Military Rule and Front-line state in the anti-Soviet struggle
Main articles: Baghdad Pact, Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization, and Baloch Insurgency and Rahimuddin's Stabilization
Pakistan had been a US ally for much of the Cold War, from the 1950s and as a member of CENTO and SEATO. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan renewed and deepened the US-Pakistan alliance. The Reagan administration in the United States helped supply and finance an anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan, using Pakistan as a conduit. In retaliation, the KHAD, under Afghan leader Mohammad Najibullah, carried out (according to the Mitrokhin archives and other sources) a large number of terrorist operations against Pakistan, which also suffered from an influx of weaponry and drugs from Afghanistan. In the 1980s, as the front-line state in the anti-Soviet struggle, Pakistan received substantial aid from the United States and took in millions of Afghan (mostly Pashtun) refugees fleeing the Soviet occupation. The influx of so many refugees - believed to be the largest refugee population in the world [3] - had a heavy impact on Pakistan and its effects continue to this day.Also under the new military ruler President Zia-ul-Haq's Martial Law dictatorship the following initiatives were taken:
- Strict Islamic law was introduced into the the country's legal system by 1978, contributing to current-day sectarianism and religious fundamentalism, as well as instilling a sense of religious purpose within the youth.
- Pakistan fought a war by proxy against the Communists in Afghanistan in the Soviet-Afghan War, greatly contributing to the eventual withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan.
- Secessionist uprisings in Balochistan were put down by the province's authoritarian Martial Law ruler, General Rahimuddin Khan, who, due to Martial Law, ruled for an unprecedented seven years.
- The socialist economic policies of the previous civilian government, which also included aggressive nationalisation, were gradually reversed; and Pakistan's Gross National Product greatly rose to among the highest in the world.
President Zia, infuriated, dismissed the Junejo government on several charges in May 1988. He then called for the holding of fresh elections in November. General Zia-ul-Haq never saw the elections materialize however, as he died in a plane crash on August 17, 1988, which was later proven to be highly sophisticated sabotage, the perpetrators of which remain unproven.
Civilian Democracy
In the election that returned Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister in 1997, his party received a heavy majority of the vote, obtaining enough seats in parliament to change the constitution, which Sharif amended to eliminate the formal checks and balances that restrained the Prime Minister's power. Institutional challenges to his authority, led by the civilian President Farooq Leghari, military chief Jehangir Karamat and Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah were put down and all three were forced to resign, Shah doing so after the Supreme Court was stormed by Sharif partisans.
1999 coup
The 21st century
General elections were held in October 2002 and the centrist, pro-Mushararraf PML-Q won a plurality of the seats in the Parliament. However, parties opposed to Musharraf's Legal Framework Order effectively paralyzed the National Assembly for over a year. The deadlock ended in December 2003, when Musharraf and some of his parliamentary opponents agreed upon a compromise, and pro-Musharraf legislators were able to muster the two-thirds supermajority required to pass the Seventeenth Amendment, which retroactively legitimized Musharraf's 1999 coup and many of his subsequent decrees. In a vote of confidence on January 1, 2004, Musharraf won 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, was elected to the office of President.
While economic reforms undertaken during his regime have yielded some results, social reform programmes appear to have met with resistance. Musharraf's power is threatened by extremists who have grown in strength since the September 11, 2001 attacks and who are particularly angered by Musharraf's close political and military alliance with the United States, including his support of the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, and his liberal views on reforming Islam. Musharraf has survived assassination attempts by terrorist groups believed to be part of Al-Qaeda, including at least two instances where the terrorists had inside information from a member of his military security detail. Pakistan continues to be involved in a dispute over Kashmir, with allegations of support of terrorist groups being leveled against Pakistan by India, while Pakistan charges that the Indian government abuses human rights in its use of military force in the region. That both India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons makes this dispute a source of special concern for the world community. Pakistan also has been accused of contributing to nuclear proliferation; indeed, its leading nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted to selling nuclear secrets, though he denies any governmental knowledge of his activities.
The Pakistani government sent thousands of troops into the region of Waziristan in 2002 to hunt for bin Laden and other al-Qaeda fugitives. In March 2004, heavy fighting broke out at Azam Warsak, near the South Waziristan town of Wana, between Pakistani troops and an estimated 400 terrorists holed up in several fortified settlements. It was speculated that bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri was among those trapped by the Pakistani Army. (see Waziristan War).
Notes
- ^ 11.11.1
- ^ Translation by T.W. Rhys Davids, 1890
- ^ Amnesty International file on Afghanistan URL Accessed March 22, 2006
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External links
See also
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