View source for Expedition against the Hindustani Fanatics (1857–8)

{{Short description|Battle between Pashtun Mujahideen and British Raj}}
{{infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Sittana Frontier Expeditions
| partof            = [[Syed Ahmad Barelvi#Jihad movement and Islamic State|Jihad movement]] and [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Sepoy Mutiny]]
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| date              = 2nd July 1857 - 4 May 1858
(10 months and 2 days)
| place             = [[Sheikh Jana]]{{·}}[[Naranji]]{{·}}[[Chinglai]]{{·}}[[Buner District|Panjtar]]{{·}}[[Swat District|Mangal Thana]]{{·}}[[Nowshera District|Sittana]]
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| territory         =
| result            = Company Victory
| status            =
| combatant1        = [[File:British Raj Red Ensign.svg|32px]] [[British Raj]]
| strength1         =
| strength2         =
| casualties1       =
| casualties2       =
| combatant2        = [[File:Flag of Jihad.svg|32px]] [[Syed Ahmad Barelvi#Jihad movement and Islamic State|Mujahideen]]
| commander1        = [[File:British Raj Red Ensign.svg|32px]] [[Major general|Maj. Gen.]] [[Sydney Cotton]]
| commander2        = [[File:Flag of Jihad.svg|32px]] Sayyid Mubarak Shah
}}
The [[British Empire|British]] '''expedition against the Hindustani Fanatics''' in 1857–1858 was part of a long relationship since their first discovery of the Fanatics in 1852. The Expedition in 1857–1858 also coincided with the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|1857 Mutiny]], as [[Mutiny|mutineers]] of the 55th Infantry had taken refuge and joined Sayyid [[Mubarak Shah (Sayyid dynasty)|Mubarak Shah]], the son of Sayyid Akbar Shah of Hazara, who was linked to the [[Hindustan|Hindustanis]] as the former [[treasurer]] and counselor under [[Syed Ahmad Barelvi|Syed Ahmed Barelvi]], and had later been proclaimed the king of [[Swat District|Swat]] and [[Hazara region|Hazara]].<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ezPBBwAAQBAJ&dq=sayyid+akbar+shah+treasurer&pg=PA68 |title=Muslim Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Empire
|author= Seema Alavi  |date=2015 |publisher=Harvard University Press
|isbn=9780674735330
}}</ref> Sayyid Mubarak Shah raised an army for the purposes of war in [[Buner District|Panjtar]], but the instability of his rule also meant he could not venture far for fear of losing control of his kingdom. The mutineers fought for Mubarak Shah in a battle, which increased his influence. Mubarak Shah borrowed a sum of money from a grey-haired [[Jemadar|Jamadar]] of the rebels, but the sum was soon exhausted, and he was unable to pay them more. Thus the mutineers were unwilling to fight for him. At the same time, Mubarak Shah's usage of the mutineers was seen as a threat to the influence of [[Saidu Baba]], the [[Gurjar|Gujjar]] herdsman turned [[Clergy|religious leader]], who expelled Mubarak Shah.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XwHtXtcLDjUC&dq=akhund+swat+gujar&pg=PA93 |title= Millennium and Charisma Among Pathans (Routledge Revivals) A Critical Essay in Social Anthropology |author= Akbar Ahmed  |date=2012 |page=94 |isbn= 9781136810749 |quote= Barth favours the former version}}</ref>  Thus the advent of the mutineers in the region brought a political change in Swati politics.<ref>{{cite book |title=Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857 |author= Andrea Major, Crispin Bates, Gavin Rand, Marina Carter |date=2013 |page=209 |isbn= 9788132113362 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VJ-HAwAAQBAJ }}</ref>  The Hindustani Fanatics were invited by Mubaraz Khan who invited the Hindustanis to the village of [[Chinglai]]. It was at this moment that a few border villages had asked appealed to the Hindustanis and Mubaraz Khan to come down and begin a way for [[Islam]]. The fighting of the Hindustanis was marked with [[fanaticism]]; they came boldly and doggedly on. They were all dressed in white, while some of the leaders wore [[velvet]] cloaks.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.tribalanalysiscenter.com/PDF-TAC/Hindustani%20Fanatics-Deobandism.pdf |title=Hindustani Fanatics |website=tribalanalysiscenter|quote=A few of the sepoys of the 55th regiment had, however, shrunk from encountering the perils of the journey to Kashmir, and had joined the young Saiad Mubarak Shah, who had taken up his abode at the village of Panjtar. Not far from this village, at a place called Mangal Thana, a settlement of the Hindustanis under some mauleis of the Wahhabi sect had spring up, being a branch of the parent colony at Sittana. Mukarrab Khan, chief of the Khudu Khel tribe, who succeeded to the position of khan on the death of his father Fateh Khan in 1841, was also hostile to us. In 1837 his cousin Mobaraz Khan invited the Hindustani Fanatics under Maulvi Inayat Ali Khan to his village of Chinglai}}</ref> Inayat Ali's attacks were initially successful, and occupied both Nawakilla and Sheikh Jana.<ref>{{cite book  |title=The Wahhabi Movement in India |author= Qeyamuddin Ahmad |date=2020 |publisher=Manohar }}</ref> The British expeditions included the Battle of Shekh Jana in July 1857, Battle of Naranji in August 1857, Battle of Chinglee in April 1858. The British again sent an expedition storming the heights of Mangal Thana, where they found a [[citadel]] built of large stone and fine timber to house a permanent and sizeable [[garrison]]. Finally, the battle of Sittana was fought at May 1858. The British reported Hindustani volunteers from [[Rampur, Uttar Pradesh|Rampur]] as well as [[Bengal]] among the dead. The Hindustanis who survived fled to the village of Malka, where they furnished to accommodate upwards of 3,000 men.<ref>{{cite book |title=Fragments of the Afghan Frontier |author=  Magnus Marsden, Benjamin D. Hopkins |date=2011 |publisher=Hurst |page= 85 |isbn= 9781849040723 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yUf96ofNKowC&dq=expedition+1853+fanatics&pg=PA85 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://wiki.fibis.org/w/Hindustani_Fanatics |title=Hindustani Fanatics |website=FIBIS }}</ref><ref>pg.37 of the actual book ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=HnQ_AAAAMAAJ Sepoy Mutiny and the Revolt of 1857]'' by [[R. C. Majumdar|Majumdar, R.C.]] Publication date 1957</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:1857 in India]]
[[Category:Wars involving India]]