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Rohillas (Urdu: روہِلا, Hindi: रोहिला) are Muslim highlanders (Roh means mountains and Rohilla literally means mountaineer) of Pashtun origin. Roh corresponded to the mountainous region stretching from Swat and Bajaur in north to Sibi and Bhakkar in south and Hasan Abdal in east to the Kabul and Kandahar in west. The Rohillas currently reside in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Origin
Most of them belonged to Yousafzai tribe of Pushtuns, mainly of Mandanr sub-section. The term Rohilla was used for all Pathans, except for the Bangashes who settled in the Rohilkhand region, or men serving under Rohilla chiefs . They were awarded the Katehr region in northern India by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir (ruled 1658-1707) to suppress Rajput uprisings. However most of them settled in the Katehar region during Nadir Shah's invasion of northern India in 1739 increasing their population up to 100,000. Due to the large settlement of Rohilla Afghans, the Katehar region gained fame as Rohilkhand. Bareilly was made the capital of the Rohilkhand state. Other important cities were Moradabad, Rampur, Shahjahanpur, Badaun, and others. This region is nowadays located in modern Uttar Pradesh state of India.
Rohillas were distinguished from local peoples by their fair complextion, tall stature, muscular physique and by their separate language and culture. They spoke Pashto among each other but gradually lost their language over time. Nowadays most of them are living in the region between Rampur and Bareilly and speak the Urdu language.
History
The founders of the Pathan state of Rohilkhand were Daud Khan and his adopted son Ali Mohammed Khan. Daud Khan arrived in 1705 in India along with a band of his tribe. He was succeeded in 1721 by Ali Mohammed Khan, who became so powerful that he refused to send tax revenues to the central governament. Safdar Jang, the Nawab of Oudh, warned Mughal emperor Mohammed Shah of the growing power of the Rohillas. This caused Mohammed Shah to sent an expedition against him as a result of which he surrendered to imperial forces. He was taken to Delhi as a prisoner, but was later pardoned and appointed governor of Sirhind. In 1748, he returned to Rohilkhand and recovered his lost possessions. Later that year Ali Mohammed Ali Khan died, leaving six sons. However, two of his elder sons were in Afghanistan at the time of his death while the other four were too young to assume the leadership of Rohilkhand. As a result, power transferred to other Rohilla Sardars, the most important being Hafiz Rahmat Khan and Dundi Khan.
Following the Battle of Panipat in 1761
In the third battle of Panipat (1761) one of the Rohilla Sardars, Najib-ul-Daula, allied himself with Ahmad Shah Abdali against the Marathas. He not only provided 40,000 Rohilla troops but also 70 guns to combined forces. He also convinced the Nawab Shuja-ul-Daula of Oudh to join Ahmad Shah Abdali's forces against the Marathas. In this battle, the Maratha's were defeated and as a consequence Rohilla increased in power.
Rohilkhand was invaded by the Marathas to retaliate against Rohillas paticipation in the Panipat War against Marathas. The Marathas entered the jagir (land) of late Sardar Najib-ud-Daula which was now held by his son Zabita Khan. Zabita Khan gave tough resistancs but was defeated and forced to flee to the camp of Shuja-ud-Daula and his country was ravaged by Marathas. The principal remaining Rohilla sardar was Hafiz Rahmat Khan and through him an agreement was formed with Nawab of Oudh Shuja-ud-Daula by which they had to pay 4 million rupees in return to their military help in defeating Marathas. However, after the defeat of the Marathas, the Rohillas refused to pay. The Wazir (minister) then decided to annex the country of Rohilkhand but he was unable to fight the Rohillas alone. Therefore he sought assistance from Warren Hastings of the British East India Company (the company had been trading in India since 1600), promising 4 million rupees in return for their military aid.
The joined forces of British and Oudh invaded Rohilkhand. Rohillas fought fiercely but when their leader Hafiz Rahmat Khan was killed, they faced defeat in April 1774. the whole Rohilkhand was plundered and hundreds of thousands of Rohillas flee to jungles across Ganges to save their lives. Later Rohilla began a guerilla war against British occupation. In response, the Rohillas were hunted down and slaughtered by the British and were subsequently scattered in the countryside and settled in many small towns. Later charges of destroying a nation were brought against Hastings by Edmund Burke and Thomas Babington Macaulay. Later, the British transferred Rohilkhand to the British Empire in 1774. The Rohillas took an active part in War of Independence in 1857 against British imperial forces (referred to as the Mutiny by the British historians, or the War of Independence). The revolt was bitterly suppressed, and in its wake the British dramatically reorganized the government of South Asia, bringing an end to the British East India Company's regime and leading to almost a century of direct rule of the South Asia by Britain under the British Raj.
Other Rohilla Notables
- Nawab Amir Khan of Tonk
- Nawab Faizullah Khan
- General Bakht Khan
- Mohammed Ali jauhar and Shaukat Ali
- Sahabzada Yaqub Khan
References
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- Nawab was the title of notables during the Mughal era in India, who helped the central authority govern different statelets within the subcontinent. During the British period, new nawabs were created because of the allocation of arable land to the pro-British elite
- Mohammad Shah (1702 – 1748) was a Mughal emperor of India between 1719 and 1748
- Ahmad Shah Abdali (d.1772) adopted the title of Durr-i Dowran (pearl of pearls), which gave the name to the dynasty he established, the Durrani, which lasted in Afghanistan until 1973