Hunza

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This article is part of the series Former subdivisions of Pakistan

Original provinces Baluchistan East Bengal Federal Capital Territory NWFP Sind West Punjab Princely states Baluchistan States Union Amb Bahawalpur Chitral Dir Hunza Kalat Khairpur Kharan Las Bela Makran Nagar Phulra Swat Minor states Jhalawan Phulra Sarawan One-unit provinces East Pakistan West Pakistan Other subdivisions Gilgit Agency    Trans-Karakoram Tract Marri-Bugti Country Divisions of Pakistan

Hunza

[[Image:|100px|Map of Pakistan with Hunza highlighted]]

Capital Baltit (Karimabad) Area 10,101 km² Languages Burushaski,Wakhi Established  fifteenth century Abolished 25 September 1974

Northern Areas Government

Hunza (Urdu: ہنزہ) was a former princely state in the northernmost part of the Northern Areas of Pakistan, which existed until 1974. The state bordered the Gilgit Agency to the south, the former princely state of Nagar to the east, Chinese Turkistan to the north and Afghanistan to the northwest. The state capital was the town of Baltit (also known as Karimabad). The area of Hunza now forms the Aliabad tehsil of Hunza-Nagar District.

History

Hunza was an independent principality for 900 years. The British gained control of Hunza and the neighbouring valley of Nagar after the Hunza-Naga Campaign in 1891, as the British suspected Russian involvement "with the Rulers of the petty States on the northern boundary of Kashmir;"^[1]. The Tham (Chief/Mir) of Hunza escaped to China.

The British retained Hunza's status as a 'princely state' until 1947. According to Habib R. Sulemani, the people of Hunza were ruled by a local Mir for more than 900 years, which came to an end in 1974.

Although never ruled directly by neighbouring Kashmir, Hunza was a vassal of Kashmir from the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Jammu and Kashmir. The Mirs of Hunza sent an annual tribute to the Kashmir Durbar until 1947, and along with the ruler of Nagar, was considered to be among the most loyal vassals of the Maharaja of Kashmir. According to Emma Nicholson "All the evidence points to the fact that Gilgit and Baltistan region were constituent parts of Jammu and Kashmir by 1877". They were under the sovereignty of Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir and remained in this princely domain till the date of accession “in its entirety to the new Dominion of India” on October 26, 1947.

Accession to Pakistan

On 3 November 1947, the ruler, Mohammad Jamal Khan sent a telegram to Mohammad Ali Jinnah acceding his state to Pakistan.^[2] It stated:

I declare with pleasure on behalf of myself and my State accession to Pakistan

Government

the former residence of the Mirs of Hunza

The state was governed by hereditary rulers who took the title Mir (ruler) and were assisted by a council of Wazirs or Ministers. Details for early rulers are uncertain with the first definite dates available from 1750 CE onwards.

Geography

The Hunza valley is situated at an elevation of 2,438 metres (7,999 feet). The former capital Baltit has an elevation of 2477 metres (8129 feet)^[4]

For many centuries, Hunza has provided the quickest access to Swat and Gandhara for a person travelling on foot. The route was impassable to baggage animals; only human porters could get through, and then only with permission from the locals.

Hunza was easily defended as the paths were often less than half a metre (about 18") wide. The high mountain paths often crossed bare cliff faces on logs wedged into cracks in the cliff, with stones balanced on top. They were also constantly exposed to regular damage from weather and falling rocks. These were the much feared "hanging passageways" of the early Chinese histories that terrified all, including several famous Chinese Buddhist monks.

The last independent ruler was Mir Safdar Khan, who ruled from 1886 to December 1891 - until the British conquest in December 1891. His younger brother Mir Mohammad Nazim Khan was installed by the British and Maharaja (Raja) of Kashmir in September 1892.^[5]

No one seems to be quite sure how the Kanjutis began cultivating the Raskam Valley.^[6] The river is known by the glittering name of Zafarshan, the gold scatterer. According to Kanjuti traditions, as related by McMahon , the Mir’s eighth ancestor, Shah Salim Khan pursued the nomadic Khirghiz thieves up to Tash Khurghan and defeated them. “to celebrate this victory, Shah Salim Khan erected a stone cairn at Dafdar and sent a trophy of a Khirghiz head to the Chinese with a message that Hunza territory extended as far as Dafdar”. The Kanjutis were already in effective possession of the Raskam and no question had been raised about it. The Mir’s claims went a good deal beyond a mere right of cultivation. He “asserts that forts were built by the Hunza people with out any objection or interference from the Chinese at Dafdar, Qurghan, Ujadhbhai, Azar on the Yarkand River and at three or four other places in Raskam.” ^[7]

McMahon was able to prima facie roughly define the territorial limits of Kanjut. “The boundaries of Taghdumbash, Khunjerab and Raskam, as claimed by the Kanjuts, are the following: the northern watershed of the Taghdumbash Pamir from the Wakhijrui Pass through the Baiyik peak to Dafdar, thence across the river to the Zankan nullah; thence through Mazar and over the range to Urok, a point on the Yarkand river between Sibjaida and Itakturuk. Thence it runs along the northern watershed of the Raskam valley to the junction of the Bazar Dara River and the Yarkand river. From thence southwards over the mountains to the Mustagh river leaving the Aghil Dewan and Aghil Pass within Hunza limits.^[8]

McMahon’s information was substantially corroborated in 1898 by Captain H.P.P.Deasy who threw up a commission to devote himself to Trans Himalayan exploration. An item of special interest was Deasy’s description of the limits of Raskam. Starting from Aghil Dewan or pass, in the Karakoram range, the dividing line ran north-east to Bazar Dara, where it met the Yarkand river. He found an out post built of earth at Bazar Dara, surmounted by a Chinese flag, (by 1898 the Chinese had for the first time in history intruded to the area south of the Kuen Lun mountains) with a few unarmed Kirghiz in occupation. This was obviously intended as a Chinese boundary marker. From there the line ran “along the northern watershed of the Raskam valley to Dafdar in the Taghdumbash Pamir, to the north of the mills at that place, and thence to the Baiyik peak. Deasy also came upon clear evidence of what could only have been Kanjuti occupation. South of Azgar “many ruins of houses, old irrigation channels and fields now no longer tilted , testify to Raskam having formerly been inhabited and cultivated”. Anyone familiar with the care with which the Kanjuts cultivate every available strip of land in their own Hunza would have no hesitation in regarding this as proof of long standing Kanjuti occupation. The remains could not have been attributed to the Kirghiz; they were unfamiliar with the state of art.^[9] "Seven locations in the Raskam were involved. Azgar and Ursur on the right bank, and five others on the left, that is on the Mustagh-Karakoram side-Kukbash, Kirajilga, Ophrang, Uroklok, and Oitughrak, extending from Sarakamish, north of Kunjerab pass to Bazar Dara, north of the Arghil pass , comprising an area of about 3000 acres.”

The Chinese completed the reconquest of eastern Turkistan in 1878. Before they lost it in 1863, their practical authority, as Ney Elias and Younghusband consistently maintained, had never extended south of their outposts at Sanju and Kilian along the northern foothills of the Kuenlun range. Nor did they establish a known presence to the south of the line of outposts in the twelve years immediately following their return.^[10] Ney Elias who had been Joint Commissioner in Ladakh for several years noted on 21 September 1889 that he had met the Chinese in 1879 and 1880 when he visited Kashgar. “they told me that they considered their line of ‘chatze’, or posts, as their frontier – viz. , Kugiar, Kilian, Sanju, Kiria, etc.- and that they had no concern with what lay beyond the mountains” i.e. the Kuen Lun range in northern Kashmir.^[11]

In 1927, the Indian Government, according to a report in the Times, March 6, 1963 “decided that a claim of the Mir of Kashmir that his dominions were bound on the north by the northern watershed of the Kuenlun ranges was insupportable”.^[12]

Demographics

Most of the people of Hunza are Ismaili Muslims. The local languages are Brushuski, Wakhi and Shina although Urdu and English are also widely understood.

See also

• Hunza Valley
• Northern Areas
• Karakoram Highway
• Karakoram Mountains
• Nagar

References

External links

• Government of Northern Areas
• Government of Pakistan
• PIA guide to Northern Areas
• Letter of Baroness Nicholson which refers to the 1909 map of Kashmir
• Excerpts of telegram dated 26 October, 1947 from Jawaharlal Nehru to the British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee
• EU passes Emma Nicholson's Kashmir report with an overwhelming Majority