The Punjab Irregular Force and the Origins of Hill Warfare, 1849–78

Abstract

The annexation of the Punjab in 1849, following the Second Sikh War, brought the British administration in India into direct contact with the disparate Pathan tribes inhabiting the lengthy chain of mountains marking the physical boundary between India and Afghanistan for the first time. The rugged, barren and arid mountains of the North-West Frontier stretched 704 miles along the border of the Punjab, rising generally in height from the Sulaiman range and the Gumal pass in the south to Chitral and the Pamirs in the far north.¹ This belt of mountainous terrain varied in width between twenty and two hundred miles and was pierced by four main passes that followed the course of the Kabul, Kurram, Tochi and Gomal rivers. These formed the main arteries of trade and migration, as well as the historic invasion routes into India (See Figure 1). The character of the terrain varied widely along the length of the border. At Chitral, in the far north, the terrain consisted of deeply incised wooded valleys and mountains that reached a height of over 20,000 feet.² Further south, in Dir, Swat and Bajaur inhabited by the Yusufzai, Tarkani and Utman Khel tribes, the mountains were intersected by fertile valleys that varied in breadth from the wide alluvial expanses in the Lower Swat, Panjkora and Rud valleys to narrow glens of the upper branches of these rivers’ tributaries.