The Story of the Malakand Field Force | Page 9

a single ruler. The Ahkund of Swat was by
origin a cowherd, an office considered most honourable in India. The
cow is a sacred beast. His service is acceptable to the Gods and men.
Princes glory in the name--though they do not usually carry their
enthusiasm further. "Guicowar" translated literally means "cowherd."
From such employment the future Ahkund received his inspiration. He
sat for many years by the banks of the Indus, and meditated. Thus he
became a saint. The longer his riparian reflections were continued, the
greater his sanctity became. The fame of his holiness spread throughout
all the region. The Swatis besought him to come and live in their valley.
After dignified and diplomatic reluctance, he consented to exchange the
banks of the Indus for those of the Swat. For some years, he lived in the
green valley, and enjoyed the reverence of its people. At the time of the
great mutiny, Said Akbar, the King if Swat, died, and the saint
succeeded to the temporal as well as the spiritual authority. In 1863 he
preached the Jehad against the British, and headed the Swatis and
Bunerwals in the Ambeyla campaign. The power which the Sirkar so

extravagantly displayed to bring the war to an end, evidently impressed
the old man, for at its close he made friends with the Government and
received from them many tokens of respect.
Before he died in 1870, he summoned his people around him and
declared to them that one day their valley would be the scene of a
struggle between the Russians and the British. When that came to pass
he charged them to fight on our side. The saying is firmly fixed in the
hearts of the tribesmen, and is associated with the memory of their
famous priest, known to English minds chiefly through the medium of
the "Bab Ballads."
His two sons are dead, but his two grandsons, [the Mianguls of Swat]
both quite young, live on in the valley, and are the owners of the
Ahkund's freeholds, which are in every section of the Swat country.
They have very little political influence; but their persons and property
are respected by the people and by the British for the sake of their
grandfather, who sleeps in an odour of sanctity at Saidu, near
Mingaora.
From the Malakand the signal tower of Chakdara can be seen eight
miles away to the eastward. Thither the broad graded road runs like a
ribbon across the plain. Seven miles from the Kotal Camp, it crosses
the Amandara Pass, a gap in a considerable underfeature, which juts
from the southern mountains. After this it turns more to the north and
leads to the fortified bridge across the river. I invite the reader to
remark this road, for it is historic. It is not only the route by which the
Malakand Field Force was able to advance, but it is the very reason of
their existence. Without this road there would have been no Malakand
Camps, no fighting, no Malakand Field Force, no story. It is the road to
Chitral.
Here then, at once, the whole vast question of frontier policy is raised.
We hold the Malakand Pass to keep the Chitral road open. We keep the
Chitral road open because we have retained Chitral. We retain Chitral
in accordance with the "Forward Policy." I am thus confronted at the
very outset of this book, which was intended to be devoted chiefly to
the narration of military events and small incidents, with that wide

political question, on which the keenest intellects in England are in
doubt, and the most valuable expert evidence in India is divided. The
reader must not think me pusillanimous or weak if I postpone the
discussion of so great and controversial a matter till a later chapter,
when I may perhaps enjoy a larger measure of his sympathy and
agreement. After the story has been told, it may not be inappropriate to
point the moral.
Prudence encourages procrastination. But while the consideration of the
advisability of the retention of Chitral may be deferred, a description of
the means is convenient, if not necessary, to the present chapter.
Nowshera is the railway base of the road. Thence we have followed it
to Mardan and across the frontier. Here the new and disputed portion
begins. Passing at first through the Lower Ranizai country, it climbs the
Malakand Pass, descends into the valley beyond and runs thence
through Upper Ranizai territory and Lower Swat to Chakdara. Here it
crosses the Swat River by the fine suspension bridge which the fort
guards. The three spans of this bridge are together nearly 1500 feet long.
It was constructed in 1895, during the operations, in about six weeks,
and is a very remarkable piece of military engineering. Beyond the