The following account of Hari Singh Nalwa’s humiliating defeat at the hands of the Mashwanis and Said Khanis is drawn from two primary sources: (1) an eyewitness account, "Tawarikh-i-Hazara," written by Lala Mehtab Singh in 1846. Extracts from this work were translated into Urdu by Sher Bahadur Khan Panni for his book, "Tarikh-i-Hazara" (pp. 56-59). It is important to note that Mehtab Singh was serving under Hari Singh Nalwa in 1824. (2) The Hazara District Gazetteer, published in 1907, on page 128.
Charles Masson, who traveled through Pakhtunkhwa in the 1830s, wrote that his contemporary, Hari Singh Nalwa, underestimated his Pashtun opponents. Masson noted that Nalwa had frequently faced critical situations even before the disastrous Battle of Jamrud in 1837, where he met his demise and bit the dust. While history has not fully documented all of Nalwa's perilous encounters with the ragtag Pashtun lashkars, one particularly significant defeat in 1824, in the present-day Haripur district, has not been overlooked. The entire 8,000-strong Khalsa Army was vanquished by a small Pashtun force, a stunning upset that even reached the ears of British East India Company officials.
Hari Singh Nalwa had a reputation for being an anti-Muslim bigot and he unnecessarily oppressed and terrorized the unwarlike Muslims of the Kashmir Valley during his brief governorship. Ranjit Singh recognized Nalwa's lack of administrative talent, removed him from governing Kashmir, and decided to utilize him as a formidable force against the warlike and turbulent tribes of Hazara. In 1822, Hari Singh Nalwa became the governor of Hazara and faced the insurrection of a small Pashtun tribe, the Mashwanis, in the same year. His first endeavor to reduce the Srikot hills (located in present-day Haripur district) in 1822 resulted in failure. In 1824 AD, he made another attempt to clear the Gandghar hills of insurgents and conquer the Srikot village of the Mashwanis. He set out from Haripur town with an 8,000-strong army equipped with artillery. At Nara, which stands at the mouth of a path leading up to Srikot, the Sikh army halted and encamped in the empty houses of the village. The Mashwani and Saidkhani Pashtun tribesmen reached Nara, took positions on the hill, and began firing upon the Sikh encampment from above. Sikh officers were reluctant to charge recklessly uphill against the entrenched Pashtun tribesmen and advised Hari Singh to retreat and reassess the situation. This hesitation infuriated Hari Singh, who perceived it as cowardice.
In the evening, Mashwanis and Saidkhanis descended from the hill and attacked the Sikh encampment with jezails, swords, and stones. The Sikh army was unprepared for the daring attack, and disorder ensued. When Hari Singh and Mahan Singh (after whom Mansehra district is named), along with others, emerged from their room, they were assaulted by Pashtun tribesmen with swords and stones. They killed Kishan Singh, Mahan Singh's brother. A Pashtun hurled a stone at Hari Singh Nalwa, striking him unconscious. He rolled into the ravine below and lay there for a long time, undiscovered. Upon regaining consciousness, he managed to return to Kishangarh fort (located within Haripur town). The Sikhs suffered losses of more than 500 men and abandoned a large quantity of arms and camp equipment.
News of the disaster spread throughout Hazara, and rumors circulated that Hari Singh was dead. However, he recovered from his wounds at Kishangarh Fort after several weeks of rest. Eager to dispel the rumors of his demise, he launched a surprise dawn attack on the village of Bagra, about eight miles from Haripur town. The armed Pashtun men there were caught unawares and put to the sword by Hari Singh.
When Ranjit Singh learned of Hari Singh Nalwa's humiliating defeat at Nara, he swiftly marched to Hazara with a large army to rectify the situation caused by his general's failure. He razed the village of Srikot and constructed a fort there, garrisoning it with 500 soldiers. He also conducted a raid across the Indus River. Subsequently, he returned to Lahore. Later, the Mashwanis rose up and laid siege to Srikot Fort. Still reeling from the psychological trauma of his defeat at Nara, Hari Singh was hesitant to engage the Mashwanis. To bolster Nalwa's courage, Ranjit Singh dispatched General Jean-Baptiste Ventura to assist him. The Mashwanis were defeated. Hari Singh Nalwa executed three Mashwani headmen and expelled the Mashwani tribe from Srikot village to prevent the recurrence of the insurgency. The Mashwanis were forced to live in exile on the other side of the Indus River until 1830 when they were allowed to return to Srikot.
A white pillar erected at later date by Major Abbot commemorates the scene of the victory of Mahswanis and Saidkhanis over Hari Singh Nalwa. Contrary to the fanciful accounts of some modern Sikh historians, the Mashwanis and Saidkhanis were not as numerous as ants or locusts. One such writer fantasizes a ten-to-one Pashtun-to-Sikh ratio in that battle, equating to approximately 80,000 Pashtuns against 8,000 Sikh soldiers. However, the 1901 census records only 3,992 Mashwanis in Srikot and 2,564 Utmanzis (of which Saidkhani is a sub-tribe) in Hazara District. It is evident that a small, ragtag force of a few hundred Pashtuns managed to defeat the well-equipped and numerically superior Sikh army of 8,000 regular, European-trained soldiers.
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| Portrait of Hari Singh Nalwah Bahadur Jang, followed in Persian by: 'He has a turban on his head, tied a black shawl around his waist with a hanging dagger and with a soldier standing behind him prepared for action'. Made in circa 1850. Source |
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| Maharaja Ranjit Singh inspecting horses with General Hari Singh Nalwa, Amritsar or Lahore, Punjab, c 1830-32, Toor Collection |
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| Portrait of Hari Singh Nalwa, made by Hasan al-Din in 1845 (c) in Lahore. |
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