Portrait of Nazar Bahadur Khweshgi (Pashtun)

Portrait of Nazar Khan Khweshgi (Pashtun). Source

Nazar Bahadur Khweshgi was born in the Pashtun colony of Kasur in Punjab. He was a noble of Mughal empire in the reigns of Jahangir and Shah Jahan. He reached the mansab of 4,000/4,000.

The Khwesgi Pashtuns had accompanied the army of Mughal king Babur in 1526 and had fought on his behalf against the army of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi. As a reward for their services, Babur granted them the present territory of Kasur as jagir. They were regarded with favour by Mughal emperors and many of them attained high ranks in the Mughal nobility.

Pervez Mehmood (a writer for Friday Times) is spewing the Sikh and Indian narrative on Afghans

Pervez Mehmood

Parvez Mahmood (a writer for Friday Times) believes that Adina Beg Arain (a Punjabi Muslim who was contemporary of Ahmad Shah Abdali) never collaborated with Afghans of Punjab because they were inherently deceitful and because they were plunderers. 

Link to the article

Adina Beg did collaborate with Indo-Afghans of Punjab once he became the governor of Punjab. According to Ibrat-nama of Ali-ud-Din (written in 1850), Adina Beg persuaded the Afghans of Kasur, Daulpur, Jalandhar and Alwalpur to join him in eradicating Sikh marauders in 1758. 1

Pervez Mehmood is simply repeating Sikh and Indian narrative in his article. There is not a single primary account which suggests that Adina Beg was hostile to Afghans and Indo-Afghans because of their supposed deceitful nature or because they plundered Punjab. Indo-Afghans of Punjab were the most potent force against Sikh marauders in 18th century. They had long history of assisting their Mughal overlords in rooting out the Sikh marauders, protecting the lives of Muslims of Punjab and restoring peace to Punjab. 

Indo-Afghans of Punjab were not forces of disruption so Adina Beg could not collaborate with them for his schemes of disrupting peace of Punjab (to undermine Mughal and Afghan authority). For disrupting law and order of Punjab, he used Sikhs. Once Adina became governor of Punjab, he no longer had any need for disruptive and marauding forces like Sikhs and called upon the Indo-Afghans of Punjab as well as other Muslim and Hindu zamindars of Punjab to restore peace. Deceit and plunder did not bother Adina Beg. He himself employed deceit on number of occasions and collaborated with jathas of Sikhs, who were the greatest plunderers of all. He also summoned Marathas to Punjab and gave them and Sikhs a free hand to plunder Sirhind. 2

Adina Beg refused the summon from the court of Timur Khan Durrani's court at Lahore because (1) earlier he had agreed to govern Jalandhar Doab on behalf of Afghans on the condition that he would not be required to attend the court (2) because he was up to no good and feared that Jahan Khan (the regent of Prince Timur) had figured him out. Adina Beg had ambition to become governor of Punjab himself so he undermined Afghan rule of Punjab simply for that reason, just like previously he had undermined Mughal rule over Punjab. It had nothing to do with the supposed deceitful nature of Afghans. 

 For more details read my this blog-post on Adina Beg

The Afghan principality of Kasur (1526–1807)

Kasur is the plural of Qasr (قصر), which means "fortress" or "castle" in Arabic. The place was named as such because of the twelve forts built by Pashtun settlers in the 16th century, the majority of whom belonged to the Khweshgi (also spelled Kheshgi) tribe. These twelve forts were named after the heads of the twelve Khweshgi clans.

The Khweshgi Pashtuns joined the army of the Mughal King Babur in Kabul and fought against the army of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi in 1526. As a reward for their services, Babur granted them the territory of Kasur as a jagir (land grant). They were held in high regard by the Mughal emperors, and many members of the tribe attained high ranks within the Mughal nobility.

When the Sikhs rose to power, they experienced great opposition from the Indo-Afghans of Kasur. However, the power and presence of the Afghans of Kasur were on the decline by the mid-18th century. Nonetheless, they supported Ahmad Shah Durrani in Punjab on every occasion. The chiefs of the Bhangi Misl of the Sikhs stormed the town of Kasur in 1763, and again in 1770, succeeding for a time in holding the entire principality. However, an Afghan chief named Nizamuddin, said to be a recent arrival from Kandahar, managed to wrest Kasur from the Sikhs in 1794 and resisted many subsequent attacks. In 1807, his brother and successor, Kutb-ud-din Khan, was forced to give way to Ranjit Singh and retired to his property at Mamdot, beyond the Sutlej. The town of Kasur was then incorporated into the Kingdom of Lahore. The already diminished Indo-Afghan element almost disappeared after the fall of Kasur to the Sikhs; nowadays, very few families in Kasur are of Pashtun descent.

The city of Kasur built and ruled by Pashtuns, was massive. William Barr saw the extensive ruins of Kasur (destroyed by Ranjit Singh) in 1839 and writes: "Kusoor, a large and ancient town, that in former days must have covered an extensive area, as its ruins are interminable".

Arzani Kheshgi

Mullah Arzani Kheshgi was a Pashtun Sufi poet of Roshniya movement and originally belonged to Kasur. He belonged to the Zerzai sub-tribe of Kheshgis. He was a profound scholar and a prominent figure in Pashto literature. He was a close associate and follower of Bayazid Ansari (Pir Roshan). Mullah Arzani returned to India to propagate Bayazid Ansari's mission there. After a long residence in Patna, he died there in 1623 and is buried there. His tomb is in the Sultanganj area of Patna city.

Nazar Bahadur Kheshgi

Nazar Bahadur Kheshgi was a noble of Mughal empire in the reigns of Jahangir and Shah Jahan. He reached the mansab of 4,000/4,000.

References: "Tarikh-i-Punjab aur Afaghana-i-Kasur ka kirdar" by Muhammad Ayub Khan (published in 1988). "Hayat-I-Afghani" by Muhammad Hayat Khan (published in 1865).

Ghulam Husain Khan, an Afghan, 1815, inhabitant of the Fort of Ali Jan Khan in Kasur (Punjab). From Fraser Album.

Portrait of Nazar Khan Khweshgi. Source

Shrine of Arzani Kheshgi in Patna, 1814's Water-colour painting by Seeta Ram

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