1945 Hazara Rebellion

Rebellion in the Kingdom of Afghanistan 1945 Hazara Rebellion November 1945 – Spring 1946Dowlatabadi dates the first armed clash between Ibrahim Khan and the district administration to 1944 (1323 SH), and an abortive march on the district centre to late summer 1945 (Sunbula 1324 SH).Dowlatabadi 2006 217–223 Shahristan District, Hazarajat, Kingdom of Afghanistan * Rebel demands met Taxes revoked Rebel withdrawal Removal of Mohammad Hashim Khan from the post of Prime Minister Kingdom of Afghanistan Kingdom of Afghanistan Hazara rebels Kingdom of Afghanistan Mohammad Hashim Khan Kingdom of Afghanistan Sayyid Abbas Lowgari (governor of Hazarajat)Dowlatabadi 2006 220Kingdom of Afghanistan Abdul Quddus Paghmani (police commander)Dowlatabadi 2006 224 Ibrahim KhanIslam BegDowlatabadi 2006 225 50–60 (garrison of Alqan at its surrender)Dowlatabadi 2006 227 6,000 (according to Dowlatabadi)Dowlatabadi reports a muster of 6,000 men before the attack on the district centre. He notes that some writers give up to 16,000 rebels and 20,000 men on the government side, and considers these figures much too high in view of the accounts of the fighting.Dowlatabadi 2006 225 10–15 killed, 10 captured (siege of Alqan)Dowlatabadi 2006 226–227 7–11 killed (siege of Alqan)Four to five rebels (eight according to another version) were killed in the first night, and three more in the fighting for the mosque.Dowlatabadi 2006 226 The 1945 Hazara Rebellion was a rebellion by the Hazaras in the Kingdom of Afghanistan which occurred in 1945 and 1946. Its causes laid in the introduction of a new tax imposed only on the Hazaras.http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hazara-2 HAZĀRA ii. HISTORY – Encyclopaedia Iranica www.iranicaonline.org 2019-07-31 It began in November 1945,https://books.google.com/books?id=ZJ1YDwAAQBAJ The Hazaras and the Afghan State: Rebellion, Exclusion and the Struggle for Recognition Ibrahimi Niamatullah 2017 Oxford University Press 9781849047074 108, 109 en when Hazara Rebels under Ibrahim Khan, also known as "Bačča-Gāw-sawār" (Son of the bull rider) revolted against the local administration of Shahristan. After a siege lasting for about a week, the district, as well as arms and ammunition, fell into the hands of the rebels. There are two different accounts as to how the rebellion ended: According to Encyclopædia Iranica, the Afghan government sent a force to pacify the region and subsequently withdrew the tax. According to Niamatullah Ibrahimi, it ended in spring 1946, when Mohammed Zahir Shah sent a delegation to the rebels, offering to lift the tax if the rebels laid down their arms, which was accepted. Background Taxation According to the Hazara historian Basir Ahmad Dowlatabadi, the main grievance was a tax in clarified butter (roghan) known as roghan-e sherkat or roghan-e kata pawi. It was imposed during the premiership of Mohammad Hashim Khan on the Hazaras of the Hazarajat alone. Every animal was assessed, whether it gave milk or not, including male animals, horses, mules and donkeys.Dowlatabadi 2006 212 Quoting the former member of parliament Abdul Hussain Maqsudi, Dowlatabadi writes that one charak of butter was due each year for every cow, goat and sheep, so that each household owed several sir (one sir being 7 kg). Government weighers routinely credited 9 kg of butter as 7.Dowlatabadi 2006 213 A sir of butter sold for about 100 afghanis in Kabul, while the government paid 22 afghanis for it, half in cash and half in cloth from the state mills at Pul-e Khumri and Jabal al-Siraj.Dowlatabadi 2006 213–214 Taxpayers carried the butter on their backs to the administrative centres, sometimes as far as Kabul. Those who could not pay fled with their families to northern Afghanistan or abroad, and their houses and land were confiscated and given to Kuchis or to supporters of the government. Dowlatabadi adds that some Hazara khans and mirs took part in this system.Dowlatabadi 2006 214 The butter tax came on top of other levies described by Dowlatabadi:Dowlatabadi 2006 215–216 a land tax of one sir of grain for every ten harvested, due whether the land was cultivated or not; a livestock tax of 4 afghanis per cow, 5 per horse or donkey and 2 per sheep or goat; a poll tax (kala-puli) of 5 to 7 afghanis per person; compulsory deliveries of wheat to government granaries (gandom-e godam). Kuchi incursions Dowlatabadi also names the grazing of Hazara pastures by Kuchi nomads, backed by the government, as a cause of the revolt.Dowlatabadi 2006 216–217 Ibrahim Khan, son of Musa Khan, was born in 1915–16 (1294 SH) in Bargar, in present-day Shahristan District. His father, an influential local notable, had long resisted the Kuchis. He was killed in one of these conflicts by a rival, Yusuf Beg of Shahristan, who had sided with the nomads. Ibrahim Khan was then 14 or 15 years old, and took over his father's role.Dowlatabadi 2006 210 Course of the rebellion Dowlatabadi's account of the rebellion summarises Ali Najafi's Riwayat-e eftekhar (1998). Dowlatabadi describes it as the only book devoted to the uprising, and as based on interviews with many witnesses.Dowlatabadi 2006 217, 229 First clashes (1944) According to Dowlatabadi, the first confrontation took place in 1944 (1323 SH) at Alqan, the government seat of Shahristan. The district governor, Abdul Jalil, insulted men who were in arrears on the butter tax, and their religion. Ibrahim Khan drew his pistol and the governor shut himself in. Ibrahim Khan withdrew to the fort of his father-in-law, Rustam Beg, and fired from its roof on the governor's party when it came to arrest him.Dowlatabadi 2006 217–218 The governor then sent the district police chief with ten soldiers to bring him in, without success.Dowlatabadi 2006 219 When government forces later surrounded his house, Ibrahim Khan's men drove them back and besieged the government fort. Local elders prevented them from burning its gate, but the government offices and the house of the qazi outside the walls were looted.Dowlatabadi 2006 220 The governor reported the losses to Sayyid Abbas Lowgari, head of the provincial government of Hazarajat, at 50,000 afghanis. The chiefs of Daizangi, Daikundi, Behsud and Shahristan were asked to settle the matter. One of them, Yusuf Beg, warned that more than 1,000 armed men were ready to fight.Dowlatabadi 2006 220–221 Second phase (1945) Ibrahim Khan then went to plead against the tax before the provincial governor, who had him imprisoned for forty days. He was released on the guarantee of Hazara chiefs.Dowlatabadi 2006 222 In late summer 1945 (Sunbula 1324 SH) he gathered his supporters at Bargar, detained a party of tax collectors at Ghujan and marched on Alqan. He turned back without fighting when Yusuf Beg, one of his allies, went over to the government side.Dowlatabadi 2006 222–223 In the autumn a party of about 100 tax collectors was sent to Shahristan. After complaints of abuses at Siyah Dara, Ibrahim Khan disarmed them with about 50 men. He then declared publicly that no one should pay the butter tax, and that he would resist any attempt to collect it by force.Dowlatabadi 2006 224 Siege of Alqan The provincial police commander, Abdul Quddus Paghmani, was then sent to Shahristan and fortified Alqan.Dowlatabadi 2006 224–225 Ibrahim Khan was joined by 600 to 700 of his kinsmen and by Islam Beg with his riflemen, and Dowlatabadi reports a muster of 6,000 men.Dowlatabadi 2006 225 The rebels attacked at night from the village of Khwaja Chasht, about two hours' walk from Alqan.Dowlatabadi 2006 225 In the first night the rebels took all the outer positions except a mosque. Four to five government men were killed, and as many rebels (eight according to another version); ten government men were captured.Dowlatabadi 2006 226 The mosque was taken after three days of fighting, in which three more rebels were killed. The rebels then dug two tunnels over six days and blew up one of the towers of the fort with gunpowder. The garrison surrendered after an eleven-day siege.Dowlatabadi 2006 226Ibrahimi describes the siege as lasting about a week; Dowlatabadi gives eleven days.Dowlatabadi 2006 226 Ibrahim Khan let the commander and his 50 to 60 men leave under escort. In all, 10 to 15 government men had been killed, and the government stores of butter, wheat and cloth fell into the rebels' hands.Dowlatabadi 2006 226–227 The rebels then established themselves at the fort of Zardani. A government force sent by the provincial administration camped at Ribat, where it plundered the population, and fled when the rebels advanced against it. According to Dowlatabadi, the provincial governor warned Kabul that the Hazarajat was being lost, and the rebellion kept spreading into the spring of 1946.Dowlatabadi 2006 227 Negotiations and end Hashim Khan left the premiership in 1946 and was succeeded by Shah Mahmud Khan; according to Dowlatabadi, ill health was the official reason given. Dowlatabadi links his departure to the rebellion, and notes that non-Hazara historians have not made this connection.Dowlatabadi 2006 227Dowlatabadi gives the date as 29 Hamal 1325 SH (18 April 1946).Dowlatabadi 2006 227 Shah Mahmud adopted a policy of conciliation and asked Hazara notables to end the revolt.Dowlatabadi 2006 228 A delegation of 150 to 200 people gathered at Panjab.Dowlatabadi 2006 228 It included: the governor of Kabul, Ismail Khan Mayar, as the government's envoy; Hazara leaders from the north and from the Shaykh Ali, among them General Isa Khan; Hazara notables and clerics from Jaghori, Ghazni, Daizangi, Daikundi and Behsud. At a large meeting at Zardani, Ibrahim Khan agreed to go to Kabul on three conditions:Dowlatabadi 2006 229 the abolition of the 1,000 kharwar of butter levied on the Hazarajat (one kharwar being 80 sir); an inquiry into the abuses of government officials; no prosecution of those who had taken part in the uprising. The delegation accepted the conditions. Ibrahim Khan left his brother Arzi Husayn in command in Shahristan, and travelled with the delegation to Panjab and then to Kabul.Dowlatabadi 2006 229 Aftermath Ibrahim Khan remained in Kabul, where Dowlatabadi describes him as partly under surveillance.Dowlatabadi 2006 230 He later joined the circle of Sayed Ismail Balkhi. He was arrested in Shah-du Shamshira street in Kabul in the first hours of 1 Hamal 1329 SH (21 March 1950), and two secret agents were wounded during the arrest. Balkhi's party was broken up the same day.Dowlatabadi 2006 251 Notes References Sources Dowlatabadi Basir Ahmad 2006 Hazārahā az qatl-i ʿāmm tā iḥyā-yi hūwīyat The Hazaras: from massacre to the revival of identity 1st fa https://www.hazarapeople.com/book/Hazaraha_az_ghatleam_ta_ihyaye_howiyat.pdf 2026-09-27 Its account of the rebellion (pp. 217–229) summarises Ali Najafi, Riwāyat-i iftikhār: tārīkhcha-yi mubārizāt-i Ibrāhīm Khān Gāwsawār (Markaz-i Farhangī-yi Nawīsandagān-i Afghānistān, 1998), pp. 89–148. Category:1945 in Afghanistan Category:1945 conflicts Category:1946 in Afghanistan Category:1946 conflicts Category:Military history of Afghanistan Category:Rebellions in Afghanistan Category:Hazarajat Category:Battles involving the Hazara people