Pakistan_ A Hard Country - Anatol Lieven [294]
1707 Death of the last great Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb.
1739 Delhi sacked by the Persian ruler Nadir Shah.
1761 Delhi sacked by Ahmed Shah Abdali, founder of the Durrani kingdom in Afghanistan.
Eighteenth century Rise of Sikh power in Punjab.
1801 – 39 Rule of the Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Punjab.
1803 The Mughal ruler Shah Alam II accepts the protection of the British East India Company, which by now rules most of India.
1817 – 98 Life of the Muslim reformist educator and politician Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.
1840 – 42 First British – Afghan war.
1843 British conquest of Sindh.
1845 – 9 British defeat the Sikhs and conquer Punjab.
1856 British annex Awadh, the last major autonomous Muslim state in northern India.
1857 Muslim and Hindu revolt against British rule, called by the British the ‘Indian Mutiny’. Delhi and Lucknow are largely destroyed. The last Mughal emperor is deposed. Savage reprisals against the Muslims of north India.
1866 Shah Waliullah’s spiritual descendants found a madrasah at Deoband in northern India and lay basis for Deoband movement in South Asian Sunni Islam.
1875 Sir Syed founds the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College (later Aligarh Muslim University) at Aligarh, south-east of Delhi.
1876 – 1948 Life of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.
1878 – 80 Second British – Afghan war.
1885 Foundation of the Indian National Congress.
1893 British draw the ‘Durand Line’ marking the frontier between British India and Afghanistan. It is never accepted by the Afghans.
1896 Jinnah joins the Congress.
1896 – 9 Major revolts in the name of Islam among the Pathan tribes against British domination.
1906 Foundation of Muslim League in Dhaka, east Bengal (now Bangladesh).
1914 – 18 First World War.
1916 Jinnah becomes president of the Muslim League and initiates ‘Lucknow Pact’ with the Congress.
1919 – 24 Khilafat movement of South Asian Muslims against British rule and in defence of the Ottoman Caliphate (formal leadership of the Muslim world community, or Ummah).
1920 Jinnah resigns from the Congress.
1930 Sir Muhammad Iqbal, president of the Muslim League, speaks for the first time of the possibility of a separate Muslim state in north-western India.
1936 – 9 The British conduct major campaigns in Waziristan against Islamist rebels led by the Faqir of Ipi.
1938 Elections under British rule. Split between Congress and the Muslim League after the Congress refuses to include the League in provincial governments.
1939 – 45 Second World War.
1940 Muslim League passes ‘Lahore Resolution’ calling for an ‘autonomous and sovereign’ state of Pakistan.
1946 British Cabinet Mission fails to negotiate an agreement with Congress and the Muslim League on a united independent India with a loose federal constitution and guaranteed power-sharing between Hindus and Muslims.
August 1947 Independence of India and Pakistan: communal massacres in Punjab and Bengal claim between 200,000 and 1 million lives. Around 12 million people become refugees in India or Pakistan.
October 1947 Beginning of conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
September 1948 Death of Jinnah.
1951 Assassination of his successor, Liaquat Ali Khan.
1952 Language riots in East Pakistan initiate movement for the separation of the region from West Pakistan.
1953 Riots in Punjab against the Ahmadi religious minority show the strength of the Islamist parties on the streets. Martial law declared. Pakistani army enters into internal politics.
1958 Military coup by the commander-in-chief, General Mohammed Ayub Khan.
1958 – 69 Administration of Ayub Khan. The economy grows successfully. Limited land reform carried out in West Pakistan. In foreign policy, Ayub aligns Pakistan closely with the United States, but also cultivates ties with China. The capital is moved from Karachi to the new city of Islamabad, near Rawalpindi in northern Punjab.
1965 War with India over Kashmir ends in stalemate, seen in Pakistan as a defeat. Opposition to Ayub Khan grows, increasingly led by his former