The Indian-Afghan Border Revolt of 1897-1898 and Its reflections on the Ma'lumât Newspaper

ABSTRACT Western imperialist states used the concept of "civilisation" for the activities they carried out in colonial territories in order to legitimise exploitation. Civilisation aimed to dictate Western values to other nations, especially the colonial societies, by considering Western values as the most superior. In the context of Western imperialism, Britain was one of the states that implemented the concept of civilisation and exploitation most effectively. After colonising India, Britain, in order to protect India against the Russian danger that might turn towards India from the north, determined a border called the Durand Line and forced the Afghan Emir Abdurrahman Khan to accept this border. After the demarcation of the border, the Pashtun tribes on the border, who had lived without being under any political authority for hundreds of years, started a major revolt against Britain in 1897 for political, economic and social reasons. Since the rebelling tribes had Sunnite-Hanafi Islamic beliefs and had a deep affection for the Ottoman Empire and thus for the caliph, this event attracted the attention of the Sultan Abdul Hamid II administration, which pursued a Pan-Islamist policy and used Pan-Islamism as a counterbalance against the imperialist states that established colonies in Muslim geography. The newspaper Ma'lumât, which served the Panislamist policy during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and worked as a semi-official organ of the sultan, tried to inform its readers about the Indo-Afghan Border Rebellion, which the British called the "Northwest Border Rebellion", from the very beginning of the event. Ma'lumât regularly followed the rebellion through Western newspapers and criticised the British colonial order with a Pan-Islamist approach. In addition, the sanctity of the caliph and the respect and affection of the Indo-Afghan Muslims for him were constantly covered in the newspaper. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the studies on the history of India, Afghanistan and Pakistan from the perspective of Ma'lumât newspaper and to reveal the historical foundations of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border problem, which is still one of the most problematic border lines in the world today. The "civilising mission" of the West, colonialism, the practices of the British imperialist system in India, Ottoman-Indian and Ottoman-Afghan relations, the Northwest Frontier Rebellion and its reflections in the Ma'lumât newspaper constitute the subject of this thesis. Keywords: Civilisation, Durand Line, Panislamism, Pashtuns, Revolt