THE HISTORY MAN: Churchill in Pakistan

[Saqib Shah]

By Ihsan Aslam


Churchill’s popular dispatches from the North-West Frontier were published under the by-line ‘From a Young Officer’ and were later expanded into a book


A 21-year-old British soldier sailed for India on September 11, 1896. His 9/11-journey opened a new world for him. He proved himself both an able writer and a budding politician. This young subaltern ultimately sailed into history as the famous British premier Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965).

Second Lieutenant Winston Churchill was with the 4th Queen’s Hussar Regiment stationed in Bangalore, South India, from October 1896 to March 1899. But he spent time elsewhere as well, notably on leave to the UK, in the North-West Frontier Province of what is now Pakistan, and in the Sudan with Lord Kitchener.

In India Churchill underwent an intense period of self-education, a time he refers to as ‘the university of my life’, spending hours and hours reading and writing. He corresponded widely — the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge houses most of his letters — and wrote his first book The Story of the Malakand Field Force, which launched his literary career, and also wrote his only novel Savrola during this period.

Churchill made his mark as a war correspondent during his placement with the Malakand Field Force, a special British force that put down ‘the great tribal upheaval of 1897’. Malakand Pass and the British-built fort dating from the time of the 1897 campaign are located about 45 miles north of Pakistan’s frontier city of Peshawar. Churchill wrote for the Daily Telegraph, London as well as for the Pioneer of Allahabad.

Churchill’s popular dispatches from the North-West Frontier were published under the by-line ‘From a Young Officer’ and were later expanded into a book. He explains in the preface to the book, “While I was attached to the Malakand Field Force I wrote a series of letters for the London Daily Telegraph. The favourable manner in which these letters were received, encouraged me to attempt a more substantial work. This volume is the result.”

He explains how he ended up in the North-West Frontier. “Having realised, that if a British cavalry officer waits till he is ordered on active service, he is likely to wait a considerable time, I obtained six weeks’ leave of absence from my regiment, and on the 2nd of September [1897] arrived at Malakand as press correspondent of the Pioneer and Daily Telegraph, and in the hope of being sooner or later attached to the force in a military capacity.” He didn’t have to wait for long.

He loved the adventure and glory of military action during the Malakand operation. He wrote in the book: “It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic”. However, he has acknowledged elsewhere that ‘writing is an adventure’ too. “To begin with, it is a toy and amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public”. Beat that as an explanation of the process of writing!

Young Churchill’s ‘The Story of the Malakand Field Force,’ was highly acclaimed. Even the future King Edward VII wrote, “I have read (Malakand) with the greatest possible interest and I think the descriptions and language generally excellent. Everybody is reading it, and I only hear it spoken of with praise”. Besides the facts and figures of the war, the Rule-Britannia airs and the Islamophobia, the book has so many interesting, witty and humorous passages as to merit a separate piece.

Take this description of the commencement of hostilities, for instance: “The noise of firing echoed among the hills. Its echoes are ringing still. One valley caught the waves of sound and passed them to the next, till the whole wide mountain region rocked with the confusion of the tumult. Slender wires and long-drawn cables carried the vibrations to the far-off countries of the West”. And how about this: “The bullets passed in the air with a curious sucking noise, like that produced by drawing the air between the lips”.

He describes the Swat Valley thus: “a beautiful valley, where the green of the rice fields was separated from the blue of the sky by the glittering snow peaks of the Himalayas”. And, finally, take this description of his 9/11 expedition to the Jandul Valley by the Pakistan-Afghan border:

“The next day, the 11th of September [1897], the troops remained halted at Ghosam [camp]... To view the scene by moonlight is alone an experience which would repay much travelling. The fires have sunk to red, glowing specks. The bayonets glisten in a regular line of blue-white points. The silence of weariness is broken by the incessant and uneasy shuffling of the animals and the occasional neighing of the horses. All the valley is plunged in gloom and the mountains rise high and black around. Far up their sides, the twinkling watch-fires of the tribesmen can be seen. Overhead is the starry sky, bathed in the pale radiance of the moon. It is a spectacle that may inspire the philosopher no less than the artist.”