From the northern reaches of Indus to the Khyber Pass in Pakistan, I have traced the existence of 27 forts that the Sikh Army had built in the early 19th century. Hari Singh Nalwa, the western commander of the Sikh Army had engaged in tough battles against Paindah Khan, the leader of the Darband and Amb villages in the Tanawal region which was across both the banks of the mighty Indus River.
Around two hundred years later, in Tanawal region, Jahangir Saeed of the royal family of the Tanawal, who is the descendant of Paindah Khan, received me warmly and hosted me with love and affection at his residence. From his home, as Jahangir Saeed pointed to a hillock on which once existed a watch tower of the Sikh Army from where the soldiers would keep vigilance over the movements in the valley, I could not help but reflect,
“The biggest absurdity of life is the exile and estrangement which makes one an alien in one’s own habitat! There is no remedy of the deprived memory of a lost home! Our lives are caught in a Farrer Wheel, having lost the ability to take a forward leap as it would mean forgetting the past. So we keep revolving around a permanent remembrance! Still, I refuse to forget from where we came (paradise), where we presently toil (exile) and where we are headed (death)!”
Photographed in Jan 2017, during the research for the book “THE QUEST CONTINUES: LOST HERITAGE The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan”
