Women against the British Raj; female freedom fighters in Hur Movement of Sindh by Farooque Ahmed Sargani

During the British era, the social and economic condition of women became very bad, particularly in the Hur-populated region of Makhi Forest in the present-day Sanghar district because the people of Makhi Forest and the Achhro Thar (White Desert) never accepted the encroachment of the British Empire over Sindh. The British colonial policies compelled the Hurs, the followers of Pir Pagara, to carry weapons. In this article, I will briefly focus on the resistance of women and the guerrilla warfare tactics of Hur women. Hur women used to dig trenches to hide and secure their children and other family members; such things were mentioned by one of the early writers of the Hur Movement – Malhar Faqeer Khaskhali, in his book “Brave Sisters.” According to Malhar Faqeer, he met Ismail Faqeer, who told him that he provided groceries and other necessary things to Hur women in the Makhi Jungle and further stated that Hur women used to live in trenches and had strong sentiments of “Jihad” and wore men’s dresses and carried weapons to ambush enemies and then hide in trenches. There were so many trenches and tunnels in the Makhi Jungle, where many Hur women lived. Hur women were brave and used to spy on the activities of British forces and inform fellow Hur fighters in the Makhi Dhandh (Lake) area and didn’t care about their own lives. The guerrilla warfare of Hur women proved that the women could fight like men. Like a Spartan woman, who bravely told that they were born soldiers for fighting, the Hur women also claimed that they had given birth to brave soldiers who fought against injustice, so why not the women kill the enemies? With such spirit, the Hur women used to fight shoulder to shoulder with their men or form groups to ambush the British army. According to other researchers, “The women had an emotional attachment to their motherland and soil. However, when the colonial forces increased pressure upon everyone who belonged to the Hur community, women and children were both affected a lot and that is why women carried weapons just for defence. Malhar Faqeer, however, mentioned that “The Hur women were involved in the war for the sake of freedom.” After the martyrdom of their spiritual leader Pir Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi, who was hanged in central jail Hyderabad, no leader could lead and organize the Hur community, and there was no alternative to form the government replacing the British rulers. We also find some spiritual and religious aspects behind the fight of Hur women, because those women did not know how to fight and had no nationalist approach. They just safeguarded themselves and their families and community. The guerrilla warfare tactics were also applied by Hur women as well as one of the attacks planned by Hur women commander Ashia, when sudden army attacked, she formed two divided his gang into two groups, one diverted the mindset of the army other combat on the military.

Hur women's spying network was more sufficient than British forces, British for the authentic and reliable information of any insurgent groups in Karachi or Thar and Parker districts inducted criminal investigation department [CID]. But unfortunately, it became failed, according to Dr, Aftab Nabi a former inspector of General of Sindh Police mentioned in his research paper “Evolution of the CID in colonial India and its induction in Sindh” “ On 12 March 1943, in a letter to Lambrick the DM Nawabshah stated that the CID despite all-out efforts on their part as well as the administration intelligent system did not function successfully. However, H. T Lambrick mentioned in his dairy “We have been killed, hanged and confined Hurs but we can't subjugate the Hur uprising because Hur women played a crucial role in alienating British forces completely. Also, the researcher Tarique Keerio in his M. Phil thesis “The impact of Hur resistance movement on the social and political history of Sindh” mentioned that the “strong intelligence network of Hurs was due to women's active role in the sense that they used to go to different areas and met different personalities easily” Hur women were Sharp and intelligent and moved from one place to another quickly. Moreover, Hur women were brave and used to living in the Thar and Parker spied on the activities of British forces and informed fellow Hur fighters in the Makhi Dhandh (Lake) area and didn’t care about their own lives. The guerrilla warfare of Hur women proved that the women could fight like men. Trenches have a livelihood for women. Hur women used to dig trenches to hide and secure their children and other family members; such things were mentioned by one of the early writers of the Hur Movement – Malhar Faqeer Khaskhali, in his book “Brave Sisters.” According to Malhar Faqeer, he met Ismail Faqeer, who told him that he provided groceries and other necessary things to Hur women in the Makhi Jungle and further stated that Hur women used to live in trenches and had strong sentiments of “Jihad” and wore men’s dresses and carried weapons to ambush enemies and then hide in trenches. There were so many trenches and tunnels in the Makhi Jungle, where many Hur women lived. Military tactics of Hur women: The guerrilla warfare tactics also applied by Hur women, for instance, one of the attacks was planned by Hur women commander Ashia who formed two groups one diverted the mindset of the army officers and the other group combat on military. Whenever women are trapped in the Makhi forest surrounded by British forces, they have to play crucial tactics to overcome that particular situation, like for example Hur warrior and commander Ashia is met with jangle with other women and suddenly military besiege, a couple of days pass away, the food shortage and become less water for drinking at that moment they have made planned one of the women changed her outlook and reached the Makhi headquarter then, Hur men came from the and attack on the military on other side became successful to divert the attention of military forces besides that the women and children get out without any battle with the army. Hur women so many times deserted the British soldiers and most of them became martyrs and some of them survived but historians can not write names and contributions., Generously, the Britishers never did understand the power of women in Sindh. If we go back in history Britishers used to rape the peasants’ women not only Britisher but also the chuggles and Desi officers in the British police and army had local blood but used to speak a foreign language and dishonored the women's that women have no option except, then fighting. The case of rapes recorded in the research paper “Role of women in Hur movement” Britisher raped 13 years woman named Bakhtawar near Singhoro, Sanghar. It was astonishing when Malhar Faqeer wrote that one of the women was praying then other women asked him, human being tortured and killed by enemies and you are busy praying (Malhar, 1961 page 4) it means that they had strong sentiments of Jihad.

Hur women participated in a demonstration project for the protection of the Hur community and Surah Badshah but when they realized the colonial violence could not leave them with peace because of Britishers their supporters Zamindars used to tease them because after, returned from the Surah Badshah went on the tour and organized Hur community and give awareness to his followers. In this scenario, women have a political awareness, even though they knew Pir would have launched guerrilla warfare against the British Empire, so every woman has a right to play a crucial role in Hur insurance and fight the battle against the colonial forces. Condition of women in concentration camps The condition of Hur women was terrible in the British settlements commonly known as “Lurha.” It was colonial tactics to dehumanize and suppress the indigenous resistance movement, but in truth, colonizers never triumphed over the strength of the native people of Sindh, their fascist policies killed many innocent women even though so many women lost their lives without any treatment. Twenty-four-hour women remained within the Lurhas because they did not have permission to seek work outside; moreover, some children slept hungry because colonizers couldn’t provide food, so the women cooked grass to feed their children (Behan 2019). How much trauma women faced in the colonial period? After, reading the original sources or accounts of eyewitnesses of that period, for example, Allah Warayo Behan and Malhar Faqeer Khaskhali we understood how much women were tortured by violent policies of the colonizers, even in the hard times women recited poems in Lurhas to entertain the people and courage them for sacrifices.