A Book of Conquest

Title: A Book of Conquest – The Chachnama and Muslim Origins in South Asia

Author: Manan Ahmed Asif

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2016 (First)

ISBN: 9780674660113

Pages: 250

India was partitioned in 1947 to make space for the state of Pakistan as an abode for the Muslims of the subcontinent. In spite of the hollow protestations of secular politicians like Nehru, the wide chasm that separated the Hindu and Muslim communities was obvious to all. Jinnah’s contention that the Hindus and Muslims are two nations enjoyed the benefit of practical wisdom. The newly founded Pakistani state was quick to write a history for themselves, totally unattached to mainstream history of that period, which had centred its attention on Delhi and North India. They elevated Chachnama, a thirteenth century Persian work as the foundational text of the state of Pakistan. This book narrates the conquest of Sind in 712 CE by a general of the Baghdad caliph, named Mohammed bin Qasim. He defeated the Hindu king Dahir and annexed the territory to the caliphate. Though killed by his own master in the end owing to the machinations of the daughters of the dead king Dahir, the process of upheaval set in motion by Qasim heralded more than a millennium of strife between the Hindu and Muslim communities. The author refutes the pedigree of Chachnama as a book of conquest and presents forceful arguments in claiming the ancient text as a fountain of political theory in the genre of books such as the Arthashastra of Kautilya. Manan Ahmed Asif is of Pakistani origin and is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Columbia University.

Chachnama (the annals of Chach) is a book of legends, but the author insists that it contains snippets of conquest, conciliation, dialogue, political theory, alliances and peaceful coexistence of societies. V S Naipaul has another idea about the book as ‘describing the destruction, by an imperialist power with a strong sense of mission and a wide knowledge of the world, of a remote culture that knows only itself and doesn’t begin to understand what it is fighting’! Chachnama was written by Ali Kufi in 1226 CE in the the city of Uch which was the political capital of Sind. It describes the history of the regions of Sind from roughly 680 CE to 716 CE. It tells the story of the Hindu Brahmin king Chach who ruled Sind and its conquest by the Arabs. Asif stresses on the Arab usage of the term “al Hind wa’l Sind” (Hind and Sind) to reiterate the geographic and cultural separateness of the two, thus reinforcing the rationale for Pakistan. He also adds disdainfully that the terms Hindu or India or Hinduism is a construction imposed from the outside (p.31).

Asif’s attempt is path-breaking in that while the established wisdom among historians make Chachnama out as a translation, or rather, ‘trans-creation’ of original Arab accounts contemporaneous with Qasim’s campaign in Sind, he recreates it as an exemplar of political theory and advice. The author makes a thorough survey of the literature. The first account of an expedition to Sind appears in Kitab Futuh al-Bulden by Baladhuri. It mentions a naval expedition by Uthman bin Abi’l Thaqafi, the governor of Bahrain in 636 CE. Further adventures were cut short by the sharp rebuke from caliph Umar, who was more concerned about consolidating his hold on nearer kingdoms such as the subjugation of the Sassanian Empire. Arabs came to Sind on account of the presence of rebels like Kharajites and Alawis who used the province as a base to foment trouble on the caliph’s territories. However, legends have it that Qasim was deputed to extract revenge on the assault of Muslim women at the hands of pirates along the Sind coast, who couldn’t be kept in check by the ruler on land.

Chachnama differs from other conquest narratives. Unlike other stories of invasion that glorify the conqueror, it presents the tale of a just ruler from the pre-Islamic period. Chach was a Hindu king who was a righteous and generous ruler. Baladhuri, whose work is thought to be the source of Chachnama, treats Sind as a frontier province beset with disorder and distress, whereas the author of the latter text keeps Sind as the centre of attention. Moreover, Qasim is portrayed as much more tolerant than many of the later conquerors. He declared that ‘the Budd’ (local temples) are like churches of the Christians and Jews and the fire-houses of the Magians. We don’t know what kind of a person Qasim really was, but the Chachnama finds no practical differences between the elite of the Hindu and Muslim aristocracies.

The author takes great pains to argue his case for Chachnama as a piece of political theory but is far from convincing for anyone who has even a cursory acquaintance with Arthashastra. Chachnama is just a ballad, or story that appeals to the listeners without placing any particular community or religion in a bad light. Influence of Panchatantra is also deduced by Asif, but he makes it clear that the influence came through the Arabic translation of Panchatantra, where it appeared as Kalila wa Dimna in 750 CE. Even accounting for the inspiration from Sufism, assimilation of different polities as not through forced conversion but through alliance and law, will be granting the author of Chachnama an enlightenment of a future era. With no other similar source contemporaneous with it, the author’s argument is plausible, but not exactly possible.

Two basic claims are put forward in this book. One is that Chachnama is neither a work of translation nor a book of conquest. The other is that this must be read as a text of political theory and represents a politically heterogeneous world of thirteenth century Sind. His contention that this is the first instance of Muslim presence in the subcontinent is not exactly true. The western coasts of India, particularly Kerala, have long been in continuous trading contact with Arabia. The first mosque in India is said to have been built in Kerala in the seventh century – without destroying a temple – before the Arab invasion of Sind. However, Sind is undoubtedly the first province of India that decidedly came under Muslim hegemony.

A notable feature of the book is its tirade against British historiography. East India Company’s historians and other Asiatic scholars sifted through the available material in the native languages and presented the history of India as a three-layered body with Hindu, Muslim and British periods, in that sequence. The earliest Hindu period was said to be a golden era that was devastated by a string of Muslim invasions from the outside, which was put under check in the British period through the East India Company’s victory over the Muslims. Quite expectedly, Asif makes a seething criticism against this colonial classification. This might possibly be the official Pakistani view of history. What is astonishing is that the leftist historians of India also toe this same line of reasoning. When you ask them why the British followed this scheme, the old cliché is thrown back in your face – ‘the British wanted to divide and rule’! However, Asif’s argument is quite reasonable and even rational, when Pakistan’s national interests are also weighed in. What is incomprehensible is the blind following of Indian leftist historians of the Pakistani system of historiography.

The book is a little difficult to read in the first part, but is compensated for this with lucidity in the second. The author travels through the ancient city of Uch and his photographs add a lively interest to the narrative. It also contains an excellent section of Notes and a good index.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star