When the Normans conquered Britain, following their famous victory, in 1066, at the battle of Hastings, like most invaders, they didn’t find the subsequent consolidation easy.
The greatest thorn in Norman sides was an Anglo Saxon chieftain known as Hereward the Wake.
Tales of his daring do echo through popular histories of the British people.
Fascinating then, to find a not dissimilar character in the history of these lands that are now Bangladesh.
Writing of the struggles of the Mughal invaders in the 16th century, to take full control of, especially, the enormously wealthy lands of Bangladesh, the late 16th century visitor to the lands, the English merchant, Ralph Fitch, writes of the resistance, “They be all hereabouts rebels against their king Echebar (Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor): for here are so many rivers and islands, that they flee from one to another, whereby Akbar’s horsemen cannot prevail against them.”
Hereward the Wake led his resistance to William the Conqueror in the fens of East Anglia, the eastern part of Britain that lies partly below sea level, and, like Fitch’s description of the resistance of the Pashtun Bhuiyans, he also was able to keep the invader’s forces at bay by crossing dykes and rivers, and skipping from island to islet.
In Sonargoan, the traditional stronghold of the Pashtun rulers, under whom the Bhuyans administered their Sultanate, Fitch reports, “The chiefe king of all these countries is called Isacan, and he is chiefe of all the other kings, and is a great friend to all Christians.”
Fitch seems to have been completely unaware that, by the time of his visit, around 1584, the whole area was not only nominally under the rule of the Mughals, but also, was governed on their behalf by a succession of Subahdars, and had been since 1538, when the last, and arguably the greatest of the sultanate dynasties ended; the succession of these Mughal provincial governors, perhaps, owing much to their lack of success in subduing opposition!
Isa Khan, without doubt, merits a place in the history of Bangladesh as great as that of Hereward the Wake in Britain’s rich history. A valiant freedom fighter until his death at the ripe old age of about 70, ultimately unsuccessful, but, unlike Hereward, able to leave behind a dyasty of zaminders under Mughal overlordship.
The lands that are now those of Bangladesh have been subjected, over the centuries, to at least one major attempted invasion, by Alexander the Great, three direct conquests, one political usurpation, and a few invasions in parts, such as those of the Tripuran, Arakanese and Burmese kings, in the east, largely non Bengali territories.
Like the first of the conquering Afghans, the Khilji, who secured a foot hold in 1204 CE, the Mughals, can also only be described as foreign invaders.
The Khilji, of course, brought with them the first significant Islamic rule to these lands, fleeing, as they were, the great Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan, that flooded, at that time, out of Mongolia, and engulfed Central and West Asia. They brought with them Sufi missionaries, and it seems no coincidence that they not only overthrew the century old Sena Dynasty of Hindu rulers, but also circumscribed the brief rule of the Devas.
The Mughals, on the other hand, were also Muslims, of Mongol descent. More in the tradition of the Caliphs, with their sophistication and their cultural interests, they were, none the less, unquestionably in search of lands with wealth to support them, and found them in north India.
There is little doubt that they were, like the Khilji before them, aware of the great riches generated in the lands around the Ganges delta. Their military strength and talent was unquestionable. It was, however, an extraordinary combination of that, and administrative skills, which enabled them to dominate the entire subcontinent for at least a century and a half. Their nominal rule, of course, continued until 1857, but after Aurangzeb, the sixth Emperor, they were a weakened dynasty, soon to be overwhelmed by the skill of the British interlopers and adventurers.
Akbar, the third, and arguably the greatest of the Mughals inherited the throne in 1556, at the age of fourteen. He succeeded his father, Humayun, who had temporarily lost the throne to the last Afghan ruler, Sher Shah Suri, and his son Islam Shah Suri, for a gap of fifteen years from 1540 to 1554.
Akbar’s unquestionable genius lay, not only in the skills of military tactics, but also in uniting so many diverse factions behind him.
Eschewing traditional Islamic practice, he succeeded in winning the loyalty of that diversity across most of northern India, and there is no doubt that the commercial, as well as the cultural heritage brought just about the entire subcontinent under his influence. Whether, however, it was his disagreement with the development of Akbar’s unique version of religious philosophy, distinct from Islam, as opposed to some kind of nationalism, that inspired the freedom fighter in Isa Khan, perhaps we shall never know.
Born in 1529, into one of the ruling Pashtun Bhuiyan families who ruled under the Pashtun Sultanate, chieftains of Bhati region, along the banks of the great Brahmaputra river east of Mymensingh. His father, apparently either a Mughal supporter, or still hankering for the Pashtun past, had twice rebelled against Islam Shah Suri, the second of the Afghan usurpers, albeit temporary, of the Mughal throne, and died in battle during his second insurrection in 1548.
In the tangled network of loyalties and alliances that characterised this restless era of Bangladesh, we should probably not be surprised that the youthful Isa Khan allied himself with the interloper Karrani rulers, henchmen of the defeated Islam Shah Suri, who his father had so vehemently opposed, but who, for twelve years, ruled Bengal from Sonagoan, from 1564 to 1576, and with their support, was granted lands in Sonargoan,as well as in Bhati.
In the early 1570s he joined the Karrani expeditions to fight both Mughals and the Tripuran king, who had seized Chittagong.
In 1576, he was in the Karrani forces that were finally defeated at the Battle of Rajmahal, that saw the end of resistance of the last of the Afghan rulers to the Mughals.
Recognising that allies were needed to withstand the power of the Mughal armies, and navy, he sought them amongst his fellow Bhuiyan, and commenced what we might describe as guerrilla tactics in his mission.
In 1578 came the first of the concerted Mughal attempts to subdue Bhuiyan resistance. Although abandoned by two of his allies, Khan fought on, and at Kastul, in his home, Kishoreganj, territory, the Mughal army was defeated. We may have no record of the engagement, but the flood plains of the vast Brahmaputra river doubtless aided the victory.
In 1584, the Mughal forces made another attempt to subdue Khan and his allies, but, once again, were defeated on land and water, being forced to retreat. It is interesting to note that, although this was, almost certainly, the period of Fitch’s journey, he makes no mention of the evident scale of the continuing conflict, and appears unconcerned of the risks, in his own travels, of being caught up in it.
Returning to the fray, in 1586, we may well suppose that the Mughals were more than ready to accept gifts and peace overtures from Khan. Certainly, they withdrew, leaving the recalcitrant and unreconciled Isa Khan in relative peace, for over ten years.
However, in 1597, Mughal forces were sent, by land and water, to make another attempt to take control of the vital territories that bestrode the waters of the mighty Brahmaputra river, a silk road of major trade into the foothills of the Himalayas, and beyond, an evident source of much of the trade, so important to the Mughal economy. And, perhaps not the least consideration, the continuing resistance to them that, doubtless, would be likely to encourage others.
Following defeat, on both land, and, perhaps more importantly, on water, perhaps somewhere around Vikrampur, the Mughal forces once again withdrew.
Isa Khan died, two years later, and left behind a family with whom, eventually, the Mughals came to terms, and who survived as zaminders of Egarasindhur, near Kishoreganj, possibly one of the most lucrative landholdings in Bengal until 1947.
His descendants continue to inhabit the ancient fortified family residence, right up until present times.
Isa Khan, about whom, romances and legends proliferate, perhaps the first of the great tradition of Freedom Fighters of Bangladesh!
