Mandi Ghawaliyan: One Chib Family, Hindu and Muslim Branches

Ghawaliyan (گھاولیاں, also written Ghawliyan, Kahawliyan or Ghadolian), in Tehsil Samahni, District Bhimber, Azad Kashmir, was the second mandi of Chibhal Rajana, founded by Raja Jagat Singh, a son of Raja Rehmatullah Khan of Bhimber. It is unusual among the Chib mandis: according to the 1997 Chib history, two of its three family branches (pattis) became Muslim while the third, Patti Himmat Singh, remained Hindu. Its sons later included a police officer killed at Jammu in 1947 and his brother, probably the first graduate of Chibhal Rajana, who rose to be a district judge.

Mandi Ghawaliyan, the second mandi of the Rajana family

The story of Ghawaliyan begins in the ruling line of the Chib Rajputs of Bhimber. When the younger sons of Raja Madan Khan founded the first mandis of Chibhal, his eldest son, Raja Ismail Khan, kept the throne. Ismail Khan’s son, Raja Jogu Khan, was known to the people as Raja Jog Jit, and the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, the book says, called him “Chowk Jannat”. He received the qashqa, the forehead mark of rajaship, on his father’s death and governed well. Near Saadabad, in the bed of a stream, he built a residence for the Mughal emperors, Jogi Hatti, from which the imperial camp drew its supplies during stays of several months (pp. 122, 264).

Jogu Khan’s son, Raja Rehmatullah Khan, also called Roop Singh, had two ranis. One bore Raja Karamullah Khan, Raja Jagat Singh, Karam Singh and Fateh Singh; the other bore Mehndi Khan. Karamullah Khan was given the tikka of the throne of Bhimber in the chowk of Bandala and carried on the line of the rajas of Bhimber. Jagat Singh built palaces on the land he inherited, and a village grew up around them. Its descendants, wrote the historian Maulvi Zain-ul-Abidin Kohi Samahnavi, “live in Ghawaliyan Mandi, which is the second mandi of the Rajana family” (p. 265). The book’s mandi table names Raja Jagat Singh as founder and gives the family’s titles as Rajana, Mian and Thakra (p. 395).

Thakur Major Singh, writing in his Tarikh-e-Chibhal of about 1926, made the same point from another angle. In all the mandis of Chibhal except Ghawaliyan, he wrote, the settlers were Muslim Rajputs descended from Raja Jamshed Khan; the Chibs of Ghawaliyan descended from Raja Jog Jit and were, among the Hindus, the tikka or senior family (p. 264, citing Tarikh-e-Chibhal, pp. 93–94).

How Ghawaliyan got its name

The village’s name appears in the book in a remarkable range of spellings: Ghawiyan, Ghawliyan, Ghawaliyan, Kahawliyan, Kawliyan and Ghadolian, with Khawaliyan in the book’s translation of Rose’s Glossary. Two explanations are recorded (p. 265):

• Gah-e-Waliyan, “the place of the saints”. According to common tradition the village was named after the saint at whose hands part of the family embraced Islam, and the name was later worn down to Ghawaliyan.
• Kalluwaliyan, after Kallu Khan. Maulvi Zain-ul-Abidin’s draft history derives it from Kallu Khan, grandson of Nashtari Khan of Patti Kishan Singh and a famous and influential man in his day; Kalluwaliyan in time became Kahawliyan.

Three pattis, two faiths

The fullest account of the family came from one of its own sons, Raja Rangbaz Khan, a retired tehsildar. The Chib Rajgan of Ghawaliyan, he explained, are divided into three pattis, or shares. Raja Jagat Singh had four sons: Kishan Singh, Jaswant Singh, Himmat Singh and Mast Singh, who died without children. Kishan Singh’s grandson Nashtari Khan and five grandsons of Jaswant Singh, Faujdar Khan, Mahtab Khan, Asalat Khan, Shujaat Khan and Amir Khan, all embraced Islam at the same time at the hands of a holy man, Pir Syed Hussain Shah Ghazi. His shrine still stands, and people high and low, the book records, still come to it for spiritual blessing. The descendants of Himmat Singh remained Hindu.

The change of faith carried a heavy price. The proprietorship and jagirs of the Ghawaliyan Rajgan had included the villages of Kalal, Dhing, Manpur, Banjoa, Jagapal and Seri. Because two pattis accepted Islam, the book says, their whole share of the proprietorship and jagir was confiscated under the law then in force, while that of Patti Himmat Singh remained intact. Later, through the efforts of a sister of Mian Onkar Singh of Patti Himmat Singh, whom the book describes as the stepmother of Maharaja Hari Singh and the mother of Rao Ratan Singh, a wazir-e-wazarat (district governor), the Muslim pattis recovered their proprietary rights in the village of Ghawaliyan itself; the rest stayed lost. The mandi table is blunt: these villages were once the jagirs of Ghawaliyan, but now the family has no control over them (p. 395).

• Raja Jagat Singh, founder of Mandi Ghawaliyan, son of Raja Rehmatullah Khan
  • Kishan Singh: Patti Kishan Singh, Muslim
    • His grandson Nashtari Khan accepted Islam; his line includes Kallu Khan, Raja Rahmdad Khan and Raja Rangbaz Khan
  • Jaswant Singh: Patti Jaswant Singh, Muslim
    • His grandsons Faujdar Khan, Mahtab Khan, Asalat Khan, Shujaat Khan and Amir Khan accepted Islam; Mahtab Khan’s line includes Raja Suhbat Ali Khan Shaheed and Raja Imdad Ali Khan
  • Himmat Singh: Patti Himmat Singh, Hindu
    • The Mians and Thakurs of Ghawaliyan, down to Mian Onkar Singh and Thakur Fateh Singh
  • Mast Singh, who died without children

The Thakurs of Patti Himmat Singh

Thakur Major Singh’s account of about 1926 describes the Hindu house at its height. Thakur Onkar Singh was a famous and imposing man who served for many years as a tehsildar, and his daughter, Major Singh wrote, married Raja Amar Singh Sahib Bahadur. Onkar Singh’s son Thakur Fateh Singh was then zaildar of Ghawaliyan and a jagirdar; another son, Mian Basant Singh, was long a naib-tehsildar; and a third had settled in Tehsil Rajouri, where he enjoyed considerable influence. The family tree compiled by Raja Rangbaz Khan (p. 423) traces Patti Himmat Singh through many generations of Mians to Mian Onkar Singh and his four sons, among them Thakur Fateh Singh, father of Baldev Singh, a zaildar, and Basant Singh, a tehsildar, father of Puran Singh.

The Malot chapter of the book adds that in the reign of Maharaja Hari Singh, Raja Suhbat Ali Khan of Malot went to court in Jammu against Mian Onkar Singh, then zaildar of Ghawaliyan, and won the zaildari of Malot Mandi (p. 260). The book also quotes a Tarikh-e-Chibhal by a Mian Onkar Singh Chib, published in Delhi in a second edition of 1984, but it does not say whether its author belonged to this family. For the other great Hindu branch of the clan, see The Hindu Chibs of Dewa Vatala.

Patti Kishan Singh and Patti Jaswant Singh

Patti Kishan Singh

The family tree is headed with the note that Kishan Singh’s grandson Nashtari Khan “accepted Islam” (p. 419). From his line came three brothers: Kallu Khan, after whom, by one tradition, the village is named; Mamun Khan, known as Mallu Khan; and Sattar Bakhsh Khan. Kallu Khan’s line runs through Umar Bakhsh Khan, Mustafa Khan and Nur Ali Khan to Raja Rahmdad Khan, numbardar of Ghawaliyan, and his son Raja Rangbaz Khan. Sattar Bakhsh Khan’s descendants include Dr Raja Mazhar Iqbal Khan, M.B.B.S., a chief medical officer.

Patti Jaswant Singh

The tree of Patti Jaswant Singh (pp. 421–422) starts from the five converted grandsons; it notes that no information could be obtained about the descendants of Shujaat Khan and Amir Khan. From Mahtab Khan, through Shamsher Khan and Man Ali Khan, came four brothers: Karam Dad Khan, numbardar, Fazal Dad Khan, Murtaza Khan and Sarandaz Khan (the tree also calls the first and last Muhammad Dad Khan and Sarfraz Khan). Fazal Dad Khan was the father of Raja Suhbat Ali Khan Shaheed, Havildar Raja Inayat Ali Khan and Raja Imdad Ali Khan. Sarandaz Khan’s son was Major Raja Abdul Rahman Khan, whose sons Khalid-ur-Rahman Khan and Abid-ur-Rahman Khan also became majors. Another line from Mahtab Khan, through Diwan Ali Khan and Lal Khan to Muhammad Khan, produced the brothers Allah Ditta Khan, father of Raja Muhammad Anwar Khan, a lawyer, and Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan, a tehsildar, and Nasrullah Khan, whose sons included Mukhtar Khan, a bank manager, and Raja Imtiaz Khan, a project manager. Faujdar Khan’s line produced Salar Raja Muazzam Khan.

Ghawaliyan in 1931 and 1947

Raja Rahmdad Khan and the 1931 agitation

Raja Rahmdad Khan, numbardar of Ghawaliyan, was the village’s leading figure in the generation before Partition. Although a numbardar, and so a servant of the state, he opposed what the book calls the anti-Muslim measures of Maharaja Hari Singh’s government. During the agitation of 1931 he stood “like an iron wall” in the villages of the Samahni valley, among them Ghawaliyan, Bandala, Samahni and Chowki Bandi, as the right-hand man of Raja Buddhe Khan, zaildar of Samahni, with Raja Syed Muhammad Khan, numbardar of Bandi, at his side. When Buddhe Khan was arrested, both men went underground for a long time and worked for the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference. From the party’s foundation in 1932 until his death Rahmdad Khan stayed with the Muslim Conference, and the book says Ghawaliyan remained loyal to it because of him.

In October 1947 Rahmdad Khan fought against the State’s Dogra forces alongside Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan, zaildar of Bandala, Raja Kifayat Ali Khan, numbardar of Bandala, Maulvi Mahmud Khan and Raja Allah Ditta Khan. His brother, Havildar Raja Sahibdad Khan of No. 6 Jammu and Kashmir Regiment, was killed on the Skardu front; a cousin, Raja Ali Akbar Khan, and another relative, Raja Jhalla Khan, were killed by an armed band. For a time afterwards Rahmdad Khan lived as a refugee in a village of Tehsil Kharian, District Gujrat.

Raja Suhbat Ali Khan Shaheed

Ghawaliyan’s best-remembered son is Raja Suhbat Ali Khan Shaheed, born in 1913, the son of Raja Fazal Dad Khan. Educated at the primary school in Bandala and at Bhimber, he passed his matriculation with distinction in 1930. In 1931 a British representative sent to tour the state after the disturbances met him at Sarai Saadabad and, once his uncle Raja Karam Dad Khan and other numbardars had vouched for his character, took him into the state police as an assistant sub-inspector. He rose to sub-inspector (the family tree calls him an inspector) and won a reputation for keeping order. In 1947 he was in charge of Thana Gumat in Jammu, and the book says the city stayed calm while he held the post. Sent by his superintendent to investigate a disturbance near the river Tawi, he went with a single constable and was shot dead. His body, thrown into the river, came to rest downstream and was buried that evening by relatives, among them his brother Havildar Raja Inayat Ali Khan.

The killings of Muslims in Jammu followed, one of the darkest episodes of that terrible autumn, in which people of every community lost their lives. Two young relatives who had been living with Suhbat Ali Khan for their schooling, Muhammad Sarwar Khan and Muhammad Zaman Khan, were killed when their convoy for Pakistan was attacked, and his son Raja Ghulam Sarwar Khan was badly wounded. His cousin Abdul Rahman Khan survived, came home with the first exchange of prisoners and later rose to the rank of major.

Raja Imdad Ali Khan, judge

Suhbat Ali Khan’s younger brother, Raja Imdad Ali Khan, born in Ghawaliyan about 1920, is described by the book as probably the first graduate of Chibhal Rajana. After primary school at Bandala and matriculation at Government High School Bhimber in the 1930s, he took his B.A. at the Prince of Wales College, Jammu, and his law degree at Aligarh, and began to practise in Bhimber about a year before Partition. Early in 1948 the new Azad Kashmir government made him Sub-Judge of Bhimber, the first after its founding, with his court sitting for a time at Gotriala in Tehsil Kharian. He rose to District and Sessions Judge, retired in 1975, and then returned to practice at Mirpur as an advocate of the High Court of Azad Kashmir. The author calls him the first law graduate and the first vakil of Chibhal Rajana.

Raja Rangbaz Khan, tehsildar

Raja Rahmdad Khan’s son, Raja Rangbaz Khan, was born about 1923. He took part in the events of 1947 beside his father, was among the first officials of the new Azad Kashmir government, and retired as a tehsildar in its Revenue Department. The book draws on his account of the family’s history and prints the Ghawaliyan family tree he compiled (pp. 419–423).

Notable people of Ghawaliyan

Besides the men above, the book lists these notable people of Mandi Ghawaliyan at the time of writing (p. 275):

• Dr Raja Mazhar Iqbal Khan, M.B.B.S., chief medical officer
• Subedar Raja Shaukat Khan, Subedar Major Raja Muhammad Sharif Khan and Subedar Raja Masud Khan
• Salar Raja Muazzam Khan
• Raja Muhammad Anwar Khan, lawyer, and Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan, contractor (a tehsildar in the family tree)
• Mukhtar Khan, bank manager, and Raja Imtiaz Khan, project manager
• Major Raja Abdul Rahman Khan, Major Raja Khalid-ur-Rahman Khan and Major Raja Abid-ur-Rahman Khan
• Sub-Inspector Raja Abdul Aziz Khan

Frequently asked questions

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• Raja Suhbat Ali Khan ShaheedThe police officer of Ghawaliyan killed at Jammu in 1947
• Raja Buddhe Khan and 1931The Samahni movement Raja Rahmdad Khan served
• The Mandis of ChibhalHow Raja Madan Khan’s sons divided the land
• Mandi BandalaSarai Saadabad, the zaildars and the Khori jagir
• The Hindu Chibs of Dewa VatalaThe line of Raja Ghaggi Khan
• The Chib Rajputs in 1947Battles, refugees and martyrs