During the Mughal rule there was close contact and commercial and political intercourse between the two Mughal sub-division–Kubal and Kashmir. Towards the middle of the 18th century when ill-governance in Kashmir under Mughal governors reached to its climax, it led to continuous rivalry between Mughal governors and Kashmir nobility. The state of affairs went from bad to worse when Qasim Khan, the last Mughal governor indulged in insensate cruelty and there was wide spread distress in the land. Distressed at the depredation of Qasim, the Kashmir nobility took an impolite step in inducing Ahmad Shah Abdali to invade Kashmir and bring it to Afghan rule. Here it would be genuine to mention something about Ahmad Shah Durrani. Ahmad Shah Durrani who conquered Kashmir in 1752 A.D., was the son of the Mohammad Zaman Khan, an Afghan of the Sadozai clan of the popalzai branch of the Afdabli tribe living in the province of Herat.

Extent of Afghan Rule

By 1752, Abdali had brought Punjab under his sway. For sixty-six years after 1753, five Afghan governors ruled Kashmir in the name of Abdali dynasty, a long story of misery for Kashmir(1).

The sixty six years of Afghan rule (1753-1819) is characterized by an exemplary official brutality, coercion, economic exploitation, wastage of state resources, decline in agricultural production, drain of wealth by imposing heavy taxation, misgovernance, corruption and political chaos, instability and elite luxuries aristocratic taste. Though we come across grim tastes of Afghan brutality in different chronicles and historical texts but no systematic attempt has been made by the historian to utilize the mass of historical literature for constructing the history of Afghan rule in Kashmir. The information documented by Kashmir historians and other non-Kashmiri writers with regard to various shades of Afghan rule in Kashmir stands unorganized and no serious attempt has been made to examine and evaluate the information available in vernacular literature. The present study seeks to analyse and review all the available historical and semi-historical relics in consonance with latest principles of historical enquiry and investigation and thus present a reliable and update historical recordings of the period of Kashmir history, when Afghans ruled over Kashmir (1753-1819).

Ahmad Shah Abdali

For 66 years (1753-1819), Kashmir remained under the rule of five Afghan kings, Ahmad Shah Abdali (1753-72), Timur Shah (1772-93), Zaman Shah (1793-1800), and Shah Shuja and Mahmud Shah (1801-19). Like the Mughal rulers they also sent their Governors to Kashmir to rule for them. In all 28 Afghan governors and deputy governors, directly or indirectly ruled over Kashmir (2).

Some of the Afghan governors were excellently law-abiding and humane. Some oppressed both the Muslims and Hindus and squeezed them like the horse leech (3). There were other, too, who were examples of wretched bigotry, and caused Shia-Sunni riots on several occasions, and couple of occasions, Kashmiri Pandits, who happened to be the only Hindus in the country, were savagely treated and tyrannized. Thus sixty six years of Afghan rule is characterized by an exemplary official brutality, coercion, economic exploitation, wastage of state resources, decline in agricultural production, drain of wealth by imposing heavy taxation, mis-governance, corruption and political chaos and instability and elite luxuries aristocratic tastes.

Though we come across grim tastes of Afghan brutality in different chronicles and Historical texts but no systematic attempt has been made by the researchers to utilize this mass of historical literature for constructing the history of Afghan rule in Kashmir. The information documented by Kashmir historians and other non-Kashmiri writers with regard to various shades of Afghan rule in Kashmir stands unorganized and no serious attempt has been made to examine and evaluate the information available in a systematic and under well planned historical manner.

Some of the books which provide information on Afghan rule are as under(4);

• Gulshan-i-Dastur by Nath Pandit. This Persian account on Kashmir history was written by Nath Pandit S/o Tanay Pandit of Ahalmar, Kashmir at a time when Ahmad Shah Durrani held Kashmir as a part of the vast Afghan empire (1755). It serves as an encyclopedia, as it contains information on almost every aspect of Kashmir history.

• Bagh-i-Sulaiman by Mir Sa‟adullah Shahadabi. It is a Persian account, in verse which traces Kashmir history from earliest times down to the reign of the Afghan Subedar Juma Khan Alakzai (1787-93). It is an abridgement of Muhammad A‟zam‟s Waqi‟at-i-Kashmir in so far as its information on the history of the pre-Afghan rule is concerned. Besides being a commentary on the Sufis and the saints, the chronicle is the most important source of information on the events which occurred during the reign of the Afghans in Kashmir.