A Hunza Warrior in Dogra Army and a Rare Royal Clan of Shivaliks

It starts with the story of a teen from Hunza who ran away from home to join the Dogra army in the early 20th century.

- VENUS UPADHAYAYA

In journalism too there can be deja vu moments! Mine was strikingly geopolitical and yet it came from a childhood towpath I least expected to offer me history. Let's begin another new chapter of Dogra chronicles!

Let me share with you how I met this soldier's descendants in old Jammu city and how through them I met another descendant of a rare forgotten royalty of the Shivalik hills.

These three young men introduced me to the unique warrior traditions of the Himalayan and trans-Himalayan region intrinsically linked with the traditions of Sanghas and Shamanism. But before we go into the detailed story, let us lay out the geopolitical context that makes their collective historical identity a big surprise.

GREAT GAME AND HIGH ASIA

During the Great Game between the British empire and the Russian empire, the northern frontier regions of the Indian subcontinent and the trans-Himalayan tracts became a region of interest for colonial explorers including the Japanese, Germans and obviously the British and the Russians.

The period of mid-nineteenth century witnessed intense geo-politics in this region. For those studying this phase of the Great Game, the meeting between British Captain Francis Younghusband and Russian Bronislav Grombchevsky at Hunza in 1889 signifies the beginning of a particularly new phase of politics in High Asia.

The Russian presence in Hunza happened despite the latter paying a tribute to Dogras in the 1860s after the Dogra military conquered the last independent ruler of Hunza had also fled to China in 1886—the British later installed his younger brother Muhammed Nazim Khan as the Mir of Hunza in 1892 when Hunza became a princely state.