BENEVOLENCE OR MALEVOLENCE: THE ROLE OF IMPERIAL RAILWAYS TO MANIPULATE MOHMAND TRIBE DURING BRITISH RAJ

Abstract

The paper attempts to explore the role and significance of railways as a tool of manipulation to strengthen the British Raj's hold on the Mohmand tribe dwelling on the North-West Frontier of British India in the backdrop of the nineteenth-century imperialistic power struggle between Russia and Britain.  The paper argues that the British government, in a semblance of universal social and economic reform, constructed the railways on the Mohmand land for a strategic end to augment it's military hold on the tribe. Interestingly, during the whole process of track laying through their land, the Mohmand tribesmen had no decision-making. This paper follows historical approach drawn on primary and secondary sources. These sources are further analysed inductively in a comprehensive scientific way, resting on both monologic and dialogic approaches. Furthermore, the subject is dealt through Empiric-Analytic Reason.