Colonial Encounter on the North-West Frontier Province-Myth and Mystification

The colonial encounter on the north-west frontier of undivided India was one of the most barren encounters. For the Pathan, colonisation meant destroyed villages, water tanks and grain stores; it meant electrified fences, block houses and unending series of 'butcher and bolt' raids. When the British finally left in 1947, the legacy they left behind did not consist of schools or colleges or such other symbols of development, but of repressive institutions like Frontier Scouts and Constabidary. The barrenness of the colonial encounter in the Frontier is in notable contrast to that in Bengal, across the sub-continent, or even across the Indus in the Punjab, Nevertheless, the Pathan-British encounter has been permeated with a strong element of 'romance.' which is reflected in the memoirs and accounts left by the British as well as in the creative works writers like Kipling