The Ruhela Chieftaincies: The Rise and Fall of Ruhela Power in India in the Eighteenth Century.

• Author: Preston, Laurence W.

The Ruhelas (still perhaps better known in the anglicized form, "Rohilla") were Afghan immigrants to the trans-Gangetic districts to the east and northeast of Delhi. Immigration began under the Delhi Sultans, but was particularly encouraged under the Mughals, especially Aurangzeb, as a counterweight to the power of Rajput landholders. In the confused political situation in north India following the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the Ruhelas were able to carve out a series of "chieftaincies," to use the author's term, that had a precarious independence from the 1720s to the 1770s. The Ruhelas sustained their position, notwithstanding numerous internecine feuds, by always seeking alliances with the various powers that contested for control of Delhi - the Mughal emperors, the Afghans of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Marathas, and the Sikhs. Finally, the ambitions of the Nawab of Awadh and the related advance of British power up the Ganges ended the independent power of the Ruhelas.

The history of these Ruhela chieftaincies has hitherto been quite obscure. They have chiefly been known in the contexts of their role at the battle of Panipat (1761), where they fought with Abdali in victory over the Marathas, and as the victims of British intrigues in the Rohilla War of 1774. Iqbal Husain seeks to write a history of the Ruhelas that covers the entire scope of their activities, rather than as an appendage to these better-known histories. To do so the author has produced a very detailed narrative in ten chapters to trace the story of Afghan immigrants and the Ruhelas from the earliest references to the end of the eighteenth century. Two additional chapters survey what information is available on administration under the Ruhela chieftaincies (chapter 11) and, in summary, their economy and culture (chapter 12).

This narrative and these surveys make for very dense reading. The book is perhaps too rich in detail of person and event. An introduction to this narrative, and to the book in general, that highlighted the main participants and events might have prevented considerable confusion. At the same time, the author could have considered some of the recent...