The Ismaili Singhs of upper Chitral: An untold story of Sikh legacy in the mountains of Pakistan

This summer, I spent several weeks in Lahore. The oppressive heat across the plains of Pakistani Punjab was quite unbearable, so I decided to escape north to Chitral for about 10 days. A few Lahori friends and I hired a 12-passenger van and headed north with three “qawwals” from the Darbar of Baba Bulleh Shah in Kasur.

We headed out of Lahore via the motorway — first to Islamabad and then through Mardan (very close to Peshawar), past the Dir mountain ranges to the steep ascent of Lowari Pass (at an elevation of about 10,000 feet), and crossed a 10-km-long tunnel.

On the other side of the tunnel was Chitral Valley. The scene instantly reminded me of the Banihal tunnel in India, on the other side of which lies the Kashmir valley.

Chitral Valley, situated in the northern area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North West Frontier Province) in Pakistan, is located significantly north of the Indian region of Leh and Ladakh. North of it lies the Afghan-controlled Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of land that separates Chitral from Tajikistan.

Chitral is a place of breathtaking beauty, and the locals, seemingly immersed in a deep sense of peace, are a sight to behold. It is no wonder that Chitral is often associated with happiness. The flat southern area of the valley is referred to as lower Chitral, while the northern mountainous part is upper Chitral.

Upper Chitral has snow-capped mountains rising straight from rivers swollen with ice-cold waters from melting glaciers above. It includes Qaqlasht Meadows, Torkho Valley, and many other gems of nature in Upper Chitral.

There are over 500 Ismaili Muslim families in Upper Chitral with the last name Singh. This is quite surprising as the use of 'Singh' as a religious name is typically associated with Sikhs, a community not found in Upper Chitral.

The first Singh to arrive in the upper Chitral Valley was Gulab Singh, a Sikh soldier of the Maharaja of Kashmir. He came to the Mehtaar of Chitral in the 1850s and settled in upper Chitral. The Mehtaar soon realised his leadership skills, and he was appointed the Hakam (ruler) of the upper Chitral region from Rashun to Gasht near Laspur.

Gulab Singh maintained the Sikh religious identity, followed by Rabat Singh, Budad Singh, and Bahadur Singh, all of whom upheld the Sikh faith. Mehndi Singh, the son of Bahadur Singh, was first in the family to convert to Sunni Islam but kept the ancestral family name of Singh in honour of his Sikh roots.

The Ismaili Singhs of Booni, all descendants of Mehndi Singh, have a unique cultural identity. In the past 75 years, they have embraced Ismaili Islam, yet they proudly retain the Singh last name, a testament to their deep-rooted Sikh heritage.

Today, over 500 Ismaili Singh families call upper Chitral their home, with the largest population of about 250 families in Singhandae. Other villages with significant Singh populations in order to decreasing Singh population are Mehragram, Rashun, Parwak, Dukandeh, and Gasht.

In the small hamlet of Booni, there is a "Singh Polo Club" which is made of only Ismaili Singhs. Their best player is Bashir Singh. One of the most melodious local singers is Babbar Singh. Both of them understand spoken Punjabi but cannot speak it.

It needs to be noted that these Singhs of upper Chitral did not descend from the early 1800s’ Sikh traders of Chitral or the Sikh regiment that participated in the 1895 siege of Chitral. The 1901 census of Chitral, carried out by the British, indicated that approximately 20 per cent of the population was Sikh — they mostly left for India in 1947, and a few converted to Islam to stay back.

The facial features of the Ismaili Singhs are quite Chitrali, but their eyes still reveal their past hidden Punjabi ethnic and Sikh heritage.

The most well-known Singh of Singhandae is a woman, Suriya Bibi, Deputy Speaker of KP Assembly and the first woman ever elected on a general seat in the history of Chitral.

When I visited the village of Singhandae in July, I was told that I was the first Sikh to visit the village since 1947.

Walking around the village, I was struck by the seamless integration of Ismaili Muslim Singhs into the Chitrali society. They have fully embraced the Chitrali way of life, yet they honour their Sikh ancestors by retaining their last name as Singh while practising Islam.

(The writer is a US-based history enthusiast and scholar with deep roots in South Asia and the United States of America. He is a faculty member at The Ohio State University and  Director of Jeevay Sanjha Punjab)