Indus Perspectives

My friend Salman Rashid, the eminent travel writer and historian, and I have been bound by a shared fixation on the Gakhars—most notably the indomitable Sultan Sarang Khan. There is a quality to Sarang’s uncompromising loyalty that strikes a deep chord within us both. When the Mughal sun flickered during the tumultuous reign of Humayun and the formidable Sher Shah Suri offered terms of submission, Sarang and his brother Adam steadfastly refused to betray the "salt they had eaten." They chose the perilous path of defiance, a decision that ultimately cost Sarang and sixteen of his progeny their lives. Yet, history is seldom a linear progression of heroics. Lingering in the shadow of Sarang’s celebrated martyrdom is a figure far more elusive, yet no less consequential to the Gakhar saga: Hathi Khan Gakhar . If Sarang is the quintessential hero of this narrative, Hathi Khan remains its enduring enigma.  Where did he vanish after his desperate flight from Pharwala?  And where, at ...