A STRANGE CHARACTER WHO RAISED HIMSELF FROM ORDINARY LIFE,
BY SHEER SHREWDNESS TO BE THE ACTING GOVERNOR OF THE PUNJAB
DIRECT NEIGHBOUR OF MIMAR FAMILY IN MOHALLA CHABUK SAWARAN.
Governor for five months only. Little is known about Adina Beg Khan. A small 12-page manuscript supplies us with most of information about him. Very few have written about him. The article by Dr Muhammed Baqir is very illuminating, but the most information is collected by Dr Hari Ram Gupta Of F.C. College, Lahore. Interestingly it is literally impossible to even find this printed source on Adina Beg Khan. A very rare book of 55 pages. Some books in Urdu are romantic fictions. Sikh story telling is contrived history at most, for gullible consumption.
Adina Beg Khan was by caste an Arain, and born in Sharkpur in Tehsil Lahore, in the house of a common person by name of Channu. However due to reasons, he was brought up by a Mughal family and identified himself as a Mughal. His skills were extraordinary in every way and he knew how to manipulate people as well a situation. And his rise is very much due to his ability for manipulating things. It is reported that he married a Syed girl, but finding out that she was a Syed, he divorced her but gave her maintenance all his life. The truth looks different. It is said that he married a street girl and had a son and a daughter by her. The daughter was married to Khawaja Mirza Khan and the son tried to take his position after his death but failed, for he lacked the abilities of his father.
From the position of a Patwari, he ended up as the Governor of the province, by doing one thing or the other, and black mailing people into serving him. But he did enjoy the highest position in the Punjab and that for one year too. There were three strong parties. The Mughals, the Sikhs and the Mahrattas, and he played all three against each other, getting the best out of situations. The present governmental trait of buying land cheap and then selling same at high prices was his forte. It seems people today are direct spiritual descendants of Adina Beg Khan.
Stories are there about his character losing his outward calm at moments. The incident of the JAM seller grocer comes to mind. A grocer refused to sell jam to his servant. Adina Beg Khan sent another person to buy the jam and this fellow did as the grocer could not identify his link with the actual buyer. When Adina Beg Khan found out, he ordered the grocer to be burnt alive in oil. It was with great reluctance that he was cajoled to rescind his sentence. A life for a jam was at stake, as honour was involved in transaction.
We noticed in a deed to our house in Mohalla Chabuk Sawaran dated 1759 AD, as reference to land and property owned by Adina Beg Khan as a neighbor to the Mimar family of Lahore. We were truly surprised. Here was an information not recorded anywhere else of his holdings in Lahore. We decided to add the information to the history of Adina Beg Khan. We will research that document, and present the view of same.
It should be remembered that our people are in the habit of distorting history by presenting non provable versions of things. We use documents and books to present our case. Anyone willing to refute us, should present documentary evidence. Not family gossips for historical consumption.
A part of history of Lahore undoubted a bizarre period of same.
And yet many painters have painted him, research requires revisit by scholars of real facts on painting.