Conclusion: The End of British Rule and the Frontier Legacy

Abstract

The final year of British rule on the North-West Frontier witnessed upheaval, change, and continuity as well. Whereas in 1939, politics in the settled areas of the province were firmly in the hands of the local Congress party, at the end of the war Congress was locked in battle with the upstart Muslim League, which held power in Peshawar between 1943 and 1945. Crucial to both a united India and a cornerstone of a potential Pakistan, the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), including the tribal areas, was plunged into the center of the growing conflict between the British, Congress, and the Muslim League. Likewise, although they had read the writing on the wall, British officials in Peshawar and Delhi had maintained total control over tribal policy during the Second World War. This now came to an end. The advent of an interim government at the center in September of 1946, and the growth of increasingly acrimonious political parties willing to take their message into Malakand and Waziristan meant that the cordon the British tried to maintain between the settled and tribal areas of the NWFP was terminated. As the speed of events rapidly outpaced the prognostications of both officials and politicians, the last British rampart within the Frontier crumbled away.