Re: Ganga Singh Wahabi Hogaya!
He was not betrayed by any specific tribe but by the Barakzai sardars of Peshawer , who were previously tributary to Sikhs and had secretly joined hands with Sikhs again when Syed Ahmad usurped their power. Syed Ahmad had little understanding of Pashtun society and his initial influence, which he gained due to his syed lineage, soon waned when he started interference in local customs and ways of life and began attacking local rivals including sufi pirs. If he was a Pashtun, he could have succeeded very easily. Note that to gain credibility, he did claim to be originally from yousafzai country of buner (Buner has large poulation of Syeds). In this whole drama of wahabism, the focus should have been against Sikhs not locals.
The deobandis , which were called wahabis by Brtitish, did have influence in some parts of the pakhtunkhwa from very beginning. The remanats of Syed ahmad barelwi’s followers continued to operate in yousafzai territoiry of Torghar as late as 1890s, the akhunds of swat were also influenced by it. The deoband itself was founded in Rohilkhand, and it is possible that Rohillas might have been instrumental in establishing it.The emphasis of deobandis on jihad, tuned well with pashtuns.
so its emphasis of jihad that converted to sufi pashtuns to pro-devbandi? But as far as I know, a society where sufi traditions flow is quite plural and tolerant and its very difficult to raise people for armed Jihad. I can see that in Sindh, may be they have interpreted Jihad in different meaning as they are not martial race, but as Pashtun society was martial race they could connect to armed jihad.