KHUSHAL KHAN KHATTAK: FROM A MUGHAL LOYAL TO AFGHAN NATIONALIST

Abstract

Khushal Khan Khattak was a Pashtun poet and warrior in the 17th century. He had a long history of ancestral loyalty to the Mughals. However, circumstances gradually transformed him into a rebel. This shift from Mughal loyalist to Afghan nationalist was not sudden but a complex evolutionary process. The present study examines his transformation into an Afghan nationalist as a process of evolution, investigating the circumstances that supported this change. A qualitative method was employed in this historical research. Primary data were sourced from Khushal Khan Khattak's own books, while secondary data were obtained from books and articles. Imprisonment sowed the seed of change in Khushal Khan Khattak, which eventually altered his political outlook and culminated in his revolt