Historical Significance of Hutto Ram’s Book Gulbahar in the Historiography of Baloch Tribes and Dera Ghazi Khan

Abstract

Gulbahar is an important historical book about the history of Dera Ghazi Khan. It is considered the first book of the Urdu version of the History of Dera Ghazi Khan during the colonial era. Research in the context of any region and local history is always a difficult task due to the unavailability of historical documents. In the colonial rule in India with British historiography, the regional and local historians were also encouraged by the government to use the historical sense and promoted the historical work of the local writers. Among the different ingenious historians, Lala Hutto Ram is one of them. He was motivated by the British official of Dera Ghazi Khan to compile a book about the people of the district in light of the revenue record. On the demand of the British Deputy Commissioner, a book entitled Gulbahar was compiled by this Extra Assistant Commissioner, Hutto Ram, on the history of Dera Ghazi Khan. The book covers pre-colonial history, but mostly Dera Ghazi Khan and the colonial era. After Mr Bruce Notes on Dera Ghazi Khan The book contains a portion of some ancient history along with the major tribes and castes with their branches as the inhibiting in Dera Ghazi Khan. The book is also a comprehensive explanation of the socio-economic condition of the people of Dera Ghazi Khan. This work is a brief account of the book Gulbahar which provides useful information about this region Dera Ghazi Khan.