MAVERICKS OF HISTORY

ABDUL RASUL KASHMIRI
ABDUL RASUL KASHMIRI, a native of Srinagar who was in trade at Amritsar as a shawl merchant, was for a time a close confidant of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last Sikh King of the Punjab deposed by the British in 1849. Kashmir! acted as the deposed Maharaja`s liaison man with governments of Turkey and Egypt. In 1860, `Abdul Rasul moved from India to Egypt, and thence to London where he joined the Nile expeditionary force as an interpreter. Owing to his secret connection with the Mahdi, he was discharged from the service. He was again in England to seek redress when he met the deposed Maharaja Duleep Singh who employed him to further his cause. When Duleep Singh returned from Aden to Europe he sent for `Abdul Rasul from London to Paris and through him met Assud Pasha, the Turkish ambassador in Paris.Abdul Rasul travelled to Constantinople with a view to contacting the Caliph. Through his good offices Duleep Singh seems to have befriended Patrick Casey, an Irishman, whose passport he used when travelling from Paris to Russia.

Summoned by the Maharaja, Abdul Rasul also arrived in Moscow and campaigned to rally the local Muslims to his cause. Early in 1890, Duleep Singh sent him to India. He was arrested on board the ship and upon landing in Bombay despatched to Asirgarh Fort for detention. A few months later, he was released and provided passage to go to London. In March 1892, `Abdul Rasul sued Maharaja Duleep Singh in a Paris court seeking a life pension for the services he had rendered him.