FEEDING THE ARMIES OF THE RAJ
The Northwest Frontier The Three Swords of Meer Jaffir (Part 1 & Part 2) Gun Running to the Northwest Frontier A Tale of Subedar Major Mauladad (1822-1890) The Buddhist Road and The Storming of the Malakand Pass 1895 The Guides Saab Ka Risala 1846-1900 Safe Conduct – A tale about Syed Wazir Ali (Part 1 & Part 2) Under The Raj Revisiting the Great Arc of the Meridian Neither Freedom nor Salt The Lahore Cantonment of Mian Mir Vale Hunting in India and the Peshawar Vale Hunt Feeding the Armies of the Raj Eating Curries in London Signposts, Tablets & Way Markers of the Raj British Indian Army & State Forces Under Pelican Wings— Bahawalpur State Forces On the Departure of Gowhar-i-Taj’s Own Infantry Battalion to Burma. The Irregular Cavalry through the Lens of a Painting The Indian Mountain Artillery Soldiers of the Salt Range Subedar Major Mauladad The Anglo-Sikh Wars Ranjit Singh Ka Topkhana Part 1 Ranjit Singh Ka Topkhana Part 2 Ranjit Singh Ka Topkhana Part 3 The Anglo-Sikh Wars & The Battle of Chillianwala Finding Zamzama’s Twin The Death of Capt John Anderson, Bengal Artillery Roads, Railways & Bridges Bridging the Mighty Indus Crossing Rivers in Punjab On the Tracks of the Frontier Mail Pre Independence Personalities Who was Sahabzada Sir Abdus Samad Khan A Gnarled Oak with a Broken Heart Heritage Of Sahabzada Yaqub Dr Khalifa Abdul Hakim – The Islamic Cultural Renaissance Philosopher 24 Marris Road, Aligarh – Dr Abdullah Butt Maj Gen Syed Shahid Hamid An Indian Lieutenant at the 1936 Berlin Olympics The Power of a Mother’s Prayers A Muslim Instructor at Staff College Entering the Hallowed Ranks of the Indian Political Service. Edit Template FEEDING THE ARMIES OF THE RAJ August 31, 2025 Major General Syed Ali Hamid Most of us are aware of the name of the business magnate Syed Babar Ali and his family firm of Wazir Ali Industries which owns Packages Limited and has many other large business interests in Pakistan. If you are interested to know how the business was established 130 years ago and its links with the British India Army, then read on. In 2010, I received a call from an old friend, Syed Shahid Ali, who I first met back in the 1960s, at the small Batakundi Rest House in the upper reaches of the Kaghan Valley. Shahid is the son of Syed Wajid Ali and the nephew of Syed Babar Ali, the famous industrialist and philanthropist who also established the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Shahid sent me a unique unpublished book with the title Syed A. & M. Wazir Ali. General Merchants, Pioneers in the Canteen Services to His Majesty’s British Forces. Syed Wazir Ali was his great-grandfather and established the family business which ultimately transformed into one of the ten largest business houses in Pakistan. The book contains over 230 pages of testimonials from British officers for the excellent services provided by Wazir Ali and the firm that he established. It is a story of hard work and vision and provides a very interesting insight into one of the lesser-known aspects of the British Army in India – its canteen services and contractors. The testimonials start in 1881 when Wazir Ali was the proprietor of a merchant shop bearing his name in the Saddar Bazar of the garrison town of Ferozepur in East Punjab. “Wazir Ali has supplied me with all sorts of articles since I have been here. He gets fresh supplies from England, and sells at much more reasonable rates than the Parsi merchants and he has always been very respectful and obliging. (Sd.) G. Cambridge, Lieut., 24th P. N. Infantry. 4th June 1883.” Wazir Ali was a hardworking businessman and expanded his trade into contracts for providing coolies (laborers) and Punkha Pullers (fan bearers) in the barracks and hospitals. The testimonials praise him in a variety of ways – energetic and enterprising; one of the “nicest natives”; a good man of business; “…and the most sporting tradesmen I have yet met in India. (2nd Seaforth Highlanders, 8th Punjab Infantry, The Queens’s). Excessive consumption of liquor was a serious issue with British troops in India and to dissuade them from drinking in the barracks, regiments established canteens with a bar and ‘coffee shops’. The British drank coffee much before they stared drinking tea. Wazir Ali & Sons not only supplied stores to the Coffee Shops of the British battalions in Ferozepur, it also rented furniture and stores to the troops on maneuver including the General’s “camp of exercise”. Wazir Ali endeared himself to the British by being “most useful to the Mess in many ways, getting anything done that we required, and making a bandobast whenever asked to”. A British officer wrote, “Wazir Ali – The name speaks for itself. Everyone knows him, and like Pears, he requires no recommendation.” Pears was the first of the brand soaps, and recognized throughout the British Empire for its quality. By 1896 Wazir Ali’s tentacles had extended to the northern reaches of British India and during the Chitral Campaign of 1895, he sent stores worth Rs. 15,000 for the consumption of the 28th Punjab Infantry, which were much appreciated. Wazir Ali also expanded his business and instead of only supplying canteens, he became a canteen contractor. It was during the Tirah Campaign that he really made a name for himself by accompanying the troops deep into the “wild” and unchartered territory of the Northwest Frontier. “When the Tirah Campaign commenced, in Oct 1897, he accompanied the Oxfordshire Light Infantry, who were in the Peshawar Column, as their Coffee Shop Contractor, and I can state that his shop was not only a boon to the regiment who brought him but to the whole column. (Sd.) C. T. BECKER, Major, Late D. A. G. and Q. M. G., Peshawar Column, T. E. Force.” He survived an ambush by a sniper and the manner in which he repaid his rescuers is narrated in a