Atma Ram (politician)
Appearance
Atma Ram | |
---|---|
आत्माराम | |
Born | |
Occupation | Minister (government) |
Known for | Dominating trade between India and Turan, tax farming |
Office | Diwanbegi in Kunduz under Murad Beg |
Atma Ram was a Hindu minister in Afghanistan during the 1820s and 1830s. A native of Peshawar, he held the office of Diwanbegi in Kunduz under Murad Beg. He was said to have dominated trade between India and Turan in this period. A tax farmer, he purchased the right to collect taxes on the Kabul–Bukhara caravans. Unusually for a Hindu in an Islamic state, he was even permitted to own Muslim slaves.[2]
There is a coloured lithograph of Atma Ram based on the work of James Rattray at the time of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838–1842).[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Atmaran, Hindoo of Peshawar". Retrieved 15 July 2023.
"Atmaran, Hindoo of Peshawar" is the title of a coloured lithograph made by E. Walker (d. 1882), based on the work of James Rattray (1818-1854), who was based in Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan war (1838-1842). Atmaram was a Hindu from Peshawar in modern northern Pakistan, who had become the 'minister' of a local Muslim and Uzbek ruler in northern Afghanistan, Mohammad Murad Beg of Kunduz.
- ^ Scott Cameron Levi, The Indian Diaspora in Central Asia and Its Trade, 1550–1900 (Brill, 2002), pp. 162–163.