Kalab Ali Khan, Nawab of Rampur, 1870.

Kalab Ali Khan, Nawab of Rampur, 1870.

Photo by Bourne & Shepherd.

The Nawabs of the princely state of Rampur (now part of U.P state of India) were descendants of Ali Muhammad Khan Rohilla (died in 1748). It is generally acknowledged that Ali Muhammad Rohilla was not Pashtun by birth. He was a Hindu Indian boy (Jat, Ahir or Rajput) adopted as son by Daud Khan (a mercenary from Pakhtunkhwa). However all the 18th century sources refer to Ali Muhammad Khan and his sons as "Afghan" (Pashtun) and "Rohilla" (Pashtun) which indicate that Ali Muhammad Khan and his sons identified as Pashtuns , spoke Pashto and had Pashtun manners and customs. Anandram Mukhlis who saw Ali Muhammad Khan Rohilla in 1743, describes him as a man of medium height with a fair complexion, blooming face and open forehead, about forty years old,  but looking youthful and dauntlessly brave.

In 1815 Mountstuart Elphinstone noted that Pashto was still spoken in Rampur. In late 19th and 20th century the ruling family of Rampur, then fully Indianized, began to claim Syed ancestry.  

[Research by the Admin of Tarikh-i-Pakhtunkhwa].