Afghanistan

“ Whether the fruits of such a friendship would be wholesome, and conduce to the interests of Afghanistan, no one takes into question. The Afghans, like all Asiatics, look only to the interests of the moment, see only the harm which Afghans have suffered in Kashmere and Sindh through English ascendancy, have a lively remembrance of the last sojourn of the red-jackets in Kabul and Kandahar ”

“ Yet Afghanistan has some of the symptoms of national growth—I mean that if it could hold together as one kingdom it might grow into a nationality. In religion the Afghans are almost all fanatical Mohammedans, for Afghanistan is the great bulwark and citadel on the eastern frontier of Islam, and beyond it, in Eastern Asia, there are no independent Mohammedan principalities. The kingdom has a strictly defined territory, and a dynasty which has risen from the chiefship of a powerful tribe to the heritable possession of that territory. ”

“ AFGHANISTAN, a country of Central Asia. Estimated area 245,000 sq. m. (including Badakshan and Kafiristan) . Pop. about 5,000,000. It is bounded on the N. by Russian Turkestan, on the W. by Persia, and on the E. and S. by Kashmir and the independent tribes of the North-West Frontier of India and Baluchistan. The chief importance of Afghanistan in modern days is due to its position as a “buffer state” intervening between the two great empires of Asiatic Russia and British India. ”

“ This frontier is satisfactory, and well defined.
Bounded on the west by Persia, on the south and east by Baluchistan and the Indian Empire, Afghanistan contains the immense range of the Hindu Kush Mountains, with their numerous ramifications. In size it is some 217,800 square miles, with a population of 5,000,000 to 6,000,000, of which 56 per cent. are Afghan and 44 per cent. non-Afghan tribes. As it lies between our territory in Central Asia and Great Britain’s Indian Empire, it has long been an object of interest to the British, who have desired to establish in it an exclusive supremacy. ”

“ That soil can surely never flourish, which is eternally watered with human blood. The earliest records of Afghan history present to us the same prevalence of murderous tastes, from the days of Sinkol, the contemporary of Romulus, throughout the Middle Ages, down to the year of our Lord, eighteen hundred and forty-two, when the British Government wisely resolved to have nothing more to do with Afghanistan. ”

“ The frontiers that never were to be, never could be, touching, are touching, and between the Russian Empire and our own Indian possessions is the buffer state of Afghanistan, the prize of the highest bidder or of the strongest power when the time comes. ”

“ Afghanistan is a country of mountains, and the Suliman range, which forms our boundary, is merely the first of a series of great ridges running down south-westerly from the Hindoo Koosh. If we enter the country and merely hold the nearest passes, we shall at once find ourselves in a maze of mountains, with dozens of other passes and strong positions in our front. ”

“ We find practically no useful geographical records of Afghanistan during many centuries of its turbulent history, so that from the time of Arab commercial enterprise to the days of our forefathers in India, when Afghanistan began to loom large on the political horizon as a factor in our relations with Russia and it became all important to know of what Afghanistan consisted, there is little to collect from the pages of its turbid history which can fairly rank as a record of geographical exploration. ”

“ That Afghanistan has during the last ten years made considerable strides toward civilization, there can, I think, be no doubt in the minds of those who have had the opportunity of collecting sufficient facts upon which to base an opinion. And that this progress has been entirely due to the remarkable Prince who is now occupying the throne of Afghanistan—Amîr Abdurrahman—requires but little proof. ”

“ If British troops should enter Afghanistan to support the Ameer against foreign aggression, they shall return as soon as they have repelled such foreign aggression.
That a British resident shall reside at Cabul, and that the British Government shall have the right to depute British agents to the Afghan frontier. ”

“ Sherpur, 28th January, 1880. Afghanistan is a nation of soldiers, every adult being (apart from any military training he may receive) a ready swordsman and a fair shot. In our old wars we found but little organization existing among the followers of the Dost and his son, Mahomed Akhbar, and the discipline of our troops told in the long run against the masses they had to face. Afghanistan then produced, as a writer has said, nothing but stones and men: the stones made good sungars, which thousands of men were always ready to defend. ”

“ In a measure, the Afghans retain at the present time their old characteristics—their love of their own country and their hatred of alien races; but, through lapse of time and their intercourse on the one hand with the Russians and in the other direction with India, they are liable to flock to the standard of the Amir less than they were. It must not be forgotten that to-day Afghanistan reproduces the condition of a settled country, possessing a population much more peaceful than were the inhabitants a generation ago. ”

“ PREFACE Afghanistan, a multi-ethnic state in southwest Asia, is home todiverse social communities that share common experience throughinteraction with dominant states, empires, invading armies, tradeand cultural movements that traversed the land during their thou-sands of years of history. ”

“ Afghanistan lies at the north of India, and forms the boundary state between the possessions of Russia and of England. For this reason it was compelled to trust neither Russia nor England, and to play a lone hand for its own independence. In 1878 the ruler of Afghanistan was named Shere Ali, a very cunning and unscrupulous man, inspired by the desire to sustain his own independence while siding with the strongest of his neighbours—a policy as old as the world itself. ”

“ The government of Afghanistan is an absolute monarchy under the amir, and succession to the throne is hereditary. There are five chief political divisions in the country—-namely, Kabul, Turkestan, Herat, Kandahar and Badakshan, each of which is ruled by a ``naib'' or governor, whom is directly responsible to the amir. ”

“ These stiffened corpses, these fire-blackened districts, these snow-covered, bloodstained plains, appeal to Humanity to curse us. Englishmen, with wives nestled warm in your bosoms, remember these Afghan husbands, maddened by their wrongs. Englishwomen, with babes smiling on your breasts, think of these sister-women, bereft of their little ones. The Afghan loves wife and child as ye do. ”

“ Thus it is seen that modern Afghanistan comprises three great districts--Herat in the west, Kabul in the east, and Kandahar in the centre, with the seat of government at the cities of the same names respectively. Within each district are, as already described, a large number of tribes occupying sub-districts, closely connected like the cells of a honey-comb, but each with its destinctive manners and customs and irregular military forces, in no instance numbering less than 6,000 men, and often twice that number, divided about equally into horse and foot. ”

“ In case of a war with England, Afghanistan is the battle-ground of primary importance. Three strategic passes lead from Afghanistan into India: the Khyber Pass, the Bolan Pass, and the Kuram Valley. When, in 1878, the English marched into Afghanistan they proceeded in three columns from Peshawar, Kohat, and Quetta to Cabul, Ghazni, and Kandahar respectively. These three roads have also been laid down as our lines of march. Public opinion considers them the only possible routes. ”

“ Between the recently conquered provinces of Russia and our empire of India lies the mountainous country of Afghanistan, inhabited by warlike tribes of brave, fanatical Mohammedans who certainly have no love for Russia. In a geographical and indeed in every sense, it is laid out, as it were, as the natural frontier of an empire. All along its northern provinces stands the snow-capped range of the Hindoo Koosh, stretching away from east to west: a line of mountains between 15,000 and 20,000 feet high, with few practicable passes, and even these are closed in winter. ”

“ The western part of Afghanistan is a more fertile region, interspersed, it is true, with lofty ranges, but comprising many pleasant valleys and pastures.
The population is approximately estimated at eight millions. Afghanistan is a genuine society of different nations, although the greater part are of Persian descent. ”

“ The death of a man of eighty years of age will probably throw all Afghanistan into confusion, convert friends into foes and vice versâ. Instructions framed in Calcutta to meet one set of circumstances may arrive in Afghanistan when the whole scene has changed. I own that I am strongly of opinion that our true policy is to leave these kinds of neighbours as much as possible alone; to mix ourselves up as little as may be in their miserable intrigues, which generally entail obligations which bind us and not them, and not unfrequently lead to most unexpected issues. ”

“ It is clear that if we leave Afghanistan now, the country will be torn by internal dissensions, and the population will remain the same lawless people that they have ever been; instead of little by little becoming the peaceable inhabitants that our strong rule, and the protection which we should give to life, property, and commercial enterprise, would in time make them; while the daring spirits, who are not fitted for peaceful occupations, would form for us, under discipline, very efficient soldiers. ”

“ Were but Afghanistan an open country, Indian officers proceeding on furlough might with advantage take this route homewards. But as it is not an open country, and there is little use in speculating when it will become so, its peoples and mountains and deserts may yet for another generation maintain their isolation from the civilised world, and remain a country of interest to the politician, and a region of curiosity to the scientific man. ”

“ In the year 1836 Afghanistan lay many hundred miles beyond our nearest frontier, and it is almost needless to say that Russia then lay many thousand miles beyond the farthest extreme of Afghanistan. Nevertheless it was determined by the Viceroy of India and his Council to invade Afghanistan across the intervening Sikh and Scindian territory, in order to upset the ruler of the first-named State, and to seat upon the throne of Cabul a king who had long been our puppet and our pensionary. ”

“ Her Majesty’s Government gladly take this opportunity of again acknowledging the friendly and conciliatory spirit shown by the Imperial Government in the acceptance by them of the views advanced on the part of Great Britain, as to the frontier line of Afghanistan. Those views were stated, as you are aware, in my despatch to your Excellency of October 17, 1872, and the assent of the Imperial Government to the definition of the Afghan frontier as therein laid down, will be found in Prince Gortchakow’s despatches to Baron Brunnow of December 7, 1872, and January 19, 1873. ”

“ And it is also asserted, that the late war has vindicated our power, and shown that it is the interest of all rulers of Afghanistan to remain our loyal friends. As to the last part of this argument, it may be answered that even if the rulers of Afghanistan recognize the advantages of being on friendly terms with us, those advantages will not be recognized by the different tribes, who, it has been clearly shown, in the present war, have been taught little by the experience of the many defeats they have suffered ”

“ There is not amongst any class of Afghans the feeling of reverence for the throne which exists in Turkey or in Persia. The Amir is the highest official of a tribe, that has seized power; and Afghanistan is gradually evolving a bureaucratic Government controlled by priestly influence, whose policy will not always be measured by the interests of the country, but by whatever interpretations of the “Sheriat” some powerful mullah may conjure up. ”

“ Having thus disposed of all preliminary matter, I now take up the frontier question, from which arises our present acute misunderstanding with Russia. Oriental states have notoriously elastic and fluctuating frontiers, and Afghanistan is no exception to the general rule. At different periods, indeed, since the institution of the kingdom of Cabul by Ahmed Shah in 1747, the Afghan power has extended on one side to Cashmire, on another to Deregez in Khorassan, while to the south it has stretched into Beluchistan and even to the frontiers of Sinde. ”

“ Afghanistan have but little in common with the British civilization that is slowly but surely closing in upon them, and driving them from routes of commerce. A considerable local traffic is carried on between Bokhara and Herat, and between Bokhara and Kabul through Balkh, all being fairly prosperous centres of population in regions made productive by irrigation. ”

“ Afghanistan was a part of the empire of Timur the Great and after changing masters several times became independent in 1747. In 1838 the British sent an army into Afghanistan to place on his throne the Amir Shah Shuja who had been driven into exile in India. In 1841 the British suppressed a revolt in Afghanistan and have ever since been the real power there. ”