Who is not troubled about the recent happenings in Afghanistan? America and its NATO allies have packed their bags and left by 30th September 2021, after 20 years of warfare, first to defeat and drive away the terrorist organization Taliban in 2001 and then in the end to hand over the country and its administration to the very Taliban that they had thrown out. Trying to understand these macabre happenings in Afghanistan, I read some books on Afghanistan history[1] to know what made them makes them an enigma, evasive to every empire and government that tried to subdue and rule them.
Geographically Afghanistan is a land-locked country in
central Asia, but being in the center of the land route connecting Central
Asia, the Middle East with China and Indian subcontinent in South Asia to the
countries in the West Asia and the Western Europe, it played an important role as
an ancient trade route. It was also the invasion route due to its high Khybar
and Bolan passes in the Himalayan mountain range, through which invaders poured
into the rich alluvial plains of India. The conquering armies of Persians,
Greeks, Mauryans, Huns, Mongols, Moghuls, British, Soviets and lastly Americans
have all dealt with these passes. The country was at the cross roads of
empires.
Persian Emperor Cyrus conquered northern Afghanistan, but he
met his death fighting near Jaxartes River (in northern Afghanistan) in 530 BC.
Darius I inscribed in 520 BC the territories he had inherited from Cyrus on a
rock face in Behistun (in today’s Western Iran), which include Bactria (Balk),
Areia (Herat), Arachosia (Kandhahar), and Gandhara, all in today’s Afghanistan.
He came up to Karachi through Indus River and created a new province of
Hindush, modern Sindh in modern Pakistan. Indians had fought in the war of
Xerxes I against Greece in 480 BC! Here in Bactria, Alexander the Great who
after conquering Persian Empire of Darius III in 331 BC, wanted to go to the
ends of the worlds, got married, wishing for a progeny. He married Roxana, the
beautiful daughter of Oxyartes, Bactrian king in 327 BC. Thereafter he turned
to conquer India, crossing Hindu Kush passes. After a few wins, as his troops refused
to move another inch, he returned to Babylon and died in 323 BC when he was
just 33 years old!
Seleucus, Alexander’s general won the eastern part of the
empire, Bactria, Afghanistan and Indian territories. Parthians, Scythians,
Kushans, by turn over ran Afghanistan, followed by the barbaric White Hans in
the 4th century AD from central Asian steppes. Pushtans, population presently found in
between Pakistan and Afghanistan are said to be descendants of Greek and
Scythian war tribes, living in remote mountains in Hindu Kush. By 7th
century AD Arabs pushed into Afghanistan and the population became Muslims
gradually. Afghanistan also had given birth to empires of its own, Ghaznavids,
Ghorids, Durranis, Khiljivad who had sent their tentacles to India and
established their rule and power over there. Even the Mughals had come from
Afghanistan; Baber the founder of Mughal Empire fled from Afghanistan, having been
driven out of Kabul which he was ruling from 1504 to 1526 came to India, and established
his kingdom in 1526. His remains were buried in Kabul. It is also the
birthplace of Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrian religion of Persia.
In 1221 AD Mongols descended into Afghanistan like a fury and
laid waste the country. Tamerlane crossed into Afghanistan and then devastated
Delhi of Mughal Empire in 1398 AD. The Silk Road was predominant during these
times. Central Asia or India is yet to regain the wealth they had during this
time. But Afghan tribes were never fully subdued, but retained their warrior
culture high up in the rugged mountains. It has been said that entering
Afghanistan was a simple task, but holding it is not.
A unique phenomenon of an Empire of indigenous Afghanistan
rose up in 1722, with Mahmud at the helms. Next came Nadir Shah, who in 1739
swept through Afghanistan and along with the tribe of Abdalis from Afghanistan
entered India though Khyber Pass and dealt a death knell to Mughal Empire. He
massacred the people of Delhi and walked away with the prestigious Peacock
Throne of Jahangir with its Koh-i-Noor diamond among other precious jewels.
After Nadir Shah’s death, Ahmad Khan, an Abdali general built up an empire of
his own in 1747 in Afghanistan and for the first time the conquered Afghanistan
turned to be a conqueror. He also inherited the Koh-i-Noor diamond, a gift from
Nadir Shah. This was called Durrani Empire, whose descendant Shuja Shah lost
his kingdom and was installed in the throne by the British India Company in the
First Afghanistan war of 1835.
As the centuries passed by and sea routes were discovered by
the 15th and 16th century AD to India and China, the
Western countries started to use the sea power to conquer nations, colonize
them and be the masters of trade in the spices, silk, linen, tea, opium and
other goods available especially in India and China. The land trade route lost
its importance, and with it Afghanistan. In the 19th century with
the Great Russian Empire of Tsar on its north pressing down and the British
Indian rulers, the East India Company in the south pushing up, Afghanistan
became a buffer zone between the two great powers in their “Great Game” to
world power in central Asia. British Empire collapsed in the 20th
century with most of its colonies gaining independence, especially its ‘Jewel
in the Crown,’ India in 1947. The Russian Empire was dismantled after the
October Revolution of the Lenin in 1917, which brought Bolsheviks to power and
the institution of the Communist regime as USSR, Soviet Russia in 1922. With these,
the partners of the Great Game changed; the world’s super powers Russia and the
United States of America came onto the game. Soviet Russia invaded Afghanistan
in December 1979 and tried to establish its communist ideology there. Fear of
spread of Communism triggered USA to enter the game. In this power struggle of
outside forces from 19th century, Afghanistan became an unwilling
pawn.
Afghanistan has the Hindu Kush Mountain passing in its center and has many narrow mountain passes and river valleys, but the land itself
being very harsh and forbidding. It is a land that can be easily invaded but
difficult to hold on. Afghanistan’s population consists mainly of tribes,
living in the remote mountain regions, who are governed on a feudal basis with
no respect for a central government in Kabul or elsewhere, with no sanctity for
laws, excepting tribal laws. These high mountain tribes have never been
conquered by any one throughout history and they had maintained their independence
for thousands of years. Though there are internecine wars between the various
tribes, whereby they hone their fighting skills, when their country is
threatened by any foreign invaders, they unite together, descending from their
mountain tops on their horses devastating the enemies.
On the flip side, a major characteristic of Afghans is that
they are not reliable. One cannot depend on their word or promise or treatises
neither can one depend on the continued support of their tribal fighters. Their
leaders will swiftly change sides in a war, if they see the other party is
winning, leaving the King or Ruler to flee, as it happened recently when
President Ghani fleeing the country as the Afghans soldiers surrendered Kabul
without fighting, switching over to the side of the winning Taliban. During the
first Afghan-British India war of 1839-1842, the same fate happened to the then
ruler, Amir Dost Mohammad. He had to flee when he saw his tribal chiefs
switching sides accepting bribe money paid by the English. They will sell the
country and honor to the highest bidder without scruple. The inconsistency and
inconstancy of the Afghan chiefs are proverbial. An Afghan is said to have no
conscience at all. It is impossible to rely on their promise, their friendship
or their fidelity.
Afghan warriors could be ruthless, whether they invoke their
religion Islam’s name or their own tribal loyalties. They are brutal, barbarous
and merciless when they deal with their enemies. They can swear an oath on the
Koran, but in absolute disregard of the oath they can do exactly the opposite
of what was sworn. Their way of striking terror in the hearts of the enemy
fighters was to massacre them and devastate their villages and houses. Such a
massacre of Persian troops who had surrendered in Ispahan (in today’s Iran) to Afghan
ruler Mir Mahmood in 1722 was ordered by him. Murder and pillage were their
pastime. On his conquest Mir invited all the Persian nobles of the area to a
great festival. Eager to please the new sovereign, they all came suspecting
nothing. All of them were butchered by Mir’s soldiers in a treacherous act and
their soldiers and relatives of several thousands were put to death. The
terrible carnage lasted for a month reducing the population of Ispahan to half.
To Afghan courage is the greatest of virtues; to kill and
massacre numerous human beings is courageous for them. It is bloodletting of
the enemy that is appreciated by the Afghan tribes and their leaders. Not that
they cared for their own women-folks. They would sell their daughters and wives
to the enemy for money and if necessary sacrifice them for money or for their
own pleasure of power. They could kill them if it was required. When an Afghan
chief is killed the new leader and his tribal leaders share his women. Afghans
fight with courage and savagery which are natural to them. As Afghans are
nearly all soldiers by birth, there is no dearth in recruitment. Their state is
in a permanent state of disquietude and trouble. They are the most turbulent
nation in Asia and most difficult to govern.
Well, my friends, more of this in the next blog, especially about
the origin and growth of Taliban. Right now I have exceeded my self-imposed
rule of not to write more than four pages in a blog!
[1] J.P. Ferrier, “History of the Afghans,” 1858, 2nd Impression, Gyan Publishing House, New Delhi: India, 2020
W. Dalrymple, “Return of a King: An Indian army in Afghanistan,” Bloomsbury Publishing , London,2013, New Delhi, 2014
S. Tanner, Afghanistan: A military history from Alexander the Great to the war against the Taliban, Rev. ed., Da Capo Press, 2002
