Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎48v] (98/312)

f r 'points selected foFtEe rendezvous of the British
troops. Meanwhile we may be sure the news of
■ the activity along the Indus line has travelled
from end to end of Afghanistan, and history has
taught tis what happens in the East when ru-,
moi^rs of trouble impending over the central
power begin to circulate. In Afghanistan,
more notably, perhaps, than anywhere, the
bonds of the provinces to the capital
begin to slacken, and Herat and Candahar and
I Grhuzni all awake afresh to the remembrance that S
each was at one time a royal city itself, as royal
as Cabul now, and the capital of an independent
government. Moreover, of all the rulers that frofoi '
time Ho time the Afghan Sirdars Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. have affected to
serve there has not been one so precariously cir- j
cumstanced as the present, Shere AliKhan. The
Barakzai clique to which he belongs, may, per
haps, be loyal, but search Afghanistan over, and
hardly another of all the tribes 'that people it
can be found upon whom Shere Ali could lay
his hand as staunch supporters of his cause. In
the wars by which he reached his throne, lost
it and, regained it, the Ameer learnt how few
in all the kingdom would fight for him
against another claimant, and in his rule there
has been little to attach to his person the fickle,
treacherous chiefs who command his forts and
troops. Indeed, ttfere are not many who do
not owe Shere Ali Khan a personal grudgfe, from
the troopers whom he bilks of their pay to the
princes of the blood whom he imprisons, tor
tures, and outlaws.
The Afghans, it is true, are a difficult mul
titude to govern. They are not a nation in the
true sense of the word, for great sections of the
population of Afghanistan differ from dn6 >
another in nationality, language, and religion. 3
In a recent issue we pointed out these differences
between the Afghan, Persian, Tartar, and
Hindustani races that combine to form " the
subjects of the Ameer," and showed that, unless [
two-thirds of the total population were left out of ,
consideration, Afghanistan possessed no nation
ality. Even if we take out from their neigh- i
1 bours and fellow subjects the Afghans proper,
we do not find a compact people, for tribal I
I feuds attain among them the serious propor- :
tions of international antipathies, become
i hereditary, and •even in political crises obstruct
i or even forbid united action. Yet it is the
[Afghans, jf any, that we must consider the
i nation of Afghanistan. Their physical charac
teristics and their manners and customs we have
i already described, showing that, while they differ
very widely—even radically—from the sur-
| rounding population,they are bound together by
the ties of common tastes and traditions. Their
speech and history, moreover, mark them out as
a distinct community. ■
Their language proves, on analysis, one of the
most interesting known to philologists, for its
roots strike equally into Hebrew, Sanskrit,
Arabic, and Persian, with a large admixture of [
words derived from no known source. It is
called Pushtoo, and is almost entirely a spoken
language, the character being Arabic, with only
very slight modifications to express particular
sounds which in the spoken language have no
corresponding sound in any other Oriental
tongue. From the presence of Hebrew deriva
tives in their speech, and of Hebrew ceremonies
in their customs, it has long been surmised that
i they were of Jewish origin. They style themselves
| Bani Israel, or children of Israel, affect to trace
their descent from Saul, the King of Israel, and
preserve among their traditions, amongst a
medley of Mohammedan doctrines, the accounts
of the deliverance from Egypt, the ark of the
covenant, and the names of the Philistines,
Amalek, Anak, and others. Dr. Bellew, in his
record of the Mission to Candahar in 1857, gives
a brie^E summary of the contents of certain Afghan
j historical books in which are traced the genea-
1 logy and history of the people from Kais or
Kesh, the father of Saul, or Malik Twalut, " the
Prince of Stature." In these works the Israelite
origin of the Afghans is, to the Afghans at any
rate, satisfactorily set forth, and there is some
evidence in support of their claims. Be these as they
may, history first recognises the existence of
the tribes called "Afghans" when they were
settled at G-hor, in Western Khorassan, in the
eighth century. Here they were invaded by the
Mohammedans, and embracing Islam en masse,
continued to flourish. About two hundred
years later a Tartar invasion of Cabul proper
succeeded in driving out thence the Hindus who
then possessed it, and in establishing a Tartar
dynasty^ at the city of Gluizni. The Afghans,
assisted the Tartars in tlie work of conquest, and ■
with, them spread not only over the present
Afghanistan, but across the Suleiman range Into
the present British districts of Multan and :
Rohilkund, where their descendants still form a ;
considerable proportion of the inhabitants. In
time, however, they grew stronger than the con- 5
querors, and in the twelfth century overthrew f
the Tartar dynasty of Ghiizni. One portion of !
the Afghans settled down as rulers of Cabul, ||
while another entered India, where they founded |
at Delhi a dynasty that ruled in iTpper India 1
until 1526, wheri the Moghul conqueror, Baber, I
overthrew both kingdoms. After his death!
Western Afghanistan fell to the Persians, the
I Eastern portion remaining nominally under I
1 Delhi. But in 1740 Nadir Shah brought the S
whole under his sway, only, however, for seven j
years, for he was assassinated in 1747. His com- \
mander-in-chief, Ahmed Shah, an Afghan, at
jonce seized the vast treasure which the Persian
army was carrying home from the plunder of p
India, and, proclaiming himself King of the
Afghans, readily united under him all the tribes
of that name, and established within its present
limits the independent kingdom over which
Shere Ali now rules. Between the dates of
Ahmed Shah and Shere Ali a hundred and
forty years have elapsed, marked throughout by :
. violent internal dissensions and resulting in fre- i
| quent temporary changes of dynasty and frontier, j
The mpst important of these was the overthrow I
of the Suddozai family in 1839, which led to
British interference. Under the impression that
the restoration of the Suddozai dynasty would
| be pleasing to the Afghans the British Govern- ?
i ment attempted the reinstatement of the deposed '
| Ameer, Shah Shnja, hoping also, by thus consti- \
tuting a friendly power in Afghanistan, to obtain |
a permanent guarantee against the intrigues of s
Russia, then threatening to occupy Khiva and
to disturb the peace of Afghanistan.
1 The history of that attempt and its results 1
i has been often written, but it is well to-day to ;
recall to mind the true circumstances of that <
splendid episode. Speech makers have been '
found, who within the last few days, either '
from shameful ignorance of a glorious passage in |
our military annals or no less shameful perver- j*
sion of notorious facts, have informed their
hearers that the» lessons of* the past ought to
teach us cowardice in the present; and that be-
; cause in January, 1842, many Christian people I
I and more Hindoos—men, women, and children j
—fell victims .to the pitiless treachery of the I
Afghans and their allies, we are now to fear |
the ruler of Afghanistan. It is quite true that
the most awful disaster that ever befel British *
arms was one result of the first occupation of ?
J Cabul : that tale was written large in blood on
the mountains of the country. But it is no less
true that, on the instant of the receipt of the
• news, a cry of fierce wrath broke from our i
countrymen in India, and that, a gallant, |
well-led army soon effaced the stain. The 1
, British infantry rushed into the Khyber Pass, j
I and scaling its cliffs swept out the Khyberis j
from crevico and ravine ; while the main body,
I breaking <l§wn the barricades with w MqJi ia their
impotent maligmty the hill men had crowded!
1 the pass, hurried on towards the devoted city. |
! The Ghilzais tried to oppose the avenging force ,
! at the Jugdullah defile, but were hurled back 1
upon the main army encamped at Jugdeen. In
■ five days more General Pollock was upon them |
in their strength. He inflicted a shattering de- j
feat, and then swept down on Cabul, and the s
ruins in the capital of the Ameer bear wit-1
I ness to this day of the completeness of our j
triumph and our retribution. The defence |
■ and victory of Jellalabad, under General Sale, I
and the capture of Ghuzni by General Nott, |
are other memories of this notable campaign,
which the detractors of our national glory have
not scrupled to ignore. They are eager to re-
1 member and to cast in the teeth of their
1 countrymen the terrible and most pathetic
disaster of the Khyber Pass, when, led into
1 the very jaws of death by the false pro-
:J mises of a treacherous friend, an army of five I
thousand men, principally native troops, with
^ eleven thousand camp followers, were butchered j
like penned sheep among the rocks. But they
' are careful to forget, lest the memory should
awaken in their hearers pride of race and con
tempt of an Afghan enemy, the brilliant annals
of the retribution that so swiftly followed. ' It
is forgotten, too, that to exact-that splendid
vengeance the British army ha4 to march
'through the Punjab—not then a British pro
vince, but a possession of a disaffected if not