Return of a King

My last book by William Dalrymple was ‘Anarchy’ which to my mind did not live up to its hype but this one certainly did.

While the book is centered on the first Anglo-Afghan War, the “king” of the title is Shah Shuja of the Sadozai tribe, who seized power in Kabul in 1803. His rule lasted about six years, before the Barakzais – along with Shuja’s half-brother – defeated him, forcing him into exile. Following Shuja’s exit, a man named Dost Mohammad Khan rose to power in Afghanistan, ultimately naming himself an Amir and declaring jihad against the Sikhs.

Shuja became a pawn in the East India Company's 'Great Game'. Threats of a joint Russian and Persian invasion gave a pretense to restore Shuja to the throne of Afghanistan. Britain secretly funded Shuja's army. Joined by Ranjit Singh, Maharajah of the Sikhs, he set out to retake Kabul in 1834 from Dost Mohammad Khan. Shuja's plan failed and now aware of British complicity Dost prevailed. Britain and Russia vied for influence in Persia. Russian plots prompted Persia to attack Herat in 1837 with troops armed and trained by the British. Meanwhile, spies Alexander Burnes and Ivan Vitkevitch competed for an alliance with Dost. Lord Auckland, the new Governor General of India guided by hawkish bureaucrats, insisted Dost be deposed and replaced by Shuja, sabotaging Burne’s efforts.

As the British prepared to invade there were warnings from local leaders and old hands alike that the terrain was formidable and people fierce. Twenty thousand Indian soldiers and their British officers were on the march. Before the march to Afghanistan began the siege of Herat was lifted and Vitkevitch was recalled to Russia ending Russian designs and any possible purpose for the expedition. Regardless, the plan to reinstate Shuja commenced in 1839. Braving searing deserts, mountain passes, tribal ambushes, brigand gangs, dying animals, low rations, and lack of water Kandahar was reached.

In Kandahar, Shuja was hailed as a hero by defectors from Dost. Flowers were thrown before his elephant’s feet and he rained British rupees upon his subjects. But soon cultural transgressions by British troops started tilting the scales away from him. Shuja became despised as he had come with a foreign infidel army. Meanwhile, Ranjit Singh was to have approached Kabul with Muslim troops but reneged on his pledge. The initial military battles were relatively easy victories for the British and some of the commanders showed impressive initiative such as the Battle of Ghazni where Indian sappers were able to find a weak point in the city’s heavily fortified defenses and the Company troops were able to force their way through a single point of entrance. Dost sued for peace but was forced to flee before the British army approached Kabul. Dost was imprisoned in Bukhara as Russians invaded Khiva.

After conquering Kabul and reinstating Shah Shuja the British retained a force of 8,000 men in the city to guarantee his throne. As it became clear that this kernel of troops would be required to stay indefinitely the wives and children of the Company army were allowed to join the troops in the city. Meanwhile, Dost escaped from jail and returned to raise the flag of holy war. Dost's jihad failed and he surrendered to be exiled in India. Ranjit Singh's death caused civil war in Punjab threatening supply and communication lines to Afghanistan. Herat made allies with Persia against Britain as rebellions arose in the country. The occupation was fast draining the East India Company treasury.

After two years of occupation, the political situation in Afghanistan was reaching a boiling point. To keep costs down the British had forced Shah Shuja to “modernise” the Afghan administration which meant cancelling many of the feudal arrangements and bribes that had formed the political glue of tribal Afghanistan. This led to some of Shuja’s most loyal supporters being dispossessed and dishonoured. Soon there was an explosion of unrest and bloodshed in Kabul. Jihad was sworn upon the Quran. A mob set fire to Burne’s house in Kabul and cut him to pieces. Militia rode in from the mountains. Foreigners were attacked in their forts and homes without reprisal in a popular uprising. Sheltered in the cantonment, ringed by hostile hill stations, ammunition and provision depots were captured. Shuja refused to join the rebels and was declared an infidel. Akbar Khan, the son of Dost, became the leader of the resistance. As cold freezing winter set in and famine followed, and a treaty was negotiated for the British retreat. Seventeen thousand soldiers and civilians left for India. Once in the passes, they died by the score from the cold and were ambushed by an ad-hoc coalition of Afghani forces led by Dost Mohammad’s son, Mohammad Akbar Khan Only a few reached Jalalabad and two thousand survived as hostages or slaves. This retreat was avenged in 1842 when a British army of retribution burned and killed their way to Kabul. Dost Mohammad Khan was restored to rule by the empire that had initially sought to depose him.

The entire misadventure is summed up in the memoirs of one of the British participants, the Reverend G.R. Gleig, who wrote that it was “a war begun for no wise purpose, carried on with a strange mixture of rashness and timidity, brought to a close after suffering and disaster, without much glory attached either to the government which directed, or the great body of troops which waged it. Not one benefit, political or military, has been acquired with this war. Our eventual evacuation of the country resembled the retreat of an army defeated.”

Dalrymple never takes sides but seems to be more sympathetic towards the ruthless Afghans. He is an extremely systematic historian. He quotes liberally from numerous sources to present events from different points of view. He has a simple and elegant writing style without any great literary flourishes. The bibliography captures the depth and quality of his research and his acknowledgments chronicle his travels and the risks that he faced as he researched the book in Afghanistan. The guttural nature of violence prevalent in those times, captured so vividly by Dalrymple, makes the battles of the modern era appear to be children’s tea parties.

While Dalrymple's account of the British retreat is masterful, his effort to generate lessons for today is at times overly simplistic. He argues that despite some obvious differences, the “same tribal rivalries and the same battles were continuing to be fought out in the same place 170 years later under the guise of new flags, new ideologies, and new political puppeteers.” In my mind, this goes a bit far. I also feel that the maps and the illustrations could have been better.

The use of pictures and maps was not adequate. The included pictures were excellent, perhaps a bit overdone. They were mostly artwork and copies of publications from the period. Maybe some current photographs of existing locations would have established a better connection with the reader. The use of maps was poor. There are a lot of place names in the narrative but there were only three handdrawn maps included. It was very challenging to use a modern atlas to follow the story or to understand the terrain.

As I have always done with all the books I have read, I searched for criticism of the book and stumbled on the aggressive criticism of many assertions by an author named Farrukh Hussain. He has authored the book, “Afghanistan in the Age of Empires: The Great Game for South and Central Asia”. He argues that Dalrymple’s work is plagued with a large number of historical inaccuracies and incorrect representation of facts due to sketchy research. Due to my intellectual limitations on the subject, I cannot comment on the criticism but those who plan to delve further in this domain may choose to read his book to arrive at a more balanced view.

However in my limited understanding, overall, this book is an incredible undertaking. It is presented in chronological order, taking in the events across Afghanistan, in a single narrative - which is perhaps more complicated than it sounds. It reads very well, is largely well-paced and gripping, and doesn't appear to leave too many loose ends. The ability to manage the canvas spread over time and space with myriad characters is a truly remarkable feat of authorship. A masterful work, history at its riveting best.