Beyond the Khyber pass : the road to British disaster in the first Afghan War

188 Pages·1993·22.4 MB·English

by  Waller, John H

Copyright O 1990 by John H. Waller For Greg
Maps copvright O 1990 by Anita Karl and Jim Kemp
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Printed in the United States of America
First University of Texas Press edition, 1993
Published by arrangement with Random House, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Waller, John H.
Beyond the Khyber Pass : the road to British disaster in the
first Afghan War / John H. Waller.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York : Random House, 1990.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-292-79073-2 (paperback : alk. paper)
1. Afghan Wars.
~ ~ 3 6 3 . ~139953 92-24008
CIP
PREFACE
THERE IS AN OLD PERSIAN PROVERB"H: ISTORY IS A MIRROR OF THE PAST/
And a lesson for the present." Afghans may ask their historical mirror on
the wall, "Who is the fairest of them all?" and feel slighted when not
named. But for all their shortcomings as a modern nation, they have
learned how to resist the fatal embraces of unwanted violators. Their
mirror has told them that independence from foreign aggressors has been
preserved by their own determination to remain free whatever the cost,
their inhospitable terrain and their knack for playing one covetous power
against another.
This is the story of the British failure to have and to hold Afghanistan
in the early 1840s as they competed with Czarist Russia for strategic
advantage and while the two empires collided in Central Asia. The story
is an eerie precurser of events today in which Soviet Russia rather than
Great Britain pays the price for an ill-advised invasion of Afghanistan.
If the USSR consulted history before embarking on its adventure in
Afghanistan in 1979, it did not listen to the lesson it told. It told how the
British, concerned with protecting their Indian empire, saw a client Af-
ghanistan as a buffer against Russian advances but learned too late that
their actions only put India in greater jeopardy. The Soviet decision to
invade Afghanistan in 1979 was similarly justified as a need to create a
controlled buffer state on its important Central Asian border for strategic
reasons-and also to preserve a beholden Communist regime as required
by the Brezhnev Doctrine. The Soviet adversary was the United States,
whose problems with Iran, Moscow feared, would lead to a compensatory
military and political buildup in Pakistan and the Persian Gulf, if not
ultimately in Afghanistan itself.
The Soviet Union in the late twentieth century and Britain in the
x . Preface Preface . xi
nineteenth made the same fatal mistake of exaggerating their adversaries' Comparisons between historical events should never be taken too far;
intentions and the threats they posed, thus allowing themselves to be certainly there were many differences between the British experience in
provoked into taking unwise action. Great Britain and Russia played the 1839-42 and the Soviet experience today. Yet the story of the First Afghan
"Great Game," as Kipling so well described their rivalry in the nineteenth War, sometimes described as the worst military disaster suffered by the
century, while the USSR became engaged in a Middle East "Cold War" British until the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in World War 11, as seen
with the United States in the latter part of the twentieth century- in the mirror of history has lessons for today-and tomorrow.
different labels for essentially the same kind of conflict. But the British and
Russians both broke the rules by escalating the contest and resorting to
armed intervention in Afghanistan. As a result, each in its own day reaped
a whirlwind of Afghan opposition. The xenophobic and devoutly religious
tribes, whose way of life was intertribal guerrilla warfare and whose God
and Prophet stood staunchly behind each of them, momentarily aban-
doned their own blood feuds to declare Holy War against the infidel
ferangi, the unbelieving foreigner who invaded them. In the mid-nine-
teenth century, Persia's claim on Herat and the Sikhs' claim on Peshawar
lent a regional note to complicate the great-power rivalry between Great
Britain and Russia. Today two million Afghan refugees in Iran and three
million in Pakistan loom as regional problems that will persist to plague
both countries.
In this story we shall see that the British invaded Afghanistan in 1839
confident of their military superiority over the primitive Afghan tribes-
men. Their confidence was misplaced; homemade Afghan iazails, those
long-barreled, smooth-bore muzzle loaders, could shoot farther and truer
than British muskets. British artillery and cavalry were next to useless in
the steep Afghan passes where much of the fighting took place. Today
United States-made Stinger missiles fired from the shoulder by the tri-
bal Mujahidin guerrillas-latter-day iazails-negate the effectiveness of
Soviet-provided gunships, and the vaunted Soviet tanks are no more useful
off the road in the mountains than British cavalry had been against the
Afghans perched high above them in the rocks 150 years ago. Two foreign
armies, modern for their time, somehow could not find a practical way to
overcome the simple Afghan tribesman who resented the intrusions.
Both Great Britain and the Soviet Union suffered terrible losses for their
missteps in Afghanistan. In 1842 the British estimated their casualties as
being about fifteen thousand, and the Russian casualties were approxi-
mately the same. Political casualties are more difficult to estimate. British
loss of face sustained in the First Afghan War contributed to two Sikh wars
and the catastrophic mutiny of 1857 in the Indian Army. The full effects
of the recent Soviet withdrawal of its army from Afghanistan in 1989 are
yet to be known, but surely they will have an impact on Moscow's internal
politics as well as its foreign relations.
I WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS MY APPRECIATION AND GREAT RESPECT FOR THE
several institutions whose resources I used in doing research for this book,
particularly the United States Library of Congress; The British Library,
including the India Office Library and Records; the National Portrait
Gallery; The Tate Gallery; and the National Army Museum in London.
I am grateful to the Oriental Club of London for permitting me to use
a photocopy of its fine portrait of Major General Sir William Nott as an
illustration. I would also like to acknowledge the kindness of Mr. George
Pottinger, author of The Afghan Connection and his publisher, Scottish
Academic Press Ltd., in permitting me to reproduce the portrait of Eldred
Pottinger. I owe thanks to Miss Pamela Magrath of London for being most
helpful in enabling me to locate a collection of letters written by her
great-grandfather, Captain Beauchamp Magrath, who served in the First
Afghan War. Miss Helena Lawrence of London also deserves my deep
gratitude For all she has done to assist me.
I thank Mr. Samuel Halpern for his assistance. My wife, Bobby, as usual
graciously gave of her time and talent in helping to prepare my manuscript
and has my thanks.
I admire and am grateful for the skill and patience of my editor, Mr.
Robert Loomis, and appreciate the contributions of all the others who
helped in the editing and production of this book.
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Prologue xvii
PART I
COSSACKS, KINGS AND COMPANYMEN
I . Alexander Burnes, Imperial Outrider 3
2 . Ranjit Singh, Lion of the Puniab 14
3 . Shah Shuia, Restless Exile 23
4 . Mohan Lal, Loyal Company Servant 30
< . Dost Mohammed, Emir of Afghanistan 37
6 . Bokhara 47
7 . Fath Ali Shah, Persia's King of Kings 54
8 . A Hero and a Fugitive: A Study in Contrast 63
9 . Contest for Peshawar 74
10 . Politicians and Bureaucrats 84
11 . Alexander Bumes, Humble Petitioner 92
12 . Imperial Jousting in Kabul 98
13 . Eldred Pottinger, Hero of Herat i i o
PART I1
ALL THE QUEEN'S HORSES AND ALL
THE QUEEN'S MEN
14. To \war 121
15 . March to Kabul 132
16 . Staffa nd Distaff 152
xvi . Contents
17 . Fraying Around the Edges
I 63
18 . Turmoil in the Punjab; Danger Beyond the Hindu Kush
170
19 . Gathering Clouds I 80
PART 111
DISASTER AND RETRIBUTION
20 . Uprising 193
PROLOGUE
21 . Desperation 205
22 . Disintegration 215
23 Treachery 225
24 . Retreat 236
25 . An Army Dies 248
26 . Captivity 256
27 . Finale 268
CAPTAIN ARTHUR CONOLLY OF THE BENGAL CAVALRY IS GENERALLY CRED-
ited with being the first to describe the nineteenth-century jousting be-
Epilogue 280
tween Imperial Russia and Great Britain in Central Asia as "the Great
Notes and References 293
Game," even though it was Rudyard Kipling who popularized this jolly-
Bibliography 309
sounding reference to intrigue and derring-do in his Victorian romances
Index 315
of empire. The Game, in reality, was one of deadly serious political maneu-
ver, espionage, long-range reconnaissance and, when things got out of
hand, bloody combat. The euphemism Creat Game also captured the
devil-may-care adventurousness of many of the young players who sought
glory in the service of empire. They were latter-day crusaders who often
found the contest, and sometimes their careers, more compelling than the
cause.
The British played the Game to protect India, brightest jewel of the
empire, while for czars the object of the Game was to keep the British from
interfering with Russia's "Eastern Destiny." Both empires were deter-
mined to stake out buffer zones, or spheres of strategic influence and
commercial advantage. Trouble arose when the imperial ambition of one
interfered with that of the other, or when the natives resented their
homelands becoming the playgrounds for competition between foreign
infidels-impartially disparaged.
The playing fields of the Great Game, from the Caucasus to farthest
Central Asia, were the borderlands where the expanding Eastern empires
of Russia and Great Britain veered toward collision. Lending piquancy to
the rivalry, the areas in contention were virtually unknown to either side.
The players were all the more remarkable for braving impossible terrain
and inhospitable peoples, often with no more than a modest escort, or even
quite alone as agents in native disguise. A quick wit, bluff and charm were
xviii . Prologue Prologue . xix
their weapons. Decisions were often their own, guided by instinct and only to become involved in an ill-considered, disastrous Afghanistan adventure.
the vaguest of instructions. Perhaps most remarkable of all was the youth- The games of nations, traditional diplomacy or more Machiavellian
fulness of such paladins, who in many cases found high adventure in the political machinations, may be useful in carrying out foreign policy pro-
service of empire while still in their twenties and early thirties. Sadly, all
vided the objectives are realistic and the specific means used to achieve
too few saw old age; it was a deadly game. The deserts, plains and moun-
them are skillfully devised. But as seen in this tragic account of British
tains of Central Asia were the stages for many bloody tableaux, the stuff
efforts to defend India, the objectives were not realistic and the means used
of barrack-room legend.
were inept. The story is all the more melancholy for the many brave men
The Great Game was uninhibited by rules. Kipling's Kim, that preco-
who lost their lives because of the folly of a few.
cious orphan of Lahore, said matter-of-factly with the insight of a boy wise
The arena where this story takes place begins in the west with Persia,"
for his years, "When everyone is dead the Great Game is finished, not
since antiquity a land-bridge between the Near East-the holy lands of the
before." Kim can be forgiven his pessimism; the Great Game seemed
Mediterranean littoral-and Central Asia stretching toward the Orient.
endless in his day-a Central Asian Hundred Years' War. But there was
The high plateau of Persia is wedged as a keystone between the Arab world
one implied rule: the British and Russian armies must not meet in direct
of Mesopotamia to the west and the mountains of Afghanistan to the east.
combat-the battlefields of Europe were reserved for that. As for the
To the south the Persian Gulf-or Arabian Gulf, depending upon the
simple soldiers, who rarely shared in the glory of the Game but had to bear
point of view-serves as a moat separating the ancient Indo-European
the horrors of fighting the natives, Kipling sent chills down the spines of
culture of Persia from the Semitic culture of the Arabian Peninsula, and
his readers when he wrote all too vividly:
the predominantly Shia sect of Islam in Persia from the Sunni sect of
Arabia.
When you 're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains
The Caucasus Mountains, spanning the isthmus between the Black and
And the women come out to cut up what remains
Caspian seas, is a bridge between Persia and Russia to the north, generally
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
separating Islam from Christendom. In the nineteenth century Persia
An ' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
posed a tempting target for the Russians, thrusting southward through the
Caucasus. But just as Russia, a land power, encroached on Persia from the
Plots were more ornate than Persian carpets, intrigue flourished in the
north, Great Britain, a sea power, exerted pressure on the shah's realm
labyrinths of citadels and seraglios, and danger lurked in every mountain
from the Persian Gulf in the south. Control of the Gulf was vital to the
pass.
security of India and for the protection of British maritime commerce.
Most extraordinarily, the soldiers who fought and died in the service of
Persia was strategically important to India as a land-bridge, both to the
the East India Company defending British rule were for the most part
Arab lands stretching westward to Egypt, coveted by Napoleon since the
native sepoys. Despite religious taboos against venturing beyond the Indus
end of the eighteenth century, and to the Russian empire, expanding
River and the oceans bounding India, and sometimes a rigorous climate
inexorably downward through the Caucasus at the expense of Persian
they were unused to that killed as surely as bullets, the sepoys would also
suzerainty in the region.
distinguish themselves in foreign campaigns far from home in behalf of
Closer to India, and thus even more immediately important to the
their foreign masters.
subcontinent's security, was Afghanistan, whose passes-piercing the
The Great Game lasted for most of the nineteenth century, spreading
Hindu Kush Mountains running like a spine through the center of
eastward from Persia and Afghanistan to Tibet, not ending until 1907
the country-had since ancient times admitted a succession of invaders
when the Anglo-Russian agreement delineating boundaries and spheres of
who poured onto the plains of India. The northern slopes of the Hindu
interest was concluded. This story, however, is confined to the first part
of the nineteenth century and principally concerns Afghanistan, the ful- *The term Persis, or Persia, used by the ancient Greeks, was probably der~vcdf rom the
crum of competition between Imperial Russia and Great Britain. It is a Persian word firs, (or Pars), which today applies only to the southern provlnce of Iran,
whose capital is Shiraz. Iran, from more ancient times, was what Persians callcd their
cautionary tale in which the British, unduly obsessed with what they
country, and this term was revived as the official name by the Pahlavi dynasty in recent
considered an immediate Russian threat to India, allowed themselves
times.

xxii . Prologue Prologue . xxiii
Kush subside in the Turkestan plains east of the Caspian Sea, long the been troublesome rivals of the British in south India and had now become
homeland of Turkish-Mongol predators, while the mighty range's eastern diplomatically aggressive in Persia.
terminus collides with the lofty Pamir and Karakorum ranges to form a Russia too had long cast covetous eyes toward India. As early as the
jumbled knot of some of the world's highest mountains, often called "the eighteenth century, Catherine the Great considered an expedition against
roof of the world." Here Afghanistan meets the western end of China and the subcontinent, and, more recently in January 1801, her son, Czar Paul,
the northernmost point in the Indian subcontinent. dispatched an army of twenty thousand Cossacks to invade India. That the
Frequent Afghan sorties into the Punjab, the "Land of the Five Rivers" force met with disaster crossing the Volga River did not discourage Paul
on Moghul India's northwestern borders, had worried the East India from proposing to Napoleon a joint Franco-Russian army to march on
Company, whose strategic interests and commercial ambitions demanded India through Afghan passes. Napoleon, having more respect than Paul for
the protection of Delhi and unfettered access to the rivers of the Indus the rigors of the Afghan mountains and the marksmanship of Afghan
Valley. Then, early in the nineteenth century, British India found itself tribesmen, was not interested; the ambitious idea died with the czar when
facing a new threat-rising Sikh power closer to home in the Punjab. Just one of his officers strangled him.
as Russia had viewed the neighboring Persian empire as an antagonist in The British were understandably apprehensive about the new Franco-
the Caucasus, the British now became apprehensive about a remarkable Russian alliance, not only on the Continent but also as it affected the Near
leader named Ranjit Singh, who had for the first time unified the Sikhs. and Middle East, with Turkey and Persia at immediate risk and India in
Ranjit Singh, whose religion, an offshoot of Hinduism originally dedicated potential jeopardy. Must the British now consider India's first line of
to peace but now militant in its preachings, aspired to the Delhi throne defense to be the Caucasus Mountains, a natural barrier between Russia
of the enfeebled Moghul emperor. If this ambition were realized it would and Persia? If so, the British relationship with the shah of Persia had to
bring the Sikhs into conflict with the British, yet the Punjab could instead be strengthened. Or should the line be drawn more conservatively farther
prove a useful barrier against invasion if the Company played its hand east at Herat, the western entrance to Afghanistan from Persia-gateway
skillfully with Ranjit Singh. to the traditional military high road to India? And certainly the sudden
The defense of India was inseparable from the wider spectrum of Euro- rise of a unified Sikh nation had created a new situation even closer to
pean politics. While Napoleon Bonaparte's occupation of Egypt in 1798- India. The Sikh leader, Ranjit Singh, one-eyed "Lion of the Punjab," could
an exotic extension of the continental wars-sounded alarms in Calcutta be a force for either good or mischief.
and London, the great British Admiral Horatio Nelson's decisive defeat But how had it come about that an English trading company in India
of the French fleet at Abukir Bay off Alexandria and the French with- had become the cutting edge of British imperial progress; how did the
drawal from Egypt in 1801 removed the French threat from that quarter. Honorable East India Company, from its inception dedicated to turning
But the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 revived British fears of the French, even a profit for its shareholders, find itself a player in the greater game of
more formidable as allies of the Russians. When Napoleon was rowed to nations driven by the exigencies of intercontinental high politics? Writers
a raft moored in the middle of the River Niemen near Tilsit to embrace on India have had a tendency to refer interchangeably to "the British" and
Czar Alexander I, it was a signal that both rulers had found common cause "the Company." In fact, a strange kind of dyarchy had evolved by the
against the British in Europe-and perhaps in the East as well. nineteenth century, making it difficult to differentiate between the two.
The Treaty of Tilsit did not specifically mention India, but at the East British historian Thomas Macaulay at the time aptly described this anom-
India Company's seat of government in Calcutta it was easy to imagine aly as "the strangest of all governments designed for the strangest of all
the worst. Napoleon, it appeared, was now free to march through Persia empires."
and Afghanistan in the footsteps of Alexander the Great, and with Russian The creation of the Honorable East India Company by stalwarts with
acquiescence or assistance claim the prize of India. Napoleon, in fact, ledger book in one hand and sword in the other was a monument to
raised with Czar Alexander the possibility of an Indian campaign, and capitalist enterprise, an example of England's devotion to trade, its life-
rumors of this had reached the East India Company by early 1808. But blood. Founded for the purpose of gaining direct access to the spices of
even if more sober reasoning rejected such alarming ideas, there seemed the East without paying the exorbitant prices charged by already en-
at thc time cause enough to worry about the French, who for years had trenched Dutch and Portuguese East Indies traders, the Company was