Third anglo-afghan war i

[graveyardofempires]

THIRD ANGLO-AFGHAN WAR I

The clothing worn by the Pashtuns varied from tribe to tribe, but the basic garments were the angarka— loose blouse—and baggy trousers, usually of off-white cotton. Headgear consisted of the kullah, the pointed overstitched cap, round which the lungi was tied to form a loose turban. The lungi could also be worn as a waist-sash. In cold weather the reversed goatskin poshteen was normally worn; its amount of embroidery depended on wealth and status. The Waziris tended to favour a dark-red or indigo turban and a dark-red or pink waist-sash. The Kurram Valley tribes wore an angarka of dark blue with white patches similar to the dress of Sudanese dervishes. Khyber Pass Afridis usually wore a grey or blue angarka with off-white trousers. Tribes often adopted a predominant but by no means uniform combination of colours.

Besides the captured rifles which were the constant and most valuable form of booty and currency on the Frontier from the early nineteenth century to the present day, tribes who were not sustained by British subsidies made do with the matchlock muzzle-loading jezail; this cumbersome weapon, whose burning slow match had obvious disadvantages for night combat, was surprisingly accurate in the hands of an experienced warrior. As time went by, those tribes who could afford them bought European—mainly British— rifles; by 1908 most tribesmen sported a Martini- Henry, and the luckier (or more skilled thieves) carried the occasional Lee-Metford or Lee-Enfield. The skill and cunning of lone warriors who wormed their way into British encampments at night to steal weapons was legendary; soldiers always slept with their rifles chained to their bodies or chained together, and the bolts of the magazine rifles were often removed at night. The tribal craftsmen were incredibly skilful at reproducing European weapons with the most primitive of tools; they were not equal to making an SMLE bolt, but if one could be stolen they were capable of building a rifle around it to a standard of workmanship which stands up to all but the closest examination. Apart from firearms, the tribesmen were armed with a variety of edged weapons such as the tulwar sabre, the razor-sharp triangular-bladed Afghan knife in a range of sizes, and the punch-dagger illustrated. Swordsmen were often protected by a round shield, either of engraved metal work or of heavy leather with metal bosses and studs.

[graveyardofempires]

THIRD ANGLO-AFGHAN WAR II

Arrival at Landi Kotal of the Afghan peace delegates after the 3rd Afghan War in 1919. By this time roads had been constructed, and cars were able to cross the Frontier.

King Amanullah was resolute in his stance on Afghan autonomy from foreign control. Over the past 40 years in Afghanistan, since the Second Anglo- Afghan War, the boundaries of the country had been devised by foreign governments and their desire to implement Afghanistan as a buffer state. The various treaties and agreements over the years, some of which Afghanistan was forced to comply with, instilled Amanullah’s implementation of a regime to create a nation composed of independent rule. The British-imposed Treaty of Gandamak in 1879 and the application of the Durand Line in 1893 forced British control and influence in Afghanistan. On the opposite side of the Great Game, the Russians imposed the settlement of the lands of the Amu-Darya in 1888 and also the 1895 settlement of Parmir. These frontiers had been established for Afghanistan by foreign governments with no respect for the tribal ethnic boundaries and the Muslim faith, and as a result this foreign directed allocation of boundaries was deeply resented.

Amanullah launched the Third Anglo-Afghan War in May 1919 by attacking India with the intention to finally gain control over Afghanistan’s foreign policy. Previously, during the Russian Revolution in 1917, Afghanistan served again as the battleground for the Russians and the British who were simultaneously vying for control in the Asian heartland. After growing tired of this repetitive pattern, King Amanullah desired to implement reforms in Afghanistan that could be accomplished only by finally attaining Afghan independence from the British. In this regard, King Amanullah sought to finalize Afghanistan’s independence in May 1919 by surprising the British in an attack, and the British retaliated with an aerial assault in which King Amanullah’s house was attacked. The incident is the first aerial invasion in Afghanistan’s history and forced a truce known as the Treaty of Rawalpindi, the details of which were so complicated that the final details of the treaty took nearly two years to complete through negotiations.3 In the treaty, the British recognized Afghan independence and agreed that the British kingdom would not extend beyond the Khyber Pass. Before completion of the treaty in 1921, the Afghan ruler had already established foreign relations with most major countries, including Russia, which was outside of British coordination. Without question, the Khyber Pass was of the utmost strategic importance during these negotiations and agreements. Despite how long it took to resolve the document, the Treaty of Rawalpindi symbolizes Afghan independence and the end of the Great Game between the Russian and the British empires, and August 19, 1919, is commemorated as Afghanistan’s Independence Day. After nearly 60 years of fighting against British oppression, Afghanistan successfully fought for and won its freedom from British control and influence. By signing the Treaty of Rawalpindi, the war-weary British relinquished control of Afghanistan, not just territorially but also in any other affairs, both internal and foreign. This noteworthy agreement opened the door for King Amanullah to finally begin the age of reformation in Afghanistan. After 10 years as the Afghan ruler, his social, economic, and political reforms infiltrated not only Afghanistan’s domestic dealings but foreign relations as well.

While both parties agreed on Afghan independence as stipulated in the first treaty, the debate and peace negotiations continued into a second deliberation since both parties could not agree on the territorial boundaries of the Durand Line. This cartographical delineation represented a division of the British and Afghan control of the Pashtun tribes and ultimately was designed to act as a British buffer zone against further Russian aggression and encroachment into India. Delineated in 1893 and reluctantly agreed to by Amir Abdur Rahman in 1897, the meandering Durand Line had detached the eastern Pashtun tribes near Pakistan from Afghanistan and created what would be referred to as the Pashtunian issue. The Durand Line was implemented based on a cartographic representation of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the line was arbitrarily drawn without any consideration for existing physical structures, property rights, or ethnicity and family locations. The ethnographic Durand Line had been a cause for friction among the Anglo-Afghan empires for many years, and the continual debate in 1921 still would not resolve the issue, as the British refused to abandon their control and simultaneously the Afghans were unrelenting on the agreement. Hence, in Afghanistan, the compromise in 1921 was regarded as a merely informal agreement on a continually unsettled issue. In addition, during this Third Anglo-Afghan War, the loyalty of the Khyber Rifles was put under severe strain, leading to the desertion of many members, including nearly 1,200 sepoys. In consequence, the Khyber Rifles was disbanded for being unreliable and capricious and would not be reinstated until World War II.

[graveyardofempires]

hmm