AFGHANISTAN CONTEMPORARY HISTORY.

 

Dost Mohammed Khan declared himself ruler in 1823. The British felt that Dost Mohammed was courting Russia. In 1838, a British Expeditionary force marched into Afghnaistan and arrested Dost Mohammed in 1940 after taking Kabul. The British then exiled him into India and replaced him with the previous ruler Shah Shujah Durani. 

After a year, the British grew complacent and withdrew some of their forces as popular resistance grew. They also stopped paying the subsidies to the Ghilzai tribe who controlled the routes between Kabul and Peshawar. A British brigade was sent in 1841 to clear the route to India through the Khyber pass. But, the resistance from the Ghilzai tribesmen halted the brigade at Jalalabad equidistant from Kabul and the Khyber pass.

In 1841 there was a popular uprising in Kabul against the British. The commander of the British garrison was not up to the task and asked for reinforcements from Kandahar and a brigade was dispatched but it had to turn back due to heavy snowfall. The son of Dost Mohammed, Akbar Khan arrived at Kabul and became Amir. He had the British troops blockaded in an encampment 

The British Commander was forced to sign a peace treaty by which the British were allowed safe passage up to Jalalabad by the king. The result was a slaughter of the British army as they marched and only 1 British surgeon and a handful of Indian Sepoys reached Jalalabad out of the 4500 plus 12000 civilains who started from Kabul.

In retribution the British sent another army in 1842. This force took Kabul and levelled all the great bazaar and the bigger buildings of Kabul. Akbar Khan died a British prisoner in 1847 possibly poisoned by his own father. 

Dost Mohammed too remained a British prisoner till 1841 when they freed him. The British after their revenge on Kabul left him in peace and he died in 1863 due to natural causes. The British withdrew their military forces from Afghanistan in 1878.

But till the battle for Kabul, the British have never suffered a defeat in India and it affected the morale of the Bengal regiment which consisted of the bulk of troops that were stationed in Kabul before the massacre.

After Dost Mohammed came Abdur Rehman Khan. He died in 1901 and his son Habibullah Khan came to power. During world war one he was met by officials of the Axis powers who asked him to declare full independence from Britain and enter the war on their side. Habibullah Khan did not yield. But this caused a discontent among the population and he was assassinated in 1919 and Amanullah Khan came to power. He was a staunch supporter of an anti British expedition and initiated a war on the British by entering India through the Khyber pass.

 In the 3^rd and final Anglo Afghan war, the British did have an upper hand and were into Afghanistan when Amir Amanullah sent a message for armistice which the British accepted and the treaty of Rawalpindi was signed accepting the independence of Afghanistan on 3^rd June 1919, and Afghanistan in turn accepted the Durand line dividing Pakistan and Afghanistan. The the 3^rd Anglo Afghan war lasted exactly a month. So, Afghanistan actually became independent of the British in 1919 even before India itself did.

Now the Amir Amanullah was a liberal. He encouraged women’s education and abolished the Burkha. This alienated many tribal’s and religious leaders which led to the Afghan civil war in 1928-29. With overwhelming armed opposition Amanullah had to abdicate the throne in 1929. Later his cousin Nadir Shah came to power as Amir.  

Nadir Shah’s son Zahir Shah succeeded him in 1933 and ruled till 1973. His reign was challenged by the tribal revolts of Zadran, Safi, Mangal and Wazir tribesmen between 1944 onwards, but they were snuffed out by 1947. 

Strong relations were pursued with Axis powers Germany, Italy and Japan. However, it remained neutral in the 2^nd World War. Later due to the cold war both the US and the Soviet Union built Afghanistan’s main highways, airports and other infrastructure. 

Zahir Shah maintained close relations with both the US and the Soviet Union the cold war enemies and benefited from both sides. In 1973, when Amir Zahir Shah was in Italy, Daoud Khan launched a bloodless coup abolished the monarchy and became its first President.

Thus Afghanistan remained peaceful from 1933 to 1978, a period of some 45 years (there was trouble only 3 years between 1944-47 due to the tribal revolts), up till 1973 under Amir Zahir Shah and later up to 1978 under Daoud Khan who launched a bloodless coup. 

Troubles came into  Afghanistan with the Communist PDPA ( People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan) in 1978. They seized power in a bloody coup against the President Daoud Khan in April 1978. This is called the Saur revolution (so much for the fancy name it screwed the life of all Afghans very comfortably). It set up a communist government with Nur Mohammed Taraki as the President. This idiotic move catapulted Afghanistan into a hotbed of terrorism. 

The PDPA initiated many reforms including land distribution and brutally suppressed all political dissidents. This caused unrest that slowly spiralled into a civil war by 1979 waged by the Mujahideen and the Maoist guerrillas. Pakistan supported these guerrillas with arms and training camps and the US too supported them through the ISI. The Soviet Union too is in the fray and sent thousands of military advisors to the PDPA. Things soured further when the PDPA itself had internal fissured and split into two factions, the dominant Khalq and the moderate Parcham.

In Sep 1979 President Taraki of the PDPA was assassinated by fellow Khalq member and PM Hafizullah Amin. His leadership was miserable and thousands of people went missing in the country. Displeased with him, the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan in Dec 1979 and killed Amin 3 days later. A Soviet backed regime was installed under Babrak Karmal (of the Parcham faction of the PDPA) as the President. More Soviet troops were deployed in Afghanistan to stabilize the Karmal regime.

Now, how can other nations keep quiet when the Soviet Union is making its presence felt in Afghanistan? So, the US, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and China aided the guerrillas with weapons including 2000 stinger missiles, while the Soviets supported the PDPA government. 

This is blatant interference into the affairs of the country by everyone like hawks measuring their prey. The internal war lasting 9 years cost the lives of between 0.5 million to 2 million Afghans. When we remember that the Afghan population currently is only about 4 crores these are very high casualties. It also displaced about 6 million people who fled to Iran and Pakistan and that is about 15% of its population. What can be more tragic?

Heavy bombardment in the war destroyed many villages in the countryside and also some cities like Herat and Kandahar. Millions of landmines were planted everywhere. Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province acted as a base for helping the rebels with the Deobandi Ulema of the area supporting Jihad.

Finally Gorbachev himself who sent the army into Afghanistan thought enough was enough and felt that it was futile and he cannot go on maintaining their army in Afghanistan like that when their own economy is getting affected on account of it. So the Soviet Union started pulling back its troops in May 1988 and it was completed by February 1989. 

Even when the Soviet Union was withdrawing its troops the US continued to supply arms to the rebels who attacked the withdrawing Soviet troops. Such are the acts of big powers.

After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in 1989 there was a civil war and the PDPA regime under Najibullah collapsed in 1992. Various Mujahideen factions committed widespread rape, murder and extortion. The civil war between various factions went on till the Taliban emerged on the scene in 1994. 

This is a movement from the Islamic madrassas from Pakistan which had military support from Pakistan. Now the big boy has arrived to take charge (of the civil war of course). They slowly advanced their spread into Afghanistan and finally drove out the Government of Rabbani from Kabul in 1996.  The Taliban then enforced the harsh Sharia law as per which even listening to music is a sin to be punished. During its rule the Taliban committed massacres against civilians in Afghanistan. They denied UN food supplies to civilians and burnt farms and homes of thousands of people.       

To resist the Taliban a Northern alliance was formed by Massoud and Dostum. This alliance was defeated by the Taliban in 1997-98 in Mazar E Sharif. Pakistan sent thousands of army to help the Taliban in its battles against the Northern Alliance. By the year 2000, the Northern Alliance only controlled 10% of the country in the Northeast. In Sep 2001 Massoud was assassinated by a two member Arab suicide squad.

In October 2001 the USA invaded Afghanistan with the ISAF to remove Taliban from power and the Taliban hegemony came to an end. Hamid Karzai was installed as the President in Dec 2001. 

Taliban forces then regrouped in Pakistan. Over the next decade the ISAF and Afghan troops attacked the Taliban but could not fully defeat them. The ISAF (the bulk is from the US) has now completed a full 20 years in Afghanistan spending all that money but nothing had been accomplished. 

They cannot remain there forever, so they finally decided to withdraw now. The moment the withdrawal started the Taliban struck back and has now come back to power with lightning speed. So all the effort of the US for 20 years and all that money has gone down the drain. Neither has the Soviet intervention for 9 years achieved anything. So, the 29 years of foreign power intervention has only ruined the country into a civil war and catapulted a dangerous outfit like the Taliban into power.  

The Soviet Union initially and later the US have played with the country like a pawn with Pakistan aiding the process. The entire turmoil in Afghanistan faces today is because of these 2 countries playing games. Ultimately both countries despite intervening could not get any lasting solution and they not only wasted their own money but caused a huge loss of life to that country. 

Of course it was the Soviet Union that made the first move to aid the communists, destroying the peace the country enjoyed for a long time. It was the communist PDPA that initiated all this nonsense and paved the way for the invasion of first the Soviet Union and then the USA. The US initially abetted the Mujahideen and supplied them with 2000 stinger missiles through Pakistan, all in the name of stopping the Soviet Union.  

NAPOLEAN BONAPARTE-AN AN EVALUATION.

 Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 to a Notary public Carlo Bonaparte on the island of Corsica. His parents were Italian and therefore Napoleon was Italian and not French. His native Island Corsica was occupied by the French and was continually struggling to regain its independence from the French. For the first 20 years of his life Napoleon was a Corsican patriot trying to regain the Independence of Corsica from the French. But the French Revolution that took place in 1789 has recognized the claims of Corsicans and so he slowly got into the service of France in its armed forces.

Napoleon was a fast worker. His career hardly spanned 20 years, yet in that short period he rose right up to the top. In the process, he disturbed Europe more than either Alexander or Chenghiz could do. 

He is small in stature and in the initial period of his life,  his health was not good. He never impressed anyone with his looks and was always clumsy at public functions. Neither did he have any advantage of either birth or riches. In fact, till he rose, he was abjectly poor and had to go without a meal often.

Napoleon overcame all those difficulties by his absolute and unshakable belief in his own destiny, and in his own glorious future. Ambition was the main spring of his life. The absolute will to make the name of Napoleon the most important thing in the world carried Napoleon to a pinnacle of fame which no other man has ever reached.

Surprisingly Napoleon never had any ethical or moral values and it is very difficult to decide whether he loved anyone else except himself. For a few years he was fond of Josephine his Creole wife, the daughter of a French Officer and the widow of a Baron. He later divorced her as she could not give him a son.

During the siege of Toulon Napoleon gained great fame as the commander of a battery. He studied Machiavelli well and never kept his word when it was to his advantage to break it. There is no word called gratitude in his personal dictionary. Neither did he expect any from the others though. He was totally indifferent to human suffering. He executed the prisoners of war in Egypt who had been promised their lives and committed many other such deeds. He looked after every department of his army with utmost care but neglected the medical service. He could never bear the smell of sweat of his soldiers and used much Eau De Cologne to douse it.

Why did his armies revere such a man who had no element of humanity in him? No one knows why, but a possibility is Napoleon was the greatest of actors and the whole European continent was his stage. At all times and under all circumstances he knew the precise attitude that would impress the spectators most and what words would make the deepest impression on them. At all times he was the master of the situation whenever and wherever he spoke.

He was a great success in the first part of his career from 1789 to 1804. He was then the leader of the French revolution. He was fighting in the name of the people. He defeated Austria, England, Russia and Italy because he and his soldiers were the apostles of the revolution representing “Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality” and were the friends of the people. The entire European continent came under his influence. 

In 1804 Napoleon crowned himself the hereditary Emperor of the French. Once there he forgot about what he represented and kept his shooting squads ever ready to execute anyone who went against his will. Ultimately, after all his successes in battle his fleet was destroyed by Lord Nelson at Trafalgar and subsequently his armies were defeated by Wellington at Waterloo. 

While the French revolution had spoken of Liberty, Fraternity and Equality, it gave the world Napoleon. When he was active, people in the opposing countries shivered at the mention of his name and that in the entire European continent. He got his army’s horses stabled in the mighty Kremlin and treated the royalty of Europe as scum. A man who came from nowhere, absolutely without any backing from either anyone or his family but he managed to enforce himself on the entire European continent by the mere force of his will. That is why he is called the “Man of Destiny”.

 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

 The European countries, Spain, Portugal, France, Holland and England were vying for colonies after the industrial revolution. In 1497 John Cabot had landed on the Northern part of America and 27 years later in 1524 Giovanni Verrazano has visited these coasts. While Cabot sailed under the English flag, Verrazano sailed under the French flag but both were Italians. So England and France proclaimed themselves as the owners of the continent.

During the 17^th century initially 10 English colonies have been formed between Maine and the Carolinas. They were generally a refuge for colonies of sects of English dissenters. The Puritans founded the colony of New England (the current states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut & Rhode Island) in the year 1620 and the Quakers founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1681. They were initially small colonies bordering the sea where people wanted to start a new life away from Royal interference.  As for the French colonies, they always remained under the French crown. The English colonies therefore represented an advance over their French counterparts. They were freemen nominally recognizing the suzerainty of England.

While English colonies represented the English middle class who wanted to settle in the country, the French colonies were represented by crown representatives of France who wanted to later go back to France.

The French had discovered the mouth of Saint Lawrence in the 16^th century. From the region of the Great lakes they worked their way down the continent to Mississippi and built several fortifications along that line. After a century of exploration about 60 French forts have cut the English colonies from the interior of the continent to the west of them.

The English land grants made to various trading companies mentioned the continent from sea to sea. However, this is merely on paper and the English hold ended where the French fortifications began.

As long as the Stuarts reigned over England there was no problem between England and France. The Stuarts needed the Bourbons in France to cut the power of the Parliament and make themselves autocratic.

In 1689 the last of the Stuarts rule has ended in England and it fell in the hands of the Dutch William III who was a great enemy of Louis XIV of France. From then onwards till the treaty of Paris in 1763, England and France fought for possessions in North America as well as India. During these wars the English navy always beat the French navy, so by the time the war ended French had lost most of their possessions in North America and virtually the entire continent fell into British hands.

Only a small part of this vast continent was inhabited. From Massachusetts in the North to the Carolinas and Virginia (the tobacco raising provinces) stretched a thin line of sparsely populated territory. The men who lived there are totally different from the citizens of England who lived in the home country. They learnt self reliance and independence. They are hard working people because no ordinary person could sustain the hard travails that may befall them in the long sea journey to North America.

The British government started annoying the colonists by trying to control them. They in turn started annoying the British government. The colonists ultimately took to arms to have their own say in their affairs. King George III, the then English monarch hired German soldiers to subdue the American colonists.

In June 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a motion in the continental Congress to the effect that they are now left the allegiance to the British crown and all relations with them are dissolved. This motion was seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts. That was followed by the declaration of Independence which was the work of Thomas Jefferson. 

The first 13 colonies which started the war:

1.       1. New Hampshire

2.       2. Massachusetts

3.       3. Rhode Island

4.       4. Connecticut

5.       5. New York

6.       6. New Jersey

7.       7. Pennsylvania

8.       8. Delaware

9.       9. Maryland

1       10. Virginia

1       11. North Carolina

1       12. South Carolina

1       13. Georgia.

There were 7 men who were its ideologues and founders of the current USA. Among them the first 4 listed served as the first 4 Presidents of the United States. They are

1.       1. George Washington

2.       2. John Adams

3.       3. Thomas Jefferson

4.       4. James Madison

5.       5. Alexander Hamilton

6.       6. John Jay

7.       7. Benjamin Franklin

The war between England and the American colonies started in 1776 and lasted 7 years. During the war the victory of the colonists seemed doubtful. A great number of people in the cities proved to be loyal to the English king. They wanted to compromise and were willing to sue for peace. However, George Washington stood guard like a colossus on the side of the colonists thwarting any such bid.

Well assisted by some brave men he used his determined but poorly equipped armies to fight with the king. Whenever defeat seemed certain, his strategy turned the tide of battle. His men were not properly fed and did not have any winter clothing and shoes and lived in dugouts. But their trust in Washington was absolute and they stuck with him till the time of victory unquestioningly.

While Washington was winning victories with his armies, it was Benjamin Franklin who looked on the money side. He was in Europe getting money from the French Government and the Dutch bankers in the first year of the revolution.

The news of this reached Europe along with news of the adoption of a constitution in 1787 (first of all written constitutions). At that time Europe was a place where the lower sections are held in check with great power by the nobility and the kings. The dynasties of kings were at the Zenith of their power. The success of the American Revolution gave great hope those oppressed peoples. This in turn had an electrifying effect on the people of France who then had their revolution in 1789.

OLYMPICS- MY UNREALISTIC FASCINATION.

How I got so interested in Olympics? Way back when I was about 13-14 years old, I happened to read a book on Olympics from my father’s library.  I still remember that books cover. It had a red cover with the statue of “Discobolus” or the Discus thrower of Miro depicted in white on top of the red background. Now, till that time no one talked to me about the Olympics so I did not even know what it was. That book fascinated me so much that immediately on reading it I decided that I should go to the Olympics. 

I had no idea what a stupendous task it can be, but at that youthful time it was sheer enthusiasm without any logical foundation for it. Somehow the javelin fascinated me and I decided that it would be the event that should be tried first. So I cut a piece of bamboo pole about 8 feet in length. Luckily the ancestral house where I stayed then had about 3 acres of grounds, some of which did not have any trees. I started throwing that bamboo pole from one side, then run to the other, measured it back and threw it again. It went on like that for some time when I thought I should diversify into other events. So in the morning I used to go religiously to the grounds (I must be around 14 at that time) and used to initially run for about 4 rounds of 400 mtrs each which I later extended to longer distances.

There was one school ground near to my house which had a high jump and long jump pits. But for doing high jump I needed the high jump poles. For that I cut two bamboo poles and struck nails into them so that the first nail came about 4 and half feet from the ground. After putting the poles into the ground I used another bamboo pole as the high jump bar between the poles by laying it on the nails on the poles either side. 

I used to do high jump, then cut another longer bamboo pole and even started doing pole vault. After completing my high jump and pole vault, I was running to the long jump pit and was doing long jump and triple jump as well. The school had an open ground and no boundary wall. To any stranger that passed by on the road, I must have been a strange sight, a guy all alone jumping away without another soul to accompany me. 

I never even bothered to ask any friend to accompany me. The enthusiasm and inspiration was so strong that it did not matter at all and I had to do it. I had a bicycle on which I ferried the poles each day back and forth between my house and the ground.  

Now practicing like a tin horn in that manner and going to the Olympics is preposterous and impossible, but then, how was I to know that then? After sometime I thought I should also practice hurdles. So I paid some money to a ball picker from Engineering College and he obliged me by giving me about 10 hurdles from the College collection. After that it was an additional burden to me because on some days I used to ferry all those hurdles to the grounds in the morning and practice.   

My practice went on like that for about 6 months when a couple of friends joined me off and on. Of course I was also playing cricket then. Sometimes practicing regularly and sometimes not. Of course due to all these activities I became very fit, but did not have any impressive records because I was doing too many things. 

Even when I joined my engineering at the University I continued my practice in the University grounds, although not with the same intensity as before. I hardly studied at college and some classmates were calling me  the athlete and some others the Javelin thrower. There were none in my college who could beat me in running (excluding the 100m and 200 m sprints), and jumps and Javelin. Of course I never thought of taking up shot put or discuss or hammer because of my frail frame and weight which then was just 52 Kgs. Somehow I could not do well in long jump and triple jump.

I was the champion of my college and used to win the 400, 800, 1500, 5000 & the 10000, and then High Jump, Pole Vault and Javelin. No one could even challenge me in these events. 

When I studied the Engineering degree was of 5 years duration. During that period, I represented my college in 5 inter collegiate and 5 Inter Engineering, i.e. a total of 10 meets, but I did not get any medals in the inter collegiate competitions but managed to get a couple of medals in Javelin throw in the Inter Engineering tournaments. I used to throw between 47 to 50 meters, my best being 49.75 mtrs with which I won a silver medal at the Inter Engineering meet at REC Warangal (now NIT). I remember that during that time the national record for Javelin was 70 meters and the state record of Andhra Pradesh was just 56 meters and with my frail frame and lack of focus I was throwing 50 meters. I was later elected as the General Captain of my college for 1 year.       

I could not do well in any single event because I did not focus on it and my energy was dissipated on multiple events. Surprisingly no one including my college physical directors ever advised me on taking up a single event. After college of course I could not continue the practice for obvious reasons.

Anyhow, that part of my life had been a sweet experience for me and I shall cherish it forever. I remember the time when the Engineering College Principal once told me during the years sports prize distribution “Krishnayya stand near the dais and do not go down because anyway all the medals are yours”. Such was my dominance at the college in athletics.