AFGHANISTAN

Hokitika Guardian, 29 December 1928, Page 7

AFGHANISTAN

GATEWAY OF THE WORLD

PROBLEM OF NORTHWEST FRONTIER OF INDIA.

Afghanistan presents itself to oiliciss 1 1 mini ns the problem of the NorthWest frontier. From this frontier, through the Khyber Pass, the On towny to India, have come the successive waves of'conquering northmen, to subdue the weaker races in the fertile plains of, the Indus and the Ganges, found aii empire of their own, themselves in turn going down to the enervating ''influence of that sunny and fertile lantlf giving way at last to other hardier conquerors sweeping south. The history of India is just a succession of these conquering waves from the north. Then came the English. They manned the Pass; held hack the hordes; but the hardy hillmen look down to-day from their mountain'lastnesses, eye the domain that would he theirs by Tight of conquest ; if only the Sahib could he got rid of. What a prize awaits. Now King Amnnullah has gone over to the British Raj, trying to make Western ways the ways of Afghanistan. Hu has united with those who stand between his countrymen and their destiny. Small wonder they lutve risen in revolt against this leap of the centuries. The test may now again be applied to India’s North-Western Frontier defences. They have always withstood the' would-be invader, and will doubtless do so again if called upon. Rut the work of the frontier garrisons is one of peril. It is the work of isolated outposts, any 'one of which may he overwhelmed. They serve the empire in this forbididug land, and seldom do their deeds find fame in the telling.

The North-West frontier has for the foregoing and other reasons a singular attraction for those interested in India. How could it he otherwise in this great gateway of the world?

land of many races.

Major M. L. A. Gompertz, of the North-West Frontier, in the “ Indian State Railways Magazine,” says that one of the attractions of India is undoubtedly the very great mixtuio of peoples which inhabit this vast country. Journeys through it provide endless opportunities of studying many different races, most of whom are px - - turesque, especially in those - paits where the.'spread of civilisation has not vet destroyed the old costumes and customs.

The reason for this diversity Ts that since time immemorial wave after wave of invasion has surged into India from the landward side—invasions of people who for the greater part have come to stay. From the very dawn of history we can-trace these perennial entries of new races, and from the archaeologists’ researches we can deduce proof of similar influxes of people now lost and forgotten, in times that were before history began. Nearly without exception all these invasions have entered bv one or other of the routes crossing wliat to-day is called' the North-West frontier, since the sen-which surrounds three sides of India offered no road for large scale migrations in the days when the hugest ships were mere cockle shells, while on the northern border the giant ice and snow rampart of»the high Himalayas forms an almost impassable harrier.

lii the north-west corner, however, 1 lie hills ore far lower, the routes ninny, and some good, and it is through this tangle of hills flint have come so many of the peoples of India, and the armies whose names spell Indian history. To-day still the gates of the Xorth-We.st Frontier are as they have always been, the potential routes for an attack upon India. Hut unlike the landward frontiers of other countries, that of India possesses an interest all its own, in that, except at two points, is uni truly coincident with that ol the next Stjite. , . . .

The country between the Indus and Afghanistan is spoken of as the NorthWest Frontier, the eastern portion being the North-West Frontier province, the western portion being Haluchistan.

THE DURAND LINE.

Over thirty years ago the frontier between the Indian Fitipirc and Afghanistan was demarcated by an Anglo-Algliaii commission working under Sir .Mortimer and north and west of this Durand line, as it is called, lies Afghan territory. Hut India proper does not extend all through as far. as- the Durand line il by India one implies the country which is fully administered in modern fashion.

Along much of the 800 miles of this frontier and on our side of it lies a ’ i> ,( -f land which is tribal country, inhabited by Patlian tribes who recognise no authority except their own tribal law and customs, whose misdemeanours can only be punished by military force, and who in the main follow their own sweet and varied wills. r t is India in that were there any external power to invade it the Indian Government would have to act in the esame way as if some maritime power were to invade Bombay or Madras. For tbe rest this tribal land is a world apart. The southern edge of it is referred to as the administrative border in contradistinclTon to the true border of Afghanistan which lies northward.

The tribal belt is one long tangle of hills and varies in depth from as much as a hundred miles and more to as little as forty or fifty in places, and for the most part it is roadless as far ns modern roads go. those suitable to wheeled vehicles of modern type. * It

begins in the north in the mountain states oT Chitral, Swat, and Buner, through the Mnlakand and thence to the Khyber, westward through the Kurram and Tochi, Wazirstan, the Gumal and Ivliob, and so into Baluchistan, where in time if you turn southward you will reach the Indian Ocean, traversing Makran, which the old Greeks called Gadrosia, through which Alexander the Great’s army withdrew from India, many of them perishing from sheer hardship on the way.

GREAT ROADS OF HISTORY.

'l’llrough these hills break various rivers whose valleys form the great roads of history and which are still the trade routes, although here and there the routes have diverged somewhat from the actual water courses as the art of road-making has progressed.

In subdividing the frontier one speaks generally of the divisions lying about these valleys, the Kurram, the Tochi, the Gumal, the Zliob, all named after the rivers flowing through them. One may also, however, divide it in terms of its inhabitants, talking off the Afrid country on either side of the Kyber, the Mohamand and Yusufzai country oil the north, the Orakzai country, which is the best of tin? Afridis, to whom the Oralwsais arc in some ways kin, the Turi country centring on the fertile Kumun valley, Wimristan, which includes the Tochi and Gumal valleys and is inhabited by Wassirs and Mahsud Wazirs, the latter being more commonly referred to as Malisuds. Baluchistan included Khoh and is inhabited by various Pathan clans as well as by tlie Baluchis, from whom it gets its name.

Generally, however, all these people are of the same stock, a stock closely related to the inhabitants ot Alglianistau in features, language and customs, although long periods ot more settled government and strong-handed rulers have tended to render the Afghans perhaps somewhat more amenable to law and order than are the tribes of the North-West Frontier beyond the administrative border. Thai country is poor and offers nothing to the invader. Consequently none of the many invaders have tarried there hut have moved southward into rich India.

BLOOD FEUDS.

The Pathan of the tribal country recognises no masters whatsoever, not even his own clan cliiets. His lile is largely taken up in prosecuting blood lends, which are a most important matter, and every man is hound in honour to take up his family and clan feuds though the original cause of the quarrel may be now been lost in the mists of antiquity. One understands, therefore, that every man goes armed and that such a life produces intense individuality, distrust of one’s fellows and great consideration ol oneself with its corollary of unreliability. Below 'the hills lie the plains stretching back to the Indus, and this part is India proper, although it is slightly different in its administration. This is inevitable in view of the tribes who dwell in the hills on its edge. In tlie North-West Frontier Province the policeman carries a rifle " more .often than not, and the more important or more exposed villages have their quota of rifles with which to arm their stalwarts when the raiders conic down from the hills. The Pathan of the settled districts is much as his cousins j„ the tribal hills, sure that he has long been accustomed to settled government and blood feuds no longer being permitted by British law arc dying ( nit. Last and most important ho has the quality of reliability, so that he makes most excellent constabulary and soldiery.

A SKILLED RAIDER

Apart from rifle thieving and horse stealing, the tribal Pathan raids the villages of the plains whenever he can. carrying off hard cash, and live stock, women, or children, or rich Hindu merchants, for ransom. He has good facilities, for India is a country where normallv all may come. Tne wouldlc raider deposits his rifle in P<>hce custody at one of the border posts swaggers into Peshawar bazaar, and thence by train or car, departs to the scene of the proposed action. lhen |,o will spend days and weeks studying local conditions, and working out his plans. Then he returns to the administrative border, gathers up ~s ,-i(|e. and returns home to assemble bis friends, and make all prepartions. One nigbl. down they come, perhaps i bii ly miles on foot in the night, and the next thing is a raided village, a house or two in flames, some corpses, and tbe loot on its way to the lulls. There is thus a good deal of hard work for the police and constabulary to do on tbe North-West Frontier. From Peshawar, which is delightful in the cold weather and spring, though appallinglv hot in summer, the visitor can go' either by train, or ear up through the Kyber Pass, some thirty miles, to the Afghan frontier. 1 he last twenty odd miles lie through Af-,-idi country, real tribal territory, where there are no such things as police or law. and the gunrdship of the road lies with the Afridis themselves. The trip can be done comfortably in a day, and tbe run past tbe walled and towered villages, among tbe terraced fields, where armdJl men watch their crops’ is full of interest. On caravan days, the double road will filled with strings of camels, and picturesque men. women, children and great dogs, droves of goats, and fat-tailed sheep, and all the merchandise of middle Asia. Fortv miles west of Peshawar lies Kohnt, another frontier station which Maude Diver has rendered famous in her novels. Tt is best reached by good motor road, which again runs through tribal country, that of the Adamn Kbel Alridis. Just off the mad lies tbe

Adam Kliel rifle factory which turns out very creditable imitations of Government weapons even to the test marks, which sell at about iiS, 150 among the tribes. Being a tribal country of course tlie factory cannot he interfered with.

Westward of Kohat lies the Kurram Valley whose inhabitants differ from all the other frontier tribes in betng Shiahs instead of Sunnis. These two divisions of the Mohammedan World may be compared roughly to those ot Catholics and Protestants in the Middle Ages, except that possibly even less love is lost. Consequently as far back as 1880 the Turis of the Kurram made a treaty with the Indian Government and have been most loyal ever since.

Westward again of the Kurram lies Bannu, also written of by Maude Diver. But whereas Kohat is still much as it was in her days, facing the Orakzai country and the Samana ridge scene of some of the heaviset fightfug in the 185)7 outbreak of the tribes, the glory of Bannu has rather departed. It is the gate of the Tochi Valley, the beginning of Mahsud and Vnzii country and in the last seven years since 1920 there has been a' notable change of policy.

INFLUENCE OF THE MATA.

Continual Mahsud raiding into an administered territory led to punitive expedition after expedition, all costly and productive of no lasting results, until in 1920 the last and biggest was sent in. The Mahsud and Wazir having had their fill off hard fighting after a few months, sat down and waited for the expedition to depart home again In the time-honoured way, offering opportunities of harrassing rear guards, cutting off small parties of careless or tired troops, annexing good government rifles and ammunition, camels and unconsidcred trifles of baggage. But to the Mahsud’s disappointment and surprise the troops stayed, and there they have been ever since, and from a roadless wild almost unknown country, Waziristan is developing into a known Country with good roads for mechanical transport. So advanced has it in the last two or three years that the Mahsud now uses Ford cars for hurrying up reserves into Ins >nterclan battles, and progress stalks through the land in a haze of petrol and oil.

STILL THE “ FRONTIER.”

But for all the difference of terrain and peoples it is still the North-West frontier, unmistakable, a hard land breeding a hard folk. Any visit to India which does not include a tour through tfre long frontier belt Ifrom Peshawar to Quetta must leave a false impression. The history of India of the past has been built up from the North-West, the history of India of the 'future must hinge largely on- that same North-West, on the peoples who dwell about the border, the keepers of the gates. India requires peace to develop and peace for India means primarily peace in the North-West and across the tribal hills. The North-West has contributed little in the way of art or learning to India’s store; these are the fruit of the more southern portions of India where life is so much easier—fruit that can only be produced when men have leisure and freedom to turn their thoughts and energies to tip more beautiful things. The Nortil-West has never had that leisure and freedom; it sleeps and lives, as it has slept and lived for long centuries, in its harness, and as a result those behind have pe;lce. Just as to understand England and the English one must know the sea and understand all that it has meant in our history and our institutions, so to understand India as a whole, one must see and learn something of the great North-West Frontier.