The Hornets’ Nest
Britain’s fear of Russia led her to attempt regime change in Afghanistan, but it cost many lives and damaged the army’s reputation.
1838-1880
Queen Victoria 1837-1901
‘Remnants of an Army’, by Elizabeth Thompson.
By Elizabeth Thompson (1846-1933), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
‘Remnants of an army’ by Elizabeth Thompson (1846-1933), later Lady Butler. On January 13th, 1842, he rode into Jalalabad alone, the only one of a company of some 16,500 British soldiers and their families and servants to reach the town after fleeing rebellion in Kabul. Brydon, a surgeon, was badly wounded by a sword-blow to the head which had sheared a slice from his skull. He was not the only survivor of the trek: more than a hundred had been taken prisoner, and about two thousand sepoys and servants had returned to Kabul. But he was the only one to reach the column’s intended destination, save a Greek man who arrived two days later, and died.
Introduction
Jawaharlal Nehru has been telling his daughter about the rise of the Punjab State under Ranjit Singh, who died in 1839. From there he passes on to the stirring events unfolding to the north-west. The British East India Company, then ruling most of India, had been struck by a sudden fear that Nicholas I’s Russia might invade Afghanistan and threaten their Indian monopoly.
Farther to the north, or rather north-west of the Punjab, lay Afghanistan, and not far from Afghanistan, on the other side, were the Russians. The spread of the Russian Empire in central Asia upset the nerves of the British. They were afraid that Russia might attack India. Almost right through the nineteenth century there was talk of the “Russian menace”.
As early as 1839 the British in India made an entirely unprovoked attack on Afghanistan.* At that time the Afghan frontier was far from British India, and the independent Sikh State of the Punjab intervened. Nonetheless, the British marched to Kabul, making the Sikhs their allies. But the Afghans took signal revenge. However backward they may be in many respects, they love their freedom and will fight to the last to preserve it. And so Afghanistan has always been a “hornets’ nest” for any foreign army that invaded it.
Although the British had occupied Kabul and many parts of the country, suddenly there were revolts everywhere, they were driven back, and a whole British army suffered destruction.* Later another British invasion took place to avenge this disaster.*
* Britain stepped in to resolve a succession dispute between the current emir Dost Mohammad (Barakzai), who was felt to be too friendly with Emperor Nicholas I Russia, and former emir Shah Shujah (Durrani), London’s preferred ruler. The Prime Minister at the time was William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. At this time, India was not governed directly from London but by the British East Company on London’s behalf. After The Indian Mutiny of 1857, control passed from the East India Company to the Crown.
* The Kabul uprising began on November 2nd, 1841. As the situation became threatening, a company of around 16,500 people, of whom some 4,500 were military personnel and over 12,000 were camp followers (family members and servants) hastily evacuated the city and fled east towards British India. In deadly cold, they were hunted down by the Afghans and slaughtered in the Gandamak pass some thirty miles from Kabul, though some of the camp followers (especially those of Indian background) were taken prisoner and absorbed into Afghan communities. Throughout the whole sorry business there was much treachery and inhumanity on both sides.
* This was in September 1842. A young Neville Bowles Chamberlain (1820-1902) saw what British soldiers did at Istalif as they made their way to Kabul, and was utterly horrified by their plunder of private houses. “Tears, supplications were of no avail, fierce oaths were the only answer; the musket was deliberately raised, the trigger pulled, and happy was he who fell dead! Sometimes they were only wounded, and were finished by a second ball, and sometimes the powder only flashed in the pan as if in mockery of their agony. These horrible murders (for such alone must they be in the eyes of God) were truly wicked.” It was not just the Afghans who suffered. “We lost a very nice young fellow of the name of Evans. It being reported to him that our own people were ill-treating the women, he flew to their protection, when he was shot dead.”
