Several writers have tried to understand and explain the ways of Afghanistan, from Babur ( Baburnama ) to Robert Byron ( The Road to Oxiana ) and Homeira Qaderi ( Dancing in the Mosque ). For centuries, Afghanistan was the gateway for invaders to the Indian subcontinent — Alexander the Great, Mahmud of Ghazni, Chengis Khan and Babur all took that route. In the 19th century, Afghanistan was caught in the Great Game between the British and the Russians.
Riven by ethnic divisions, it has witnessed periods of brutal conflict and civil wars from the 1920s to the 1999s. The “graveyard of empires” has forced out the British, Russians, and as it turns out now, even the Americans. In his insightful book, Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History , Thomas Barfield asks how and why splits in Afghan society since the 1920s, over the structure of government and its policies, have led to so many periods of state collapse. An intrepid Bengali writer witnessed one such collapse firsthand when he took up a teaching assignment in Kabul in 1927.
Colourful bazaar
Syed Mujtaba Ali’s In a Land Far From Home , wonderfully translated from the Bengali Deshe Bideshe (1948) by Nazes Afroz, is an account of Afghanistan in the 1920s. It’s an extraordinary portrayal of ordinary people caught between tradition and modernity, diversity and nationalism, valour and hospitality, wealth and poverty. Mujtaba Ali left Santiniketan for Kabul with “an extremely inquisitive mind” after finishing his studies at Visva-Bharati, where Rabindranath Tagore welcomed the world. In his introduction, Afroz points out that Mujtaba Ali was a polyglot who mastered 12 languages, including Bengali, English, Urdu, Farsi, Pashto, German and French, which helped him in Kabul, where people of many nationalities gathered.
He was fascinated by Kabul’s bazaar, which might have been poorer than Peshawar, but was far more colourful. “People of at least 25 nationalities did their trading there, keeping their sartorial and linguistic distinctions. Hazara, Uzbek, Kafiristani, Qizilbash, Mongol, Kurd — the traders of Kabul could easily tell who was from where... They would walk the same streets happily, accepting this diversity.” Mujtaba Ali was awestruck by the intricately-patterned carpets — at least 30 kinds were sold in Kabul.
There was a big inn at the end of the bazaar where traders would gather after the day’s work and evening prayers. The Mongols, he writes, would start dancing in a circle, whirling all the time. An Iranian could be seen in a corner with a sitar next to his ear, singing verses from Hafiz. The main gathering was around the Tajiks, singing loudly in unison.
Besieged city
The deeply anti-British teacher — India’s struggle for Independence was on — gathered insights about Afghan society from Kabulis, and the French, Russians and Germans working there, but most of all from Abdur Rahman, a Tajik from Panjshir. Rahman, eloquent about his land and snow, was Mujtaba Ali’s Man Friday who took great care of him.
This was the time King Amanullah wanted to modernise Afghan society. He announced reforms, including encouraging women to do away with the veil and banning traditional dress for men in public. Thanks to the king’s orders, most of the shops could not open in the initial stages because the men did not have the dereshi (a Western suit). The mullahs resisted the king’s moves and masterminded tribal rebellions, forcing King Amanullah to abdicate. “Amanullah wanted to pull the turban off the poor Afghans and he paid the price by losing the crown.”
A Tajik from the north of Kabul, Bacha Saqao, took over the throne and immediately set about destroying schools, books, and ordering all foreigners out. Mujtaba Ali provides heartrending descriptions of a besieged city surviving only on dry bread and salt. He finally got out of Kabul with the help of the British but not before a few sharp words to Sir Francis, the city’s top diplomat, for saying Indians had no rights in Kabul. His travelogue is eerily prescient, foretelling Afghanistan’s cycles of turmoil with its million mutinies.
The writer looks back at one classic every month.
sudipta.datta@thehindu.co.in
