Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan

British propaganda, a better book on the subject is written by Craig Murray. Dalrymple uses Britain’ s state propaganda historic narrative to paint an inaccurate picture of why the Afghans turned on the English reducing it to anger in response to the fraternization of Afghan women by the British which has no basis in reality. He also, true to his English form, exaggerates the British response to Afghan provocation claiming that all of Kabul was destroyed when only a bazaar was. The truth is that the British were trying to save face for the embarrassment they suffered, and only achieved a few symbolic victories and went home . Craig Murray’ Sikander Burns refutes much of the official narrative of this subject.

"You have brought an army into the country, but how do you propose to take it out?" - An Afghan Tribal Chief"I cannot understand why the rulers of so vast an empire should have gone across the Indus to deprive me of my poor and barren country." - Dost Mohammad Khan, Deposed and Restored Ruler of AfghanistanWilliam Dalrymple starts this account of the First Anglo-Afghan War in 1808 as the British approach Kabul offering gifts and alliance with Shah Shuja, the ruler of Afghanistan. The dynasty was founded by his grandfather who seized Delhi's plunder from the Persian warlord Nader Shah. Britain learned of a treaty between Napoleon and the Tsar of Russia to attack India over the Hindu Kush. France had planned an invasion through Suez but it's fleet was sunk by Nelson at the Nile in 1798. The embassy was sent by Lord Wellington who would go on to defeat Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.Shuja became a pawn in the East India Company's 'Great Game'. Persians were promised his lands by the French for passage through Iran. His rule in decline, tribal intrigues forced him to flee to British Punjab. After Napoleon's death in 1821 Russia became a concern, and spy networks were set up in central Asia. Fears of a joint Russian and Persian invasion gave a pretense to restore Shuja to the throne of Afghanistan. Britain secretly funded Shuja's army. Joined by Ranjit Singh, Maharajah of the Sikhs, he set out to retake Kabul in 1834 from Afghan usurper Dost Mohammad Khan.Shuja's plan failed and now aware of British complicity Dost prevailed. Britain and Russia vied for influence in Persia. Russian plots prompted Persia to attack Herat in 1837 with troops armed and trained by the British. Spies like Alexander Burnes and Ivan Vitkevitch competed for alliance with Dost. Lord Auckland, the new Governor General of India guided by hawkish bureaucrats, insisted Dost be deposed and replaced by Shuja, sabotaging Burnes efforts. Vitkevitch offered men and money to reclaim Kashmir from Ranjit Singh. After the events in Herat and Kabul Auckland fell into a state of panic.As British prepared to invade there were warnings from local leaders and old hands alike that the terrain was formidable and people fierce. Where diplomacy would have succeeded war was now chosen. Twenty thousand Indian soldiers and their British officers were on the march. Before starting out the siege of Herat was lifted and Vitkevitch recalled to Russia removing any purpose for the expedition. Regardless the plan commenced in 1839. Searing deserts, mountain passes, tribal ambushes, brigand gangs, dying animals, low rations and lack of water took their toll until Kandahar was reached.In Kandahar Shuja was hailed as a hero by defectors from Dost. Flowers were thrown before his elephants feet and he rained British rupees upon his subjects, yet when a soldier raped a girl opinion turned. Shuja became despised as he had come with a foreign infidel army. Ranjit Singh was to have approached Kabul with Muslim troops but reneged on his pledge. In Ghazni the British were astounded to find fifty meter high fortifications. A desperate night attack was made and the Afghan army routed. Dost sued for peace but was forced to flee before the British army approach to Kabul.Dost was imprisoned in Bukhara as Russians invaded Khiva. British alarm was raised but the Opium War of 1840 diverted troops from Afghanistan to China. Requisitions for defensive construction were denied and five thousand soldiers slept in a low cantonment with short walls. Afghans were offended by foreigners openly drinking and whoring. Seen as a figure head for British rule, the clergy excluded Shuja's name from the Friday prayers. Nobles chafed at patronage reforms and hyperinflation arose from the foreign occupation. When Dost escaped from jail he returned to raise the flag of holy war.Dost's jihad failed and he surrendered to be exiled in India. Singh's death caused civil war in Punjab, threatening supply and communication lines to Afghanistan. Herat made allies with Persia against Britain as rebellions arose in the country. Occupation was draining the East India Company treasury. Feudal protection money was reduced and nobility left the court to prepare insurrections. British forces were recalled to India to lessen the payroll as Afghan muskets fired from the cliffs above. Their infantry and cavalry weren't suitable for the guerrilla warfare the natives were accustomed to use.Jihad was sworn upon the Quran. A mob set fire to Burnes house in Kabul and cut him to pieces. Militia rode in from the mountains. Foreigners were attacked in their forts and homes, without reprisal, in a popular uprising. Sheltered in the cantonment, ringed by hostile hill stations, ammunition and provision depots were captured. Shuja refused to join the rebels and was declared an infidel. Akbar Khan, the son of Dost, became leader of the rebels. Freezing and famine followed, and a treaty was negotiated for the British retreat. Seventeen thousand soldiers and civilians left for India.For a week they marched through the snow dying from cold and shot at by Akbar's rebels. Only several reached Jalalabad and two thousand survived as hostages or slaves. As Shuja manoeuvred with Kabul nobles to retain the throne, Akbar waged a political campaign claiming he was unwilling to fight the infidels. Forced to come out of his citadel he was slain in the street. Akbar laid siege to Jalalabad but was routed by the defenders. In 1842 the Army of Retribution burned and killed their way to Kabul. Dost Mohammad Khan was restored to rule by the empire that had deposed him.All manner of military and political pitfalls are told in this tale; cold war threats, espionage, regime change, puppet rulers, leadership lapses and military quagmires. Americans and Russians would have done well to review the war before embarking on their own fiascos. Dalrymple is expansive, reflecting the deep research done. The events are clearly conveyed for the period and conflict. Afghans and English are covered well but Indian troops from Bombay and Bengal are given little notice. This is surprising as Dalrymple is a scholar, writer and long time resident of northern India.

An interview with the author on a morning talk show prompted me to order the Kindle version that same day. His thorough research and accessible writing style (almost as readable as David McCullough) made this lengthy book fly by quickly for me. I was frequently stunned by the number of parallels between the experiences of the British, Soviets, and the U.S in this mysterious place. Perhaps most compelling were the carefully explained nuances of Afghan internal politics that appear to have changed very little in their dynamics in the more than 170 years since the events recounted in this book. Author William Dalrymple's own British heritage, combined with a prodigious knowledge of Afghan history and culture enabled him to paint a uniquely informed picture of the futility of invading and suppressing Afghanistan. The failure of the British to adapt their approach to reflect the culture and circumstances contains many lessons no less relevant today.Among the more interesting story lines was how the British and Russian power structures were willing to ignore or refute what their envoys actually inside Afghanistan were telling them. Time after time, those governments made strategic blunders, allowing bureaucrats or aristocrats who had never set foot in the country to decide on diplomatic or military matters with profound implications for everyone involved. Even readers with strongly cynical or jaded attitudes toward politics may sometimes find it difficult to understand the amount of deceit, deception, and fragile loyalties inherent in Afghan affairs, but it was and may still be, essential to how they hold on to their own identity as a mainly tribal structure constantly under fire from some global power.Initially I found the myriad of tribal and ethnic names and references to be confusing and overwhelming, but once I stopped worrying about how to pronounce names or be absolutely clear on who was from where and which other factions they were aligned with, the reading was less arduous. If understanding Afghanistan is important to you, this book will make you much better informed.

I am not a professional historian. This work has not been completed yet because of its length. But, from the pages that I had read, and the footnotes I have reviewed, it is a very well written book about an extremely complicated "government" in a country that really has 1000 governments. I look forward to the winter and working through the rest of this work with care.

Having read a few other books about the Great Game I have long wanted to read more about Afghanistan, but there is little available. And when I have read of the first British invasion of that country it has had a British centric and largely scathing view of events. What Dalrymple does so masterfully here is explore the events and personalities is great detail seriously lacking from other works, and very importantly he uses Afghan sources as well, something I noted was lacking from Peter Hopkirk's The Great Game.Instead of the boys own adventure of that latter book what we get here instead is a description of a completely unnecessary war, an unprovoked invasion, a clearer portrait of Afghan characters and culture, misrule by the arrogant British and a portrate of the British envoy and other leading figures as racist, arrogant and duplicitous incompetents. Mcnaghten, the envoy in charge of British rule in the country, even wrote that the Afghans were children and should be treated as such.And I cannot stress enough the double dealing nature of British involvement who often said one thing but did another, sought to play one tribe or leader off against another, attempted to have leaders killed, and ignore the British or Indian officers who actually understood the Afghan way of life. The author paints excellent pictures of all the major characters involved and does not shy away from their failings nor from the savagery of both sides, including British brutality, destruction of historic buidlings, towns and villages, murder and rape.A timely book that will help us understand Afghan tenacity, and help us to remember an atrocity which they still talk about but which the British choose to largely forget.

This is one of the most interesting books that I have ever read. His research is incredibly balanced and you get a real insight into Afghanistan as a country that was and still is inherently tribal. Much of the content can be related back to the modern day and the challenges that ISAF and NATO faced more recently. It provides a rich history of the personalities at the time and the shambolic leadership of the East India Company but nonetheless no invading country seems to have learnt from putting troops on the ground; Afghans don't take foreigners on their soil. He writes a fascinating story that is gripping from start to finish that covers atrocities committed by both parties. Probably the best of his books to date

This W. Dalrymple's book is magnificent, cruel story of the First Afghan war, where British army suffered the great looses. Moreover, this is not only a war story, it perfect explains how Afghanistan become such country as we know now; author precisely decribes customs, landscape and diversity of nation. it's story about British and Russian objectives to rule Asia; like a XIX a. Cold war. For me, this books was important, because W. Dalrymple mentioned young Lithuanian soldier Yan Vitkevich, who worked as a Russian spy in Asia. Frankly, author did some mistakes in book. He wrote, that Vikevich was a Polish and was born in Vilnius (which was Poland city). In fact, Vitkevich (Lithuanian, Jonas Prosperas Vitkevičius) was a Lithuanian nationality and was born in Lithuania village (untill now you could see his manor house in Lithuania), studied in Lithuanian Vilnius University and belonged to Lithuanian (Samogitian) nobility. Moreover, Vilnius, never been Poland city, it was created by Grand Duke of Lithuania, Gediminas and till now is capital of Lithuania. However, this book is fantastic.

I am big fan of William Dalrymple's books, and bought this on the strength of how much I enjoyed and learned from The Last Mughal. I was not at all disappointed. This book combines history writing with flair and often page turning pleasure. Covering the disastrous attempt in 1839 by the British of the East India company to reinstall a ruler in Kabul who they believed would be favourable to British interests and counter Russian influence, this book brings the times, the key characters, and the environment to life in the mind's eye. It feels like you were there - although very glad not to be!The resultant war brought nothing but death, destruction and the return of the very ruler they had deposed. The research is superb covering British and Afghan sources newly discovered by the author. A great book, which though large, made for easy and informative reading.Great stuff

I thought his book was an amazing read about Afghanistan and the events that have lead up to what is happening there today .The whole country was and is now controlled by tribes who are constantly at war with each other I guess it comes down to the whole chestnut Sunni v Shia .This book gives excellent background to how the country is shaped now ,I think for England ,Afghanistan was always about the gateway to India and protecting the Empire from Russian and French influence.I think a follow up read for me will be The Anarchy a history of the East India Company there is no question that William Dalrymple is an extremely gifted writer on this region ,they’re well researched books with an incredible touch for detail