Just Finished Reading: Return of a King – The Battle for Afghanistan by William Dalrymple (FP: 2013)

It all started with a rumour – the Napoleon intended to threaten the British Empire by attacking India from the north. With his defeat at Waterloo in 1815 this fear morphed into something with more substance, that Russia with her Persian ally could occupy the unexplored and unknown land of Afghanistan thereby threatening the British (hoped for) domination of Central Asia. Something, the hawkish parties back in London determined, must be done. But first information about this terra incognita needed to be acquired and to do that the East India Company sent one of its brightest and best to negotiate a treaty with the then King of Afghanistan. That Company man was Mountstuart Elphinstone [which has to be one of my favourite names of all time and sounds like someone out of a Tolkien novel] an expert in languages and on Persia. The meeting took place on the very edge of Afghan territory and went well. As the King returned in good spirits he discovered that while he had been talking to the British a palace coup had taken place forcing him to flee for his life – back into the arms (eventually) of the East India Company. There he stayed, in comparative poverty for years until finally the British needed him. After decades of turmoil in Afghanistan if looked like a Persian backed and Russian supported King would come to power on the Northern Frontier. This is something the Empire could not, and would not, tolerate. It was time to return the exiled King to power, supported by his good friends the British.

It was at this point that everything that could go wrong did so. The leaders of the expedition, both military and diplomatic, knew nothing of the area, people or terrain they needed to travel through and were as about unprepared as they possibly could be for what lay ahead. Only sheer bloody-mindedness and some good luck got them to the Afghan plain in reasonable condition. Once installed as ‘advisors’ to the King they made repeated mistakes, would not take the advice of experts on the ground, and continually annoyed the local chieftains. As might be imagined it was not long before unrest turned to murderous revolt. Difficult as it was to imagine (even for those directly involved) the revolt was even more badly handled than the invasion itself which allowed a small divided opposition to become a cohesive and well-co-ordinated rebel army. After a series of incompetent decisions piled up open each other there was finally only (apparently) one option left: To leave the country to its own devices and return to India. This was the most ridiculous part of the whole fiasco and ended in one the greatest defeats of a British army by local natives ever recorded. Not being able to let such an event stand there was only one response possible. As soon as they could be gathered from all over the sub-continent an Army of Retribution was put together to ‘teach the Afghans a lesson’ and force the return of any hostages. As can be imagined after such a disaster and with the honour of the Empire at stake the retribution was brutal indeed.

Told in epic style and using contemporary accounts from both sides of the divide this was a gripping piece of history with clear resonances to present events in that long troubled area of the world. What stood out to me most of all, apart from the avoidable tragedy of it all, is the staggering incompetence of the British leadership – both military and diplomatic. More than once I read whole pages with my mouth open in amazement at the levels of arrogant stupidity exhibited by supposedly educated and experienced men. Of course in any such events there are heroes as well as fools and knaves, and there are definitely enough heroes (and heroines) to go around. Whilst not exactly Britain’s finest hour this is a truly fascinating story of an oft forgotten war in a faraway place. Brilliant and highly recommended.