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Book Reviews 03.1.1 Return of a King The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42 By William Dalrymple New York: Random House LLC, 2013, 515 pages, ISBN 9780307948533. Reviewed by Sabeen Ahmed William Dalrymple, famed British counts from British and Russian in- historian and writer, is widely con- telligence officers and generals, and sidered as the leading modern schol- letters and journal entries penned by ar on South Asia and, especially, the Afghan political figures and Western British East India Company. His travelers – that paints vivid images scholarly journey takes him north of the beauty and humility of the Af- in his latest work, Return of a King: ghan people and countryside against The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42, the horrors of British occupation. in which he narrates the events sur- rounding the first Anglo-Afghan War and de- The book’s opening chapters examine the tails one of the largest strategic and diplomatic social and political climate of Afghanistan disasters in the East India Company’s history. leading up to the 1839 War, from Shah Shuja Durrani’s fall and exile to the subsequent rise At its core, the novel is a sweeping epic that of Dost Mohammad Khan and the Barakzais. narrates the lives of Shah Shuja and Dost Mo- Alongside the emergence of Ranjit Singh’s Sikh hammad Khan, intricately and inadvertently Empire in Peshawar, Afghanistan quickly de- caught in the middle of the Great Game: the volves into a land of tribal conflict and regional imperial rivalry between the Russian and Brit- discord, ripe for interference from British and ish Empires as each vies for control of Central Russian forces, or the “Battle for Afghanistan.” Asia. Dalrymple manages to deliver a human- izing account of the Afghan rulers, outlining Much of the Anglo-Russo competition for Af- their struggles and failures, the disintegration ghanistan emerges as a product of paranoia, of the great Durrani Empire, and the subse- through competing intelligence reports gath- quent emergence of the Sadozai-Barakzai ri- ered by dashing Scotsman Alexander Burnes valry (a poignant parallel to the larger Russo- and Polish-turned-Russian-spy Ivan Vikto- Anglo rivalry) that stands as the central power rovitch Vitkevitch, two of the Great Game’s struggle of the War. This period in history, in earliest players. Burnes and his brilliantly in- which the Afghans were no more than “mere valuable Indian secretary and counselor, Mo- pawns on the chessboard of western diploma- han Lal Kashmiri, advise London on the po- cy, to be engaged or sacrificed at will,” is a bril- litical and social climate of Central Asia and liant echo of a modern Afghanistan, riddled urge the British to support Dost Mohammad with internal discord amid efforts to establish as Amir. Their counsel is ignored, however, a stable unity against external intervention (p. against Major Claude Wade’s appeal to restore 10). The book often reads more as a story than the Sadozais to the throne. The central chap- a historic narrative – colored by firsthand ac- ters follow Britain’s efforts to ally with and re- 2014 Summer 239 BOOK REVIEWS instate the exiled Shah Shuja – headed by Sir the hands of Afghan rebels led by Dost Mo- William Macnaghten, Major-General Wil- hammad’s ruthless son, Akbar Khan. While liam Elphinstone, and Lord Auckland – in the the British generals flounder in a remarkable hopes of using him to unify and exert British inability to salvage their position, Dalrymple’s influence over the region. The British army of Shah Shuja perseveres as a capable leader of a 20,000 traverse across the Indus and through failing regime, dedicated and determined to the Khyber Pass to Kabul, where they eas- the very end. ily remove the Amir and proceed to occupy the region for the next two years. It becomes “Shuja’s reign was brought down not by his quickly apparent, however, that overconfi- own faults but by the catastrophic mishandling dence, lack of regard for Afghan culture and of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan society, and sheer tactical ignorance doom as managed by Auckland and Macnaghten, the British to a series of gross strategic er- and as lost by General Elphinstone” (p. 378). rors. As such, it is the Shuja-led British revolt against Dost Mohammad that comprises the Dalrymple’s treatise gives the reader a glimpse heart of the book, not for its political signifi- into a historical event of great significance; cance, but for its transformative and deeply one that, though almost 200 years past, sheds profound effect on Afghan politics, society, light on the political crises and social turmoil and stability. that have since plagued South and Central Asia. The author’s passion for the subject mat- “‘I have seen this country, sacred to the har- ter and dedication to his craft shine through mony of hallowed solitude, desecrated by the in the accessibility of his prose and use of ma- rude intrusion of senseless stranger boors, vile terial researched from British, Russian, and in habits, infamous in vulgar tastes, callous Persian sources, as well as his own visits to leaders in the sanguinary march of heedless the country in 2009 and 2010. The result is a conquests, who crushed the feeble heart and richly comprehensive picture of a fragmented hushed the merry voice of mirth, hilarity and Afghanistan caught in the midst of Western joy… To subdue and crush the masses of a na- imperialism. It is a sobering reminder of the tion by military force, when all are unanimous importance of cultural identity, societal his- in the determination to be free, is to attempt tory, and political traditions in shaping the the imprisonment of a whole people: all such motivations and complexities of a region and projects must be temporary and transient, and its people. Above all, it is a tragic and hum- terminate in a catastrophe…’” (p. 194). bling retelling of modern Afghanistan’s early history, a catalog of the wasted expenses and The Afghans – who for decades had witnessed lives on an “unnecessary war of dubious le- power transfers and general political unrest – gality,” and a testament to the perseverance of perceive their returned king as nothing more its flawed but ambitious rulers (p. 419). Shah than a puppet ruler on behalf of British self- Shuja’s vision for Afghanistan, as Dalrymple interest, and do not hesitate in declaring ji- writes, was not “an isolated and mountainous had against British presence in their country. backwater but instead as tied by alliances to The final chapter of the book details the blos- a wider world,” and although it is “sadly not soming distrust, resentment, and hate taking a vision that shows much sign, even today, root in the heart of the Afghan people, and of being realized,” it “has never completely the gory massacre of the British garrisons at died” (p. 378). 240 Insight Turkey.
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