Afghanistan And The Khalsa.

[13Mirch]

Seeing NATO'S and USA'S surrender of their Afghan campaign, although kudos to the fact that they gave Islamic radicals a taste of their own medicine, I have decided to do a short article on Hari Singh Nalwa's conquest of Afghanistan. Presently I am doing an article on Nalwa himself, and would love to do a second one on his exploits in Afghanistan. I would like to incorporate and answer the following points in my article:

- What makes Hari Singh's conquest of Afghanistan so different from prior conquests lead by the Macedonians and the Marathas?

- What political, social and religious factors assisted Nalwa in consolidating his prowess in Afghanistan?

- What military factors contributed towards Nalwa's victory in Afghanistan?

- How does NATO'S campaign differ from Nalwa's?

-What elements are similar in both historic and modern campaigns?

-If anything what lesson can we derive from both Hari Singh Nalwa's and NATO'S campaigns?

For those who don't know, tisarpanth blogspot is my intellectual possession and most of the articles on there are my work. However I am always on the lookout for a fresh perspective on matters and decided to inquire around on forums, to see what answers I can gain on this new topic of mine. Any historic sources you know of will also be appreciated in this matter.

[proactive]

You need to be clear that Nalwa's victories over the Afghans were in areas that had historically, linguistically and ethnically had been a part of Afghanistan ie the NWFP of Pakistan, now called Kyber-Pakhtoonkhwa. Nalwa did not cross the Khyber pass into the present day Afghanistan.

[13Mirch]

You need to be clear that Nalwa's victories over the Afghans were in areas that had historically, linguistically and ethnically had been a part of Afghanistan ie the NWFP of Pakistan, now called Kyber-Pakhtoonkhwa. Nalwa did not cross the Khyber pass into the present day Afghanistan.

Can you expand on that a bit.

[proactive]

Usually what we hear is that Hari Singh Nalwa conquered Afghanistan which is incorrect as he did not set foot in the Afghanistan as it is now. During the time of Hari Singh Nalwa, the Afghans or more correctly the Pathans controlled the NWFP tribal areas and these along with Peshawar were considered as core Pathan territory as the Pathans were a majority there. Therefore any takeover of these areas especially by Non-Muslim Non-Pathans was considered a sacrilege.

[13Mirch]

Usually what we hear is that Hari Singh Nalwa conquered Afghanistan which is incorrect as he did not set foot in the Afghanistan as it is now. During the time of Hari Singh Nalwa, the Afghans or more correctly the Pathans controlled the NWFP tribal areas and these along with Peshawar were considered as core Pathan territory as the Pathans were a majority there. Therefore any takeover of these areas especially by Non-Muslim Non-Pathans was considered a sacrilege.

So the areas he conquered were historically a part of Afghanistan?

[Jonny101]

The land that is now NW Frontier(KPK) in Pakistan was once part of Afghanistan. This province is Pasthun territory. The term 'Afghan' it self is a synonym for the Pashtun ethnicity. So NW Frontier is Afghan land. Even to this day Afghans claim that part of Pakistan to the annoyance of the Pakistani rulers. The reasons why the Sikhs invaded that strip of land along the Indus river was to secure Punjab from the western front. So NW Frontier territory acted as a buffer keeping Punjab safe from any potential invasion from the central asians/afghans much like how Ukraine was for the Russian empire to keep the core Russian territory safe from any initial attack from western Europe. Invading and taking over all of Afghanistan was never the plan of the Sikhs. Land of the Afghans was not a revenue rich territory unlike the lands east of the river Indus. For the Sikhs, it would have been better if a rich territory like Sindh was part of the empire instead of poor Afghan land. Unfortunately, Sikhs were bound by treaties which prevented them from taking Sindh.

[canadasingh]

Pashtuns have bin conquered a dozen times

alexander

biharis of the maryan empire

arabs who brought islam

mongolians

turks under nadir shah

mughals

sikhs

british

soviets won every battle but cause of foreign assistance they ran out of money

british never lost a battle in the three anglo afghan wars only reason they were overthrown after the first war was the british east india company was losing money in Afghanistan and their share holders grew angry so the company had drastic budget cuts and left 4500 soldiers 4000 which were benagli muslims and 500 british officers and 12 000 wives and children

when the Pashtuns rebelled against the puppet govt put in place by the british the soldiers knew they were surrounded from all sides and were out numbered in the thousands and were promised a safe retreat back to india but instead were attacked

second afghan british war the afghans faced defeat each time and majority of the soldiers on England side were Sikh and gurkha mercenaries and cause Afghanistan was extremely poor with no money and just a country that would create debt for the british the british made the afghan king their puppet rather then over throwing him and putting in their own king and british had imperial rule over afghanistan

british invasion of Afghanistan was just to use Afghanistan as a barrier to keep Russia away from india

nalwa had success cause the shah that was put in place by the british company after the first anglo afghan war was the same shah that was loyal to maharaja ranjit singh and had many Pashtun tribes back him and maharaja ranjit singh during the conquest of nwfp

[canadasingh]

shah shuja was a puppet for maharaja ranjit singh then became a puppet for the british after the first war but was over thrown by his brother which led to the Kabul retreat

[canadasingh]

one of the things nato and America goal is to set up democracy in Afghanistan not to take the country over

they've built up the hazaraa tajiks and turks of Afghanistan they help built them up military wise and economy wise and Afghanistan is now having elections

cause of poverty their will be severe corruption and years for their economy to modernise

Pashtuns reject the democracy cause they see hazara tajiks turks voting in govt that will discriminate against pashtuns