THE SHADOW OF THE DURAND LINE

A relic of the British Raj, this disputed frontier in the mountains and valleys separating Afghanistan and Pakistan remains perilous

- MIGUEL MIRANDA

Having consolidated its grip on South Asia by the early 19th century, the prospect of a Eurasian conflict gripped British minds - politicians and generals alike - who feared the empire's greatest possession would be jeopardised. An even thornier problem was the choice for an enemy: the stubborn Persians whose language and governance were crucial for the East India Company's colonial governance? Or perhaps the Russians, whose march eastward was clearly unstoppable?

Soon enough, the Afghans became the chosen foes of this 'Great Game' and for several decades British-led armies, rather than the British Army per se, were engaged in one debacle after another. The Anglo-Afghan Wars (1839-42, 1878-80, 1919) are romanticised for their futility but it was their disastrous nature that inspired much far-fetched storytelling, from Rudyard Kipling to heroic propaganda on canvas. Whether it was the army surgeon William Brydon, the famed survivor of the retreat from Kabul in 1842, making it to Jalalabad on horseback, or the bumbling and wheeling-dealing Afghan emirs, the three Anglo-Afghan Wars are like parables on foreign policy done wrong.