Between Empathy and Strategy

India's Quiet Return to Kabul

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As the Taliban foreign minister's visit to New Delhi reopens a long-silent corridor of diplomacy, India walks a fine line — balancing morality with realism, friendship with caution, and history with hard-nosed geopolitics.

A Shared Past Etched in Stone and Story

India and Afghanistan share a friendship older than maps and flags. Their story stretches from the Gandhara civilization, where monks carried the light of Buddhism from the foothills of the Hindu Kush to the plains of the Ganges — to the bustling trade caravans that once linked Kabul’s bazaars with Delhi’s markets. Even mythology ties them together: Gandhari, the blindfolded queen of the Mahabharata, hailed from these rugged lands, symbolizing endurance and silent strength.

Over centuries, this connection took many forms — from cultural exchanges and Sufi poetry to trade and kinship. When India gained independence in 1947, Afghanistan was among the first nations to recognize it. What bound them was not strategy but sentiment, a belief that between the mountains and the monsoon, friendship could find permanence.

Soviet Shadows and India’s Steadfast Neutrality

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 altered the region’s destiny. Tanks rolled into Kabul, and the world split into camps, yet India, under Indira Gandhi and later Rajiv Gandhi, chose a path of careful neutrality. It upheld Afghanistan's sovereignty, offering humanitarian aid through international agencies, but refused to turn the conflict into a political battleground.