Algernon Durand, The
Making of a Frontier First published Circa. 1890s. This edition (Karachi:
Oxford University Press, 2001), pp.29 and index. Prince. Rs. 695.00.
Colonel Algernon Durand was the brother of Mortimer Durand of the Durand Line fame (or notoriety). His name is not a household word any more but a century ago he was known to almost anybody connected with affairs of the state all the way from Chitral to Srinagar. He took enormous risks, put in incredible work, and secured these nearly inaccessible mountainous retreats for the British. He was, of course, an imperialist and nobody can praise imperialists nowadays without his reputation becoming mud. But he deserves praise for at least one thing---his very real care that the poor, ill fed, wretched soldiers under his command should be housed and fed properly. Let us follow him in his adventures across the world’s highest mountains in this memoir which he wrote when the nineteenth century was coming to an end and Victoria sat firmly on the throne of an empire on which the sun never set.
Durand left Srinagar, the capital of the state of
Kashmir, for Gilgit---then a remote town on the troubled extremity of the
state. The British were interested in securing this area because it lay almost
next to Russia. In their eyes the Czar was nibbling away in Asia so as to reach
the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Thus, their Indian empire was in danger.
That is why it was worthwhile to send a trusted officer to see for himself which
way the wind blew in the remote north of India.
Colonel Durand’s account tells us how he crossed the
country through the narrow mule tracks---and at places goat tracks---of this
land where four mountain ranges meet i.e The Himalayas, the Karakorams, the Hindu
Kush and the Pamir. Even now, when there are roads in most of these areas,
these places are not meant for the faint of heart. A century ago they were
harrowing tortuous, tracks snaking along barren chiffs with falls of thousands
of feet and the river rushing with incredible force below. At places they had
to leave their horses behind and at others they had to dismount from them.
His account of his meetings with the rulers is most
interesting. Durand is a good observer of men. He understands the petty
politics and the character of each ruler. However, his world view is that of an
Orientalist---in the sense of Edward Said’s classic book entitled Orientalism. He generalizes after
meeting a few people. He is apt to see people through his conceptions of them.
Most of the time, being a shrewd man, he is right but one notices the desire to
compartmentalize people as types. His characters tend to become
stereotypes---treacherous, cruel, mean, petty and avaricious. However, he does
praise the Mehtar of Chitral, his loyal Pathan soldiers and a few other people.
At places, he understands that people behave as they do because of external
conditions and not because it is in their nature. For instance he observes that
the Kashmiris are what their oppressors has made them, liars and pitiful
cowards, who cringe to the stick of the sepoys like spaniels’ (p.16). Other
people write such things about Kashmiris, and not only a century back but even
now, as if they are innate and permanent in Kashmiri nature and not created by
oppression and poverty. There seem to be places where Durand was either
mistaken or we ourselves need more research to confirm what he writes. For
instance, he writes about Nagar that a man felt honoured if the ruler wanted
his wife and would willingly offer her to him. This, I think, needs to be
investigated if independent sources could be found.
Durand tells us how the rulers had devised no method of
succession. The sons fought each other, as they did among the Mughals, and the
one who succeeded was generally not the kindest. Slavery was common. The rulers
even sold off their own people as slaves. There were no rules for the powerful
except, of course, the fear of rebellion, their own conscience and good sense.
Corruption was rampant. Indeed, the Kashmir officers cheated their ruler so
much that the troops were neither fed nor paid properly.
Durand achieved much for the empire. He established
British supremacy over the Northern Areas and Chitral by strengthening the hold
of the Kashmir state over this area. As Sir Oliver Forster, who wrote the
introduction to this book wrote. Durand’s achievement was undone by Major
Willie Brown, the Commandant of Gilgit Scouts in 1947. The major led his Muslim
troops to wrest out this predominantly Muslim area from the hold of the
Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir and now it is in Pakistan. Human efforts are
ephemeral and what so many men die for proves illusory in the end. But one
thing is not ephemeral nor illusory---making people’s lives better. Colonel
Durand did make improvements in the lives of troops. This achievement is
permanent.
The memoir is written in unadorned and unpretentious
prose. The writer has a keen observation and is a good judge of character. He
is fond of the people’s lives and customs and gives first hand observation
which ought to be interesting for historians and anthropologists. Indeed, one
is surprised that a British officer should get to know such remote parts of
South Asia so well. One wonders why is it that almost no government officers from
Pakistan write accounts like this any more.