To understand what is going on in the present we have to go a little bit into the past and then further into the future. This is required to understand anything happening especially in times of transition and massive shifts taking place. It is the Age of Truth and the power of Truth is digging out everything for a resetting and reorientation.
Afghanistan is, like Pakistan (and Palestine) an artificially created nation, mainly by the British who made the divisions of countries quite arbitrarily and for purely personal gains. Afghanistan was created as a buffer state to safeguard British interests against Russia, Iran and other invasions. It was mainly (and still is) a group of tribes, each with its own code. The whole mountain area was like a pass for Greeks, Persians, Mongols, Moghuls to cross through. Yet despite all this, despite even the Moghul invasion and the conversions that followed, the tribes maintained a very open outlook, assimilating the different influences and turning them into a rather liberal composite culture which had clear influences of Hinduism, Buddhism, Zorostrianism and Sufism. We do read about Gandhar (modern Kandahar) in the Mahabharata days. Their link with the Indian Deobandi School kept the touch of India alive within them with generally good relations, until…yes, until the Americans came hunting after Opium and illicit drugs to get money for paying up their covert operations. Russia and America both used Afghanistan for their own interests and gave them dollar lollypops to stay shut and use for their own. The more dangerous game was to introduce hard core Islam via Pakistan and create monsters to bleed India. This is the secret twisted change of the otherwise simple mountain people who lived by their own high code. It can be seen as an action of Falsehood that gripped and continues to grip many nations.
But this can’t be forever. The action of truth has begun and is undoing these knots releasing their hidden truths. The Taliban of today is trying to discover its own roots, its deeper connect with India. That is how we can see the recent visit of an important cabinet Minister. India has rightly reciprocated in building the bridges with a territory that is crucial to India’s sovereignty. There are many important geopolitical implications in India reviving its links with Afghanistan which need not be mentioned here. Suffice it to say that it is not just about supporting Afghanistan against Pakistan though there would be nothing wrong with it as long as they support India’s claim over POJK (which they do). But apart from that there are deeper cultural and geopolitical implications, some of which are now in the open (such as refusing airbase to the US, promising rare earth minerals to India), others that are not yet in the open. Of special importance is the role this alliance can play in countering China. By taking the lead, India has, in a way stalemated China in this region. Politics has its own dharma and it is only militarily and economically weak states who base political alliances based on Religion. It is rather about the balance of power and and the strategic needs of a nation. So all in all the Indo-Afghan alliance is quite the right step, provided it is followed up by many things especially including cultural exchanges.
Too add to all this with nieghbours of India Pakistan and China, Afganistan is the only internation trade route open for India and we cannot afford to close that with the way our economy is developing, our goverment cannot become foolish and bear this cost.
As to Afgan-Pak war we can only say that those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind.
Affectioantely,
Alok Da
