afghanistanThe Durand Agreement and the Durand LineThe Hazara repressions led to further calls for Britain to depose the Amir,
but government officials were still not prepared to risk destabilization or
another invasion. Once again, wider geopolitical interests were at stake,
for at the time Britain was negotiating with Russia over Afghanistan’s
northeastern frontier. In 1893, with the Hazara war still raging, Mortimer
Durand, Foreign Secretary of India, arrived in Kabul in order to secure
the Amir’s agreement on the Pamir frontier and Afghanistan’s border with
India. This was a delicate assignment, for Durand had to persuade the Amir
to cede Roshan and Shignan in return for territorial concessions on the left
bank of the Amu Darya and obtain his agreement to include the barren
and mountainous panhandle of the Wakhan in Afghanistan, for Britain
did not wish India to have any common frontier with Russia.
The issue of Afghanistan’s frontier with India was even more prob-
lematic since some of the tribes on the Indian side still regarded the Amir
as their titular head and even sent him occasional tribute. Britain could
not tolerate this situation, especially since the Amir continued to interfere
in tribal affairs, as well as provide sanctuary for Indian revolutionaries.
Britain even suspected the Amir was encouraging Pushtun religious lead-
ers who were calling for jihad against British rule and that Afghan officials
were turning a blind eye to the smuggling of breech-loading rifles into
Tribal Territory.
The mission, though, was a success and in November 1893 the Amir
signed the Durand Agreement, which included acceptance of the Wakhan–
Pamir frontier and the establishment of a joint Anglo-Afghan commission
to demarcate the Afghan–Indian frontier based on a rough map that
Durand brought with him. Amir ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan also renounced
any territorial claims and ‘rights of influence’ over Chitral, Swat, Bajur,
Dawar and Waziristan, although Afghanistan retained the Barmal region
in the Kunar. As compensation, the Amir’s subsidy was increased and he
was allowed to import arms freely from India, an important concession
given that the Hazara War was still raging.
The Durand Agreement, however, would prove to be a major cause of
disagreement in future Anglo-Afghan relations and, following Partition
in 1947, in Afghan-Pakistan relations too. The emergence of Pushtun
nationalism in the early twentieth century went hand-in-hand with a
romantic vision of the unity of all Pushtun tribes and calls for a united
homeland known as Pushtunistan. This led to the legality of the Durand
Line being questioned by successive Afghan administrations and Pushtun