afghanistanthe plains. Fortunately for Cotton, the army did not have to fight its way
into Kandahar. Hajji Khan Kakar, whom Dost Muhammad Khan had
expelled from Kabul and who had joined forces with the Kandahar sardars,
opened a secret communication with Shah Shuja‘, offering to change sides
in exchange for the post of Mukhtar al-Daula, one of the most power
ful positions in the kingdom. Shah Shuja‘ agreed and Hajji Khan Kakar
promptly defected with his Kakars, whereupon Kohan Dil Khan and his
brothers fled to Girishk.
On 25 April 1839 Shah Shuja‘ entered Kandahar unopposed and
Macnaghten exultantly wrote to Auckland that the king was ‘received with
feelings nearly amounting to adulation’, though other officers reported that
there was a decided lack of public enthusiasm. 69 On 8 May the British and
sepoy troops staged a grand review and the Saddozai king was formally
crowned after a 21gun salute. A flying column was sent to capture the
Dil brothers but they escaped and rejected all attempts to negotiate with
them, informing Macnaghten that they ‘had already begun to know the
value of [Britain’s] political promises, and had good reason to believe that
we should never adhere to them’. 70 Instead, the brothers began to gather
an army to resist the occupation.
Meanwhile in Kandahar the starving troops and camp followers filled
their empty bellies with local fruit and vegetables and drank water from
polluted wells and streams. Soon hundreds of men were dying or incapaci
tated by cholera and typhoid. The Kandahar hinterland too was extremely
dangerous and soldiers or camp followers who ventured too far from the
cantonment risked being killed. It was not until the end of June 1839, after
two months’ rest and recuperation, that Keane ordered his troops to march
on Kabul, though for some reason he left his heavy siege guns behind. On
the same day he set out, Maharaja Ranjit Singh breathed his last and, as
Burnes had predicted, his passing marked the beginning of a bitter dynastic
struggle that eventually tore the Sikh kingdom apart. Keane was harassed
all along the route by the irregular cavalry of Gul Muhammad, or Guru,
Hotak and Sultan Muhammad Khan Tokhi, who refused to accept the
customary payment for safe passage. Even had they done so, Macnaghten
would have been hard pressed to find the money, for he had been so liberal
with his disbursement of cash to the Durranis and Kakars that his treasury
was nearly empty. The crisis was exacerbated when the Hindu baniyas in
Kandahar refused to issue or accept bills of credit, known as hundi.
Dost Muhammad Khan was taken by surprise by Keane’s advance,
for he had expected the main attack on Kabul would be from Peshawar
and that the Southern Field Force would be tasked with subduing Herat.