afghanistanrightly states that Dost Muhammad Khan’s action was ‘claiming... protec-
tion’ of the British government, and in his famous sketch of the scene Dost
Muhammad Khan and Macnaghten are shown shaking hands, an action
that signifies both friendship between equals and agreement. 12 Akbar
Khan later said that his father had ‘throw[n] himself upon the honour of
the British government... in time of need’. 13 Surrender, subjugation and
humiliation were the last things in Dost Muhammad Khan’s mind.
Macnaghten was elated at the unexpected turn of events for, as he
noted, ‘the Afghans are gunpowder and the Dost is a lighted match’. 14 ‘The
Dost’, as he called him, was treated with due honour and housed in the
Bala Hisar with only a token guard placed over his tent. His family were
given permission to visit him and he was allowed to write to his sons,
who were still at large. He even went out riding with an escort. During his
short stay in the Bala Hisar, Dost Muhammad Khan held a parallel court
under the very eyes of Shah Shuja‘, with even officials serving in the king’s
administration coming to pay their respects. The evident popularity of
Dost Muhammad Khan was in direct contrast to a growing realization
that Shah Shuja‘, despite his claims, was deeply unpopular with most of
the population, nor could Macnaghten fail to observe the contrast between
the two rivals. In his dispatches to the Governor General, Macnaghten
painted a very different picture of the man who only two years before he
had denounced and defamed in the Simla Declaration. Indeed, it appears
Macnaghten developed an empathy with Dost Muhammad Khan that
neither he nor Burnes ever had with Shah Shuja‘. In an extraordinary
admission, Macnaghten even asked the Governor General to treat the
former Amir ‘more handsomely’ than Shah Shuja‘ in his exile, since ‘we
ejected the Dost, who never offended us, in support of our policy, of which
he was the victim’. 15
Following the submission of Dost Muhammad Khan and his subse-
quent exile to India, the revolt in Kohistan petered out but the resentment
created by Sale’s scorched earth policy continued to smoulder below the
surface, awaiting a spark to reignite the flames. The Amir’s son Akbar Khan
remained at large and had taken refuge with his father-in-law, Muhammad
Shah Khan, head of the Babakr Khel Ghilzais of Laghman, while two
more of the Amir’s sons, Muhammad ‘Azam Khan and Sher ‘Ali Khan,
were in Zurmast. Yet despite the threat posed by these and other sardars,
Macnaghten allowed Nawab Jabbar Khan and Nawab Muhammad Zaman
Khan to remain in Kabul, where they secretly intrigued with the Ghilzais
in an attempt to undermine Shah Shuja‘.