nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47a year. Shah Shuja‘ therefore had less than a year to fill a substantial hole in
state finances and raise a minimum of 12,000 troops to replace the British
army. This was an impossible task and, given the desertions of the king’s
troops at Saighan and Parwan Darra, what troops he already had under
his command were clearly not fit for purpose.
Even before the first British soldier set foot in Afghanistan Shah Shuja‘
had told Wade that the rump of Ahmad Shah’s kingdom did not provide
sufficient revenue to cover state expenditure or pay and equip a large
standing army. Once back on the throne, Shah Shuja‘ had tried to tax or
confiscate auqaf holdings and tax-exempt estates, only for this to precipi-
tate revolts in Kohistan, the Helmand, Ghazni and Qalat-i Ghilzai. In order
to pacify the rebels, the new tax regime was abandoned and Britain ended
up paying for most of the king’s expenditure. Britain was thus caught in
a cleft stick. While complete withdrawal was the preferred option, that
would risk bringing about the fall of Shah Shuja‘ and the emergence of
an anti-British government. At the same time, Britain could not continue
subsidizing the Afghan government or fighting the Shah’s wars indefinitely.
It was a dilemma that both Soviet and nato forces would also face during
their respective occupations of Afghanistan more than a century later.
In order to save money, Auckland told Macnaghten to reduce expend-
iture drastically from around 1 million pounds to £30,000 by the end of
- Burnes and his counterparts in Kandahar then drew up plans for a
major overhaul of the army and state revenues, much to the displeasure
of Shah Shuja‘, who saw this as another example of British interference
in his internal affairs. When the king tried to reimpose taxes on religious
endowments and jagirs and demand a larger return from individuals who
won the monopolies to farm customs duties and key commodities, there
was fierce resistance. Among the many powerful chiefs who refused to pay
were ’Amin Allah Khan Logari and Hamza Khan of Tezin. In retaliation
Shah Shuja‘ dismissed them from their posts.
In Kandahar, the Durranis of the Helmand and Zamindawar rebelled
under the leadership of Akhtar Khan, but the Afghan regiments sent by
Nott to put down the uprising were defeated. Nott then sent British and
Indian troops to suppress the revolt and Akhtar Khan was defeated, only
for him to regroup and a few months later he besieged the British garri-
son of Girishk. Attempts to raise additional revenues and reports that
Nott planned to garrison Qalat-i Ghilzai and exterminate the Ghilzai
‘nation’ led to a major uprising in the spring of 1841. The Hotaks and
Tokhis flocked to the defence of Qalat-i Ghilzai and when Nott arrived
at the fortress he found himself facing thousands of hostile tribesmen.