Nasrullah Khan (Afghanistan) - Anti-British Policy

Anti-British Policy

Despite his earlier trip to England, Nasrullah demonstrated little sympathy for British foreign policy towards Afghanistan.

When Abdul Rahman Khan took the throne of Afghanistan in 1880, he inherited the terms of the 1878 Treaty of Gandamak, which made Afghanistan a British protectorate. The treaty, amongst other provisions, surrendered control over Afghan foreign relations to the British and allowed for a British mission, with European members, to reside in Kabul. Abdul Rahman Khan was able to alter the terms of the treaty to provide that all members of the British mission be Indian Muslims but was otherwise stuck with the treaty in its entirety.

The Treaty of Gandamak also required that Afghanistan sever its relationships with the independent tribes of the tribal regions of Afghanistan, those lying on the far side of the Durand Line. These tribes had previously been a substantial source of military power for the Afghanistan throne. When Habibullah became Emir he was pressured by the British government to ratify the Treaty of Gandamak and, although he did so by proclamation in 1905, he would not commit to withdraw Afghan influence from the British side of the Durand Line, or to sever Afghanistan's relationship with the tribes in that area.

The significance of the tribal areas was that they formed a natural military barrier against the British, who periodically threatened to invade the region to counter Russian advances from the north. Nasrullah Khan actively agitated his brother Habibullah to make use of Afghanistan's influence with the tribes to strengthen Afghanistan's position against the British, and at Nasrullah's urging Hasbibullah continue to pay allowances to the Durand Line tribes despite the Treaty of Gandamak.

At around the same time, during 1904–05, Sir Louis Dane (later governor of the Punjab region of India) attempted to establish a new British mission at Kabul in line with the terms of the Treaty. This was a plan which Nasrullah unsuccessfully opposed.

When the First World War broke out in 1914, the Young Afghan political movement, headed by journalist Mahmud Tarzi and Habibullah's son Amanullah, advocated that Afghanistan enter the war on the German-Turkish side, in direct opposition to Britain. In this they had the support of Nasrullah and the religious factions he represented, who were sympathetic towards the Ottomans because of what they saw as unwarranted infidel aggression towards Islamic states. Despite this, the Emir Habibullah Khan judged Afghanistan too poor and weak to realistically take part in the war, and declared Afghanistan's neutrality, to the frustration of Nasrullah and the Young Afghans.

Nevertheless Nasrullah actively used his political power to assist the German-Turkish efforts. When the Turko-German Niedermayer-Hentig expedition was welcomed to Kabul in 1915 (despite promises to the Viceroy of India that the expedition would be arrested), Nasrullah provided a friendly ear to the mission after Habibullah reaffirmed Afghanistan's neutrality. Nasrullah was involved in introducing the expedition to journalist Mahmud Tarzi, whose papers began taking an increasingly anti-British stance. He also continued to entreat the mission to remain in Kabul despite Habibullah's unwillingness to offer them a solid alliance. Finally in 1916 Nasrullah offered to remove Habibullah from power and take charge of the frontier tribes in a campaign against British India, but by then the mission realised such action would be fruitless and declined.

The Turko-German embassy withdrew in 1916, but not before it had convinced Habibullah that Afghanistan was an independent nation which should not remain beholden to the British. Following the closure of the World War, Habibullah petitioned the British for favours resulting from Afghanistan's alleged assistance to the British during the war. These favours included the recognition of Afghanistan's independence and a seat at the Versailles Peace Conference. Britain refused both these requests. Habibullah sought to open further negotiations but before these could progress he was assassinated.