A Nationalistic Analysis of The Conflict Between the Afghan Government and the Taliban

 Dear Reader,

Today is the third Saturday of the month and hence I will be discussing nationalism in a south Asian country. Today the country I will be writing about is Aghanistan.

Afghanistan is a country that has a long history. It is a land that has been invaded and conquered by various empires and foreign powers. This goes back to the Persian and Greek Empires and the Mauryan Empires which each ruled either the whole area or a part of the territory at some point in time/

However Afghanistan has had periods when it was independent. The modern state of Afghanistan is considered by historians to have started with the Durrani empire which ruled Afghanistan from 1747 - 1826. Ahmed Shah Durani the founder of the empire is also called the father of the nation of Afghanistan.

The empire ended after the Sikhs defeated them and they were driven out of the Indian subcontinent. After the decline of the empire Afghanistan was surrounded by empires from China, Russia and the British East India Company. Afghanistan suffered economically during this period but remained united.

It was during this period that a national identity of Afghans began to grow. They were united by their religion of Sunni Islam. Regardless of tribal or ethnic identities, they were united as Afghans, by their religion.

The Durani were overthrown by Dost Mohammed Khan who established the Emirate of Afghanistan in 1823. 

Russia had conquered lands north of Afghanistan. This made the British Empire nervous because they feared that if Russia took over Afghanistan that they would attack their colony - India. The British therefore attacked Afghanistan and re-installed the previous Duranni ruler and most of their forces came back to India. However the ones that remained were ambushed and almost completely slaughtered. The Afghans re-instated Dost Mohammed Khan on the throne. 

The British attacked again in 1878 in the second Anglo-Afghan War from 1878 to 1880. Afghanistan became a British protectorate. It had self-rule while the British controlled its foreign affairs.

The Soviet Union  invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and the Soviet - Afghanistan war was fought until 1989. America created the Mujahideen - a group of Islamist fighters from different parts of the Islamic world - to fight the USSR in Afghanistan. The Mujahideen and - by proxy - the U.S. defeated the Soviets. 

After this America abandoned the Mujahideen. This caused Afghanistan to break out into a civil war with different warlords emerging and gaining power in different parts of the country.  Eventually the Taliban came to power and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1996. 

They were a very oppressive regime which forced non-Muslims to convert to Islam, forced Sharia law on people and did not give women equal rights to men.

Then al-Qaeda established a presence in Afghanistan at this time and carried out several terrorist attacks, for example 9/11. 

This caused the U.S to invade Afghanistan in 2001 and topple the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Elections were held and a President was elected by the Afghans.

In 2011 the U.S killed Osama bin Laden. Since 2014 the U.S has been reducing the number of its troops in Afghanistan. It funded the Afghan military with tens of billions of dollars but they failed to defeat the Taliban. 

The U.S and the Taliban in 2020 announced an agreement. The U.S would pull out all its troops by May 1st and the Taliban would not cause any violence. 

This is called the Doha Agreement and it was signed during President Trump's term in office.

When President Biden took over he extended the pull out date till September 11th. This angered the Taliban who started attacking before the U.S left.

Now the confict is growing. The Taliban has taken more territory. They are being supported by Pakistan especially in the town of Spin Boldak where Pakistan has threatened to shoot any Afghan plane coming within 10 kms of the international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Taliban is also getting support from China. India which has always supported the democratic government but did not support the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has been neutral and advocated for both sides to maintain peace while reaching out to both the government and India-friendly faces in the Taliban.

I believe that both sides have some good reasons for why they should rule. The Taliban supports the traditional culture of Afghanistsan and the Ghani government are trying to modernize Afghanistan.

I think that a government should be formed which is shared by both groups and so there will be a solution to the problem.

It is not in the interest of Afghanistan for the current government to fall. But the Taliban are not all bad. So it might be good to make some of the Taliban part of the current administration.

This maybe the only way to have peace in Afghanistan between both groups.

Thank you for Reading,

Vande Mataram.