Modern Asian Studies by Cambridge University Press

Author:Cambridge University Press
Language: eng
Format: epub

The ‘Great Game in the Pamirs and the Hindu-Kush: The British Conquest of Hunza and Nagar

ROBERT A. HUTTENBACK

California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California

The motivations for imperial advance have, over the years, caused considerable debate among historians. It has been thought by some that a law of the turbulent frontier forced the expansion of empire, for a region of order surrounded by an area of disorder had eventually, for its own protection, to conquer the area of turbulence. Thus, empires would inexorably advance their borders until they reached some great natural barrier or the frontiers of another stable power.

Although there was not yet much talk of the ‘scientific frontier,’ British India was by the mid-nineteenth century stretching ever northward towards the great barrier ranges. On the other side of the mountains, another power, Imperial Russia, was advancing inexorably towards the same lofty peaks, and fear of foreign invasion was another prime cause for territorial aggrandizement. It can be said with co-siderable assurance that anxiety, first over French and then over Russian invasion, was the chief influence on British Indian foreign policy throughout the nineteenth century. It is a common misconception that the great northern ranges constituted an effective barrier to intercourse between India and Central Asia. Although the passes through the mountains were sufficiently difficult to preclude the passage of large bodies of men and heavy material, traders and small bands of irregulars had, over the centuries, made their way in both directions.

That danger always lurked beyond the passes seemed to be one of the compelling lessons of Indian history. It consequently became of paramount importance to guard against the peril of a Russian invasion, even though the limitations of both gold and armed might almost precluded the direct acquisition of the hostile lands to the north of the Indian plains. In addition, more sophisticated British statesmen and officials realized the fragility of an imperial structure whose strength rested largely on a myth which would lose its power with the advent of doubt. Hence, it was unrest and dissidence on the frontier that presented the most immediate danger.

Owing, perhaps, to its largely ephemeral nature, the whole evanescent struggle became romanticized into the ‘Great Game.’ Kipling’s Kim played it, so did a myriad of fictional heroes. Sir Henry Forsyth was sent to pacify the lands to the north of Kashmir: ‘For all his great brain, he was a man of one idea, and that idea—“the North safeguarded.” Mere men, himself included, were for him no more than pawns in the great game to be played out between two empires, on the chessboard of Central Asia.’1 In one of L. Adams Beck’s stories, a young soldier is killed on the frontier. ‘I am not sorry for Harry,’ the hero avers, ‘He knew—we all know—that he was on guard here holding the outposts against blood and treachery and terrible things—playing the Great Game. . . .’2 G. A. Henty, the doyen of late-nineteenth century adventure story writers, waxed eloquent in the introduction of one

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