How Did London Become Complicit in Abdur Rahman Khan's Crimes?
Author: Jamal Sadeqi, Kateb Media
When analyzing the large-scale suppression of the Hazaras in the 1270s of the Solar Hijri calendar (1891–1893), it is impossible to ignore the role played by the regional and global powers of the time. An examination of documents from the British India archives (India Office Records) demonstrates that the British Empire was not only fully aware of the scale and every dimension of this humanitarian tragedy, but also, by pursuing a policy of “deliberate silence” and providing military and financial support, effectively created conditions that facilitated the commission of these crimes.
This historical complicity can be examined along three key dimensions:
1 — The “Buffer State” Strategy in the Great Game:
By the end of the nineteenth century, the intense rivalry between the British Empire and Tsarist Russia — known as the Great Game — for dominance in Asia had reached its peak. The fundamental priority of British diplomats in Delhi and London was to create and preserve a strong and centralized “buffer state” in Afghanistan that would prevent the expansion of Russian influence toward India.
From London’s perspective, Abdur Rahman Khan was precisely the “Iron Man” needed to unify the country, while the suppression of local autonomies was regarded as the necessary price for consolidating this centralized authority.
2 — Full Awareness Amid Diplomatic Inaction:
Daily reports from British informants and representatives in Kabul, Kandahar, and Quetta indicate that details of the mass killings, slave markets, towers built from human heads, and the displacement of the Hazaras were continuously reported to the Viceroy of India. Nevertheless, Britain never used its diplomatic or political leverage to pressure the Amir and put an end to crimes against civilians.
3 — Supplying the Amir’s War Machine with Weapons and Financial Resources:
Britain’s support for Abdur Rahman Khan was not limited to political silence. Britain paid the Kabul government a substantial annual subsidy of between 12 and 18 lakh rupees and supplied the Amir’s army with modern military equipment, including artillery and advanced Martini–Henry rifles. The weapons used to crush the strongholds of Hazara resistance in the rocky regions of Uruzgan were directly sustained by the financial and military support of the British Empire.
Thus, the suppression of the Hazaras was not merely an internal tragedy but a product of British “realpolitik” — the morally unconstrained pragmatic policy of the British Empire, which sacrificed the human rights and dignity of thousands of people to its geopolitical interests in the region.
