To be specific, the time comprised the 1950s to the late sixties ending in 1971. During these socio-politically volatile times, the capital Dhaka and the other large cities in erstwhile East Pakistan have been witness to a common spectacle. Sun-burnt lone people with ramshackle haversacks over their shoulder moving around the neighbourhoods selling dried local fruits of Afghanistan. Their style of hawking their wares remained filled with a plaintive note. Sometimes their voices trailed with exhaustion. Apart from selling dried fruits and tidbits, a few of them used to lend people small amounts of money on high interest. For people in immediate need of cash, these people from the far-away land of Afghanistan would appear as great saviours.
But this aspect of the Afghans' emergence as the friends in need ended in tragic episodes. Many people would be seen vanishing in the thin air with the borrowed money. To their utter disbelief, the roaming Afghans, locally known as 'Kabuliwallahs' or 'Kabulis', would find that the addresses they were given by loan-takers were false. Many poor Kabuliwallahs were seen crying their soul out on the Dhaka streets after being deceived this cruel way. It is widely believed that the Afghans are a highly emotional nation. Trickeries, especially deception and cheating, elude them. Towards the end of the Liberation War, hundreds of Kabuliwallahs found themselves in dire straits financially. When they literally begged the borrowers to return their loaned money sans interest, the befuddled Kabulis were threatened with dire consequences. Many stayed back in the independent Bangladesh to realise their small loans. But the helpless Afghans were butchered by those crooks branding them as 'collaborators' of the Pakistani occupation army. A great number of Kabulis, however, managed to flee their long-time business hub of Bangladesh.
Kabuliwallahs were also a common view in Kolkata. The great poet Rabindranath Tagore portrayed such a middle-aged Afghan with utmost passion and empathy in one of his short stories. Apart from narrating the Kabuliwallah's reminiscence of his small daughter back in a remote Afghan village as he develops 'friendship' with a Kolkata small girl growing over time into marriageable age, Tagore portrays the universal love of a father for his daughter. Perhaps the Bengalee readers are fortunate enough to have a great scholar, academic, linguist and travel writer born in their country. He is Syed Mujtaba Ali. A keen and passionate observer of man and matters, Mujtaba Ali in his magnum opus 'Deshey Bideshey' portrays a nation which is unique in many respects. Ali passed two years, 1927-1929, in Kabul, serving at the Afghan Education Department as a professor. In spite of the conservative way of life of the common Afghans, as well as his students, those were the days far from extremism in belief --- and bigotry. Yes, young women were allowed to study in schools and colleges then. But they had to remain under a strong regime of 'purdah'. However, in the latter days, Afghan women enjoyed remarkable freedoms. They were seen participating in cultural events including movies. The famous Afghan actress Shahpar even appeared in a Pakistan-Afghan joint-venture feature film in the 1960s. It was the period, when Afghanistan deservedly could take pride in a fledgling movie industry. Lately, in 2001, the dormant Afghan film industry began witnessing a spectacular resurgence. The same applies to the country's literature, the creative authors, litterateurs and readership.
Apart from carrying out his teaching responsibility, author Ali used to take attempts to delve deep into Afghan national psyche. His conclusion: the Afghans are staunchly freedom-loving, indomitable and unalloyed in their allegiance to their employers. Ali's domestic help and guide and confidante, Abdur Rahman has carved out a permanent place among the Bengalee readers. The boisterous, outspoken and brotherly Abdur Rahman is no character from a fiction. He once lived a vibrant life on this mundane earth --- almost like Greek author Kazantzakis' character Zorba the Greek, to expand the radius of Mujtaba Ali's earthly experiences. According to many, the Afghans as a race are forthright in conversation, incredibly trustworthy and free of complex thoughts in day-to-day life. At the same time, they are pliable and easily influenced due mainly to their simplicity. Illiteracy and economic backwardness are the two dominant blights plaguing the Afghan people for centuries. A salient feature of this plight is their village-based adult girls being barred from getting educated. It was caused mainly by their conservatism deeply planted in their culture. At intervals, however, the girls and womenfolk in villages and towns enjoyed broad freedom to study at school, college and university. These scenes were common under a few Muslim monarchs. During the tenures of Soviet and US occupations of the country, educational outlets were wide open for the teenage girls and women. These pro-women policies came under intermittent threats from the homegrown obscurant, militant forces. They included the Mujaheedins, the Taliban and a few other forces. Compared to the pervasive atmosphere hostile to the education of teenagers and youths in rural areas, capital Kabul and a few big cities emerged as centres of mid-level and higher learning. Cultural activities also centred round the urban areas.
It becomes unbelievable to outsiders when they learn that the country was once ruled by Hindu and Buddhist kings. History says one of the Hindu kings converted to Islam, and forced his wives to accept Islam as their religion. Another Muslim king retained his Hindu soldiers allowing them to practise Hinduism. Perhaps, it was its Buddhist rule centred in northern Afghanistan and the country's Buddhist identity by which it was known to the outside world in the pre-Islamic period. Buddhist relics continue to be discovered on the vast outskirts of Kabul. According to a school of historians, the belief of the ancient Persia-based Zoroastrianism originated somewhere in today's Afghanistan between 1800-800 BCE. The founder of the religion, Zoroaster or Zarathustra, is thought to have been born and died in Balkh in the region, then called Ariana. In a bid to prove their claim, historians refer to a small population believing in Zoroastrianism found ensconced in a remote area in Afghanistan. The country neighbouring the ancient land of Persia (now Iran) once came up as a fertile meeting place of myriad beliefs and cultures in the ancient times. After the arrival of Islam in 7th century, the country's people turned to the belief in massive numbers. Perhaps, it was the message of social equity which drove them to convert to Islam. Or else, Afghanistan might have remained a multi-cultural, at times inter-conflicting, society even today.
The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in a post-coup and leaderless country followed by protracted and violent armed conflicts between the communist forces and Afghan Islamist resistance groups heralded the process of decay in the self-absorbed country. The 9-year confrontation dragged on up to 1989. The Soviet forces left Afghanistan after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of the first batch of the Islamist extremists --- the Mujaheedins. Their successors, the Taliban, were suspected by the West to have links with Al Qaeda. Invading Afghanistan in 2002 in retaliation of the 9/11 Twin Tower attack, and toppling the early Taliban government from power, the US forces dug their heels in the nearly devastated country. In the meantime the country had seen the rise and fall of many domestic splinter groups. All these fratricidal wars followed by the invasions of two superpowers stunted all kinds of growth of the liberal Afghan youths. The younger women suffered the most. To speak in brief, the Afghan invasions by the Soviet and US forces have strengthened the grip of Islam, especially its extremist branches, in Afghanistan --- though by default.
A long history of monarchies and ingrained feudalism put to an end by overthrows and bloodied coups and counter-coups by modernist rulers opened the floodgates of woes for Afghanistan. The new rulers took attempts to change the country's perennially poverty-stricken and problem-ridden looks. But the fluid situations created after two invasions, with little public support, had only added to further imbroglios.
Even in the 1920s, a liberal school of Islam ruled the roost in Afghanistan. The average people would follow Islamic tenets devoutly. But at the same time, women were allowed to pursue higher studies. The cultural sectors remained vibrant with various activities. Widespread illiteracy and the vested interests' machinations to dictate society eventually led to the invitations to foreign meddling. The brief tryst with civilian and modern democratic rules eventually proved a fiasco. Then the hapless nation found itself caught again in the cycle of a socio-political rigmarole. Few of its new triumphant leaders bother about the country's fast slide in the global socio-economic and cultural indices. But this battle-hardened country can still spring miracles. Afghanistan is basically an inclusive land. But it's also true they no longer need masters. They have had enough.
Why the world cannot leave the Afghans alone is a quandary. Time hasn't yet run out to eschew the path of shoving a centuries-old nation into self-destruction.
