Thread by @NafeesRehmanDr

Visibly frustrated on failure of his foreign policy in AFG, Modi alluded to Mahmood Ghaznavi & to the Taliban in his speech.

Did you know that the British exploited religious feelings of Hindus of India, particularly on Somnath temple, against the Afghans 180 yrs ago?

Thread

https://twitter.com/yupptv/status/1428699757006917632

British, Ranjit Singh & Shah Shuja all had their own interests in invading AFG in the 1st Anglo-Afghan war (1839-42).

A rarely known story of that war is that the doors of a revered tomb in AFG were removed & brought to India under the orders of the then Gov. Gen. Ellenborough.

That tomb was of Mahmood of Ghazna, and it's doors were believed be of the revered temple of Somnath in India, and that there were brought 800 yrs ago to Ghazni Afghanistan, and later were installed at the tomb of Mahmood Ghaznavi.

Gen. William Nott took over Ghazni on #OTD in 1842, and ruined it further in retribution for what had happened to Gen. Elphinstone's army. Ellenborough issued orders to Gen. William Nott to remove the wooden doors from the tomb and carry it to India.

Ellenborough believed that Muslims were irreconcilable foes but Hindus were friends of the British against these foes. He wanted to win further favor with Hindus by restoring to them the doors of their revered temple avenging the 800 yrs of insult.

Excerpt from his proclamation.

Gen. Nott's army then joined Gen. Pollock's army in Kabul in Sep 1842 and committed gross brutalities in the name of retribution. They killed many Afghans, plundered everything they could hold of and then sacked much of Kabul city including the historic covered Bazaar of Kabul.

Acc. to the British record, the fire that they started to burn down Kabul beginning with the blowing up of two mosques, continued to burn for weeks, & when they withdrew their army in Oct 1842, the fire was still raging & they could see it from the mountain pass as they withdrew.

They carried the "Trophy of Affghanistan" i.e., the wooden doors back to India, and a huge party including Governor general and few Raja, Maharajas received the doors at the bridge on the river Sutlej in Punjab.

In a sheer embarrassment for them all, the doors turned out to be not those of the Somnath temple but were of a recent date made in Ghazni or something but weren't the doors of the 11th century. These doors since then are in the Agra fort and were never carried any further.

A comic sketch showing Ellenborough as a dancing girl in a Hindu temple holding a Def with inscription

"THE INSULT OF 8 HUNDRED YEARS IS AVENGED".

By Meadows, Joseph Kenny, 1843.

Source: wellcomecollection.org/works/e2zxysk3…

The whole thing abt the doors turned out to be a lie neither there exist any record that indicates that the temple doors were taken to AFG but this lie did play a huge part in the desecration of the tomb of Mahmood, in blowing up of mosques & in other brutalities in Kabul.

It is interesting in itself that the topic of Somnath temple was brought up in the 1st Anglo-Afghan war in 1842 for local politics of India, & it has been again highlighted by Modi at the conclusion of the Afghan war by US & its allies obviously for similar political objectives.

Photo Sources:
1. Ghazni Fortress
collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc…
2. Trophy of Affganistan
collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc…
3. The Sacking of the Great Bazar of Caubul.
collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?q=s…
4. Tomb of Mahmood Ghaznavi commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tomb…
5. Tomb doors at Agra kevinstandagephotography.wordpress.com/2019/05/25/agr…

The great bazaar on fire, Kabul, 1842
Ink wash over pencil sketch signed by George Alfred Croly (1822-1845).

Source: collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc…