Every time the Great Escape of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is spoken about, it is never complete without the mention of Kabul and Afghanistan. It played a key role in his itinerary and the great visionary and freedom fighter braved a trek over the Khyber Pass and across the Kabul river gorge and the icy Sairobi plains in an overcrowded bus and made his way to Kabul on January 27, 1941. Only a person with nerves of steel like that of Netaji could have made such a hazardous and dangerous journey.
Kabul, Afghanistan and India have a long connection. In the late second century BCE, much of Afghanistan was influenced by Buddhist, Hindu and Zoroastrian cultures till Islam arrived in the seventh century. But even as many Afghans converted to Islam, Muslims and Hindus lived together amicably in a conducive atmosphere.
In the heart of every Indian and Afghan, there is love for each other. The two countries love each other’s culture, music and poetry, cinema, food and festivals. For decades, Afghans have seen India as a natural destination for education, health or as a second home.
The freedom struggle
No chapter on Indian freedom struggle can be complete without the mention of Afghanistan. India fondly recalls Afghans’ support during our freedom struggle; the contribution of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also respectfully known as Frontier Gandhi; and when, exactly 100 years ago, the first Indian Government-in-Exile was formed in Kabul by Maharaja Mahendra Pratap and Maulana Barkatullah. King Amanullah had once told the Maharaja that as long as India was not free, Afghanistan was not free in the truest sense!
Indians and Afghans have always stood for and by each other. Both countries jointly followed the glorious tradition of pluralism in the truest sense. The “zanjeer of love” between both the countries has been aptly depicted by reel life Sher Khan, the Pathan (played by Pran in Prakash Mehra’s movie Zanjeer), and the popular number belted out by Sher Khan in the movie, Yaari hai iman mera, yaar meri zindangi, summarises the whole story of our proximity with them.
Literary influence
In 1892, Rabindranath Tagore wrote his iconic short story, Kabuliwala. It was the tale of a man from Afghanistan living in Kolkata. Over the past century, this interpretation has given shape to a romantic image of Afghans in Bengal and other parts of India.
The name from Tagore’s story is still in use and the Afghans in Kolkata are still called Kabuliwalas, which means “people from Kabul”. While the city has accepted them like many others, they have lived here for generations and have maintained their distinct tradition.
Stockpiled with spices, dry fruits and attar (perfumes) from their country, the first batch of Kabuliwalas ferried them from door to door. Over the years and decades, they have moved on to other businesses, including setting up tailoring shops in the city. Today, there are just about 5,000 Kabuliwala families in Kolkata.
Bollywood and Afghans
Kader Khan was born in Kabul. His father, Abdul Rahman Khan, hailed from Kandahar in Afghanistan. His mother, Iqbal Begum, belonged to Balochistan, Pakistan. Khan was a Pashtun of the Kakar tribe. He was brought up in Kamathipura in Mumbai after his family came to India.
Feroz Khan was also of Afghan origin. He was born to Sadiq Ali Khan, an Afghan Pashtun Tanoli from Ghazni, Afghanistan, and Fatima, who had a Persian lineage from Iran. He was so attached to his Afghan heritage that he shot his home production films, Dharmatma and Janasheen, in Afghanistan.
Salman Khan too belongs to Afghan heritage. His ancestors were Alakozai Pashtun, which is a part of the Yusufzai tribe. In the 18th century, his ancestors migrated to Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
The relationship between Bollywood and Afghanistan is inseparable and even the ban imposed by the Taliban has failed to erase them from the mind and imagination of the common Afghan, who loves the films because they revolve around fighting injustice, which is omnipresent in contemporary society.
Amitabh Bachchan leads a list of Indian actors who have legions of fans in the trouble-torn country. The list includes Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and even Mithun Chakraborty.
Afghanistan was among the biggest markets of Bollywood films until the early 1990s. Even during the civil war years, Hindi films continued to do brisk business in the cinemas of bigger cities like Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif.
Other Bollywood films such as Khuda Gawah (starring Amitabh Bachchan, Sridevi and Nagarjuna, 1992), Kabul Express (John Abraham and Arshad Warsi, 2006), Torbaaz (Sanjay Dutt and Nargis Fakhri, 2020) were shot in Afghanistan.
Where does India stand?
The Taliban’s “invasion” is likely to bring about a significant shift in the geopolitics of South Asia, and for India it would be a testing time given the country’s relations and border disputes with Beijing and Islamabad, especially when both countries are showing keen interest in Afghanistan’s future.
Pakistan shares an extremely porous border with Afghanistan and has long been an active “negotiator” in the region’s affairs. With China’s keen interest and pro-Taliban comments, the scenario is getting fluid by the minute.
Afghanistan had a loose alliance between the democratic government in Kabul, the West and other democracies like India. But with Pakistan, Russia, Iran and China coming together to play the next innings, the situation is set to be highly unpredictable.
