Essay on “The New Afghanistan – The Indian Perception” Complete Essay for Class 9, Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

The New Afghanistan – The Indian Perception

Satinder K. Lambah, India special envoy for Afghanistan who witnessed the entire grand show of Loya jigra has his own views to express over the New face of Afghanistan that has emerged, fresh and radiant. His perception is actually India’s perception of this New Face.

India was the first perhaps in the international field to have expressed full support to U.S. in their fight against terrorism- Afghanistan , then under the control of the terrorist outfit- Taliban and Osama Bin Laden being the architect of the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre- Al-Qaida being his outfit responsible for this attack. India being itself a victim of continued terrorism exported from the other side of the LOC knows well what terrorism is and it was natural for India to have lent its full support to the fight against terrorism all over and anywhere in the world.

While Pakistan also lent it support to U.S. against it fight against Taliban – a creation of U.S. and Pakistan combined, but Pakistan bartered its support against fiscal advantages assured to it by U.S.who have sought, as it is being presumed, in Pakistan having been ousted from Afghanistan. Who knows if Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar have also not found a safe haven somewhere in the remote corner of Pakistan or the POK.   

That is the other part of the story.

But the Indian perception of Afghanistan emerging as a free nation is that a real new nation has emerged out of the ruins perpetrated by the Taliban regime which was a victim of the U.S. onslaught which ravaged the country all the more.

Mr. Lambah attended the Loya jigra and found it to be a very impressive meeting of the Afgan leaders of all shades of opinion. The most important aspect of this was the beginning of a political process. The Afghans have been able to achieve their  objectives- electing a President.

Women playing an important part was found to be a very welcome feature which India greatly appreciated.

Loya jigra was virtually reborn after more or less a hibernation for long 38 years. There never was, during this long period, any period of peace for Afghanistan, hence the Loya jigra remained as if, out of office, it was in 1964 that the last Loya jigra was summoned and Afghans really felt happy meeting in this manner after such a long gap.

India had always been in favour of Afghans taking their own decisions themselves. Temperamentally a fighting race anything imposed upon them might be unacceptable to them as that might have hurt their ego, therefore india always wanted that now when they had been  freed from the clutches of the Taliban they should decide their own future. Afghans felt comfortable with this state of affairs as it so much suited their nature. Therefore the Loya jigra was, what according to the Indian perception was only the right level with regard to the future formations in Afghanistan were going on at Bonn India favoured the process where Afghanistan should decide its own future.

Of course, the warring type that the Afghans have been, some advising some cajoling, some coercion was needed, as in the matter of Ex-king Zahir Shah being persuaded to relinquish his claim for the top job or the minister of interior Affairs during the interim regime to step out of the race, which both of them very pragmatically accepted; all other matters were decided by the Loya jigra. U.S., of course, played a major role in Afghanistan but Loya jigra was the Afghan show as India wanted it to be.

It may be coincidental but it is very much there that all the top leaders of Afghanistan’s present regime had close connections with India in one way or the other. India has old historical, political and cultural links with Afghanistan. Ex- King Zahir Shah’s father and brother were born in Dehradun; former President (Sigbettulah) Mojadidi’s ancestors are buried in Sirhind; former President- Najibullah’s widow lives in Delhi and the newly – elected President- Karzai was educated in Shimla. Who can, even if he wants to forget all these links which have kept Afghanistan and India tied together. Buddhism, a religion born in India , found its tenets and message duly exported and accepted in Afghanistan  – the greatest symbol of this being the largest ever in the world, statue of the Buddh- Bamiyan – which the Taliban regime tried to blast and demolish.

India always wanted that once Taliban had been ousted from Afghanistan, there should be no export of terrorism or extremism from Afghanistan, that there should be a broad – based government in Afghanistan with no outside interference and Afghanistan be reconstructed and resurrected at the earliest.

It was with these ends in view, particularly the last one that India was the first, to reach out to the people of Afghanistan. On the fall of Taliban, India was there on November 21, 2001. One third of the assistance pledged by India – the total is $100 million – has either been implemented or is under implementation. India has been perhaps, the first country to convert promise into performance.

It is altogether a misconception that has wrongly been floated that India’s involvement in Afghanistan is too narrowly focused on the Tajiks at the cost of other ethnic communities, especially the Pashtunes. This is wholly wrong an assumption. Whether it is about reconstruction or contacts, India is wit all of Afghanistan. India has been in contact with leaders of all sections of country and   now that a truly national government has been formed at the centre of Afghanistan, discrimination is quite out of question.

India is for Afghanistan and for the whole of it irrespective of clans or tribes or geographical units. That is what India’s total perception and perspective is vis-a – vis Afghanistan.

So far as Taliban was concerned, it might have tried to fundamentalism the Islamic Society of Afghanitan with its most draconic writs, it was the most un-Islamic regime: Taliban had banned women even to step out of the house, least of all to seek employment or to be anywhere in the social life of the country, Asghar Ali Engineer, an erudite scholar of the Islamic religion and the Koran says, “Religion provides certain ideals and values for people to adopt and set right their lives. But people adopt them selectively to suit their whims and fancies. Hence, there has ever been a tension between theologizes and sociologists.” He further justice. Tribal society of Mecca partially accepted these – though Islam did not limit it to tribal boundaries – it was universal. Koran preaches universal equality.”

Engineer further elaborates the tenets of Koran vis-à-vis the status of women. He points out how it has often been argued that Islam does not mete out justice to women. Hence those who misunderstand the tenets treat women as chattle. “Koran”, Engineer says, “ is the greatest champion of women. The Koran gives women all the rights men have and recognizes them as a full legal entity.” The Taliban had lowered the society from  the Koranic values. It was this new face of womanhood and the new face of the Islamic Society with which India found itself so much at ease and it its new-found faith in the democratic process in which  women took an active role has been so conducive to a closer relationship of India with the New Afghanistan. India, of which  the largest minority community is Muslims, has been ever giving all and equal rights to women and finding the emergence of the same scene in Afghanistan – post Taliban  regime- India is felling happy to interact with Afghanistan- a new dimension to their relationship.