Third Afghan War and the External Position of India, 1919-1924

摘要

Although it lasted only 1 month, ended in a British victory, and is almost entirely forgotten today, the effects of the Third Afghan War (May 1919) were profound in terms of the post-First World War position of British India. Because the War led to the mutiny of the tribal militias (e.g., the Khyber Rifles) that policed the Northwest Frontier of India, the tribes in the unadministered border between Afghanistan and India rose in rebellion. In Waziristian, which lacked any road communications, this fighting was particularly severe, as the British failed to defeat the now heavily armed tribes. Between late 1919 and late 1921, the Indian Army, its fighting value weakened by wartime expansion and by losses, fought a series of protracted and inconclusive campaigns, each of which involved the equivalent of a division. Not until late 1921 did the Afghans agree to normalize relations with Britain. By assisting the Wazirs and playing off the Bolsheviks against the British, the Afghans won their full independence from the British. The cost of tribal fighting, permanently occupying the Frontier, and building roads precipitated a fiscal crisis in the reformed Indian legislation and made the Army Budget politically contentious. This prolonged budgetary crisis prevented the British from using the Indian Army as widely in the Middle East as they had hoped.