The "colorful carpet" policy

The tribal zone is the brainchild of three Anglo-Afghan wars, in which the British fought for access to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea. And also for building a transport corridor from British India (at the end of the last century it included the territories of modern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma) through Afghanistan to the west.

The British made their first attempt in 1838, they managed to occupy Kandahar and Kabul. In response, the Afghans launched a guerrilla war that culminated in the Kabul uprising in November 1841. The British Expeditionary Force was cut out almost completely. The result of the first war was the treaty of 1855, according to which Britain and Afghanistan, in accordance with the Eastern diplomatic tradition, pledged to “be friends and be friends of friends and enemies of each other’s enemies.” But relations between the “friends” remained tense. In addition, in the 1860s, Russia began to conquer Central Asia and reached the borders of Afghanistan. Britain and Russia have begun a "great game" to gain control of the region.

The British tried to occupy the strategically important Khyber Gorge in the north-west of Indian possessions - the shortest and most convenient passage through the spurs of the Hindu Kush (Spingar Range), which separated British India from Afghanistan and Central Asia. The Pashtun mountaineers, who did not recognize anyone's authority, responded with constant raids on the English garrisons. In 1862, the Viceroy of India, Lord Canning, announced a “butcher and executioner policy” towards the highlanders, the essence of which was to organize bloody punitive expeditions.

In 1878, the British took decisive action, parts of the Colonial Corps invaded Afghanistan, and the second Anglo-Afghan War began. In July 1880, the Afghans defeated a British brigade near Kandahar. Meanwhile, the Highlanders attacked the British in the rear. The English garrison in Kabul was surrounded and the British had to retreat.

In 1893, the Secretary of the Indian Colonial Administration, Sir Mortimer Durand, began negotiations with the Afghan Emir Abdurrahman about the border of British possessions. England announced that it was renouncing the conquest of Afghanistan in exchange for a number of territories and control over Kabul's foreign policy. Fearing a new war, the emir agreed. The Durand Line was drawn (all subsequent Afghan governments refused to recognize it as a state border), which officially included a number of Pashtun territories in British India.

The end of the “butcher and executioner” policy towards Pashtuns who did not agree with dependence on the British was put by another Viceroy of India - Lord Curzon, the future British Foreign Secretary. He began to develop contacts with tribal leaders, and in 1901 he separated the Pashtun territories from the Punjab province and created a new North-West Frontier Province. A number of mountainous territories retained self-government; representatives of the British administration were appointed there, who were directly subordinate to the office of the Viceroy of India. These representatives began the practice of regular cash payments to loyal maliks, which immediately reduced the number of border conflicts. Many maliks became loyal allies of the British crown.

Individual approach to different territories of British India became an important part of London's colonial policy. British officials compared India to a "variegated oriental carpet" that was "very durable, although woven from many multi-colored threads."

In May 1919, after the Afghan emir Ammanula Khan began to pursue an independent foreign policy and established contacts with Soviet Russia (which immediately recognized the independence of Afghanistan), the third Anglo-Afghan war began. The British finally managed to take control of the entire Khyber Gorge, but they could not achieve more - an uprising began in the Tribal Zone. London was afraid of losing the territories it had already occupied, and in August 1919 another peace treaty was signed with Kabul. The British never entered Afghanistan again.

In 1947, British India gained independence and split into India and Pakistan. Independent Pakistan retained many of the features of the colonial "motley carpet". The country is divided into four provinces (Sindh, Punjab, Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province - NWFP). In addition, the special status of the Tribal Zone has been preserved - the Federally Administered Tribal Territory has been created here. Islamabad also controls part of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan. In the part of Jammu and Kashmir controlled by Pakistan, the unrecognized state of Azad Kashmir emerged, effectively governed by Islamabad. Several former princely states and regions in northern Jammu and Kashmir are united into the so-called Northern Territories, which are administered by the Ministry of Kashmir and Northern Territories Affairs of the Government of Pakistan.