Author’s Note
256 Words
Author’s NoteMuch of Victorian Imperial history depended on the fear of Russian intentions in India.
The most vulnerable frontier point of all lay in the North-West corner in the tangled country around Afghanistan, which was Alexander the Great’s gateway to India.
Afghanistan was a very unreliable neighbour and the frontier area was inhabited by lawless Muslim tribes owing no definite allegiance to anybody and making it very difficult to establish and maintain a firm line of defence.
This was why The Great Game came into being, and the excitement, risk and secrecy about it was something that every intelligent and ambitious Englishman longed to be involved in.
The British pulled the Russians inexorably East and South, absorbing one after another the Khanates of Central Asia and preparing for the encirclement of India.
They were already building a railway across Siberia to the Far East and it was rumoured, although no one could actually confirm it, that they were building a railway in Turkestan, and planning the annexation of Tibet.
Queen Victoria was considerably disturbed about this and was continually asking questions of the Viceroy.
The British were posting their troops as close to the Russians as possible, although sometimes they thought that the actual possession of Afghanistan would become necessary.
The legend of the British arms in India, written about so brilliantly by Rudyard Kipling, was born out of the rocks and wadis of the North-West, where savage tribesmen lay in ambush behind the next rock.
The Afghans brooded behind the tribes and behind them all stood the Russians.
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