How British paranoia cast Afghans as criminals in colonial India
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In colonial-era India, Afghans and Pashtuns were often seen in sharply different ways by Indians and the British. On one hand was the world of Rabindranath Tagore’s Kabuliwala, where an Afghan fruit seller and a little girl in Calcutta shared a quiet, affectionate bond. On the other was the imagination of the British Empire, where Pashtuns, or Pathans, were cast as a looming threat.
Writing in 1920, Arthur Conan Doyle defended the Empire by arguing that if the British left India, Pathans would raid and loot cities like Bombay. He compared this to how “the Picts and Scots flowed over Britain when the Roman legions were withdrawn”, invoking a familiar imperial fear of disorder following retreat.
Doyle’s claim drew on a wider pattern in the English press, which portrayed Pathans as dacoits based on inputs from colonial authorities, who viewed Afghans as a threat to their hold over India.
In 1908, The Daily Telegraph cautioned that the Pathan “gazes south with unremitting determination”, likening the community to panthers waiting to pounce on their Indian prey. “Waiting, always waiting,” the newspaper wrote, “the Pathan bides his time, till the strong hand of the Ferenghi shall be weakened or removed, and the lock of the gate shall be broken.” It even cited a...