24 A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE
Ridge was attacked by tribesmen in great force led by
the Mad Mullah who proclaimed a Jehad (holy war) against
the British. Almost simultaneously there was invasion of
the Peshawar valley across the Kabul river by a combined
lashkar in which Afridis of the Khyber Pass joined. It
resulted in the despatch of the Tirah expedition into the
llohmand territory to " chastise " the Afridis. The grow-
ing conviction that it was physically difficult to conquer
and hold Afghanistan without incurring ruinous expendi-
ture in men and money, " which sound strategy suggested
ought to be thrown on the enemy ", led to a gradual
abandonment of the Forward Policy and the substi-
tution of a policy of cultivating friendship with a strong;
stable and independent Afghanistan under a ruler pre-
pared to give control of the independent tribes on the
borders to the British Government. Accordingly, Amir
Abdur Rahman was elevated to the Kabul throne which
he held for many years, supported by British arms and a
handsome subsidy from the India Government towards the
defence of his kingdom. The policy held good during the
reign of his successor, Amir Habibur Rahman, who was
murdered in 1919. The holding of the " Scientific Frontier
Line ", however, brought in its own complications. By
bringing the British power into direct touch with the
trans-border tribes, it virtually enabled the Amir of
Afghanistan to transfer his headache to his erstwhile an-
tagonist., the British power. Under the treaty of Gandamak
with Afghanistan and " political arrangement " (another
name for coercion) with border tribes, the British Gov-
ernment had secured to themselves the control of the
passes and territorial rights in respect of two military
routes from India to Kabul, one by the Khyber, the other
by the Kurram. This in its turn led to a steady pene-
tration into the tribal territory which gave to the tribes-
men the "blessing" of a system of metalled roads and
strategic railways strangely at variance with their econo-
mic and political backwardness. These roads could
easily be the envy of any civilized part of the West,
and the strategic railways, particularly those bevond the