A review of the political situation in Central Asia / by Abdul Ghani.

“Late Chief medical officer, Kabul ; private English secretary to the Amirs Abdul Rahman Khan and Habeebullah Khan ; principal of the Islamia collage, Lahore ; director of Afghan public instruction ; member of his majesty Amir Amanullah Khan’s won council and of the legislative council Afghanistan”—title page.

“Muhammad ʻAbdulghani Jalalpuri (1864–1943), better known as Dr. Abdul Ghani, was an Indian Muslim reformist and educator who was active at the Afghan court in the early 20th century. He was the English secretary to Amir ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan (reigned 1880–1901) and Amir Habibullah Khan (reigned 1901–19). Abdul Ghani’s A Review of the Political Situation in Central Asia was written after his return to British India from Afghanistan. Published in Lahore in 1921, the book examines the geopolitical developments in Central Asia in the wake of World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and Afghanistan’s achievement of complete independence in 1919. He argues that Indian leaders need to understand correctly the geopolitical changes in Central Asia in order for them to guide their country safely and successfully to independence. The book is comprised of a preface, an introduction entitled “Why should India have an interest in Central Asia?”, and 12 chapters. The first four chapters deal with Afghanistan and its rulers. Chapter five is entitled “Russian Advance into Central Asia.” It is followed by four chapters that analyze, review, and critique Russian Bolshevism. Chapters 10‒12 deal with “India and the present revolutionary struggle of the world” and the interconnections among developments in Russia, Afghanistan, and India. The book has two appendices and contains six illustrations depicting notable Afghans of the time, including Amir Amanullah Khan (reigned 1919‒29), several ministers, and Sardar Mohammad Nadir Khan, the leading Afghan general in the Third Anglo-Afghan War of 1919, and later King Muhammad Nadir Shah of Afghanistan in 1929‒33. Abdul Ghani criticizes what he considers the mischief brought about by “popular applause” and the readiness of the Indian political class to consider foreign assistance as a means to gain independence. The book ends with suggestions of what Indian nationalists should do to secure independence. “India” as used by Abdul Ghani refers to British India, meaning Pakistan (and Bangladesh) as well as present-day India”—copied from website.

The Library of Congress donated copies of the digitized material (along with extensive bibliographic records) containing more than 163,000 pages of documents to ACKU, the collections that include thousands of historical, cultural, and scholarly materials dating from the early 1300s to the 1990s includes books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, newspapers and periodicals related to Afghanistan in Pushto, Dari, as well as in English, French, German, Russian and other European languages ACKU has a PDF copy of the item.

Includes bibliographical references.

English