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Afghanistan
Afghanistan celebrates independence from Britain
2007-08-20
KABUL - President Hamid Karzai led AfghanistanÂ’s Independence Day celebrations on Sunday with a call to the countryÂ’s young people to educate themselves to preserve their freedom.

Karzai told tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital’s sports stadium that Afghanistan’s youth should “spend every second of their lives in learning” to maintain the country’s cherished independence. "To maintain Afghanistan’s independence the youth of the country the youngsters must spend every second of their lives in learning, and better learning,” Karzai told the gathering.

An enthusiastic Karzai asked the crowd to repeat after him “we want to learn and live better.” “Do you want to learn, become engineers, doctors and experts?,” Karzai asked the crowd. “Say yes, loudly, Yes,” Karzai exhorted. The crowd applauded and shouted: “yes, yes, we do.”

Reiterating condemnation of Taliban attacks on the 88th anniversary of full sovereignty from Britain, he warned there were still “plots against our independence by the enemies of this land.” Karzai denounced “the killing of innocent people -- men, women and children,” referring to the 15 victims, including 11 civilians, killed in a Taliban-linked suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan on Saturday.

Although Afghanistan was never a full colony of Britain, London under a treaty controlled its foreign affairs until agreeing to allow full independence on August 19, 1919. Afghans had earlier fought three wars against the British, the first starting in 1838 and the last ending months before the 1919 agreement.
Posted by:Steve White

#7  

Map of the Maurya Empire under Ashoka's rule.
Posted by: john frum   2007-08-20 18:36  

#6  Of course, it helps when you have a big army...

"But this last combat with Porus took off the edge of the Macedonians' courage, and stayed their further progress into India. For having found it hard enough to defeat an enemy who brought but twenty thousand men and two thousand horse into the field, they thought they had reason to oppose Alexander's design of leading them on to pass the Ganges, too, which they were told was thirty-two furlongs broad and a fathoms deep, and the banks on the further side covered with multitudes of enemies. For they were told the kings of the Gandaritans and Praesians expected them there with eighty thousand horse, two hundred thousand men, eight thousand armed chariots, and six thousand fighting elephants. Nor was this a mere vain report, spread to discourage them. For Androcottus, who not long after reigned in those parts, made a present of five hundred elephants at once to Seleucus, and with an army of six hundred thousand men subdued all India.

Vita Alexandri by Plutarch

And he was pretty mean before he converted and embraced Buddhist Dharma...

"Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, conquered the Kalingas eight years after his coronation. One hundred and fifty thousand were deported, one hundred thousand were killed and many more died (from other causes). After the Kalingas had been conquered, Beloved-of-the-Gods came to feel a strong inclination towards the Dhamma, a love for the Dhamma and for instruction in Dhamma. Now Beloved-of-the-Gods feels deep remorse for having conquered the Kalingas." Rock Edict Nb13

Posted by: john frum   2007-08-20 12:45  

#5  "All religions should reside everywhere, for all of them desire self-control and purity of heart."

"Here (in my domain) no living beings are to be slaughtered or offered in sacrifice."

"Contact (between religions) is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others. Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, desires that all should be well-learned in the good doctrines of other religions."


Posted by: john frum   2007-08-20 11:54  

#4  Edict of the Indian Emperor Ashoka, at Kandahar, Afghanistan

Inscription is in both Greek and Aramaic



"Ten years (of reign) having been completed, King Piodasses (Ashoka) made known (the doctrine of) Piety to men; and from this moment he has made men more pious, and everything thrives throughout the whole world. And the king abstains from (killing) living beings, and other men and those who (are) huntsmen and fishermen of the king have desisted from hunting. And if some (were) intemperate, they have ceased from their intemperance as was in their power; and obedient to their father and mother and to the elders, in opposition to the past also in the future, by so acting on every occasion, they will live better and more happily."

Posted by: john frum   2007-08-20 11:49  

#3  Good commentary, john frum. Churchill wrote a passage in one of his books along the same line.

But now, if Karzai is speaking about the virtue of education, isn't that apostasy?
Posted by: treo   2007-08-20 10:28  

#2  Had they been absorbed into the Raj, they would be part of Pakistan now.

You need to go back more than two thousand years, to the time when that region was recaptured from Selucius Nicator (Satrap of Alexander the Great) by the Indian Emperor Chandragupta Maurya.
His grandson the emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism and sent missionaries to China, Japan, SE Asia to spread the word of the Buddha.

Afghanistan was full of centers of learning, full of Buddhist monasteries and libraries. It was actually civilized.

Nothing remained after the Muslim conquests. The Buddhist monks (who believed in non-violence) were slaughtered and their libraries burnt. All Buddhists were forcibly converted to Islam.

The Bamiyan Buddhas, one of the last remnants of the Buddhist presence were blown up by the Taliban.

Posted by: john frum   2007-08-20 08:03  

#1  I wonder where they'd be today if they had just gone along with it.
Posted by: gorb   2007-08-20 02:14  

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