Alexander Burnes
Captain Sir Alexander Burnes FRS (16 May 1805 – 2 November 1841) was a Scottish explorer, military officer and diplomat associated with the Great Game. He was nicknamed "Bokhara Burnes" for his role in establishing contact with and exploring Bukhara. His memoir, Travels into Bokhara, was a bestseller when first published in 1835 and earned him £800 in royalties.[1][2]
Early career and travels
Burnes was the fourth son of James Burnes, a Scottish lawyer and provost of Montrose, and a distant cousin of the poet Robert Burns.[3] After attending the college in his hometown, he obtained a cadetship in the East India Company's military service at the age of sixteen and embarked for Bombay in December 1821. He quickly acquired fluency in Urdu and Persian and was appointed regimental interpreter while still an ensign.[3]
In 1826 he was transferred to Kutch, where he served as assistant to the political resident Henry Pottinger. The posting awakened his interest in the geography and politics of north-western India and the adjacent countries, which had not yet been thoroughly explored by the British.[1] In 1830 he was dispatched on a complimentary mission to Lahore, carrying a gift of English horses for the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh, and explored the lower Indus region.[3]
In 1832, with the support of the Governor-General Lord William Bentinck, Burnes led an exploratory mission through Afghanistan and Central Asia. Travelling in Afghan dress with a small party including the military physician James Gerard, he went from Delhi through Lahore, Attock, Kabul, Bamian, and Balkh to Bukhara, then continued through Meshed (where Gerard returned to India), Astrabad, Esfahan, Shiraz, and Bushire before reaching Bombay in January 1833.[1][4]
Fame in London
Burnes arrived in London in October 1833 a celebrated hero. He was received by King William IV at the Brighton Pavilion, dined with Lord Holland at Holland House, and was entertained by Lord Lansdowne at Bowood. His account of the journey was published in 1834 as Travels into Bukhara and became one of the most popular books of the time. He received the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London and the silver medal of the Geographical Society of Paris, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and admitted to the Athenaeum Club without ballot.[3]
Mission to Kabul
Returning to India in 1835, Burnes was appointed to the court of Sindh to secure a treaty for the navigation of the Indus. In 1836 he was chosen for a commercial mission to Kabul, but the mission took on a political character when the conflict between Dost Muhammad Khan and Ranjit Singh of Lahore intensified and Persia laid siege to Herat in 1837.[2]
Burnes arrived in Kabul in September 1836 and met Dost Muhammad Khan, who was eager for an alliance with England against Russia. Burnes discovered that Russia was intriguing through the Persian government with the Afghans, and the arrival of a Russian agent at Kabul confirmed his suspicions. He urged the British government to support Dost Muhammad and reject the demands of Ranjit Singh, but his recommendations were overruled by Lord Auckland, the Governor-General, who preferred to reinstate the former Durrani ruler Shah Shuja.[3]
Burnes left Kabul in 1838, knighted for his exertions, and was sent to Sindh and Baluchistan to prepare the way for the British expeditionary force that would install Shah Shuja. He accompanied the army to Kabul in 1839 as assistant to the envoy Sir William Hay Macnaghten, and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel.[1][3]
Political agent in Kabul
From late 1839 until his death in November 1841, Burnes served as the British Political Agent in Kabul, stationed with Macnaghten. He considered Shah Shuja unfit to rule and spent these years collecting intelligence relating to Turkestan and assembling information concerning trade. He was critical of the policy pursued in Afghanistan and set out his views in a memorandum in 1840, but his criticisms were largely ignored. He called himself "a highly paid idler" in a position he resented.[1]
Burnes was well aware that the British presence in Kabul was deeply unpopular among Afghans, who viewed him as responsible for the city's financial and religious decay. Despite warnings from friends, including his former travelling companion Mohan Lal, who urged him to flee to the relative safety of the cantonment in November 1841, Burnes believed he could quell any potential trouble and declined to leave.[1]
Death
On the night of 1 November 1841, a small group began driving a mob around the city. The group spread the message that the building adjacent to Burnes's house was used as the garrison treasury, holding pay for the entire British forces in Kabul, inflaming the mob's anger.[1]
The situation deteriorated rapidly. A single shot was fired from the crowd, and Major William Broadfoot, Burnes's political assistant, standing beside him on the balcony, was killed. Burnes's younger brother, Lieutenant Charles Burnes, exited armed into the courtyard, reportedly killing six men before being hacked to death. Alexander Burnes was soon beaten and hacked to death by the mob.[1]
The events took place just half an hour's march from where British troops had been stationed. One young officer noted: "When 300 men would have been sufficient in the morning, 3000 would not have been adequate in the afternoon."[1]
Legacy
Burnes's reports from Kabul in 1839 had correctly analysed the situation, but they were kept secret or distorted in order to continue the Afghan venture. In 1861, it emerged that some of Burnes's despatches had been altered to convey opinions opposite to his own. The matter was brought before Parliament, but Lord Palmerston's Government resisted the motion, which was defeated.[3]
Sir Henry Durand described Burnes as "a man hated as the treacherous cause of the invasion and occupation of the country."[3] While this was likely the prevailing Afghan feeling, there is no evidence that Dost Muhammad Khan himself shared this view or that Burnes was guilty of treachery. His advice in favour of an alliance with Dost Muhammad was, in hindsight, far sounder than the policy of installing Shah Shuja that his superiors pursued.[3]