This is Post #10 in the new Series “Going to Afghanistan”.

Air tissue writing paper:

Amritsar, India
12:00 Noon - 27 Sept. ‘58

My Darlings,

Here I am at the holy place of the Sikhs about twenty miles from the Pakistan border and not too far from Kashmir.  The weather has closed in and the planes’ compass is broken so the flight is grounded until tomorrow.

Lahore is just over the border in Pakistan but since I have only a single trip visa I won’t be able to go there.

It is cool here but extremely humid.  The rains fall continuously.  However it is better here than in Delhi.  I understand that all the passengers will be housed in a guest house tonight.  Right now I think I could sleep for a week.

Air tissue writing paper:

Sunday 28 Sept. ‘58

This letter was interrupted yesterday by lunch and now I just finished breakfast.

Yesterday afternoon I visited the Golden Temple of the Sikhs.  I suppose I took too many pictures.

Seven of us had dinner together here last night.  Three Germans, two Americans, one Italian and one Scotchman.  The dinner conversation was fascinating.

Must close now and get ready to go.  All my love,
Fred.

Air tissue writing paper:

Amritsar, India
Tuesday, 30 Sept. ‘58

My Darlings,

Today I’m still in Amritsar!  The experience here is worthy of consideration for a play.

“Title”:
“Week End in Amritsar”.

Cast of Characters:
Fred W. Clayton - bound for Kabul, of Carson City, Nevada.
William Fox - returning to Kabul after a fortnight in Kashmir, from San Francisco; son of “Jack” Fox  former General Manager of Columbia Steel

At this point the letter writing was obviously interrupted.  The page was used to record an address:

Mrs. P. Bhandari
No. 10 Cantonment
Amritsar, India

Air tissue writing paper:

In the Air
Wed. 1 Oct. ‘58

My Beloved,

Someday I’ll write a book or play entitled “Week End in Amritsar!

After staying in Amritsar since Saturday we left for Kabul this morning only to find that Indian Airlines cannot land at Kabul this morning so we are returning to Amritsar.  I don’t know when I’ll get to Kabul.

I’m fine and hope you are.  Time in Amritsar is spent trying to arrange transportation to Kabul.

All now, Love Fred.

To appreciate the situation one must remember that Afghanistan owned much of northern India before the British overran the subcontinent.  The jewel of this domain was arguably Kashmir which the Afghans always regarded as occupied territory, especially the more Moslem part also called Jammu.  While the Afghans succeeded in driving the British out of the areas west of the eastern mountains they were not able to drive east through the heavily fortified Khyber Pass and retake Jammu if not all of Kashmir.

During negotiations preceding “India Independence” Afghanistan made a clear case for the return of the area now known as Jammu.  What emerged was a rejection of an orderly withdrawal from India by the British as the rival politics of Hindu and Moslem politicians in India vied for control of the new nation state.  The Moslem parties, centered mostly in Lahore moved to wrest a Moslem Nation from what was British India that included the areas claimed by Afghanistan.

In time it was agreed (because of no other agreement) that India would be partitioned with a “Hindu” India in the middle and a “Moslem” India taking lands to the east and west to be named West Pakistan and East Pakistan.  Needless to say the Afghans were furious; Afghanistan was an ancient nation-state indigenous to the region, Pakistan was little more than an inflammation of extremist political ideas and groups hardly worthy of even the term “parties”.

In what probably was the greatest exodus of populations in the history of the world, modern or ancient, millions of India’s Moslems moved west and east, millions of India’s Hindus moved toward the center.  This transmigration not only resulted in millions becoming homeless, the migration radically reshaped the population profile and politics of the areas around Lahore and further west and south.  The emergence of Pakistan in western India was very much like the emergence of Israel in what was Palestine; it was made possible by a huge influx of people who did not historically live there or at least had not for countless centuries.  The Afghans and those religiously and ethnically most affiliated with the Afghans were often displaced, often deprived of property and power.  This generally occurred without justice, fair compensation, or remuneration.

By 1958 this whole double-cross of negotiations and the travesty of Pakistan came to be summarized and simplified as Afghanistan’s ongoing claim to “Jammu”.  This claim put Afghanistan and Pakistan at odds and made Hindu India, enemy of Pakistan, Afghanistan’s friend.  There was no “hot war” between Afghanistan and Pakistan though for the entire time that I was in Afghanistan there was a perception on the streets that a hot war could break out.  There were difficult situations.  A plane leaving India for Afghanistan was allowed to fly over Pakistan, but could not land there; hence one either entered Afghanistan (in the east) through Karachi or one went to India and flew over Pakistan to Afghanistan.  When Fred’s plane was refused the right to land in Kabul it had no choice but to return to India and to do so before the fuel on board was too low to make the return flight.  Further, Indian Airlines had no right to fly between Kabul and Kandahar; only Ariana Afghan Airlines had that route so landing in Kandahar or any other Afghan city was also not an option.

Photograph by Fred W. Clayton - Amritsar, India 1958.  First published 2010 - All rights reserved.

Photograph by Fred W. Clayton - Amritsar, India 1958.  First published 2010 - All rights reserved.

[First posted:  2010.03.01 / Monday - Amritsar]