1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

36
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
understanding and sufficient shrewdness to foretell the results of such
a war as will assuredly be directed against this unfortunate nation
should it prove refractory, and should that Hazara, from a fine spirit of
patriotism, save the lives of the poor misled peasants and mountaineers
by helping him to put his finger on the Mullahs and other leaders of the
rebels, the men who are inciting the people to do they know not what,
that man will be exalted to a rank and receive such rewards as his
wildest aspirations had never led him to hope for. He might be made
governor, which will be practically chief of his own country.”
Here was the very position he had coveted, that he had dreamt of, but
the terms were not su ch as a man of his calibre could have accepted.
“You mean, should a Hazara be found mean enough and vile enough to
save his own skin and property b y betraying his countrymen, then his
very lowness and poverty of pride and spirit would be his fortune –
that is what you mean,” Ghulam Hossain said bitterly. “There are such
men in the country of the Hazaras. Bribes will do much, I doubt not
that you will find traitors without difficulty.”
“That is an unpleasant way of putting the case,” the secretary said,
quite unmoved. “There are two sides to every question. One is at
libert y to choose which side one prefers to look at. I choose the other. I
should call the man who saved his countr y from a war that will be its
undoing a patriot, not a traitor.”
“Then we never can agree,” the Hazara said hotly.
“Don’t sa y that,” the Afghan rejoined, “time often leads us to see
things in a totally different light, time and change of circumstances.
When you go home and note how very ignorant the people are, how
over-ridden by priests as ignorant but more cunning than they; when
you have realised that it is a mere question of submitting to a really
trivial taxation imposed by a Mohamedan prince, or being ruled by
Kafirs who will send your children to mission schools, insult your
women, and teach your young men to drink spirits, then I think you
may change your mind and consider than the man who helps to save his
country from such calamities is a patriot as I said, and not a traitor. It
seems to me that the man who plays into the hands of Kafirs is a traitor
to his God.”
But Ghulam Hossain remained silent. He made no mention of these
visits to the other envo ys. He felt it to be unnecessar y, especially as
the Sa yad made no mention of the way in which he had spent his time,
but there was little doubt in his companion’s mind as to what he had
been doing; he had been inciting all the Hazaras and as many of the
Afghans as he found discontented (and there were many such) to rebel
against their ruler.