SPOTLIGHT
AFGHANISTAN
AND ONE HUNDRED YEARS
OF INDEPENDENCE
BY MOHAMMAD MUSA JAFARI*
I
ndependence for the Afghan people is still an unknown
phenomenon. The leaders and people of Afghanistan
have never felt a sense of pride in international relations
due to the rapid changes from 1919 up to present time,
numerous disasters caused by consecutive domestic crises
and the disputed geopolitical position. Although Afghan
government had taken top arrangements and spent a large
amount of money for celebrating the 100th year Independence
Day anniversary, a suicide bomb attack at a wedding in
Kabul killed 80 people and wounded 300 and disrupted all
the arrangements for a historic celebration and turned the
celebration into a mourning one. But the important question
is why has independence been so costly and challenging for
Afghanistan? What do the Afghan people think and dream
about their country’s 100th independence anniversary?
To answer this question, we need to look at both domestic
and international levels and study a century of Afghan
independence from establishing domestic interactions to
the impact of political and social elements on Afghanistan’s
foreign relations. Afghanistan in the last century and after
independence to the present day has experienced diff erent
types of political systems including the monarchical system
of government (1973-1919), the Mohammed Daoud Khan
Republic (1978-1973), the Communist regimes (1992-1978),
the Islamic Emirate (1993-2001) and democracy (after
September 11th).
This profound change in the political structure of a country
alone can be attributed to the failure and continuation of state
bankruptcy, especially as a series of coups, revolutions, civil
wars, and ethnic confl icts have been an indispensable part of
a century of Afghanistan’s independence. Hundreds of years
ago, widespread poverty and illiteracy played a critical role
in keeping Afghan people away from political and social
participation, and even the progressivism of the rulers such as
Amanullah Khan, who brought Afghanistan’s independence,
did not have a signifi cant impact on society.
The fall of Amanullah Khan’s government showed
that even independence cannot guarantee survival. King
Amanullah was intent to speed up modernization in a very
short period of time in traditional Afghan society while issues
such as modern government, citizenship, and political and
social freedom had taken centuries to be institutionalized in
the West. The rapid pace of change and the lack of solutions
to social problems and community cohesion have led to
continued dispersal and ethnic confl ict which are considered
to be serious threats. Keeping people away from the process
of political contribution has always been one of the main
reasons for the rapid changes in Afghanistan’s internal
system, and the Afghan rulers have always sought to impose
their authority from top to bottom in the form of control and
exercise of power.
After September 11, 2001 and the formation of a new
order, the fi rst experiences of a democratic system were
achieved with the participation of the people. The US
40 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 9 • September 2019, Noida