When the Taliban came!

“The rope that pulls you from the flood can become a noose around your neck”

-Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed.

As I complete the book “A thousand Splendid Suns”, I end up contemplating about what’s happening all around me. Often beliefs of people not only has an effect on them but also ends up affecting the lives of the people around them. Though the story revolves around three women, I am quite fascinated by the background of the story.

When the Taliban came, the Afghans thought the liberal, Russian supported communist rule is over and the sons of the land will rule the country in a better way. They were pretty much like any other society that believes the natives will take ownership and will make the country better. The Pasthuns celebrated their arrival as that was an era when the nation was looking for a change.They were common pasthuns who were educated in the traditional Islamic schools. They felt that the Islamist rules were not installed in the country and that’s the reason why they were suffering. Isn’t common for any society to support a change? They just took inspiration from the past. This is a very interesting point which I loved in the story as I could relate it to lot of things.

History often serves as a tool to take inspiration for the future when we are in need. The Afghans believed that if they could replicate the past they will become prosperous. Most of the societies in the world believe that they had flourished at some point of time in history and would like to travel in time to achieve the same prosperity. They want a revolution or a change in government which will help them achieve it and most political leaders promise the dream. At this point, I would like to blame the historians for just painting one side of the picture of the past history. But then yes, most of us believe history is studied only to inspire us for a better living rather than as a vehicle to understand the errors we had committed in the past as a society.

Even today as I see streaks of Nationalism raising high among countries, they don’t look much different from this story. The Afghans were also like the millions of people all around the world, thumping their chest to follow the the ancient principles to achieve or to repeat the economic success.

These were feelings of the common men who had the belief that these organisations like Taliban with arms on their hand fighting for the nation added with their religious association will create a utopian world. We all believe that our religion helps us in attaining betterment in life. Those common men also believed that their youth with arms in hand will make the country prosperous.But then the Taliban couldn’t establish a government. They failed after repeated attempts.

The one important thing these people forgot is that nowhere in the world any religious organisation has been successful in creating a government which works for development. Religion has its own issues in handling political victory. That’s one of the part of History, the historians have failed to communicate to the masses.

The Afghanistan where the women wore western clothes, taught in universities, strolled on the bazaars at night, shopping for clothes; thus giving life to the night came to an end because people thought the religious fundamentalism can help them attain a better prosperity in the future. The schools and hospitals which provided them the basic amenities came to an end because they doubted the NGOs. The doubt they had about the foreign NGOs pushed millions of people to death as these intermittent rulers rejected the medical and food support provided by other nations.

Afghanistan remains today as an example in history. People should learn from these mistakes. Religion always has its own problems. It dwelves more into the rules and rituals and never takes up development as the primary cause. Because social or economic development is not the agenda of a religion but is to control people to follow certain rules.

When the Taliban came, Afghans ended up breaking not only the Buddhist statues but also a society which had grown out of its religious impediments and was progressing along with the rest of the world hand in hand.

But the Taliban came…