Mohan Lal (Zutshi)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mohan Lal (मोहन लाल) (1812 – 1877) was a traveller, diplomat, and author. He played a central role in the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1838–1842. His biography of Dost Mohammad Khan, emir of Kabul, is a primary source on the War.

He was born in a Kashmiri Zutshi family of Delhi. His father was Rai Brahm Nath and mother came from the Kaul family of Gwalior. He was amongst the first Indians to receive a Western-Style education at Delhi College. His travels took him to Central Asia, Iran, Khorasan, Northern India, Egypt and Europe.

Alexander Burnes and Mohan Lal led an expedition to Central Asia in 1832-4 for procuring political and military intelligence, and became firm friends. Later, Lal was the Commercial Agent for the British on the Indus and Political Assistant to Burnes in Kabul during the first Afghan War. Unlike Burnes, he survived the massacres of 1841 and continued to keep Calcutta informed of events in the Afghan capital from the house of a merchant where he had taken refuge. His reports contained many strong and cogent criticisms of the behaviour of British Officers, and particularly Sir William Hay Macnaghten and General William Elphinstone. Had his advice and that of Burnes been followed, the disasters of the War could probably have been avoided.

Mohan Lal made a telling observation to Burnes about British imperialism: "You all tell yourselves all sorts of fairy stories – you are here to sell us your wonderful British goods, you want to set us free, you want us to grow up, you want to educate us and make us worship three gods instead of forty thousand… but when you are old and tired and sleeping in a thousand years' time, you will start to realise that you came here and took possession of what was not yours for one reason. To surrender it, to give it up. That is the only reason."

He retired at the age of 32, disappointed that he had not been properly rewarded for his singular contributions to the British cause in the First Anglo-Afghan War. His only brother, Kidar Nath, who was a Deputy Collector at Ambala died in 1855. Mohan Lal's later years were spent in obscurity and financial troubles. He is believed to have written an extensive diary, but it has disappeared.

[edit] Books

Lal, Mohan. Journal of a tour through the Pun jab, Afghanistan, Turkistan, Khorasan and part of Persia in company with Lt Burnes, and Dr Gerard (Calcutta, 1834)
Lal, Mohan. Travels in the Punjab and Afghanistan and Turistan to Balkh, Bikhara and Herat and a Visit to Great Britain, Germany (1846) (Reprinted Lahore: Al Biruni, 1979)
Lal, Mohan. Life of the Amir Dost Mohammed Khan, of Kabul: with his political proceedings towards the English, Russian, and Persian governments, including victory and disasters of the British Army in Afghanistan. (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1846)