The Myth of the ‘Great Game’

Abstract

Colonial knowledge and the Elphinstonian episteme through which Afghanistan was conceptualized manifested a palpable policy effect in the form of the so-called ‘Great Game’. As the East India Company (EIC) solidified its position in the Indian subcontinent in the opening years of the nineteenth century, its gaze turned outwards to pre-empt encroachment on its frontiers and the feared internal loss of prestige. In so doing, it identified the powers it would deal with, how it would deal with them, and the ends to which those dealings would be directed. The Company, unsurprisingly, felt most prepared to counter threats it recognized as most akin to itself in form. The perceived incursions of the Russian Empire into Central Asia, similar to the Company’s own expansion in South Asia, provided that familiar form. Yet the Company also had to deal with the local interlocutors inhabiting the more than 2000 kilometres separating its territory from the nearest permanent Tsarist outpost.