It should not be forgotten by those who make wholesale assertions of
treachery and untrustworthiness against the Afridi and Pathan soldiers,
that these men are placed in a very strange and false position. They are
asked to fight against their countrymen and co-religionists. On the one
side are accumulated all the forces of fanaticism, patriotism and
natural ties. On the other military associations stand alone. It is no
doubt a grievous thing to be false to an oath of allegiance, but there
are other obligations not less sacred. To respect an oath is a duty
which the individual owes to society. Yet, who would by his evidence
send a brother to the gallows? The ties of nature are older and take
precedence of all other human laws. When the Pathan is invited to
suppress his fellow-countrymen, or even to remain a spectator of their
suppression, he finds himself in a situation at which, in the words of
Burke, "Morality is perplexed, reason staggered, and from which
affrighted nature recoils."
There are many on the frontier who realise these things, and who
sympathise with the Afridi soldier in his dilemma.
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