| Surprising as it may seem, Christopher Kremmer, journalist and travel writer, travelled to Kandahar and several other "Great Game" hotspots in Afghanistan, Pakistan and beyond in search of carpets, rugs and kilims at a time when the country was torn apart with internal wars. (Hasn't it been said before that Afghans are at peace only when they are at war with each other?) |
| The human tragedy enacted in their country notwithstanding, the fact remains that the Afghans make excellent carpets, weaving intricate designs with their unique dyes, even while they shoot each other down with Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers. |
| Kremmer tells the story of a people through the carpets they wove. And what Kremmer has been able to accomplish is nothing short of amazing. There is no facet of life in that rough part of the world that Kremmer has not touched upon in great detail and extreme sensitivity "" the fabled Afghan hospitality, the disruption of commerce and business, the discrimination amongst women, the lust for power of local warlords, buzkashi, the traders' cunning "" while effortlessly going through his search for carpets. |
| Indeed, The Carpet Wars is one of the finest accounts of travel in the region. Though Kremmer's style is unhurried, there is hardly a dull passage in the book. It helps, too, that the book charts a period of recent Afghan history that has been of extremely high interest across the world in the past half-decade or so. |
| Kremmer's account starts when the Russian forces were on their way out of Kabul. The Soviet Union had collapsed, and the new powers in Moscow had decided to pull out of their misadventure in Afghanistan. Power had been transferred to Najibullah, though his hold over the country was tenuous. The Tajiks led by Ahmad Shah Massoud (the Lion of Panjshir who was murdered by suicide bombers just days before the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US), the Uzbeks under Rashid Ahmad Dostam and the Pashtun militia commanded by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, were all vying for power. |
| Till then, carpets had been a flourishing trade in Afghanistan. Even during Russian occupation, there were sufficient buyers for the carpets. But when the Mujahideen came to power, the trade began to suffer as Kabul and other cities became dangerous places to live in. Worse was to come when the Taliban gained control of Kabul. Like millions from their country, the carpet dealers from Kabul shifted en masse to Peshawar in Pakistan. The wars had left their economy in tatters. |
| Carpet weavers, like poets and writers, can't help getting the social and political undercurrents of the day in their work, it seems. A new pattern of carpet weaving emerged from the daily skirmishes in the country "" the "Tank" design. Instead of intricate floral patterns, Russian tanks and missiles started making their appearance on Afghan carpets. |
| Kremmer reports with full honesty and from very close quarters the various wars being carried out in Afghanistan "" at one time, he was almost caught in a crossfire between the Taliban and Shia Hazaras near Mazar-i-Sharif. During the ten years he spent in Afghanistan, Kremmer met up with almost all the key decision makers from Najibullah to Dostum and Massoud, except the reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar and the elusive Osama bin Laden. |
| More important, Kremmer found the time to appreciate the carpets these people walked on. So, while he interviewed the unlettered Taliban chief of the Afghan central bank, he found the carpet in the office to be one of the largest pieces he had ever seen! |
| THE CARPET WARS: TEN YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN AND IRAQ |
| Christopher Kremmer HarperCollins Price: Rs 395; pages: 447 |
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