POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY 251

enemy in the court of law instead of on his own hill-side,
and it may be doubted whether, in every aspect of its
adaptation to the tribal politics of the frontier, the change
is a change for the better. The more intellectual but
physically inferior Hindu is gradually shouldering the
Mussulman out of all the inferior posts under the central
administration, and we may yet be edified with the sight
of a brave and vigorous Muhammadan community prac-‘ically
 subordinate to a clique of grasping Hindus.
But whatever may be the exact status of Baluch
independence, there can be little doubt about that of
Afghanistan. Sir Lepel Griffin is inclined to range
Afghanistan alongside the feudatory native states of India
on the grounds that the Amir is within the sphere of our
political control, although he neither admits a British
Resident to his court at Kabul, nor does he permit a
British officer to pass into his country from India. The
Amir himself would, however, have much to say on the
other side of the question. We pay him a subsidy which
goes a long way towards maintaining his army (reckoned at
60,000 regular and 100,000 irregular troops) in its present
state of efficiency—for it is well armed and well equipped
with mountain artillery. But the result is inevitable. The
great mass of the ignorant tribespeople of Afghanistan regard
our subsidy as tribute, and believe in the Amir as a sovereign
 ruler. He pays us nothing in return. What we
really receive in exchange for the eighteen lakhs of rupees
which yearly find their way to the Kabul treasury from
India, is a certain confidence in the interposition of a
well-armed buffer state between India and Russia, which
is undoubtedly justified by the spirit of determined independence
 which animates every section of the heterogeneous
alements of which the Afghan people are composed.
Thus the Amir maintains an army which is far larger
than that of any native chief in India (not even excepting
the Nizam of Haidarabad), and is probably quite as
efficient; and we impose no limit on its extension.
Neither can we interfere, even though crimes are committed
 at the court of Kabul which would sink any