'Group of Kalash Kafirs', 1919

Photograph, North West Frontier, India, 1919.

The term 'Kaffirs' is Persian for infidels and was used by Muslims to describe the inhabitants of Kafiristan (now Nuristan), a region on the border between Afghanistan and the North West Frontier. The inhabitants of this mountainous area were pagan and practised a form of shamanism that worshipped several deities and had some similarities with Zoroastrianism. Kafiristan itself was the Persian term for 'land of infidels'.

The Kaffirs' religious and cultural practises were almost indistinguishable from the Kalash people of Chitral in British India (now Pakistan). They were not formally separated until the drawing up of the Durand Line in 1893. The 'Kaffirs' on the Afghan side of the new border were persecuted and forcibly converted to Islam in the years that followed and many fled to Chitral to join their Kalash cousins. The British used the term Kaffir to describe both the Chitrali Kalash and those that had crossed the border from Afghanistan.

The Kalash depicted here were photographed during celebrations held to mark the 1919 visit by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir George Roos-Keppel, the Chief Commissioner of North West Frontier Province, to the Mehtar of Chitral, Shuja-al-Mulk. Roos-Keppel's visit to Chitral helped convince the Mehtar to support the British during the 3rd Afghan War (1919) when Emir Amanullah of Afghanistan called on the Chitralis to expel the British and sent his forces into the state. However, the Mehtar remained loyal and put his state forces at British disposal.

From an album compiled by Lieutenant-Colonel G J Davis, India, North West Frontier.