Priceless items of Indian silver have fallen into the hands of thieves who raided the home of Francis Curzon, the grand nephew of George Nathaniel Curzon, who was Viceroy of India between 1889 and 1905.

Viceroy Curzon, whose name is still commemorated on streets and institutions throughout South Asia, is best remembered for creating the North West Frontier Province, restoring the Taj Mahal and sending a military expedition to Tibet under the command of Francis Young husband.

He was also the driving force behind the 1903 Delhi Durbar, said to be the most magnificent Durbar ever staged, and attended by the Duke of Connaught, younger son of Queen Victoria and brother of Edward VII.

After returning from India in 1905, Curzon returned to his ancestral home of Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, an 820-acre estate that has been managed by the National Trust since 1987. The stolen silver objects include a silver frame, two silver caskets and a silver wine cooler on display in the Eastern Museum.

The current Lady Curzon, who is critical of the security arrangements put in place by the Trust, describes the stolen pieces as 'priceless' and 'irreplaceable'.

Commenting on the burglary she said, 'We asked for CCTV to be installed, but nothing has been done even though there have been two or three attempted burglaries in the past three years. It's shocking really.

'The main gates were locked but there was only one person in the whole of the property, and he lives 250 yards from the main house…I rather despair of the Trust. Their attitude isn't one of love or care for the place; it's more about making money.'

'Crusading neo-Conservative' MP was MI6 agent

The recently concluded British General Election has yielded any number of surprises and new records, not least the election for the first time ever of Muslim women members of parliament.

But one election success with particular relevance for Asia has so far managed to elude the headlines. This is the election of the Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border, Rory Stewart, who seemingly embodies the qualities of Lord Curzon, Lawrence of Arabia and many other British explorers and adventurers.

An Oxford graduate who served in the British Army and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Stewart was identified by ex-British ambassador Craig Murray as a former intelligence agent working for Britain's fabled MI6. The allegations of his intelligence connections take some of the shine off Stewart's epic walk across Afghanistan between 2000 and 2002 — extended to Pakistan, India and Nepal — which resulted in a bestselling book, The Places in Between.

Another bestseller about Iraq, entitled The Prince of the Marshes, was the result of his experiences as the deputy governor of a province of occupied Iraq in 2003-2004. He was later appointed a Professor of Human Rights at Harvard.

Ambassador Murray had this to say about his ex colleague: 'One person I would not vote for is the crusading neo-Conservative Rory Stewart. It is particularly annoying that he is constantly referred to as a former diplomat. Stewart was an MI6 officer and not a member of the FCO.

'Three years ago I received a message from the FCO asking me not to mention this as, at that time, Stewart was still very active for MI6 in Afghanistan and his life could have been endangered. I agreed, and even removed a reference from my blog. However, now that he is safely and lucratively ensconced at Harvard, I see no reason to conceal the truth. It is necessary to reveal this so that people can correctly evaluate his political pronouncements on Iraq and Afghanistan, and his motives in making them.

'In putting himself forward for election, Stewart has forfeited the right to conceal his background from the electorate.'

Every invasion provokes resistance

Outsiders infiltrating into the country have been a fact of life for Afghanistan from time immemorial and certifiably so from the time of Alexander the Great. Invaders from the North and the West, who sought to plunder the riches of India, invariably passed through the strategic reaches of Afghanistan. A few stayed and married into the locality, but whether they stayed or moved on, they all left their mark.

When the Soviet Union sought to expand its influence and its geographical reach in 1979, Moscow sent its troops through the Salang Pass and into Kabul where they stayed until they were forced to withdraw a decade later.

What the Soviets realised back then, and what the US has started to acknowledge now, is that every action of invasion provokes a reaction of resistance that can take many forms. Local resistance groups will take on the full might of the invaders and, as the resistance develops, others join in as help begins to arrive from many quarters.

When the 'Godless' Soviets occupied Afghanistan, thousands of resistance fighters from around the world, especially the Muslim world, rallied to the cause and joined in the fight. Egyptians, Saudis, Yemenis, Indonesians were just some of the resistance fighters who slipped across the Pakistan border to have a pop at the Soviet forces. Secret units of the US and other Western armed forces also participated in carefully planned sorties.

Now the Americans are getting a taste of their own medicine as foreign fighters arrive from far and wide to help strengthen the resistance against the coalition forces. So-called 'White Taliban' have been spotted in Zabul province, somewhere between Kabul and Kandahar. Their long hair, pale skin and unIslamic habit of wearing shorts, rather than trousers or shalwars, all help to make them stand out.

US intelligence sources agree that Arabs and Uzbeks have been signing up with the Taliban. But the best guess about the White Taliban is that they are Russian-speaking Chechens. How long they will stay is anybody's guess and how they will be received by the local Afghan population remains to be seen.

US mood changes towards Karzai

How quickly US policy changes on Afghanistan, reflecting both the hope and the desperation of the Obama administration to bring the Taliban and their allies to heel and simultaneously prepare for a graceful exit of Western forces by 2011.

One of the key players in Afghanistan is President Hamid Karzai, who was brought to power with the backing of US-led NATO forces and has managed to survive, despite periodic rumblings from the American side that he is unfit to discharge the responsibilities of his high office.

Until a few weeks ago he was a villain in all but name and rumoured to be, according to US sources, head of the Afghan drug culture, the epitome of local corruption, a secret ally of Osama and much more. Delighted Pakistani officials in Islamabad, who detest Karzai, joined in by spreading lurid stories about his private life.

All this propagandist back-stabbing seemed to be going in one direction only, namely Karzai's ousting in favour of someone more to the liking of the White House, local military commanders and Islamabad.

Yet suddenly the mood music coming out of Washington and the US military bases in Afghanistan has changed. It started with Karzai's invitation to visit Washington this May, when he was received with the full honours due to a visiting head of state. Administration officials have once again started to refer to him as 'President Karzai' rather than 'Karzai' and, for a change, the visiting leader was actually listened to by American officials and not harangued.
His walk in the park with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the formal banquet in his honour at the White House and repeated requests to US Congressmen not to criticise their Afghan guest were all indications of a policy shift.

Former US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad was quoted as saying, 'There is a recognition that the administration strategy was counterproductive. Some officials were treating Karzai as if he were part of the Bush administration who had been left behind, which was a mistake. Karzai also recognises that he needs the US coalition to succeed and maybe he had gone too far.'

Improved relations between Karzai and the Obama administration means better co-ordination for the impending coalition assault on Taliban positions outside Kandahar, Afghanistan's second city and the home base for the Karzai family. When the military offensive does get underway later this year, coalition forces can be sure of support from the Karzai family and the local Popalzai tribe to which they belong.

Dalai Lama's comments just not cricket, says China

Cricket is a relatively harmless sport enjoyed by millions, but ball, ball and stumps and the spectators they attract have provoked a new controversy between India and China.

The reason was the presence at an Indian cricket match of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who agreed to be a special guest of the Indian Premier league.

His Holiness has never before shown much enthusiasm for cricket or any other sport, although he once commented on a friendly table tennis match he had with China's late prime minister, Zhou En Lai.

However the Tibetan leader's presence at the Dharamsala cricket ground was sufficient to provoke a vitriolic outburst from the People's Daily newspaper, which commented in an editorial that the Tibetan religious leader 'was trying to prove himself a worthy son of India by participating in the country's favourite pastime ... Cricket is one of the most popular sports in India and the Dalai Lama of course has to have fun with his “dad” since he wants to be a son of India.'

The Chinese comment has been described as 'childish' by Tibetan exiles who say the Chinese have taken umbrage against the Dalai Lama's widely reported comment last year to commemorate 50 years of Indian hospitality for Tibetan exiles. 'I call myself a son of India,' the Dalai Lama said at the time. 'Over time Tibetans have developed very close ties with the country.'

Earlier this year Beijing responded through an article published by the China Tibet Information Centre, which said, 'The Dalai Lama pleases his Indian masters not only by showing his willingness to be a “son of India”, but also by effacing the originality of the Tibetan culture. The Dalai Lama uses such words to dwarf the rich Tibetan culture with distinctive local characteristics.

'Why is he entitled to represent the voice of the Tibetan people? Furthermore, will a guy who betrayed southern Tibet to India really care about the well-being of the Tibetan people?'

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