The British policy towards Afghanistan in the first half of the 19^th century aimed at

The correct answer is option 1.

Key Points

The British policy towards Afghanistan:

• Throughout the 19th century, the British rulers of India were concerned that Russia would attack India via Afghanistan and the country's northwestern border.
• As a result, they desired to keep Russia at a safe distance from the Indian border. 
• From a geographical standpoint, Afghanistan was placed in a critical position for the British.
• It could be used as a forward base outside of India's borders to monitor Russia's potential military threat while also promoting British commercial interests in Central Asia.
• Afghanistan's politics have been in flux since the early nineteenth century.

The British policy towards Afghanistan in the first half of the 19th century:

• In the early nineteenth century, increased Russian influence in Persia replaced British influence and thwarted an English scheme for establishment of a new route by River Euphrates to India.
• Especially after the Treaty of Turkomanchai (1828), the English got alarmed about possible Russian plans regarding India.
• Soon, there was a search for a scientific frontier from the Indian side.
• The British wanted to weaken and end Russian influence in Afghanistan, but they did not want a strong Afghanistan.
• They wanted to keep her a weak and divided country which they could easily control.
• Passes of the north-west seemed to hold the key to enter India. The need was felt for Afghanistan to be under control of a ruler friendly to the British.
• Auckland who came to India as the governor-general in 1836, advocated a forward policy.
• This implied that the Company government in India itself had to take initiatives to protect the boundary of British India from a probable Russian attack.
• This objective was to be achieved either through treaties with the neighbouring countries or by annexing them completely.
• This prompted the British government to go ahead with the forward policy, and a Tripartite Treaty (1838) was entered into by the British, Sikhs and Shah Shuja (who had been deposed from the Afghan throne in 1809 and had been living since then as a British pensioner at Ludhiana).