By Michael Issigonis Today, the region called Nuristan is one in
a chain of ethnic refuge areas along the Hindu Kush, or the
Indian Caucasus, named as such by Alexander the Great, located
in northeast Afghanistan. This is the home of a unique group of
mixed European-Indian tribal peoples now called Nuristanis,
people of the only Afghanistan province to have resisted Islam
for centuries. The British established the "Durand Line" in
1893, a boundary creating the new countries of the British
Protectorate (India) and Afghanistan. Nuristan was originally
meant to be included in India. When the Islamic rulers declared
war on the Nuristanis, the British provided all necessary
weapons to the Afghan army, thus contributing to the
annihilation of Nuristanis and their subsequent forced
conversion to Islam. The male survivors were taken as prisoners
to Kabul, a city whose ancient Greek name was Kofin, meaning the
place were bees accumulate, or the place of honey, or a place
rich in food supplies. Here, the men were force