Mohan Lal (मोहन लाल) (1812 1877) played a very central role in the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1838-1842. His biography of Dost Mohammad Khan, emir of Kabul is a primary source on the War.

He was a great traveller, brilliant diplomat, and a reputed author. He was born in a Kashmiri Zutshi family of Delhi. His father was Rai Brahm Nath and mother came from the Kaul family of Gwalior. His travels took him to Central Asia, Iran, Khorasan, Northern India, Egypt and Europe.

Alexander Burnes and Mohan Lal led an expedition to Central Asia in 1832-4 for procuring political and military intelligence. Later he was the Commercial Agent of the British on the Indus and Political Assistant during the first Afghan War.

Mohan Lal's observation to Burnes is considered important: "You all tell yourselves all sorts of fairy stories – you are here to sell us your wonderful British goods, you want to set us free, you want us to grow up, you want to educate us and make us worship three gods instead of forty thousand… but when you are old and tired and sleeping in a thousand years' time, you will start to realise that you came here and took possession of what was not yours for one reason. To surrender it, to give it up. That is the only reason."

He retired at the age of 32, disappointed that he had not been properly rewarded for his singular contributions to the British cause inthe Fist Anglo-Afghan War. His only brother, Kidar Nath, who was a Deputy Collector at Ambala died in 1855. Mohan Lal's later years were spent in obscurity and financial troubles. He is believed to have written an extensive diary, but it has disappeared.

Books

• Mohan Lal, Travels in the Punjab and Afghanistan and Turistan to Balkh, Bikhara and Herat and a Visit to Great Britain, Germany, First Ed. 1846 Reprint Al Biruni Lahore 1979
• Mohan Lal, KLS, Life of the Amir Dost Mohammed Khan, of Kabul: with his political proceedings towards the English, Russian, and Persian governments, including victory and disasters of the British Army in Afghanistan. Two Volumes. Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, London, 1846.

Biography

• Life and Work of Mohan Lal Kashmiri by Hari Ram Gupta (with a foreword by Jawaharlal Nehru). Minerva Book Shop, Lahore, 1943.