Amidst the churn of great power dynamics, why the banality of a small émigré community having captured my imagination? Stemming partly from the promise of a personal connect, it was the intriguing backdrop within which the migration took place that caught my attention. The migration in reality was a banishment, that of the reigning ruler of Nagar, a border pocket state situated on a tract of land famously described by the British traveler E.F Knight as “Where three Empires meet”. Nagar along with its sister state of Hunza, the fabled valley identified by many as the mythical Shangri–La of James Hilton’s ‘Lost Horizon’, occupied great strategic salience within the British imperial construct, especially as part of its Forward Policy against a perceived Russian onslaught on its northern frontiers in the mid-nineteenth century. The petty states of Hunza and Nagar were situated at the southern end of the Pamir Mountains in what today constitutes Gilgit-Baltistan— a part of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. It also bound the neighbouring Chinese territory of Xinjiang (East Turkestan) and the Khanates of Central Asia— all annexed and under the patronage of Russia— hence the “meeting of the three Empires”. This further whetted the fear of what came to be termed as the “Pamir Gap”— the possibility of various passes along the Pamir and Karakoram mountains being used by Russian Cossack forces to launch an invading attack on India. Under these circumstances it became imperative for the British to secure key border regions and bring them directly under the Empire’s sway. This however, was not an outlook the rulers of the Hunza and Nagar states were receptive to, especially as Hunza, the bigger and more powerful of the two states, had already entered into a tributary relationship with the neighboring Chinese Empire. Besides, as autonomous states the rulers especially that of Nagar, the defiant Raja Azure Khan, were reluctant to surrender their authority and powers. The inability to reach an agreement over the issue between the two sides, subsequently lead to The Anglo-Burusho war of 1891. A bloody battle ensued and despite the brave front put up by the Hunza-Nagar forces, the superior British force imposed a crippling defeat. The importance of the campaign can be ascertained by the fact that three Victoria Crosses (VC) and numerous Indian Orders of Merit were awarded to the troops by the British Government. The fact that the British forces were led by Colonel Algernon Durand, the brother of then Foreign Secretary of India, Sir Mortimer Durand further underscores the significance of the campaign.