The multiple self: interfaces between Pashtun nationalism and religious conflict on the frontier

Abstract

The aim of this article is twofold: first, to examine the veracity of the scholarly and journalistic tendency to equate Pashtun nationalism with Talibanization and second, to explore whether there exists an entity called ‘Pashtun nationalism’ or, if it is, like most other nationalisms, an imagined and mythical construct that defies definition. Herein, the tension between the three identities – Muslim, Pashtun and Pakistani – never at total ease with one another historically, has risen to the point where these aspects of the self compete for primacy.

Keywords:

• Taliban
• Pashtun nationalism
• Pakistan
• nationality

Notes

1. Kaplan, ‘Revenge of Geography’.

2. Totten, ‘Taliban and Pashtun Nationalism’.

3. Harrison, ‘Pakistan's Ethnic Fault Line’.

4. In late 2011, Hussain Haqqani was recalled as Pakistan's ambassador to the United States after being accused of masterminding a memorandum to the then Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, to help prevent an expected military coup in Pakistan. In return, the civilian Pakistani government would change the national security team, move decisively against the Haqqani Network of Afghan Taliban which attacks NATO forces in Afghanistan, freeze the nuclear programme and subordinate army postings and transfers to the civilian government which will promote and appoint officers more amenable to the US interests. The memo, routed through a businessman of Pakistani origin, Mansoor Ijaz, was deemed to be dubious by Admiral Mullen. However, an article in the Financial Times by Mansoor Ijaz led to explosive media disclosures leading to Hussain's resignation and the setting up of a parliamentary and a judicial commission to probe the issue. Former Ambassador Haqqani is at the time of writing living in the Prime Minister's Secretariat facing possible charges of treason and sedition. Basically, it would be fair to say that Hussain Haqqani's view of the issue is at variance with that of the state intelligence agencies and the military.

5. Quoted in Harrison, ‘Pakistan's Ethnic Fault Line’.

6. Harrison, ‘Tyranny of the Minority’.

7. Harrison, ‘Pashtun Time Bomb’.

8. Ibid.

9. Khan, ‘Dirtiest War’.

10. Ejaz, ‘Pashtun Nationalism’.

11. Ibid.

12. There are a number of Pakhtoon tribes and clans and each one has certain traditions and customs that are peculiar to it. The famous Pukhtoon tribes, to mention a few, are Yousafzais of Bajaur and Malakand Agencies, Afridis of Khyber Agency, Kohat and Peshawar, Mohmands of Mohmand Agency, Orakzais of Orakzai Agency, Turis and Bangash of Kurram Agency, Waziris of North Waziristan Agency, Mahsuds and Urmars of South Waziristan Agency and Bhittanis and Sheranis attached to Tank and D.I. Khan Districts. The Khattak tribe of the well-known warrior–poet Khushal Khan Khattak is also one of the well-known tribes of Peshawar and Kohat borders. There are other smaller tribes such as Shinwaris, Mullagoris, Shilmanis, Safis, Zaimukht, Muqbil, Mangal, Zadran, Para Chamkani, Kharoti, Jadoon, and Daur.

13. Sareen, ‘Myth of the Unbeatable Pakhtoon’.

14. Rajasingham-Senanayake, ‘Identity on the Borderline’, 46. Rajasingham-Senanayake argues that colonial ethnography and knowledge systems created mutually exclusive identities in terms of either/or. People had to be either one ethnic group or another; those who straddled more than one identity deviated from the norms established by fixed classifications that disallow mixtures.

15. Imran Khan, the Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, has appeared dozens of times in innumerable TV talk shows to express his views as an ‘expert’ on the conflict in the frontier region. Some of his ideas include the claim that the Taliban are anti-imperialist nationalist fighters, Pashtun tribes have always resisted foreign intervention, the Taliban are popular Pashtun freedom fighters and represent Pashtun nationalism, Pashtun tribesmen are killing innocent civilians due to anti-US sentiment, the assassinated tribal leadership in Waziristan was pro-US and the government of Pakistan is pleasing India by making the soldiers fight the Taliban. Such claims about the Pashtuns, Taliban and tribal leaders have been challenged and debunked by others who perceive the Taliban as the antithesis of the Pashtunwali code of conduct. See, for example, Arqam, ‘Taliban Vs Pashtuns’; also see Sulehria, ‘Three Myths about Taliban’. Sulehria challenges the myths that the Taliban are anti-imperialists, harbingers of peace and against the growth of poppy. Such myths have been constructed to romanticize the Taliban who are regarded by other writers as criminals.

16. Butt, ‘Imran Khan, Wrong on the Taliban War Again’.

17. Taj, ‘Compatibility’.

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid.

20. Taj, ‘Objectifying the Pakhtun’.

21. Taj, ‘Pakhtun Culture and Talibanization’.

22. Taj, ‘Fantasies, Objectification and the Pakhtun’.

23. Taj, ‘Compatibility’.

24. Taj, ‘Pakhtun Culture and Talibanization’.

25. Taj, ‘Fantasies, Objectification and the Pakhtun’.

26. The Pashtunwali code is an informal, unwritten code of ethics around which Pashtuns in both Pakistan and Afghanistan are expected to order their lives. While its exact date of origin has not been determined, it predates Islam by hundreds of years. Some of its basic tenets and principles include Nang (honour), Ghairat (pride), Badal (revenge), Oogha Warkawel (giving a lift to persons in need), Pannah Warkawel (offering asylum), Ashar (shared cooperative work), Zhamena (commitment), Melayter (patrons), Chegha (call for action), Soolah (truce), Panah (protection), Pashtunwali consists of qualifications such as Khpelwaki (self-authority), Sialy (equality), Jirga (assembly), Roogha (reconciliation or compromise), Barabari (equivalence), Teega/Nerkh (law), Aziz/Azizwale (clan and clanship), and Terbor/Terborwali (cousin and tribal rivalries).

27. Taj, ‘Fantasising about FATA’.

28. Taj, ‘Compatibility’.

29. Taj, ‘Fata’.

30. Taj, ‘Pakhtun Culture and Talibanization’.

31. Ibid.

32. Taj, ‘Compatibility’.

33. Ibid.

34. Escobar, ‘Kashmir’.

35. Wardag, ‘Tariq Ali, Pashtun Nationalism and Taliban’.

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid.

38. Arqam, ‘Taliban’.

39. Ibid.

40. Wardag, ‘Tariq Ali, Pashtun Nationalism and Taliban’.

41. Taj, ‘Fantasising about FATA’.

42. Taj, ‘Compatibility’.

43. Ahmed and Khan, ‘Talibanization and Pashtuns’.

44. Ibid.

45. Anderson, Imagined Communities. In this celebrated work on nationalism, Benedict Anderson pointed out how nationalism, made possible by print-capitalism, is an imagined idea which connects people across time and space in a feeling of unity and is a notion that is akin to family and kinship. Anderson was careful to point out that although nations and nationalisms may be imagined, their effects nonetheless are real and material.

46. Isfahani, ‘Pakthtoonkhwa’.

47. Khan, Bacha Khan Aur Khudai Khidmatgari.

48. Ibid., 2–3, 14–15.

49. Ibid., 13.

50. Ibid., 1.

51. Ibid., 2.

52. Barton, India's North West Frontier, 57, 83.

53. Caroe, The Pathans, 346.