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Abstract
This essay focuses on the “regime of truth” that has historically been constructed in public education institutions that support the state assimilationist nation-building project which marginalizes Pashtun ethnic identity, culture, history, and political existence. In popular media, Pashtun are also presented as a “suspect community” and “potential terrorists.” In response, some Pashtun have created informal spaces such as study circles, gatherings where they develop alternatives to the official state narrative found in textbooks used in formal education. By focusing on Pashtun history, culture and politics, they consciously and academically resist the image of the Pashtun as “suspect community.” Drawing on what James C. Scott calls “weapons of the weak,” this essay examines the selection and use of these informal spaces as a mode of resistance. The research on which it is based uses anthropological methods, such as participant observation, informal discussions, and unstructured interviews, to examine the construction of narratives that challenge official accounts of Pashtun identity. The essay concludes by comparing these Pashtun informal spaces with different forms of resistance found among other ethnic groups in Pakistan.
Notes
1 Pashtun are the second largest ethnic group residing in the northern and southwestern part of Pakistan; in Afghanistan they are in the majority. Different names are historically associated with them, such as “Pathan” (an Indian form taken by the British) and “Pakhtun or Pashtun” (the former in the guttural language of northern people, the later in the softer dialect). Some prefer “Afghan,” which in their case is nothing to do with Afghan nationality. See Spain (Citation1972); Nichols (Citation2008); Khan (Citation2016); Bartlotti (Citation2000); Poullada (Citation1977).
2 A tweet from Major General Asif Ghafoor, then head of Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR: a media wing of the armed forces of Pakistan) in which he said identity is disease. He was referring to ethnolinguistic politics and the struggle for the oppressed communities in Pakistan.
6 PTM stands for “Pashtun Tahafuz Movement” in the Urdu language.
9 A district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan and the birth place of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a.k.a. Bacha Khan.