Abstract
Although, historically, the first political manifestations of Pakhtun nationalism may be
traced to Bayazid Ansari’s (1525-85) Roshani movement (Gregorian, 1969 :43-45; and
Misdaq, 2006: 36-39) and Khushal Khan Khattak’s (1513-89) rebellion against the Mughal
rule, however, its ethno-nationalist roots are usually mapped out from the pre-partition
mobilization of common Pakhtun masses by the Khudai Khidmatgar (servants of the God)
movement of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Starting off as a social reform society, the Khudai
Khidmatgars metamorphosized into first an anti-colonial nationalist movement, evolving on
the eve of partition of India, into one of ethnic nationalism. The post-independence period
witnessed calls for attainment of either an independent Pakhtunistan or greater autonomy
for the Pakhtun regions within a federal structure of the state. The irredentist trend in
Pakhtun ethno-nationalist politics manifested itself in the controversial Pakhtunistan issue
that strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistani state’s growth and rise
in ethnic Pakhtun share in the civil-military bureaucracy witnessed greater integration of
Pakhtuns within the polity of Pakistan and a dampening of separatist tendencies in them.
Renaming of NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and extension of provincial autonomy under
the 18th Amendment further boosted Pakhtun ethnic integration into the state of Pakistan.
More recently, however, Pakhtun ethno-nationalist movement is believed to be assuming a
distinct fervor. The rise of Taliban phenomenon in the tribal belt and settled districts of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been labeled as a violent manifestation of Pakhtun ethnonationalism manifested in an Islamist garb. The paper, besides analyzing the integrationist
and the separatist (irredentist) trends in Pakhtun ethno-nationalist politics, also aims at
exploring the more recent phenomena of its construction around the conceptual framework
of ‘ethnicizing Islam’ in the Pakhtun context. It argues that the current Islamist
manifestation of Pakhtun ethno-politics is a product of Pakistani state’s attempts at
subduing the irredentist Pakhtun strain (that bothered the state throughout the 1960s and the
1970s in Pakhtunistan issue) through support to the Islamist movement inside Afghanistan,
especially in later half of 1970s and in the wake of Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This
paper analyzes the Pakhtun ethno-nationalist struggle, especially in the earlier decades as a
South Asian Studies 30 (2)
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form of class struggle to attain political power in the state. As such, it primarily adopts a
Marxist lens to the problem of ethnic nationalism among the Pakhtuns for the beginning
phase of it. Most of the analyses are historical in a sense that the paper traces the history of
Pakhtun ethno nationalism in Pakistan. Moreover, the paper does not claim to be a
consummate effort, rather it proposes that there are alternative explanations as plausible as
this one to understand the issue.
Shahida Aman, Muhammad Ayub Jan. (2015) A Historical Analysis of Trends in Pakhtun Ethno-Nationalism, South Asian Studies, Volume 30, Issue 2.
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