Teaching & Learning Guide for: Afghanistan Historiography and Pashtun Islam: Modernization Theory's Afterimage
Authors: Caron James 
Published: February 2009

Author's Introduction

This article was designed to explore portrayals of Islamic experience in the Pashtun regions of eastern and southern Afghanistan prior to 1978, the year of the Leninist coup, in the historical and historical‐anthropological literature. It was primarily intended as a literature review. It attempted to explore several typologies which recur in scholarly accounts, and sought to identify other dimensions which have been obscured. The article argued that state policy‐centric views (whether the state be colonial or Afghan, and whether the state‐centrism is explicit or tacit) have tended to be largely instrumentalist, and to treat Afghan Pashtun populations as alien to themselves in a variety of ways. Some of the results of the dominance of state‐centrism in writing about Afghan history have been an over‐reliance on accounts of insurgency as a focus of interest, and an over‐reliance on the category of tribalism as a way of explaining events. The article ended by suggesting that a more organic approach, distanced from policy demands of the past, might take other dynamics as equally or more important – for example, linkages between Islam and populism.

Author Recommends:

(Note: The following readings are recommended particularly for pedagogical purposes; researchers and students are encouraged to refer to the original History Compass article for other works. Some of the below works may only be accessible through major research libraries, but an effort has been made to list more easily accessible works as well. These recommendations are appropriate for pre‐1978 history, the topic of the original article. Works on more recent history – for example those which discuss the Taliban – are not included unless they incorporate a useful pre‐1978 section.)

Eknath Easwaran, A Man to Match his Mountains: Badshah Khan, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam (Petaluma, CA : Nilgiri Press, 1984).

This highly readable book for the popular market incorporates some of the clearest discussions of an Islamic version of something akin to liberation theology, which developed amidst Pashtun populist movements of the 1920s and 1930s. While not addressing populations within the territorial boundaries of the state of Afghanistan, the movement did have an influence there. Moreover, much of the rural class dynamics in the east, within the monarchic Afghan state after 1930, resembled those of British NWFP – another reason for parallels in Pashtun Islamic populism on both sides of the border. Use of this book in class should also spur discussion of essentialism; and its explicitly Gandhian perspective might serve as a useful counterpoint to colonial perspectives.

David B. Edwards, ‘Charismatic Leadership and Political Process in Afghanistan’, Central Asian Survey, 5/3–4 (1986): 273–99; ‘Mad Mullas and Englishmen: Discourse in the Colonial Encounter’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 31/4 (1989): 649–70.

The work of David Edwards is indispensable both in its variety of approaches and in its accessibility. The two articles listed here explore much of the same materials as does Edwards’ important 1996 work, Heroes of the Age (which has been discussed at length in the article); but they do so in a more self‐contained fashion. This may make them easier to incorporate into a survey course not concerned exclusively with Afghanistan. ‘Charismatic Leadership’ is a typology of institutions and actors in early 20th‐century religious life, along with some historical narrative, and is useful for an introductory course; while ‘Mad Mullas and Englishmen’ is concerned more explicitly with colonial constructions of Pashtun agency phrased in religious terms.

David B. Edwards, Before Taliban: Genealogies of the Afghan Jihad (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002).

This work is only slightly less accessible than Heroes of the Age (1996) due to its greater detail of names and faces beyond the principle narrative subjects. Even so, it resembles that earlier work structurally, and extends its narrative up to recent events. It is outside the scope of the original History Compass article for that reason; but for the same reason it may be more useful than some other texts for the requirements of contemporary university courses. Many of the questions in the original History Compass article can be applied here as well.

Sayyid Bahauddin Majrouh, ‘Some Vestiges of Buddhist World‐Outlook on our Collective Unconscious’, Afghanistan, 30/1 (1977): 89–96; M. H. Sidky, ‘“Malang”, Sufis, and Mystics: An Ethnographic and Historical Study of Shamanism in Afghanistan’, Asian Folklore Studies, 49/2 (1990): 275–301.

These two articles discuss forms of religion generally marginalized in all historiographies of modern Afghanistan. The Majrouh article, while difficult to access, takes a socio‐psychoanalytic view of marginal religion explicitly in Pashtun regions; while Sidky is both less Pashtun‐specific and somewhat less thought‐provoking, but more available.

Senzil Nawid, ‘The State, the Clergy, and British Imperial Policy in Afghanistan during the 19th and Early 20th Centuries’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 29/4 (1997): 581–605.

This article contains several of the arguments in Nawid's longer 1999 work, referred to in the original History Compass article.

Olivier Roy, Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan (Cambridge and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

Despite its age at this point, this work is still very useful for understanding the history of Islam in Afghanistan as it relates to the war years. It might be useful to explore the early portions in a discussion about teleology; while they may simultaneously serve as an introduction to the subject matter.

Online Materials:

Afghanistan Maps

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/afghanistan.html

The Perry‐Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas – Austin contains a number of excellent contemporary and historical maps of Afghanistan detailing information of all sorts.

E‐Ariana: Society, Culture, and Politics

http://www.e‐ariana.com/

E‐Ariana is an excellent source of news about Afghanistan linked from a variety of news services, updated daily. Sections include news stories; articles and analysis; and cartoons. It contains little historical material dealing with the pre‐war period, but is extremely useful in linking long‐term course materials with current events (see Seminar/Project Ideas).

Khyber.org

http://www.khyber.org/people/

Khyber.org is a site aimed at South Asian popular audiences, though with much material by academics based in Pakistan's North‐west Frontier Province. The ‘Personalities’ section linked here contains information about numerous Pashtun historical figures, including Islamic scholars, activists, and ritual specialists who were important both in Afghanistan and British India/Pakistan. Some of the information is taken from Pakistani scholarly literature that is generally only available in major university libraries in the west; some is from journalistic writing; and some is unfortunately less reliable. The site contains a wealth of audio and visual pop‐culture material, though relatively little is directly related to Afghan history before 1978.

Afghan Digital Library, Digital Collections

http://afghan.library.arizona.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=30

Hosted by the University of Arizona library, this Web site contains digitized copies of many of the back issues of the annual Kabul almanac as far back as 1933. While the issues are in Persian and Pashto, they each contain quite a large number of historical photographs. This resource is not to be confused with the Afghanistan Digital Library of New York University, which contains much rare Afghan printed material pre‐dating 1919. Although online and extremely useful to specialists, those latter materials contain far fewer visual illustrations.

Sample Syllabus:

The units included here are extracted from a longer course. A description of the course follows immediately below. They have been adapted here to produce a more self‐contained module that can be integrated to fit other courses as well.

HIST 30x: Islam and Social Movements in Modern South Asia

Course Introduction:

This course is designed to introduce the role of Islamic institutions and thought in a highly complex set of South Asian societies: the areas now including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, from the 1860s up to the present. We will look at the formation of dominant nation‐state ideologies – especially in relation to India and Pakistan – but also at the formation of various other forms of social action which de‐center the state, such as:

‘Print capitalism’, public‐sphere reformism, modern ‘traditionalism’, and their interface with both class and gender

Self‐consciously ‘modernist’ ideas of Islam, and the creation of new institutions in tension with – or in collusion with – colonialism

The histories of tribal solidarities and devotional brotherhoods; their specific shaping of Islam in South Asia; and their often tense and conflicting connections to anti‐colonialism and the post‐colonial nation‐state.

The location of all of these factors in the broader world.

Finally, we’ll be following current events from Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Bangladesh; and placing them in their historical context. Therefore, there are three main goals for this course:

To introduce the specific history of Islamic institutions and thought within a broader South Asian history;

To show the full range of these institutions and intellectual history, and complicate notions of Islam as a ‘monolithic’ thing by contextualizing ideas into societies;

To give students enough information to fully understand the background of many of our most current headlines; to discuss these stories in an informed and reflexive manner; and to spark interest in following these stories long after the semester is over.

Module: Islam and Populism in Afghanistan and the NWFP

Section One: Pashtun Islamic institutions on both sides of the mountains

Read: David Edwards, ‘Charismatic Leadership and Political Process in Afghanistan’.

Easwaran, selection (63–76)

S. B. Majrouh, ‘Some Vestiges of Buddhist World‐Outlook on our Collective Unconsciousness’.

Rahman, ‘Maulana Mufti Mehmood’ and Marwat, ‘Maulana Abdul Rahim Popalzai’ (Short bios from Celebrities of NWFP vol. 1).

Start reading: Caron, ‘Afghanistan Historiography and Pashtun Islam’.

Critical Reading Questions (3 paragraphs, readings journal):

1) What view do we see of structure, change, and agency within society in the texts for this week?

What sorts of things does Edwards emphasize? Majrouh? Easwaran? The articles about the two personalities? What sorts of social possibilities do each of the articles, and any individuals in them, envision?

OR

2) Where do the narratives surrounding personalities in these articles fit into the national narratives seen earlier in the semester? What other core plots do we detect here besides national ones?

Section Two: Insurgency and Social Change over the 20th century

Read: Edwards, ‘Mad Mullas and Englishmen: Discourse in the Colonial Encounter’.

Roy, selection from ‘Islam and Resistance’.

Kaplan, selection from Soldiers of God.

Poetry translations from Combat Ballads and Tappas of the New Era.

Finish reading: Caron.

Critical Reading Questions (3 paragraphs, readings journal):

1) How are colonial‐era texts about insurgency similar to contemporary reportage? How do they differ?

OR

2) How does international political economy interact with local power structures to create new dynamics in society? How does one's position affect the way one sees these dynamics, and how does it affect our thoughts on which dynamics might be important? (Hint: try contrasting the popular poetry with some of the other readings).

Section Three: The Taliban Islamic Movement and Related Trends

Read: Ahmed Rashid (selections from Taliban)

Juan Cole, ‘The Taliban, Women, and the Hegelian Private Sphere’

Seminar/Project Idea:

News Journal 1

The syllabus provides a number of news sources. Select one or more to monitor (and some of the links provided give a very broad selection), and keep a journal of weekly news events related to the subject matter in the course readings. Please reference the readings, and please provide citations for your news sources. Most importantly, please make clear the links you see between your news selections and the course readings.

News Journal 2

This course emphasizes an involved style of reading. We are interested in our texts not only as sources of information, but as texts in their own right. We are interested in them as genres, and we are interested in the types of plots – or narratives – that they give us. As you read the weekly news, from any of the sources provided, please relate the types of narratives there to the ones we see in class. Ask yourself – who or what are the ‘main characters’? What sorts of actions do they do, and what sorts of motivations do they have? Where do they fit into local and global communities, in the pictures we are given?