Pashtun factor

Pashtun factor

Article:

Article discuss about how India should develop its policy toward Pashtun in Afghanistan in anticipation of American withdrawal.

Important Facts:

• The war in Afghanistan began in October 2001 with the goal of defeating Al Qaeda and removing the Taliban government, which allowed the terror group led by Osama bin Laden to operate freely within its territory and ultimately launch the September 11 attacks.
• Since 11 September 2001, Pashtuns feel they have become the most vilified ethnic group in the world
• Thousands of civilian casualties who have been bombed by mistake or carelessness in southern Afghanistan by US and NATO pilots during military operations since 11 September are Pashtuns

Who Are the Pashtun People?

• The Pashtun people are Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group​ and are also the second-largest ethnicity in Pakistan
• Most Pashtuns today are Sunni Muslims, although a small minority are Shia. As a result, some aspects of Pashtunwali seem to derive from Muslim law, which was introduced long after the code first developed. For example, one important concept in Pashtunwali is the worship of a single god, Allah.
• After the Partition of India in 1947, some Pashtuns called for the creation of Pashtunistan, carved from the Pashtun-dominated areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although this idea remains alive among hardline Pashtun nationalists.
• Presently, most Pashtuns, who comprise over 40% of the population of Afghanistan, believe that they are the rightful rulers of the country.
• Their belief is based on the history of the past 300 years when Pashtun dynasties ruled Afghanistan almost throughout.

How the situation changed:

• This situation changed with the American invasion in 2001 aided by the largely Tajik Northern Alliance that shifted the locus of power out of Pashtun hands.
• The emergence of the Pashtun Taliban from Kandahar in 1994 was in reaction partly to the fear of Tajik domination.
• Pakistan military has also helped the predominantly Pashtun Taliban which allowed them to rule approximately three-quarters of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
• The Pashtun has opposed Soviet invasion and American invasion as well.
• Pashtuns has also long history going back to their resistance to British intrusion during the 19th century when British divided the Pashtun lands in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan and drawing the Durand Line that attached a large portion to British India, now Pakistan.
• This drastically reduced Pashtun demographic superiority in Afghanistan. Opposition to the Durand Line was the principal reason why Afghanistan voted against Pakistan’s admission to the UN in 1947.

Pakistan and the Pashtuns

• Traditionally, Pashtun nationalism in Afghanistan was based on ethnicity and tribal loyalties and not connected to religion, which explains their hostility toward predominantly Muslim Pakistan during the first three decades of its existence.
• However, the Soviet invasion altered the nature of Pakistan’s relationship with Pashtun nationalism, turning it from hostility to support.
• They accused Pakistan’s military regime and its intelligence agency, ISI, of giving clandestine support to the Taliban and other extremist groups and demanded an end to it.
• This process culminated with the installation of the Taliban regime in Kabul in 1996 with Pakistan’s military aid and majority of Afghans do not support the Taliban
• Pakistan also supported religiously inspired manifestation of Pashtun nationalism.
• Though the resurgent Taliban is not in the position to control over whole Afghanistan, it does control large part of the rural areas in the predominantly Pashtun provinces of eastern and southeastern Afghanistan.
• Taliban is also seen to have a control of the drug trade that finances its civil war activities.
• And the withdrawal of American forces will provide it greater opportunity to expand its area of operation.

Way Forward:

• India’s refusal to publicly criticize, the Soviet invasion of 1979 ended up doing India great harm in the eyes of its traditional friends in Afghanistan.
• Now, It is important that India takes Pashtun factor into account while fashioning its policy toward Afghanistan in anticipation of American withdrawal.
• If India fails to develop a healthy strategy it may provide Pakistan a greater scope to develop favour with Afghanistan’s largest and traditionally dominant ethnic Pashtun group.