Fragments of the Afghan Frontier

by Magnus Marsden, Benjamin Hopkins

Overview

Despite the long and intimate history of engagement along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan's North-West, this area and its relationship to the world remains poorly understood in the West's popular imagination. Through the construction of a collage of historical narratives and intense ethnographic encounters, Marsden and Hopkins argue that the simplistic stereotypes and tropes that all too often masquerade as knowledge about the Frontier not only conceal a more complex reality, but are also a source of the problems that local and international actors alike face there. Not some simple isolated depot of radical terrorists or instrumental tribesmen, the Frontier is a space of richly textured meaning, constructed through a history of movement of its inhabitants and their understanding of the world beyond. Fragments of the Afghan Frontier offers a corrective to simplistic understanding both of the region's history and its current realities, leaving the reader with a deeper understanding of the ever-evolving complexity of this globally significant region.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199327447
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/31/2011
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Magnus Marsden is a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He has spent 15 years conducting research in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Benjamin D. Hopkins is an Assistant Professor in History and International Affairs at the George Washington University, Washington DC and a Research Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Rethinking Swat: Militancy and Modernity along the Afghanistan-Pakistan Frontier
Magnus Marsden and Benjamin D. Hopkins

1. Swat in Retrospect: Continuities, Transformations and Possibilities
Charles Lindholm

SECTION 1
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

2. The Abdali Afghans between Multan, Qandahar and Herat in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Christine Noelle-Karimi

3. A History of the "Hindustani Fanatics" of the Frontier
Benjamin D. Hopkins

4. Kashars against Mashars: Jihad and Social Change in the FATA
Mariam Abou Zahab

SECTION 2
LOCATING FRONTIER WORLDS

5. A History of Linguistic Boundary Crossing Within and Around Pashto Shah
Mahmoud Hanifi

6. The Road to Kabul: Automobiles and Afghan Internationalism,1900-40
Nile Green

7. Being a Diplomat on the Frontier of South and Central Asia: Trade and Traders in Afghanistan
Magnus Marsden

SECTION 3
CLASS, PATRONAGE AND THE STATE: BEYOND THE EXCEPTIONAL PASHTUN?

8. Class, Patronage and Coercion in the Pakistani Punjab and Swat
Nicolas Emilio Martin

9. Exceptional Pashtuns?: Class Politics, Imperialism and Historiography
Nancy Lindisfarne

10. Class, State and Power in Swat Conflict
Robert Nichols

SECTION 4
THE TALIBAN, PASHTUNS AND SWAT

11. The Swat Crisis
Sultan-i-Rome

12. Producing Civil Society, Ignoring Rivaj: International Donors, the State and Development Interventions in Swat
Urs Geiser

13. Crisis and Reconciliation in Swat through the Eyes of Women
Anita M. Weiss

14. Public Visibility of Women and the Rise of the Neo-Taliban Movement in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 2007-9
Sana Haroon

SECTION 5
TRIBES, CONFLICT, AND STATE-BUILDING IN AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN

15. Custom and Conflict in Waziristan: Some British Views
Hugh Beattie

16. Studying Pashtuns in Barth's Shadow
Richard Tapper

17. If only there were Leaders: the Problem of Fixing the Pashtun Tribes
Antonio Giustozzi

18. Lessons on Governance from the Wali of Swat: State-building in Afghanistan, 1995-2010
David B. Edwards

What People are Saying About This

Michael. H. Fisher

Much of the attention of the world has turned to this region. it is important to understand its complex history and dynamics, and the authors are justly regarded highly in their field. They have conducted research few other scholars have attempted, let alone accomplished.

— Michael. H. Fisher, Author of The Inordinately Strange Life of Dyce Sombre: Victorian Anglo-Indian MP and Chancery "Lunatic."

Editorial Reviews

"If you think you know the Pakistan/Afghan frontier, think again. This innovative collaboration between an historian and an anthropologist has produced a remarkable and readable book that sheds new light on the dynamics of the region. It will be a standard text for a very long time to come."—Charles Lindholm, University Professor of Anthropology, University of Boston, and author of Generosity and Jealousy: The Swat Pukhtun of Northern Pakistan

"Fragments of the Afghan Frontier is unique in many respects, particularly in the way it combines the disciplines and methodologies of history and anthropology (archival and ethnographic) in fascinating and unexpected ways. While several recent books have taken the Afghan-Pakistan border as their subject, this one captures a broader historical range (1870 to the present) and a more diverse population than any other recent study. The book is theoretically sophisticated in its understanding of the dynamics of border regions and shines a light on significant events whose historical importance and resonance for present circumstances have been inadequately appreciated, if not altogether ignored."—David B. Edwards, Professor of Social Sciences, Williams College

"The essays in this excellent volume will provide a jolt to those making easy generalizations—too often used to guide policy—that misjudge the sophistication and complexity of the societies of the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier. The authors couple serious archival research with extensive ethnographic experience, making for a remarkable contribution to a subject of unquestioned importance."—Barbara D. Metcalf, author of Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband 1860-1900

"Fragments of the Afghan Frontier should stand as a fundamental text for students of Afghan history, as well South and Central Asia. It also is a major contribution to studies of frontiers and borders in general. But maybe more important, this book should be standard reading for the policymakers who still view the frontier as a homogenous, singular space inhabited by tribesmen and religious fanatics, too easily, and wrongfully, identified as the embodiment of the Afghan frontier."— Professor James Bradford, Northeastern University, in H-War Reviews

From the Publisher

A useful corrective to anyone who thinks their views are based on reason rather than simple prejudice.

Reuters - Myra MacDonald

If you think you know the Pakistan/Afghan frontier, think again. This innovative collaboration between an historian and an anthropologist has produced a remarkable and readable book that sheds new light on the dynamics of the region. It will be a standard text for a very long time to come.

Charles Lindholm

The essays in this excellent volume will provide a jolt to those making easy generalizations -- too often used to guide policy -- that misjudge the sophistication and complexity of the societies of the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier. The authors pair serious archival research with extensive ethnographic experience, making a remarkable contribution to a subject of unquestioned importance.

Barbara D. Metcalf

Fragments of the Afghan Frontier is unique in many respects, particularly in the way it combines the disciplines and methodologies of history and anthro¬pology (archival and ethnographic) in fascinating and unexpected ways. While several recent books have taken the Afghan-Pakistan border as their subject, this one captures a broader historical range (1870 to the present) and a more diverse population than any other recent study. The book is theoretically sophisti¬cated in its understanding of the dynamics of border regions and shines a light on significant events whose historical importance and resonance for present cir¬cumstances have been inadequately appreciated, if not altogether ignored.

David B. Edwards

A useful corrective to anyone who thinks their views are based on reason rather than simple prejudice.

— Myra MacDonald

Reuters