Fragments of the Afghan Frontier

by Magnus Marsden, Benjamin D. 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:	9780231702461
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	03/20/2012
Series:	Columbia/Hurst Series
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(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

List of Maps viii

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

1 The Problem with Borders 23

2 Managing 'Hearts and Minds': Sandeman in Baluchistan 49

3 Sitana and Swat: Patterns of Revolt Along the Frontier 75

4 The Past becomes Present 101

5 A Tour not so Grand: Mobile Muslims in NorthernPakistan 111

6 Muslim Cosmopolitans? Transnational Village Life on the Frontiers of South and Central Asia 137

7 Geographies of Profit and Security: 'Return' to Afghanistanand Beyond 177

Epilogue 215

Notes 219

Bibliography 275

Index 295

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

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

"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

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