Early Modern State Formation in Afghanistan in Relation to Pashtun Tribalism


SUNGUR Z. T.

STUDIES IN ETHNICITY AND NATIONALISM, vol.16, no.3, pp.437-455, 2016 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 16 Issue: 3
  • Publication Date: 2016
  • Doi Number: 10.1111/sena.12211
  • Journal Name: STUDIES IN ETHNICITY AND NATIONALISM
  • Journal Indexes: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Index Islamicus
  • Page Numbers: pp.437-455
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The overall objective of this article is to analyse the encounter between Pashtun tribalism and state centralization as part of a modernization programme in Afghanistan in the almost fifty-year period between 1880 and 1929. Focusing on Pashtuns, the article attempts to show howa segment of Pashtuns acted as the founders and rulers of the modern Afghan state while another segment sustained their tribal features and rejected the authority of the central state. Presenting the tribe-state conflict through the case of Pashtuns in a historical framework, the article looks at the reign of three Afghan amirs: Abdurrahman, Habibullah, and Amanullah. Analysing how this conflict proceeded in this period, the article concludes that Pashtun tribalism survived within the early modernization process in Afghanistan.