579 Juan Ignacio Castien Maestro Modernisation and regression in Afghanistan... development of said ethnic identity. The same also happened ultimately with the privileged link between the Afghan state and the Pashtun identity, as this created a strong sense of unfair treatment among the rest of the population. Shaping a more inclusive Afghan national identity that doesn’t privilege any one ethnicity in particular is one of the main ongoing tasks the country still has to deal with, two centuries later. This first Afghan state was, likewise, a true predator state. Like many others in the region, its fundamental aim was war and, more specifically, pillage. Even more so as traffic from trade and the economy as a whole had been declining. Faced with the weakness of the Persian and Mughal Empires, the new Durrani Empire managed to enter India, obtain rich spoils, and expand to the Punjab region whose non-Pashtun population was subjected to harsh tax burdens. The urban population suffered the same fate, particularly non-Muslim minorities such as Jews, Hindus and Christian Armenians specialised in trade and lending. This authentic fiscal extortion was no different from that implemented by many rulers since ancient times, both within the Muslim world and outside of its confines. It involved fattening up on a weak and relatively rich sector of the population whose wealth, partly in monetary form, was very easy to collect. And in this way compensation was made for the exemptions given to the Pashtun tribal population. In the long-term, however, this policy complicated urban and trade development and led to the impoverishment of the country. It also deprived the sovereigns of a convenient means of support against the tribal world, with a view to a future process of political centralisation. But the greatest obstacle to this centralising process was the progressive strengthening of a section of the tribal groups and their aristocracies thanks to the spoils they managed to collect during military campaigns, and to tax exemptions and land concessions granted to them in exchange for their military cooperation.7 The Durrani Empire was, then, a weak state, as would soon become clear. Following the death in 1793 of Timur Shah, son of the founder, a bloody battle for the throne broke out between his sons. The ensuing civil war that lasted for three decades not only tore the country apart but had three further consequences. The first was the rupture of the fragile equilibrium between the Durrani clans – an equilibrium upon which the system was built. The Mohammedzai clan rose up against the Sadozai clan, establishing a new dynasty in 1826 under the aegis of a highly gifted leader, Dost Mohammed Khan. The second consequence was serious land losses. The emerging Sikh State took control of many territories populated by the Pashtun as well as taking control of the rich Punjab region. This was a particularly severe 7 Gregorian, op. cit. pp. 47-48 y 61-67; Kakar, H. K. Government and Society in Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan, Austin, University of Texas Press, 1979. pp. 73-91. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
REVISTA IEEE 5
To see the actual publication please follow the link above