American Fly and the Bottomless Pit

                                   American Fly and the Bottomless Pit

Back in 1970s my dad and his friends often talked about Ahmad Zahir and his Elvis styled songs which blended east and west in a very seductive, romantic and mellifluous way. They often talked about Daud Khan and the leftwing radicals, active in the Kabul of seventies.  Feroz khan with his macho looks and romance with Hema Mailini in the song ‘Kya khoob lagti ho’ made Afghanistan look like some kind of fairy tale land for Indians. Then in the year 1998 I was discussing about Gulbaddin Hikmatyar with my over-enthusiastic uncle serving for Indian Government, whom everyone in his office called current affairs commissioner who stopped aging after Vietnam war. Even then the things did not seem out of control. They looked pretty much manageable.

In my undergrad I was flaunting my knowledge about Karzai and his local government (all puns intended) to fish-eyed and mystic Bengali beauty of my college debating society. But off late I have known and heard a few things which have, kind of broken this chain, this chain of perceiving and discussing Afghanistan as a land of horse-riding adventurer Pashtuns, a land of Ustad Nash-e Naas( legendary Pashto singer), beauty, sulas( roasted, smoky meat)  and a zone of geopolitical thrills, which could be discussed either in order to impress your younger cousins or to pass civil service exams.

Things which I have known off-late and realized about Afghanistan are indicative of finally catapulting a country and society back into the primitive middle ages of 10^th century. There are abundant signs of systematically depriving the nation and society of all, what we address as modern, secular and vibrant and, unveiling of the black mist of bigotry and violence over a vast expanse of land, which was once a cradle of Aryan civilization. This is the final stage of this anti-evolutionary process and, if it is not stopped now, the soul of the proud Pathan will never be able to come back to life.

The U.S intervention of ten years, on whatever pretext, it was, in some way and at some stage did claim and try to create a modern, workable, secular, tolerant and democratic governance structure in Afghanistan. Alongside the drone attacks and counter insurgency operations various initiatives were undertaken like streamlining local government in Marjah, development work done by India in the field of construction, transportation etc. But today it seems that things have come back to square one. The hatred emanating from the fumes of drone attacks, providing strong legitimacy to Taliban completely dominates the public mental landscape.

This essay explores the causes of these failures and in the end it proposes an alternate strategy to save a nation and society. The first and foremost cause of this failure lies in the insufficient and distorted  understanding and, that insufficient understanding , rather, I would say distorted perception, informing all the strategy and policy decisions.  Since the intervention was done in the wake of 9/11 attacks to crush the Taliban regime, the whole problem was perceived through the narrow, microscopic lens of religious fundamentalism and terrorism emanating from highly exclusivist and militant strain of Islam.

But, the whole issue is not just ten years old and it is not just about religion. If we go into an in depth inquiry, the history of region spanning over 2000 years and the social structures formed as a consequence of that historical process have an extremely important role in shaping, defining and understanding of the whole issue or ‘the so-called problem’(it may not be one and it could just be a matter of wrong perception, creating all the problems).

Hence, this issue has several facets pertaining to the societal and the tribal structures in the region. For a moment, one must keep the lens of religious fundamentalism aside and understand the local political dynamics in terms of different tribes and their relationships. The entire region (which for this essay’s purpose includes KPK( Khyber Pankhtunkhwa), Waziristan, Swat valley and the present Afghanistan) is full of several ethnicities and tribes. There are Pashtuns, Hazaras, Uzbeks and Tajiks. The internal societal structure of these different ethnicities is tribal in nature. This tribal character has dominated the socio-political existence in the region since ages. Even before the advent of Islam the tribal character dominated the socio-political existence. Even among pashtuns there are several clans and tribes like Waziris, Mahsoods, Sherzads, Yusufzais, Durranis etc. In that social set-up wars and feuds between these tribes were and still are a very dominant phenomenon. The tribal identity takes precedence over the religious identity. So the whole question is about the nature and the role of these inter-tribal relationships and the socio-political attitudes of these different tribes. It is actually the question of the rights and representation of these different tribes and ethnicities. To lay the foundation of a democratic and secular state these dynamics need to be understood, appreciated and accommodated in state formation. The right cognition of these tribal dynamics and the stakes involved in this setup would help one diffuse all the conflicts and come out with just and efficient power-sharing structures and mechanisms. Blind imposition of western models of democracy with complete disregard to tribal social and religious customs or rather coefficients (I use the word coefficient because these factors are all pervading in nature and act exactly as coefficients, at least for the policy makers) will always and inevitably lead to such bloody mess.

The whole situation resembles the classic example given by great philosopher Wittgenstein. He talks of a situation in which there is a fly and there is a bottomless pit. The fly wants to get out of the pit but she is stuck in the middle of it and taking circles around the pit. Just like that fly world community and the U.S have confined their vision and cognitive faculties to just one way of thinking. Like that fly who does not look up or down to get out, the U.S has fixated itself to look at the problem only from the lens of religious fundamentalism and terrorism emanating from that.

As a result, we have more drones every year physically locating the Talibs and dropping bombs with complete disregard to the more important concerns like the tribal code of honor and other customs. It is the tribal code of honor which fetches more suicide bombers (as they are told that they have to take revenge to follow the tribal code of honor) not any fervor, passion for any religious glory or heaven.  Similarly, Taliban is an ideology which is either creating a new identity or boosting the prestige and social image of religious identity by monopolizing power through widespread use of violence, deviously seeking its legitimacy in scriptures. Physically isolating them and exterminating them through advanced technology and weaponry has definitely produced some amazing results in terms of number of death counts of suspected Taliban and Al Quaida terrorists but the absence of strategy to deal with the ideological spread and rootedness of religious extremism has almost nullified the progress achieved so far. A systematic effort to have a head-on collision in the ideological battleground is an urgent requirement. This may involve initiatives like harnessing the emotions and strengths associated with other non-religious and dominant identities like Pashtun identity (as an expression of specific cultural and social existence). It could also involve harnessing and promoting the liberal and modern strains and models of Islamic societies and religious system (like the ones we have in Malaysia, Indonesia,  Sufism etc) as an alternative to the existing wahabi/salafist model. The people need to realize that before the advent of Wahabi Islam they had developed their own religious way of life based on harmony with local culture, climate and social requirements. So the Al quaida model of religion needs to be projected as a cultural imposter which should be thrown out and the original should be brought back.

b)Role of Foreign Islamic Groups: Traditionally, Pathans have been a fiercely secular society. Their affection and loyalty for their specific cultural, national and social existence has always held sway over role which religion has played in shaping their present identities. Badshah Khan’s party Khudai Khidmatgar(Red shirts)  was always against the partition of India. They wanted to join the Republic of India. Their loyalties were with the secular ethos of Congress party, not with the exclusivist two-nation theory of Muslim league based on religious bigotry. Even in medieval ages Pathans like Hakim Khan Sur have fought with Maharana Pratap ( king of Mewar, India) against the Mughal emperor Akbar. Pathans, due to their marshal nature and fighting abilities were recruited and brought in droves by Rajput kings of Rajasthan(India). They even inter-married with Rajputs. For them the first loyalty is for the salt, their home land not for the religion.

Hence, in the present scenario the strategy needs to differentiate between the foreign groups like Al Quaida, drawing fighters from all over the world, and local Pashtun people. These foreigners have spread the Wahabi  and Salafist Islam which stipulates things like closure of school for girls, ban on music and inhuman punishments like public stoning of women. This has completely killed the local culture which thrived on love, harmony, diversity and music. We need to differentiate between the locals and foreigners. Al-Quaida operatives have taken refuge and tribal code of honor stipulates that one must protect asylum seekers even at the cost of his own life. These foreign groups have utilized their stay to propagate staunch versions of Islam among the illiterate and innocent local people. The traditional Jirgas have been destroyed. The whole traditional fabric of socio-political existence which revolved around Jirgas have been shattered. The ‘counter-insurgency’ strategy has always tried to paint the entire population with the same brush. These, thoughtless military operations provide more legitimacy to the foreign groups and their Hippocratic cries of ‘Islam in danger’.

c) Battleground of  Intelligence agencies: This geo-political wound of Afghanistan has been dealt in the most immature, immoral, selfish and crude way, so far. Afghan territories have become a battleground for secret services and intelligence agencies. There has been a complete dearth of sophisticated diplomatic efforts. Even issues like civil wars in Seirra Leone, Somalia, military coup in Fiji have been dealt in better and more refined ways. Zahid Hussain in his masterpiece ‘Scorpion’s Tail’ mentions how Pak military, ISI and CIA have made a complete mess.  But again, the main players  have always been the Pak military and ISI in nurturing all the militant groups like haqqani networks, hakimullah mehsoods, Fazlullahs etc. to gain ‘strategic depth’ in Afghanistan. They have all turned into Frankenstein’s  monster now. Two neighboring nations with highly distorted religious ideology informing their foreign policy, have played dukes and drakes in the entire nation, society and economy. They used the nation like a political dump yard and laboratory for their lunatic intelligence doctrines like ‘strategic depth’ etc. These players should be treated like war criminals. The development initiatives have been threatened and hampered with by bombing embassies and killing diplomats. The military and secret service of the neighboring country have dealt in the utmost ruthless and wild manner. What is most shocking is that how could the world community, United Nations leave the fate of millions into the hands of some semi-literate and unsophisticated generals and idiosyncratic mullahs. The history and future of states is made by politicians, thinkers, teachers and diplomats, not by the people in uniform and green robes.

It is high time that we undid the mistakes we did in the past. Although, we cannot compensate for   loses but we can still make efforts for a better future.

In present dispensation any political settlement with Taliban leaders like Hakimullah Mehsood on independent grounds, without any international vigilance and monitoring will make the country a medieval zoo and the situation would not let any normal, modern human being to even enter that territory. Again, the same Pak military and intelligence agency will be calling shots in Afghanistan. The situation is even more dangerous because Pak military and state apparatus after 60 years of existence on the principles of religious bigotry and useless statecraft have become completely clueless. They have no source, no channel to seek legitimacy now. All the previous vents like Kashmir have been exhausted. Those terror groups which were raised by Pak military have trained their guns on the very fabric of Pak society and state. So, now leaving Afghanistan at the hands of Pak will be like handing over a semi-recovered infant to a lunatic, schizophrenic and a bipolar dad. It could lead to worse consequences. Therefore, I propose that the other neighboring countries should be actively involved in any future settlement of Afghanistan.
Some Guiding Principles: 1) The aim should be to create modern, secular, politically stable and economically vibrant Afghanistan which seeks to be the part of world community through the smooth process of cultural and economic globalization.

2) The governance structure and the model of democracy should give due cognizance to religious, tribal, cultural and social sentiments. The attempt should be to secure maximum political and economic development of different ethnicities, tribes, keeping in mind the best possible ‘universe’ of power sharing.

A high-powered steering committee of SAARC nations and Central Asian republics should be actively involved with Afghanistan’s future and the committee should oversee and monitor the political settlement and its progress. These SAARC countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Bangladesh etc have faced similar religious, cultural and political conditions. These countries have demonstrated successful and stable models of democracy and market. They can contribute a lot in the development of stable and secular Afghanistan. The role of Generals, spies and mullahs should be minimized and, promptly kept in check and regulated.

With this, I end. I am not very hopeful but, of course I can dream and even the most brutal dictatorships and most violent terror outfits cannot snatch this ability and strength from me. No one take away the power of my dreams and soul.

And, in my dreams, I see my friend Shapoor’s children watching bollywood  movies and studying Hegel from Kabul University. I see my kids talking about Ahmad Zahir once again. I see myself visiting Kabul in a car without visa and without a bullet proof vest.