Pashtun colonization of northern Afghanistan

Starting from the 1880s, various governments of Afghanistan have pursued policies towards the goal of having more ethnic Pashtuns (Afghans) settle in northern Afghanistan (especially in Afghan Turkestan).[1][2][3][4]

Early colonization

Abdur Rahman Khan, the Amir of Afghanistan (1880-1901).
British Major Charles Yate, a supporter of the Pashtun colonization of northern Afghanistan.
A map of Afghan Turkestan.
An early 21st century ethnolinguistic map of Afghanistan. The light green Pashtun areas in the north are the result of Pashtun colonization.

There were very few ethnic Pashtuns living in northern Afghanistan (including in Afghan Turkestan) before the start of Amir Abdur Rahman Khan's reign in 1880.[1][4] While in power, Abdur Rahman Khan began a process of having ethnic Pashtuns settle in (colonize) northern Afghanistan.[1][2][3][4] These Pashtun colonization policies had three major purposes--to strengthen Afghanistan government's hold on its northern territories, to allow Afghan governments to deport their opponents up north (so that they would be unable to cause (as much) trouble to the Afghan government), and to help economically develop northern Afghanistan.[1][3]

As Abdur Rahman himself stated, “[i]t is proper that, as the King is an Afghan [Pashtun], his tribesmen, the Afghans [Pashtuns], should guard the frontier” between Afghanistan and Russia.[1] In order to achieve this goal, both Abdur Rahman Khan and his successors used Pashtun nationalist ideology, land confiscation, discriminatory taxation policies, and forced resettlement that favored the Pashtuns.[1] This Pashtun colonization colonization process was supported by the British government due to Britain's desire to reduce Russian influence in Afghanistan.[1][2] Indeed, as British Major Charles Yate wrote in 1893, "[i]t is only the non-Afghan tribes such as the Maimanah Uzbegs [Uzbeks], the Herati Hazarahs and Jamshidis, etc. that have any intercourse or communication with the Turkomans or Russians, and once encircled by Afghans they are safe."[1][2]

This Pashtun resettlement program resulted in Abdur Rahman consolidating his rule and control in the non-Pashtun lands in the north and in the Uzbeks, Turkmens, Tajiks and others in Afghan Turkestan losing their best lands to Pashtun settlers.[1] While all Pashtuns migrating to the north before 1885 had done so involuntarily (usually as a punishment for opposing state policies), this changed after 1885--when Abdur Rahman introduced voluntary migration to northern Afghanistan by offering financial and social incentives for Pashtun settlers (while also making this migration one-way by issuing a decree in 1885 which forbade anyone from moving from northern Afghanistan to southern Afghanistan).[1] In many cases, voluntary migrants to the north were provided with travel expenses, animals, free land in perpetuity and a three year tax exemption.[1] Abdur Rahman’s policies of voluntary migration for sedentary Pashtuns proved to be more successful than previous forced attempts, especially regarding nomads.[1] However, in spite of the introduction of incentive-based voluntary migration many ethnic Pashtuns were involuntarily deported to northern Afghanistan after 1885 (in some cases as late as the 1940s) as well.[1] Between 1885 and 1888, the Pashtun population in northern Afghanistan might have increased by a factor of eight, from 3,500 Pashtun families to as many as 40,000.[1] The rebellions of the Ghilzai Pashtuns in eastern Afghanistan and Sardar Muhammad Ishaq, the governor of Afghan Turkestan and a cousin of Abdur Rahman, temporarily halted the Pashtun colonization process in northern Afghanistan in the late 1880s.[1] Afterwards, after another short period of ethnic Pashtun colonization in northern Afghanistan, the Pashtunization of northern Afghanistan during Abdur Rahman’s reign (1880-1901) permanently came to an end with the start of the Hazara War in the early 1890s (before resuming later on under his successors).[1]

Later colonization

Between the 1910s and the 1940s, many Pashtun herders moved to and settled in northern Afghanistan.[1] In the several decades (specifically between the 1930s and the 1970s) after the ethnically Tajik Habibullah Kalakani attempted and failed to seize power in Afghanistan in 1929, ethnic Uzbeks and ethnic Tajiks lost hundreds of thousands of acres of cultivated land and pasture in northern Afghanistan--land which was then given or sold to Pashtun settlers.[1] For instance, during this time, Pashtun settlers in Takhar Province pushed Uzbek herders and Tajik, Moghol, and Qarluq farmers out of the irrigated lowlands and into the agriculturally marginal foothills.[1] As a result of the 19th and 20th century Pashtun colonization policies that Afghan governments pursued, Pashtuns have come to dominate the developed agricultural areas in northern Afghanistan while other ethnic groups (especially the Uzbeks) have come to dominate the underdeveloped foothills in northern Afghanistan (after being driven off of developed agricultural areas by Pashtun settlers).[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Christian Bleuer. "State-building, migration and economic development on the frontiers of northern Afghanistan and southern Tajikistan". Sciencedirect.com. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "From 'Slavers' to 'Warlords': Descriptions of Afghanistan's Uzbeks in western writing". Afghanistan-analysts.org. 2014-10-17. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
  3. 1 2 3 Mundt, Alex. "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Return of Internally Displaced Persons to Northern Afghanistan | Brookings Institution". Brookings.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
  4. 1 2 3 "Paying for the Taliban's Crimes:". Hrw.org. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
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