Integrity Score 380
No Records Found
No Records Found
The Challenges to Nation-Building
in Afghanistan
Failure of Centralisation in Afghanistan
The Afghan state is characterized by weak central governments on the one hand and a strong autonomous tribal society on the other hand. The complexities and dynamics of the society and its power structures have acted as constraints on any effort at modernization and centralization of the country. Political and economic factors remained the basis of relationship between the central government and the tribes.
Tribal leaders, ever since the rule of Ahmad Shah Durrani, emerged as powerful feudal chieftains whose territorial base was their source of power vis-a vis the centre. Subjugation and repression of the ethnic and religious groups, as practised by Amir Abdur Rehman Khan (1880-1901) or initiating reforms from the top, as King Amanullah (1919-1929) did or the communist rulers (1979-89) attempted to, have not yielded any fruitful results. Afghan political scene, right from Amir Abdur Rehman Khan upto the communist, is marked by the failure of rulers to centralize and establish their sway over the tribal and regional influences. The communist government which came to power in 1978 and managed to remain in power till 1992 was highly centralised and reformist. However it failed to work in Afghanistan.
Such developments have led to factionalisation of the country and regional and ethnic tensions have emerged from the civil war. The success of the Taleban regime in establishing some kind of central rule for five years however is to be understood in the context of the Afghan society that had already become weak due to perpetual war, factional fighting and massive population displacement.
It failed because it lacked the vision to take Afghanistan on a path of progress towards reform and development. It fell primarily due to external factors as it tended to isolate Afghanistan more and more from the international economic map. Taleban’s centralization and its suitability to Afghan conditions has to be questioned from the standpoint of whether it was a phenomenon of silent acceptance or silent revolt of the war-weary Afghans. Afghanistan’s political transition and state building process has to be understood in the framework these socio-political realities.
To be continued.....