TY - JOUR
T1 - The Combined and Uneven Development of Afghan Nationalism
AU - Gopal, Anand
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Journal compilation © 2017 Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - The U.S. campaign in Afghanistan has been based, in part, on a pair of contradictory notions: First, that the Taliban are a supra-ethnic, transnational group severed from the social and cultural heritage of Afghanistan; and second, that the Taliban represent a form of Pashtun nationalism. This article uses archival data and field research to show that both views are incorrect. The Taliban are historically rooted in Pashtun communities and yet are not a force of Pashtun nationalism. Rather, they comprise a network of exclusion, bound together in rhetoric by a particular conception of political Islam and Afghan sovereignty. This is an ‘Islamist nationalism’ in word, but crucially, not in deed: While the Taliban aspire to act as a nationalist force representing all Afghans, under conditions of institutional poverty and the lack of modernization, the Taliban are bound in practice by networks of trust and personal contact. This is an example of the ‘combined and uneven development’ of Afghan nationalism.
AB - The U.S. campaign in Afghanistan has been based, in part, on a pair of contradictory notions: First, that the Taliban are a supra-ethnic, transnational group severed from the social and cultural heritage of Afghanistan; and second, that the Taliban represent a form of Pashtun nationalism. This article uses archival data and field research to show that both views are incorrect. The Taliban are historically rooted in Pashtun communities and yet are not a force of Pashtun nationalism. Rather, they comprise a network of exclusion, bound together in rhetoric by a particular conception of political Islam and Afghan sovereignty. This is an ‘Islamist nationalism’ in word, but crucially, not in deed: While the Taliban aspire to act as a nationalist force representing all Afghans, under conditions of institutional poverty and the lack of modernization, the Taliban are bound in practice by networks of trust and personal contact. This is an example of the ‘combined and uneven development’ of Afghan nationalism.
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U2 - 10.1111/sena.12206
DO - 10.1111/sena.12206
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85010635785
SN - 1473-8481
VL - 16
SP - 478
EP - 492
JO - Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism
JF - Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism
IS - 3
ER -