Source: Mohammad Enam Wak
WAK Foundation
Email: abdaliwak[at]yahoo.com

Mohammad Enam Wak is the author of the "History of Pashto" section. Hence all credit goes to him and if you have any question he will be pleased to answer them through his email.
 

Conclusion

*     The first Pakhtoon socio-economic revolution did not let the Pakhtoon society to go into slavery era. With Pakhtoonwali the society went from the first commune straight to feudalism. But the principles of Sialy (equality) code remained significant. Pakhtoonwali then become not only part of feudalism but also part of the capitalist culture in 20 th century.

*     Prior to Islam and since its rise, Pakhtoon governments were founded as a result of the socio-economic development of the Pakhtoon society. Pakhtoonwali succeeded as a political organization in escalating collective authorities within defined geographies. Based on common history, interrelated and woven culture, a shared language and economic interests, they developed their local particulars to make a wide governmental mechanism in 12 th century, and built Pakhtoon nationalism.

*     With Mongol assaults in the 13 th century, this political mechanism was abolished. While the second Pakhtoon socio-economic revolution constituted a base for the foundation of the second Pakhtoon nationalism. The sheikh Malli struggle in the 15 th century, Rokhani crusade in the 16 th century and the Khushal khan political attempts in the 17 th century resulted in the formation of the second Pakhtoon nationalism in the mid 18 th century:

*     The sheikh Malli era was of “law formation”, while Rokhan era was of “Pakhtoon ljtehad” (interpretation), and that of Khushal khan, in addition to sword and pen, was also a law enforcement period.

*     Pakhtoonwali become a written constitution in the Khushal khan era. And his treatise Distarnama becomes a charter of tribal and country leadership.

*     Pir Rokhan wrote khairul Bayan in Pakhto. Pakhto was substituted for Arabic and improved its cultural and literal position. The also challenged mullah and pir at their forged social status.

*     In Rokhani politics, the natural Pakhtoon understanding of Pakhtoonwali and Islam, including the role of women, was very clear and it revealed religious abuse in social affairs.

*     The Rokhan Ijtehad (interpretation) showed that Pakhtoonwali would not surrender to or compromise politically with any form of superiority including religion. It will always wage a legitimate competitive struggle.

*     The Rokhan and Khushal movements, in addition to the formation of governments, attempted to form a national society and a sovereign nation. The difference is that the Khushal nationalism was based on Pakhtoon ethnicity, geography and language. He considered Pakhtana as a nation. Concerning geography Khushal khan was in the eastern frontier. He recognized the Indus River as the afghan border with India. He regarded afghan territory as extending up to Attock similar to that of the 18 th and 19 th centuries

*     In the Rokhan crusade the nationalistic basis and the prospect of the national society and a sovereign nation was broader. Rokhan national struggle was not confined to a race, ethnicity, and language of geography. But as he was living in eastern Afghanistan, he emphasized Pakhto language and because of that he authored khairul bayan in Pakhto. The Rokhan struggle against the Mughuls and against religious despotism was based both on Pakhtoonwali and Islam, and these two along with a struggle against class society were the genuine foundations and objectives of Pakhtoon nationalism.

*     These factors of the Rokhan struggle during 150 years of a failed exercise finally came to a national stage. They were concluded as principles of the Khushal Khan national struggle. They were later developed into a regional level during Ahmad Shah Abdali when the language and ethnicity were dropped while geography of the great Afghanistan was added.

*     The Rokhan movement was not victorious against the newly formed feudalism. Because of its revisionist nature and interpretation of religion his struggle was confronted by a strong conservative reaction.

*     While Europe was preparing for a capitalist revolution in 1879, the state government of Ahmad Shah Abdali was in the process of formation following the historical records of Sheikh Malli, BaYazeed Rokhan and Khushal Khan.

*     During these evolutionary phases, Pakhtoonwali was a unique and stable socio-political base that raised the Pakhtoon nationalism in the 12 th and then in the 18 th century. Later other parameters including Islam and the Persian language as two external factors contributed to the formation to formation of Afghan nationalism.

*     Islam took over Pakhtoonwali during the Ghaznavied dynasty as a superior law of the country. Long after, in 1978, Islam motivated an armed struggle and reached is peak on the political scene in 1992. it eliminated afghan nationalism with its state institutions.

*     As an organization of faith from the establishment and growth of Islam up to 1978 Islam, in its moderate form, was generally in conformity with Pakhtoonwali on the popular level and with Pakhtoonwali on the popular level and with Pakhtoon and Afghan nationalism on the state level. It was in political reconciliation with the two. In the decade of the 1920s the Mazhab and particularly Tasawof stood against culture and political initiatives and it overthrew the legal Afghan State based on Afghan nationalism.

*     Afghan nationalism along with Islam fought against British rule in the 19 th century and theses two together fought against British and Russian expansionism in the 20 th century. However, the struggle against atheism and as a consequence it grasped political power in 1992.

*     Pakhtoonwali, Pakhtoon nationalism and Afghan nationalism have been the national base in the Afghan political history while Islam has played a supplementary role. Pakhtoonwali with majority role, moderate Islam as common to all and the Persian language having a minority role worked collectively in maintaining Afghan nationalism up to 1978.

*     With Sharia replacing the civil laws in the (executive, judiciary and legislature) not only substituted the modern government structure, the Islamic fundamentalism in the shape of the Taliban also monopolized the political scene.

*     Democracy was mistakenly introduced at a time when both Islamic fundamentalism and communist radicalism grew as a consequence of it. They destroyed the national unity and the state government. This was an underestimation of nation formation and Afghan ideology.

*     Before the political emergence of the Taliban, the Islamic radicalism in its guise (Ikhwan-ul Muslimin, the Jamiat Islami Afghanistan)under the leadership of Burhanuddin Rabanni, attracted non-Pakhtoon ethno-political circles such as the Farsi speaking PDPA’s Parchamist, Setamists and Maoists coming from the Tajik, Hazara and Uzbek ethnic minorities and Sura-e Nezar under leadership of commander Ahmad Shah Masood along with the Uzbek Militia of Abdur Rashid Dostom and the ethno-religious Shia Hezb-e Wahdat of Hazara ethnic group. These Ethno-political groups, deployed against Afghan nationalism and recognizing “federal” system as their main objective.

*     Pure Islamic radicalism (Ikhwan-ul Muslimin, Hezb-e Islami Afghanistan of Engineer Gulbudin Hekmatyar group) Islamic fundamentalism (Sayyaf group) and formerly traditional and newly politicized Mazhabi Islam (Mullahs: Maulavi Mohammad Yunis Khalis, Maulavi Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi) altogether ruled out Afghan nationalism justifying Sharia as a unique state legal system.

*     For grasping the political power the Islamic fractions, severely fought each other till 1995, but the Taliban reshaped this exhausted Islamic fundamentalism. As a heterogeneous composition of ideological followers with an apparent Pakhtoon majority, this new well-organized alternative of Islamic fundamentalism under mines more than 50 million Pakhtoon majorities both in Afghanistan and Pakistan and gives a bad reputation to both the Pakhtoon and Afghan nationalism.