Political Leadership Among Swat Pathans

Volume 19

Fredrik Barth

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000324488
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

A classic and highly influential ethnography, which explores political leadership among Swat Pathans - and which emphasizes the importance of individual decision-making for wider social processes. This study describes certain aspects of the society of the Pathans of the Swat valley in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Except where other reference is given, the material on which it is based was collected by the author in the period February-November 1954.

1
Introduction

THE MAIN PURPOSE of the present study is to give a descriptive analysis of the political system of Swat, with special reference to the sources of political authority, and the form of organization within which this authority is exercised. Political systems have been described as the systems for the ‘maintenance or establishment of social order, within a territorial framework, by the organized exercise of coercive authority through the use, or possibility of use, of physical force’ (Radcliffe-Brown in Fortes and Evans-Pritchard, 1940, p. xiv).¹ But physical force, or the threat of it, is in Swat a characteristic sanction in a great many relations; and positions of authority are supported by other sanctions as well as force. Schapera, commenting on Radcliffe-Brown’s definition, says: ‘In studying political organization … we have to study, in fact, the whole system of communal leadership and all the functions (as well as the powers) of the leaders; and in this context such activities as the organization of religious ceremonies or collective hunts, or the concentration and redistribution of wealth, are as relevant as the administration of justice and similarly significant for comparative purposes’ (Schapera, 1956, pp. 218–9).

¹ This form of bibliographical reference will be used throughout. All the works cited are listed in the Bibliography, pp. 139–41.

Radcliffe-Brown’s definition, moreover, does not apply equally to different levels of Swat Pathan organization. In Swat there are small local groups which maintain internal order through coercive authority, supported by physical force. But there are also larger populations characterized by a social order without a clear demarcation of territorial units; and physical sanctions are not applied by any organized body of persons with the purpose of maintaining this order—it is an unsought product of the way in which smaller groups meet in interaction and opposition.

Political systems constructed on this latter pattern have lately received considerable attention, since it is characteristic of the acephalous lineage organizations of many areas (see Fortes, 1953). Though the organization in Swat differs from these, the concepts that have been developed for their analysis turn out to be useful also in the present case.

The analysis of this wider system requires an understanding of the smaller groups with their internal authority system. These groups show considerable structural complexity. A major problem arises from the fact that recruitment to such groups is formally based on free choice. In many anthropological accounts of tribal peoples, one has the impression that political allegiance is not a matter of individual choice. Each individual is born into a particular structural position, and will accordingly give his political allegiance to a particular group or office-holder. In Swat, persons find their place in the political order through a series of choices, many of which are temporary or revocable.

This freedom of choice radically alters the way in which political institutions function. In systems where no choice is offered, self-interest and group advantage tend to coincide, since it is only through his own group that any individual can protect or improve his position. Where, on the other hand, group commitments may be assumed and shed at will, self-interest may dictate action whicli does not bring advantage to the group; and individuals are able to plan and make choices in terms of private advantage and a personal political career. In this respect the political life of Swat resembles that of Western societies. Many of the politically active individuals in Swat clearly recognize the distinction between private and group advantage, and when faced with a choice they tend to consider the former rather than the latter. This is most clearly demonstrated by the way in which members of any group may secede and attach themselves to another when this is to their advantage. Thus the authority system—in terms both of the relations of dominance and submission and of the alignment of persons in groups—is built up and maintained through the exercise of a continual series of individual choices.

This poses some awkward problems in analysis. One might attempt to analyse the political system in Swat as the sum of all the choices of individuals giving their allegiance to others, describing the alternative patterns and possibilities which are presented to them, and the bases on which they make their choices. But these bases of choice are in fact not available for observation. An essentially similar, but more convenient, approach reverses the emphasis and analyses the system in terms of the observable activities of the political leaders. This follows the general lead of writers such as Weber (1947), who analyses the bases oflegitimacy, and de Jouvenel (1945), who sees political activity in a means-to-end framework as directed towards rallying supporters for desired purposes. In such a framework, allegiance is regarded not as something which is given to groups, but as something which is bartered between individuals against a return in other advantages. The system of authority and the alignment of persons in groups is thus in a sense built by the leaders through a systematic series of exchanges. This corresponds closely to the Pathan idea of relations between super– and sub-ordinates as reciprocal but differentiating contracts. Our central problem then is to explore the kinds of relationship that are established between persons in Swat, the way in which these may be systematically manipulated to build up positions of authority, and the variety of politically corporate groups which Tesult. The advantage of this form of analysis is that the relevant primary data consist in observable actions.

The distinction drawn by Firth between social structure and social organization may be utilized in this analysis. While the existing organization is the result of a multitude of choices, certain structural features of the society, which I shall here refer to as ‘frameworks’, serve to define and restrict the alternatives which are offered to each actor.

After a brief ecological and ethnological sketch of the area, I shall successively describe the formal frameworks of the society, the network of kinship and neighbourhood ties, and the dyadic relationships implying some form of dominance and submission between partners. Against this background I shall proceed to show the primary political groups which develop around single leaders, and finally the alignment of these leaders and groups into a larger political system.

The description thus takes the form of a progressive synthesis. The argument, and the material on which it rests, is briefly as follows:

Though the authority-relations of each individual are the product of a series of choices, certain aspects of each individual’s position are ascribed to him by birth and residence. Every individual is thereby placed in several formal frameworks, namely a territorial system of areas, sub-areas, villages and wards, and a caste system of roughly ten major, hierarchically ordered hereditary castes. Furthermore, foll citizenship is vested only in members of the landowning Pakhtun caste, and these serve as political patrons for all members of the lower castes. The patrilineal descent groups of these Pakhtuns thus offer a third framework for the whole society, since as political clients of members of these descent groups non-members are assigned positions in relation to one another.

Between the constituent households of the society there is a network of kinship and neighbourhood ties, which combine to place each person in a unique position in the web of local relations between villagers. This position is the result of a person’s membership in local community associations, and the ties contracted by marriage.

But no position in the above formal frameworks, or local webs of relationships, necessarily implies allegiance to a particular political office-holder, or dominance over any specific other person.¹ All relationships implying dominance are dyadic relationships of a contractual or voluntary nature. The primary elements from which the system of authority is constructed are such dyadic relations. These elements of authority emerge clearly in the daily life of Pathans—they are conceptualized by the actors themselves. Thus any person can describe in appropriate terms the bonds which define his various relations of dependence on others, and thus his reasons for submitting to the authority of these other persons, or inversely, the sources of his authority over others. The relations which give a position of dominance and authority to one partner are occupational contracts, house tenancy contracts, membership of men’s houses and religious tutelage.

¹ There is one exception to this statement: A rule in force in one of the thirteen main territories included in this study requires all members of a ward, while maintaining their various mutual commitments, to give allegiance to the chief who at any given time is dominant in the ward (see Chapter 7).

Political action, in this setting, is the art of manipulating these various dyadic relations so as to create effective and viable bodies of supporters—in other words, so as to create corporate political followings. Both Pakhtun landowners and persons of holy descent are active as political pretenders; thus two different types of primary political group emerge, namely the Pakhtun chief with his following, and the Saint with his following.

Finally, such primary groups combine to form the wider political system, which has the form of two large, dispersed, internally co-ordinated alliances or blocs. The form of these blocs may be understood as the result of regularities in the activities and choices of their constituent individual leaders. Such regularities may be seen to reflect structural tensions implicit in the formal framework of the society, mainly those between collaterals in the Pakhtun descent organization. The political system of Swat thus does not define a set of formal structural positions—it emerges as a result of individual choices. But these choices represent the attempts of individuals to solve their own problems; and as some of these problems spring from features of the formal organization, the form of the political system may, through this method of analysis, be seen in part to reflect such features.

2
General Ecology and Ethnology of Swat

ECOLOGY

THE PASHTO-SPEAKING PEOPLE of the Swat valley belong to a group loosely called Yusufzai Pathans or Afghans. This category includes all the descendants of a common distant ancestor, Yusuf, and those persons who are politically dependent on them. The Yusufzai number about one million, and occupy parts of the administered district of Peshawar and the valleys of the Panjkora and Swat rivers in tribal territory. The population in the Swat valley approximates 400,000.¹

¹ This figure is only a crude estimate, as there has never been a census of the area in question.

The Swat valley is delimited by natural boundaries. The Swat river arises among high mountains of 18,000 to 19,000 ft.—a geographical extension of the main Himalayan chain to the west of the Indus—and flows southward. Passes at an altitude of 12,000 to 16,000 ft. lead from the upper Swat valley to the Panjkora valley in the west, the Gilgit depression in the north, and the Indus river gorge in the east. In its lower course, the valley widens, descending below 3,000 ft., and bends progressively westward, but is still flanked by high (6,000 to 10,000 ft.) barren mountains which effectively-close it in. Finally, the river enters a narrow defile and breaks southward through the mountain barrier into the Peshawar plain, where by several meandering courses the water joins the Kabul river. The valley, from its point of origin to the defile, is about 120 miles long, and for all practical purposes closed off by mountains on all sides.

Communications do not follow the river through the defile, but pass over the surrounding mountains. Contacts with Buner and Peshawar are mostly over the Malakand, Shahkot, Mora or Karakar Passes. Only one trade route, of minor importance, passes through the area: that from Nowshera across the Swat River at Chakdarra, over a low pass and into the Panjkora valley, giving access via the Lowari Pass (10,000 ft.) to Chitral and central Asia. Thus the Swat valley is a dead end as far as communications are concerned. Its historical isolation from any part in the ancient and extensive trade connexions centering in Peshawar is best illustrated by the fact that tea, as a commodity of general use, only arrived in the area some thirty to forty years ago, and has still not penetrated to the highest part of the valley.

Climate is very much a function of altitude. Summer temperatures in the valley bottom reach 105°F; inwinter there may be brief periods of frost, with sleet and snow. In the higher parts of the valley a certain amount of snow accumulates through the winter. There are two wet seasons; the winter rains, with some snow, fall between December and March and the summer monsoon season is in July and August. The total yearly precipitation is about thirty inches.

The natural vegetation of the lower valley is dry bush; the areas surrounding shrines are inviolate, and usually have an open cover of stunted, thorny trees or sage bush. Pine forests appear above about 5,000 ft.

The Pathan population supports itself by the intensive cultivation of grain, which is highly developed. This is supplemented by some cattle breeding, particularly for dairy products and manure. For a purely agricultural and herding population, settlement is extremely dense; it can be roughly estimated at eight hundred persons per square mile of productive land. Even today trade is only limited, and there are no cash crops apart from the recent development of orange orchards in a few villages, notably Thana. Traditionally, the economy functioned entirely without money or other currency. In the outlying areas, money is still rarely seen.

In the Swat valley bottom two crops can be raised in a year, the first harvest falling in May-June, the second in October. The total yield of the main crops for the whole of Swat State (population 550,000) was, according to the 1953 tax estimates: maize 160 mill. lb., wheat 56 mill. lb., rice 36 mill. lb., barley 24 mill. lb. (Zabeeh, 1954, p. 18). In the Swat valley proper the proportion of rice in the total is considerably higher. In addition, mustard, sugar-cane, lentils, and a great variety of fruits and vegetables are grown in considerable quantities.

Agricultural land falls into four main categories: lálma/bārāni—unirri-gated; qás—artificially irrigated; shōrgára—naturally irrigated, swamp; bāgh—irrigated garden. Water is drawn from the main Swat river and from its smaller tributaries by a complex system of channels, which irrigate a large part of the valley bottom. Only irrigated land can produce a second crop of any significance.

Wheat, barley and mustard are grown in the spring, mainly on unirri-gated land which depends on late winter rains and accumulated moisture from the winter season. At this time of year the fields close to the river which are too moist for wheat, are used for clover for animal fodder, and as nursery beds for rice. For the second crop the largest possible area is irrigated. Here transplanted rice and also maize are grown. The higher, unirrigated fields are now left fallow, or else utilized for small quantities of crops such as maize. Fruit and vegetable gardens are cultivated separately, and systematically irrigated in the manner appropriate to the particular crop.

The fertility of the land is maintained by manure from the domesticated animals, which is allowed to decompose, mixed with some vegetable matter, in deep compost pits, before it is spread through the fields. Unirrigated land is sometimes left fallow in a two- or three-year cycle. There is some attempt to organize a rotation of maize and rice crops, but as there are no good alternative food crops the possibilities of this are limited. The fields are ploughed and cross-ploughed with a simple plough, drawn by bullocks, which is crudely constructed by the local carpenter and blacksmith; it does not tum the earth effectively and cannot cut sod.

The main domesticated animals are bullocks for agricultural work, cows and particularly water buffalo for milk and meat, sheep and some goats for meat and wool, fowls for eggs and meat, and donkeys, mules and horses for transportation.

The important points to bear in mind in the present context are the high density of population, the diversity and complexity of crops and productive techniques, the very high productivity of the land which is carefully maintained, and its high value, which is the result of the above factors, and of the considerable capital investment in irrigation works which is necessary to maintain this level of production.

HISTORY

The Pashto-speaking population of Swat takes its name from the Yusufzai tribes which at present dominate the area. This dominance was established between A.D. 1500 and 1600, when the Yusufzai, driven out of the Kabul valley, entered the northern Peshawar plain as conquerors and progressively wrested control of the Swat valley from the Swati tribe (Plowden, 1875). Some Swati became subject to the invaders; others fled eastward across the Indus, where one can find their descendants today established as conquerors and landowners in the Hazara dis...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• Contents
• 1. Introduction
• 2. General Ecology and Ethnology of Swat
• 3. Underlying Frameworks of Organization
• 4. Neighbourhood, Marriage and Affinity
• 5. Relations of Inequality and Authority
• 6. Land Tenure and Political Relations within Local Communities
• 7. Authority and Following of Chiefs
• 8. Authority and Following of Saints
• 9. Alliances and Political Blocs
• 10. History and Organization of Swat State
• 11. Conclusion
• Appendix: Cases relating to blood revenge
• Bibliography
• Index
• Series Page