The Defiant Border
The Afghan-Pakistan Borderlands in the Era of Decolonization, 1936–1965

This book explores why the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands have remained largely independent of state controls throughout the twentieth century.

Elisabeth Leake (Author)

9781107571563, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 December 2016

272 pages, 4 maps
23 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.42 kg

'In tracing the appeal of the borderlands for various powers, Leake, through gaps in the archives, weaves an intricate historical description that resists any homogeneous linear narrativization of Pashtun as an identity and Pashtunistan as a movement and the complex entanglement of the latter with Kashmir. These contributions are particularly relevant for the current political moment unfolding in Pakistan named the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) - a movement to demand an end to the violence inflicted on the lives of those in the Pashtun borderlands … Leake's book is widely appealing.' Zunaira Komal, H-Net Reviews (H-Net.org/reviews)

The Defiant Border explores why the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands have remained largely independent of state controls from the colonial period into the twenty-first century. This book looks at local Pashtun tribes' modes for evading first British colonial, then Pakistani, governance; the ongoing border dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan; and continuing interest in the region from Indian, US, British, and Soviet actors. It reveals active attempts by first British, then Pakistani, agents to integrate the tribal region, ranging from development initiatives to violent suppression. The Defiant Border also considers the area's influence on relations between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India, as well as its role in the United States' increasingly global Cold War policies. Ultimately, the book considers how a region so peripheral to major centers of power has had such an impact on political choices throughout the eras of empire, decolonization, and superpower competition, up to the so-called 'war on terror'.

Introduction. 'A doughty and honorable opponent': historicizing the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands
1. The Pashtun tribes
2. Geopolitics and state-building
3. Book structure
Part I. 'Using a Crowbar to Swat Wasps': The Frontier Tribal Area in Imperial Defense: 4. India in interwar British imperial strategy
5. Indian nationalism, the Indian army, and regional relations
6. The 1936–7 revolt and its aftermath
7. Indian nationalists, the subcontinent's defense, and the war effort
8. The Pashtuns and the war effort
9. Conclusion
Part II. The 'Opening of Sluice Gates': Plan Partition and the Frontier: 10. The end of war, imperial decline, and plan partition
11. Reconciling independent South Asia and imperial defense
12. The NWFP and the 1945–6 elections
13. British policy towards the frontier tribal area
14. Nehru's visit to the frontier and the local decline of the congress
15. Afghanistan, regional relations, and India's Pashtuns
16. The NWFP referendum and the future of the tribal zone
17. Independence and evolving tribal identity
18. Pakistan and the frontier tribal area
19. Conclusion
Part III. 'We are One People and Ours is a Land': The Demand for Pashtunistan, 1948–52: 20. Britain, the emerging Cold War, and the Kashmir conflict
21. Kashmir in Indio-Pakistan relations
22. The development of independent Pakistan
23. The rise of Afghan-Pakistan tensions
24. Pakistan and the frontier tribal area
25. Pashtunistan in regional and international relations
26. Conclusion
Part IV. A 'Friendly Point of Return': Pakistan and the Global Cold War: 27. The emergence of the United States-Pakistan alliance
28. The impasse in Afghan-Pakistan relations
29. The frontier tribal area and the one unit plan
30. Renegotiating Afghan-Pakistan relations in the Cold War
31. Conclusion
Part V. An 'Eye for an Eye': Mohammad Ayub Khan and the Collapse of Regional Relations: 32. India and the United States: democracies reunited
33. Ayub Khan's ascendancy
34. Domestic change and integrating borderlands
35. Daud and Afghan modernization
36. Violence returns to the borderlands
37. The 1960 Afghan-Pakistan rupture
38. The failure of US mediation
39. The aftermath of the encounter
40. Conclusion
Part VI. Conclusion. 'Religion, Land, Lineage, and Honour': The Afghan-Pakistan Borderlands Then and Now: 41. Pashtunistan then and now.

Subject Areas: The Cold War [HBTW], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Asian history [HBJF]