1 - State and society in Afghanistan

Summary

The spontaneous uprisings against the communist regime which broke out in 1978 and 1979 were directed as much against the state itself as against the Marxist government. The imposition of communism on the country may be seen as a new and even more radical phase of the penetration of the countryside by the state bureaucracy. These two dimensions, opposition to the state and the rejection of Marxism, are closely interlinked. Yet the attitude of the countryside towards the state has always been more ambivalent than might at first appear: the Afghan state was born in the tribal lands; the symbols of authority which it exercises are not foreign to peasant experience and many of the leaders of the resistance movements visualised a state – for them an Islamic state. At the same time the recent history of Afghanistan is one of revolts against the central power and of resistance to the penetration of the countryside by state bureaucracy.

To oppose state and society is always somewhat artificial. Yet in Afghanistan this separation is rooted in everyday experience. It is apparent in rural villages, where the administrative buildings are set apart from the people's dwellings. It may be seen in the clothes worn and the general behaviour of individuals performing their roles in society. And it makes itself felt in the patterns of everyday speech. For the peasant the state is alien, and the relationship between the peasantry and the state official is characterised by a profound and mutual contempt.