The Pathans
is one of several documentaries made for the Disappearing
World series, which has tried to record important aspects of various societies
facing change or possible extinction. It was produced and directed by
Disappearing World’s Andre Singer working closely with Anthropologist
Akbar Ahmed,
who has done extensive fieldwork in the region. Filmed in 1980, it is
distinctly a period piece from a very tense moment in time: the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan and the subsequent Afghani rebellion.
The video begins by noting that the Afghanistan-Pakistan political border
means little to the Pathan people who travel freely across their territory,
regarding the border as little more than a line drawn by foreigners to separate
two nations to which the Pathans feel no clear allegiance. The Pathans
themselves have no central authority, but are divided into many tribes scattered
throughout the mountainous tribal areas of northwest Pakistan and mid- to
south-east Afghanistan.
Officially, the tribal areas are beyond the authority of the Pakistani Government.
This is a hold-over from the days of British rule in India when Britain experienced
first-hand the difficulty of ruling the geographically dispersed, yet intensely
unified Pathans. When Pakistan was created in 1947 it simply inherited
the tribal areas that had been originally set-up by the British Government
and has made few changes in its relationship to them. In the two decades
since this video was made, and particularly since the events of the past year,
the relationship between the Pakistani Government and the tribal areas may
very well have changed quite dramatically.
The world is very familiar with the image of the Pathans as fierce fighters,
but rarely seen is the everyday life they have been fighting to protect. The
Pathans are an extremely self-contained people. They are contained within
their own designated ethnicity (that of ‘Pathan’, distinct from Pakistanis
or other Afghani peoples), and language (Pashto, distinct from Urdu spoken
in Pakistan, or Dari or various Turkic tongues spoken in Afghanistan). They
are contained within their isolated, mountainous territory stretching across
two nations, within their separate tribes (60 of them), then small villages,
and even within the villages, both homes and mosques are surrounded by high
mud walls. As all Pathans are strict Sunni Muslims, women past puberty
are further self-contained in purdah.
The Disappearing World film crew did not have permission to film any Pathan
women past puberty for their documentary, and this is a distinct difference
from all other documentaries we have viewed this semester which have many
shots of women participating in daily life activities, or conversing with
the researcher.
According to village elders from the (unnamed) village Disappearing World
concentrates on, the Pathans came from Arabia. They are the descendants
of a great warrior who was the constant companion of the Prophet Mohammed.
The elders say the Pathans have inherited his hands and his way of fighting.
They are devout Sunni Muslims, which raises the issues: are there non-Muslim
Pathans? What if a Pathan loses faith in Islam? Must they leave
Pathan life and settle elsewhere? From the video, it appears that there
is no such thing as a non-practicing Muslim Pathan. And if there were
such a thing, they would quickly remove themselves from traditional Pathan
society, as most, if not all, of its social and political structures are based
upon their practice and interpretation of Islam.
The video tries to capture a sense of the social structure of Pathan life,
as well as the workings of that social structure by following a small, contained
conflict between a father and son and then a much larger, uncontained problem
of Pathan refugees from the Afghani war with the U.S.S.R. flooding into Pakistan
. Pathan life is structured around and through their practice of Islam
and their adherence to what is called Pukhtunwali, the Pathan code
of life. Pukhtunwali is based upon ideals of bravery, honor, especially
defending a woman’s honor, loyalty and hospitality. The video does
not make it clear whether only Pathans are bound by Pukhtunwali, although
it is clear that those outside of it are legitimate targets for attack.
Revenge is also a key component of Pukhtunwali, and neither time nor
distance affects the wronged from eventually seeking revenge. During
their attempted rule, the British noted that a Pathan’s most prized possession
is their rifle.
Conflicts that arise, according to Pukhtunwali, must be resolved by
the jirga. A jirga is a council made up of male elders
who hear disputes, discuss them and arrive at a decision according to Islamic
law. A holy man (Saint) must be present to hear the jirga's decision,
pronounce it just and urge the disputants to follow the cousel of the jirga
as it upholds Islamic law. There are few limits to the power of a jirga
(punishment may include death), and respect for the pronouncements of a jirga
is backed by adherence to Pukhtunwali and a heavy fine. The principles
of Islamic law notwithstanding, the decision of the village jirga filmed
for the video also reflected the personal concerns of the village jirga's
demographic. The dispute was between an elderly father who claimed
his son was not giving him enough money and a son who claimed his father was
greedy and demanding too much money. The jirga, a collection
of white-bearded men themselves, decided in favor of the father, telling the
son to be respectful of his father's needs in his old age. The son actively
participated in the jirga form, kissing his father's beard at the Saint's
command, yet seemed disgruntled that the decision did not go his way.
There does not appear to be an appeals process in the jirga system.
The much larger jirga concerning the problem of Pathan refugees from
Afghanistan flooding the Pathan villages in the tribal area of Pakistan involved
the upper echelon of Pathan political society, as well as representatives
from the particular villages that were being over-run and a representative
from the Pakistani government. It was not clear what language the jirga
was conducted in, although all present appeared fully fluent. The Pathans
asked the Pakistani government representative for material help in the form
of food and money for them to be able to treat their "Pathan brothers" in
accordance with Pukhtunwali standards of hospitality. The government
representative agreed that the flow of thousands of refugees into the tribal
area was a growing problem, and that Pakistan considered it an internal problem
of Afghanistan (rather than one more closely associated with the Pathans as
a people). He said that the Pakistani government would send help, although
how much and when was not mentionned or not filmed. He also remarked
that the code of Pukhtunwali notwithstanding, if a village cannot provide
food for the refugees, a village cannot provide food for the refugees. Noteably,
many of the elders attending the jirga wore strips of rifle bullets
across their chests and in general the body language of the Pakistani government
representative was markedly different from the body language of the jirga
participants.
The video winds down with footage and narrative focusing on Pathans operating
in spheres of life outside of the traditional Pathan village and the palpable
presence of change. There are many Pathan young men in the Pakistani
army (assigned far from their home regions), and schools for both girls and
boys are being opened throughout Pathan territory. In particular, Swat
Valley, has had schools, of various levels from elementary to college, and
hospitals built since the 1960's. The Swat Valley has come under increasing
influence from the Pakistani government, with schoolchildren learning Urdu
along with Pashto and singing the Pakistani National Anthem daily. Change,
it appears, has come and now the question is whether the Pathan way of life
can continue with the increasing demands of modernization and perhaps globalization.
There is nothing close to a McDonald's in the tribal area now, but Mao
Zedung probably never thought such a pernicious influence would ever enter
Beijing, which it did in 1992 and continues to thrive. Little emphasis
is placed on the Soviet-Afghani conflict, but perhaps the most necessary change
to be had in this area would be the end to fighting.
The last interview is with a village elder who speaks about whether Pathans’
adherence to Pukhtunwali will be affected by modernization and industrialization.
“A Pathan is one who, despite money and development should not give up
Pukhtunwali”, he says, “Pukhtunwali is like the spirit
of Islam. It is like a religion and if you progress…you don’t
leave religion behind.” The video ends with shots of Pathan men
firing their homemade, highly polished rifles, interspersed with the names
of the people who worked on the project. Explanation is not given, but
it is to be presumed that the men were fighting the Soviets, defending their
land, their way of life. It is a romantic ending, or a comically dramatic
one, depending on your mood.
The video is strikingly shot, simply, with beautiful light and colors.
The mountainous landscape is breathtaking and the Pathans interviewed for
the video were all very elegant clothing and gesture-wise, dignified, comfortable
and unexcited by the prescence of the camera. The two most visually
memorable scenes were perhaps the young girls being schooled in a courtyard
wearing brilliant magenta, red, yellows, turquoise and purple (no one else
in the video wears bright colors), and the village jirga meeting with
the old men squatting in their immaculate whites, dust-less, against the reddish
earth.