Islam and Politics in Afghanistan

Asta Olesen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136103063
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

The years 1978 and 1979 were dramatic throughout south and western Asia. In Iran, the Pahlavi dynasty was toppled by an Islamic revolution. In Pakistan, Zulfigar Ali Bhutto was hanged by the military regime that toppled him and which then proceeded to implement an Islamization programme. Between the two lay Afghanistan whose "Saur Revolution" of April 1978 soon developed into a full scale civil war and Soviet intervention. The military struggle that followed was largely influenced by Soviet-US rivalry but the ideological struggle followed a dynamic of its own. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including such previously unused archival material as British Intelligence reports, this is a detailed study of the Afghan debate on the role of Islam in politics from the formation of the modern Afghan state around 1800 to the present day.

CHAPTER 5

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A New Ideological Paradigm: The Reform Policy of King Amanullah (1919–29)

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With the assassination of Am

r Habibullah during a hunting trip to Laghman in 1919, the stage was set for the proponents of the so-called War Party, whose main representatives at court were the Am

r's brother and son, Sard

r Nasrullah and Sard

r Amanullah. The opposition to Am

r Habibullah's neutralist policies during World War I had brought about a rapprochement between the traditionalists and the modernists, and although Sard

r Nasrullah was the main representative of the clergy's interests, Sard

r Amanullah also enjoyed widespread respect and support in religious circles, as he was recognized as a strong pan-Islamist and nationalist and had, in his administrative work as governor of Kabul, gained a reputation for personal honesty and integrity¹

However, with Am

r Habibullah removed, a short power struggle took place between the traditionalist forces, who hurriedly proclaimed the late Am

r's brother, Sard

r Nasrullah, as am

r, and the modernists who supported Sard

r Amanullah's claim to the throne. Nasrullah had gone along on the Am

r's hunting trip to Laghman, and immediately gained the support of the leading religious leaders of eastern Afghanistan, with whom, over the years, he had retained close contact. The mullahs declared that, as Am

r Habibullah had died as a shah

d (martyr), he should according to custom be buried at once in the clothes he was wearing and without elaborate ceremonies — and that as a martyred king he could only be buried by his successor. Consequently, Sard

r Nasrullah was immediately crowned. The coronation took place in Jalalabad with the dast

rband

ceremony² being performed by a few mullahs, among whom were the Naq

b

ib of Baghdad,³ the B

dsh

h

ib of Islampur and the son of the

a

rat

ib of Chaharbagh.

Figure 11: Amanullah, King 1919–29

While this was going on in Jalalabad, Sard

r Amanullah had himself declared as king in Kabul. He enjoyed the unanimous support of the ‘modernists’ (i.e. the urban intelligentsia); his powerful mother's background in an influential Barakzai family secured him a certain tribal support; he was popular with the army, particularly since his first move was to declare a pay rise for regulars and officers; he was acceptable to the religious leaders as a pan-Islamist and nationalist; and, finally, he was not tainted by having participated in the hunting trip where the assassination took place. Moreover, by being in Kabul, as governor he controlled the Kabul garrison, arsenal and treasury.⁴

Sard

r Nasrullah announced his abdication in order to avoid bloodshed and submitted to Amanullah, although General Nadir Kh

n, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, and M

r Sayyid Jan B

dsh

h of Islampur tried to convince him otherwise. The B

dsh

h

ib reportedly promised to bring in a force of 50,000 tribesmen in support of Sard

r Nasrullah, but the offer was rejected.⁵ The Q

al-Qu

t, Abdur Razzaq, on Nasrullah's submission, reportedly went off to join the H

jj

of Turangzai in Mohmand country, but like the rest of Nasrullah's party soon submitted to King Amanullah (Adamec 1975:107). On 27 February 1919, Amanullah was formally crowned by Mullah Hamidullah of Tagab, who declared that Sard

r Inayatullah-though as eldest son the official suc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Nordic Institute of Asian Studies
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Maps
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Transcriptions from Arabic Script
• Islam — Ideology and Politics
• Afghanistan Towards the End of the Nineteenth Century
• From Tribal State to Absolute Monarchy (1880–1901)
• Pan-Islamism and Anti-Colonialism (1901–1919)
• A New Ideological Paradigm: The Reform Policy of King Amanullah (1919–29)
• Re-Establishment of the Social Order and Its Transformation (1930–1950s)
• The Struggle for Political Reform (1950s–1970s)
• The Development of the Islamic Movement from the 1960s
• The PDPA and Islam
• The Mujāhidīn and Islam
• Conclusion
• Glossary
• Notes on the Sources
• References
• Index