Border and Control: War and Social Transformation at Pak-Afghan Borderland

Abstract

This paper extends the debate about the post-colonial state relationship to Pashtun ‘tribal’ areas and communities living in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. It details the existing structures of power that have evolved on war footing over four decades, since 1979. It grounds the debate of changing social order, by introducing new archival written material and conducting two years of fieldwork in Waziristan. The Paper is divided into three sections. The first part investigates the power structure, since the post-colonial state exploited the economic resources, in the form of border trade that was rooted in colonial experiences of the border. The next section explains the evolution of the war economy in the region and its contradictions. The last part emphasizes on war on terror as war over the human bodies and exploitation of economic and political resources.