Swat State (1915–1969): From Genesis to Merger (review)

Since the horrific events of September 11, 2001, much attention has been riveted on the border separating Afghanistan from Pakistan. This book focuses on one segment of that border, the region known as Swat state, a land of high mountains and lush valleys that is home to a portion of the Pashtun nation that straddles the frontier region and has long complicated the lives of Afghans and Pakistanis. As such, the volume could not be more timely, or the need to know the inhabitants of the border region more pressing. In major part the central question raised by this tome is how Swati Pashtuns have come to play a pivotal role in the continuing “great game” that marks the region’s place in contemporary international politics.

Determined to provide historical perspective, Sultan-i-Rome, a Swati Pashtun, has labored to tell the story of Swat state‘s emergence as a corporate entity during the later colonial period that spans from the years just prior to the First World War to the end of the British era and the formation of independent Pakistan following World War II. Pakistan’s frontier policy was critical to the new government’s effort to consolidate the predominantly Muslim but multiethnic nation, and indeed, while building upon the British experience, Pakistan was mindful of the need for the deeper integration of the heretofore historically autonomous Pashtun tribal areas. The final chapters of the book describe and examine the Pakistani central government’s need to bring the tribes, but most notably in this instance the Swati Pashtuns, under settled management. The bulk of the author’s effort, however, aims at detailing the formation of the tribal state, the roles played by its leaders, and their record of accomplishment and failure in realizing a polity that was separate from but ultimately connected to the larger Pakistani experience.

Geo-strategically located at the point where South and Central Asia align with China, Swat has been a historic crossroads for passing armies but has been little altered by alien campaigns and programs. The Yusufzai Afghan Pashtuns placed their mark on the region in the 16^th century, and Afghanistan has long sustained its interest in the state, but it is only in modern times, with the pressure exerted by the British following their conquest of the Punjab and their occupation of Peshawar in the 19^th century, that Swat found itself penetrated by a distant culture. Moreover, London’s decision to draw a legal border between their South Asian colony and the Afghan monarchial state in 1893 brought the European presence into bold relief. Britain’s tribal policy both aided and abetted divisiveness among rival tribes of the region, periodically favoring one tribal leader over another, and setting the scene for a quasi form of European dominance. Perennial conflict with tribal Pashtuns, however, demonstrated that the colonial power failed to alter tribal culture and character.

Unable to subdue the Pashtuns, the British settled for the formation of an administrative structure that permitted the relative pacification of Swat and its immediate environs, but their actions also prompted the Swatis to center their loyalties around a particular ruler. Although never able to subdue the Swatis or their brethren in Dir, Amb, and Chitral, the British nevertheless established the conditions for the state’s subsequent merger when the new Pakistan tied it to the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) of the North West Frontier Province. In fact, it was the fading European presence that left in place the structural design making Pakistan the successor state to the heretofore princely states of Swat, Dir, Amb, and Chitral.

The reader will find this volume authoritative in understanding the personalities, as well as the conditions and the relations between the different tribal areas in the Swat region. Seen through the author’s eyes, Swat’s emergence as an independent entity had much to do with tribal rivalries and most notably...