During the last
decades following the ‘Soviet’ invasion and persistent warfare
there has emerged a stratum of warlords drawn from the
dominant feudal classes but also successful military
formations, who have sought to gain control over land and
trade and also impose forced resource collection and
conscription. This has contributed to the weakening of tribal
and feudal ties and the formation of new ties based on
military action. Often we find figures from the rural poor
rising to power and rubbing shoulders with the traditional
feudal tribal lords.
Some of the key
issues to observe in this regard is: i.) land policy – to what
extent is the principle of land to the tiller or equitable
distribution of land or collectivisation of land is being
proposed or policies favouring unequal distribution of land
ii) productive infrastructure policy – to what extent is
public investment being used for development of productive
forces like irrigated land, electricity generation, roads etc.
for facilitating commercial and industrial development or
conversely if infrastructure is being developed for better
exploitation of natural resources like mining for unprocessed
export of minerals and for movement of the military machine
and iii) policy for development of national capitalism –
protecting investment by Afghan nationals, mobilising surplus
of Afghans for investment, developing the basis of
industrialisation and urbanisation in Afghanistan.
The extent to
which the policies enable poor landless and herdless families
to acquire resources and to protect the rights of the poor
landless workers and urban workers in industries, trade and
transport will indicate the social leanings of the Taliban, if
it is weighed in favour the labouring poor or in favour of the
landed and the rich.
Similarly with
the rights of women. The position of women has been used by
imperialist powers to legitimise the most brutal intervention
in Afghan affairs supposedly acting as agents of women’s
emancipation and the Taliban has been portrayed as opposed to
it in so far as it adheres to certain provisions of medieval
Shariat or Islamic law. While it is important to stay clear of
such imperialist rhetoric, it should be recognised that
democratic principles require equality of men and women in all
walks and stations of life while recognising local cultural
practices like wearing distinct headdress etc. or even
maintaining social distances in public spaces.
Afghanistan, it
should be remembered is essentially a tribal country which
still needs to develop into a democratic multinational state.
Building the Afghan state can be based on democratic
principles of equal incorporation of all tribes respecting
their special cultures and languages and welding them as a
common democratic state or it can be integrated based on the
military might of a few tribes dominating over the others, and
uniting all of them based on a particular interpretation of
Islamic texts. Building a democratic state, besides, requires
ease of transport and communication, building a common market
without restrictions over movement of goods and people,
universal education through common schooling of children, etc.
A quick review of
the signals emanating from the Taliban does not answer any of
the above questions with any clarity and we cannot hence
define class character of the Taliban movement. It is possible
that the movement is still trying to arrive at some consensus
on these issues.
Even though the
above matters are vital for the long term development of a
democratic Afghanistan, the immediate task is quite clearly
the establishment of a just peace in a severely war ravaged
country. Establishing peace not only implies the ousting of
imperialist occupation forces but also developing democratic
institutions that help to settle inter-tribal or regional
disputes in mutually acceptable fashion. This is necessary to
end the internecine warfare that has only helped imperialist
intervention in the past.
Establishing
peace also implies rebuilding infrastructure like roads and
waterworks destroyed by war, establishing civic institutions
for governance and establishing a regular system of taxation
to prevent irregular warlord extractions.
A few aspects of
the current events in Afghanistan stand out: Firstly, we find
the Taliban appearing as more ‘moderate’ in its approach
whether in terms of amnesty to all those who worked for the
previous regime, a more accommodative stance towards women’s
rights, a promise of protection of investments of neighbouring
countries including India. This is in contrast to the stance
of the organisation which was one of extreme religious
fanaticism in the pre-USA invasion days. Secondly, the
withdrawal of the US from a strategically important location
without a guarantee of its role there, indicates a strategic
weakening of the USA as an imperialist power policing the
entire planet. This also indicates the crisis of US economy
which has forced the US government to reduce its international
presence and allow new emerging economic and military super
powers like China to wrest control and negotiate with arch
enemies like the Taliban and allow them to take over power
with such ease and rapidity. Thirdly, quite clearly China is
stepping into the power vacuum created by the exit of the US
as only it may be in a position to bankroll the military and
economic projects of the Taliban and in the process establish
new forms of control over the country, its people and
resources. In other words, the exit of the US armed forces may
not signal the end of imperialist control and the
establishment of a democratic state.
In sum, it would
appear that the withdrawal of the US forces and the
establishment of the control of the Taliban over the most of
Afghanistan signifies the following:
This is certainly
one of the greatest defeats faced by US Imperialism after the
Vietnam debacle, this time effected by a combination of the
determined resistance of the Afghan people, the leadership of
Taliban, the weakening of the US and the rise of China besides
other factors.
In so far as it
represents the defeat of US imperialism and the establishment
of the rule of a patriotic power block, it can be treated as a
part of democratic movement.
In so far as it
represents an alliance of fundamentalist Islamic patriarchal
warlords, we need to be wary of the consolidation of the power
of such elements which in the long run will stifle any
democratic aspirations of the people of Afghanistan.
At the same time
we need to be open to the prospects of radicalisa- tion of the
Taliban with the plebeian elements gaining dominance and
carrying forward at least some progressive policies and
agendas we had hinted above.
We know from the
history of the past half a century that the Afghan people will
resist tooth and nail any direct colonial type militaristic
control by any foreign power. It remains to be seen if they
will also withstand efforts to establish neo-colonial controls
through the medium of ‘liberal aid’ and collaboration by
powers like China, Russia, Pakistan, India etc. Otherwise
Afghanistan will have to undergo another period of imperialist
domination which can only perpetuate the miseries and
deprivation of the people of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is at the cross roads: with
the structures of the previous state power and its
institutions smashed or abandoned a factor which opens
possibilities for establishing a new popular democracy, and
sweeping away not only the remnants of imperialism but also of
feudalism, patriarchy and religious fundamentalism, establish
a popular nationalist government with a democratic
constitution enshrining rights of the labouring people and
initiating economic development in the country and also a
programme for building a democratic state of Afghan people.
This can be possible only if the toiling men and women of
Afghanistan organise themselves and assume power under a
leadership with clarity of vision.