nadir shah and the afghans, 1732–47locusts ate the spring grass and sprouting grain. The government gave the
nomads large tracts of arable land as well as grazing rights, but these tribes
had no tradition of agrarian pursuits and regarded agriculture and horti-
culture as demeaning. Some of their leaders even suspected Afghanization
was a ploy by the Amir to undermine their leadership and force their tribe
to adopt a sedentary lifestyle. After barely surviving their first winter, in
the following autumn Taju Khan Ishaqzai, one of the first of the Pushtun
naqelin to settle in the Murghab, ordered his tribe to return en masse to
their traditional winter quarters in the Pusht Rud.
Tensions between naqelin and indigenous populations began as soon
as they arrived in the area. Local populations resented the immigrants,
whom they regarded as foreigners, and there were armed clashes over land
ownership, water rights and grazing. The maldar’s tradition of allowing
their flocks to roam freely was particularly resented, for the animals ate
newly planted crops, fruit trees and vines, as well as fouling and blocking
irrigation channels. When the local population complained to local gov -
ernors, more often than not the officials sided with the colonists. To add
insult to injury, the government conscripted local people to build houses
and storehouses for the colonists. In the Maimana and Murghab regions
thousands of local tribesmen – Uzbeks, Turkmans and Aimaq – fled across
into Russian territory, formed resistance movements and began to raid
government outposts and rustle the herds of colonists.
A group of Ishaqzai Pushtuns from Langar, a remote settlement in Badghis. These
Durrani tribesmen were relocated here as part of the Afghanization programme
of Amir ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan in the wake of the Panjdeh Crisis of 1885.