afghanistanDuring his reign the northern and southern frontiers of Afghanistan were
demarcated and legitimized, but many of the fault lines that still beset
the state and national identity are traceable to his reign. The northern
and southern frontiers arbitrarily divided tribes and peoples who trad-
itionally had been part of the same social and economic networks. The
Durand Line did not end Afghan interference in tribal affairs, the prob-
lem of arms smuggling, or tribal revolts on the Indian side of the frontier.
After Partition, Afghanistan and Pakistan disputed the Durand Line, while
the issue of the frontier and the use of Tribal Territory as a safe haven for
insurgents remains unresolved to this day. The repressions and forcible
relocations of hundreds of thousands of people, as well as the national-
ization of land and property, led to major social upheaval and economic
hardship, and created deep resentment against central government that
still simmers away under the surface. Afghanization also fuelled the emer-
gence of ethnocentric nationalism and ideas of Pushtun cultural and ethnic
supremacy, which exacerbated racial, sectarian and regional tensions.
‘Abd al-Rahman Khan’s obsession with concentrating all power in his
own hands undermined state institutions and civil society, in particular
regional government. As for any form of consultative assembly, he told his
heirs ‘never to make themselves puppets in the hands of these representa-
t i v e s ’. 46 ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan therefore had little interest in replacing the
traditional structures of sub-national government, which he dismantled
or rendered impotent, with any effective mechanism for local government.
Kabul became the hub for everything and provincial governors, fearing
imprisonment or execution, refused to act until the Amir gave his seal of
approval. This centralization of power remained essentially unchanged
after his death, and even after the fall of the Musahiban dynasty in 1978
this model was perpetuated by the imposition of Stalinist centralization.
Today, both the Executive and Legislative branches of the Afghan govern-
ment still regard the centralized state and a command economy as the
preferred model of governance.
‘Abd al-Rahman Khan was the first ruler of Afghanistan to employ state
propaganda to justify his actions both to his own people and the world
at large. During his reign he published a series of pamphlets in Persian
and Pushtu and posted official proclamations in prominent places. An
Indian munshi was commissioned to write the English version of the Amir’s
Persian autobiography, which was widely read in Britain and India, and
which helped promote the Amir’s version of Afghanistan’s history. 47 In this
work, ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan portrayed himself as the defender of India
against the Russians on the one hand, and a modern and modernizing