THE NOTION OF RELIGIOSITY IN PASHTUNS

THE NOTION OF RELIGIOSITY IN PASHTUNS
SAHAR December 2009
By Mohammad Arif
The notion that Pashtuns are extremely religious is often very exaggerated and sometimes very clandestinely used as a card to undermine their historical social
and political secular nature. A complete genealogy of the religiosity in Pasthuns can
be dated back to the Afghan war when international community with the help of
dictatorial regimes in Pakistan put the whole social order of Pashtuns into jeopardy
by restricting their cultural activities on the one hand and exposing them to the Jihad culture on the other hand. The lines will dwell upon the concocted version of the religiosity of Pashtuns.
Those who are aware of Pushtunwali—the Pushtuns code of conduct—will have no problem of issuing a direct verdict on its secular nature. Both philosophically as well as politically Pushtunwali has remained secular since time immemorial.
Pushtunwali is claimed to be neither a divine code nor those who practice it understand it theocratically. Most of the tenants of Pushtunwali are secular, tribal
and local and can be put in sharp contrast with Islam, which is divine, culturally more complex and universal. For hundreds of years Pushtunwali and Islam existed
harmoniously in Pushtuns’ land. The reasons for this paradoxical existence might be
that neither Islam is practiced and understood by Pushtuns in its real sense nor
Pushtunwali can be practiced in an ideal form. Thus religion remained restricted to
certain externalities like occasional prayers, fasting or performing certain rituals or celebrating certain days. Islam never took a direct conflict with Pushtunwali as tribal honour, bravery, revenge, hospitality and family prestige and individual freedom were more relevant in Pushtuns society than living under dogmas, superstitions or subduing themselves before a global Islamic theocracy.
For the past two or three decades and during the Afghan war Pashtuns
society witnessed certain transformations. This is not just an increased religiosity but also a kind of decayin g generations and a loss of cultural values. The society is in a state of cultural anarchy. On the one hand an imposed Indian culture has polluted Pashtuns’ cultural tastes while on the other hand an imported and imposed Arab religiosity has disturbed the balance between the religious and secular. As a result the society has become more religious and away from its cultural roots with less tolerance and more abstraction.
Secular society has two interpretations: western secular society and our
traditional secular society with a touch of modernity. The former is a far-fetched
reality and is therefore out of context. In our case, the later is the harmonious
balance between Pashtunwali and Islam—the secular and the religious. This system
was indigenous to our society and its eradication is quite a recent phenomenon. I
remember the mid-80s, when Islamization had not yet taken roots I remember
people would not pray or keep beard. Women would take Naswar or Chelum and
there was no strict concept of Purda. Women would go to Meela (fairs), Urs or they
would work in the fields. Even sexual aberration was not a taboo. There was a small
Hindu community in our town and that was part of the socio-economic partnership.
What I am trying to say that the pivot of our life was worldly and not religious.
Secularism may be a developed western philosophy but it is not all together a
western product. In the western history things are formal, organized or systematic. In societies like ours things are random, disorganized and non-systematic. Therefore,
Pashtun intelligentsia should neither be duped into the over-exaggerated religiosity
of our society nor they need to become apologetic about their secular worldview. We
are, like other human being, and it is a historical fact that human beings tend to be
become dogmatic if their freedom is snatched from them and they are bombard with
obscurantism in a systematic manner.