Abstract
In 1893, Sir Mortimer Durand, the Foreign Secretary of British India, and Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, the king of Afghanistan, signed the Durand Line agreement to fix the limits of their respective rule. The outcome was the demarcation of an approximately 2640 kilometres borderline in the Pashtun communities across the eastern and southern regions of Afghanistan neighbouring India. Essentially, under the agreement, Afghanistan lost control over ‘one-half of the Pashtuns,’ a majority ethnic group in Afghanistan, and a substantial minority in present-day Pakistan. The Pashtuns affected by this border are widely known as ‘warrior tribesmen bound together by a common language and literature, [and] an ancient and well-defined code of honour [Pashtunwali].’ Beyond losing population, Afghanistan also lost large tracts of territory throughout the ‘frontier tribal areas of Swat, Bajaur, Chitral, Chageh, Buner, Dir, Kurram, part of Waziristan, Chagai and the Khyber Pass.’ In some parts of the Pashtun land, this meant bisecting tribes such as the Waziri and Mohmands.What is the problem now? Generally, the British treated the Durand Line as an international boundary until their withdrawal from the Indian subcontinent in 1947. When created in 1947, Pakistan inherited the British policy on the border and considered the issue as resolved. In contrast, since its inception, Afghanistan has consistently questioned the Durand Line’s validity, and since 1947, all Afghan governments unanimously rejected it as a legal border dividing Afghanistan and Pakistan. Consequently, the dispute over the Durand line remains one of the leading causes of bilateral friction between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The main goal of this research is to examine the origin and various political and historical aspects of the Durand Line agreement, particularly from the Afghan perspective. The rationale for this approach is that historically the Durand Line debate on the international stage has not included adequate Afghan assessments. Consequently, British and Pakistani views predominantly shaped knowledge on the subject. By incorporating Afghan insights, this research not only introduces an under-analysed historical perspective but also a new interpretation of the Durand Line based on Afghan, and especially, Pashtun sources. Ultimately this is where the utility of the thesis resides in terms of its contribution to knowledge and understanding.
In this context, the key argument of this research is that clarification of the historical status of the Durand Line is essential for establishing an effective border control regime between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Given this argument, the principal question the study attempts to answer is: what was the original purpose for creating the Durand Line, for example, was it intended to be a temporary political arrangement, a mutually agreed upon transitory sphere of British influence, a geopolitical frontier, a political boundary to control dissent, or an actual international border? To answer this and other relevant questions, the thesis explores a series of historical documents including original letters exchanged between Amir Abdur-Rahman Khan and British Viceroys of India. These sources add not only significant depth to the Durand Line debate but also reveal key historical factors previously not considered by other researchers.
The research has consulted numerous additional sources, including views of the neglected Afghan academic scholars. By uncovering and analysing original historical evidence regarding the Durand Line dispute, the thesis endeavours to contribute towards its historical clarification. Furthermore, it has incorporated interviews from Afghan and Pakistan scholars to demonstrate the current relevance and scale of the dispute. For over a century, knowledge on this historic dispute primarily derived from colonial archives. This research reveals first-hand accounts of the severity of the Durand Line dispute from the perspectives of the people whose lives were, and remain, affected by it. It also provides explanations as to why this conflict has defied resolution and why the proposed suggestions offered in this thesis are worthy of consideration by both Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as the wider international community.
The research has concluded that the original purpose of the Durand Line was to define a zone of British and Afghan spheres of influence. Additionally, it has proved that the line was not to create a permanent international border, unlike the current popular view dominant in Pakistan and the West. In closing, the thesis proposes that for Afghanistan and Pakistan to prosper as neighbours and manage the Durand Line crises, they should change what has not worked for over a century, particularly since 1947, and consult the people whose lives and land they both claim—the trans-Durand tribes. Only an open endorsement of the will of these communities provides a possible way out of this conundrum and contains the promise of an enduring peace in the region.
| Date of Award | 1 Aug 2021 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Michael Rainsborough (Supervisor) & David Martin Jones (Supervisor) |