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PUSHTUN 625
Idle young men in villages or nomadic winter quarters, who have suppressed
their anxieties during the periods of maximum work, come dangerously close
to in-group violence. The underlying sexual competition of male cousins for
female cousins tends to exacerbate the problem.
Feuding with outsiders, therefore, channels the potential violence away from
the village or camp. Relatively few people are killed in tribal fighting, but the
safety valve aspect cannot be underestimated. Group unity threatened by individual
outbursts of violence is maintained.
The idealized Pushtun male is the warrior-poet, brave in battle and eloquent
mjirgah. Few men fulfill both requirements, but those who do become heroes
of their age, as did a special hero, Khushal Khan Kattak (1613-1690).
The general traits of a Pushtun are suspicion of outsiders modified by a
traditional code of hospitality; indifference to religion unless an outsider challenges
his beliefs; brutality tempered by a love of beauty; industriousness when
work is to be done, but easily swayed to indolence; avarice combined with
compulsive generosity; conservatism in their mountain homeland, but quickly
adaptable to new ideas when removed to cities; rugged individualism limited by
the accepted role of their aristocratic khans; belief in masculine superiority, yet
yielding to woman's persuasiveness; contentment in isolation overlaid by curiosity
about the outside world.
The essence of Pushtun culture is expressed in the Pushtun code called the
Pushtunwali (Pukhtunwali) or nang, Pushtun honor. The code incorporates these
major practices: melmastia (being a genial host; throwing lavish parties); mehrman-palineh
(elaborate hospitality for guests, invited or not); nanawati (the right
of asylum and the obligatory acceptance of a truce offer); badal (the blood feud
or revenge); tureh (literally, sword, therefore, bravery); meraneh (manhood,
chivalry); isteqamat (persistence, constancy); sabat (steadfastness); imamdari
(righteousness); ghayrat (defense of property and honor); mamus (defense of the
honor of one's own women). This is a stringent code, a tough code for tough
men, who of necessity lead tough lives.
The Pakistani Pushtun live mainly in the North-West Frontier Province, Baluchistan
Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (FATAs):
Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Kurram, Orakzai, North Waziristan and South Waziristan;
but different patterns have been emerging in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1973, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto launched an unprecedented socioeconomic
development program in the FATAs, which led to a 30-fold increase
in expenditures in four years. He also reopened several deserted British cantonments,
including Razmak and Wana. Violence erupted but roads continued to
creep into the FATAs.
Many local Pushtun integrated themselves into the economic mainstream
(transport, trade, smuggling) of Pakistan. In addition, thousands of Pushtun left
Pakistan (and Afghanistan) to seize new work opportunities in the oil fields of
the Arab world and Persian Gulf. Along with other Pakistanis, they returned
home with new wealth.