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HISA 1501AFPAK: INSURGENCY & CIVIL SOCIETYSpring 2015 Mr. Barnett
4-6396 Hours: Thurs 2-3 or by appt., in Nau Hall 384
Subject and focus: Two modern nation-states under enormous stress. Assessing society and politics in Afghanistan and Pakistan will sharpen our historical awareness, help us understand the world’s most lasting, urgent, and frustrating confrontation, and polish our writing and debating skills. No acquaintance with South Asia, or even with history, is assumed Readings must be completed before class (see dated headings, below) to maintain an intelligent, active level of discussion and participation.
Texts: The following are available at U.Va. Bookstore:
David Pinault, Notes from the Fortune-telling Parrot: Islam and the Struggle
for Religious Pluralism in Pakistan (London: Equinox, 2008)
Thomas Barfield, Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History (Princeton
University Press, 2010)
Ahmad Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink: the Future of America, Pakistan, and
Afghanistan (New York: Viking, 2012)
Pamela Constable,Playing with Fire: Pakistan at War with Itself(New York:
Random House, 2011)
Farah Ahmedi, The Other Side of the Sky(New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2005)
Ahmad Rashid, Taliban. Buy this on line for c. $2.00--copies are plentiful.
N. K. Print and Design (formerly Brillig Books), 7 Elliewood Ave., have photocopied articles, listed below as PHOCO.
Requirements: No exams. Evaluation will rest on class discussion (40%), plus three closely-edited and polished essays of two, three, and six typed pages, at intervals (60%). No late or handwritten papers will be accepted without a truly superb excuse, such as a life-changing emergency. I will edit and comment intensely, and you will resubmit revised versions of papers two and three. Standard for all papers: one-inch margins, 12-pt. Geneva, Century Gothic (the most ink-stingy), or Times font, double-spaced, succinct title., pp. numbers (pages 2 and up) in upper-right corners. AND proper footnotes!! History footnote style templates (not social science or MLA)will soon be handed out. This course meets the second writing requirement.
14 Jan. Introduction to course, classmates, and instructor
Writing assignment (ungraded): write one typed page on "My Image of Afghanistan and Pakistan." Be as thoughtful--and as candid--as possible. Write essay before starting the readings. Due in my mailbox, 3rd floor copy room, Nau Hall, by noon on Friday 16 Jan. Hard copy, please, so I can mark and return.
21 Jan. Lands, peoples, and histories of Pakistan
Christophe Jaffrelot, “Introduction,” pp. 1-6, and Gilbert Etienne, “The Country and its People,” pp. 151-162, in Christophe Jaffrelot, ed., A History of Pakistan and its Origins (London:Anthem Press, 2004) (PHOCO).There are some errors and typos in this chapter, which I will address.
Constable, “Introduction,” xi-xx.
Anatol Lieven, Pakistan, a Hard Country (New York: Perseus Book Group,
2011), chapter one, "Introduction: Understanding Pakistan," 3-40, and chapter two, "The Struggle for Muslim South Asia," 41-80. (PHOCO)
Instructor’s Mini-lecture: How and Why Pakistan came into existence
4 Feb.Pakistan, 1947-1998
Pierre LaFrance (former French ambassador to Pakistan), “Between Caste
and Tribe,” in Christophe Jaffrelot, ed., A History of Pakistan and
its Origins (London: Anthem, 2004), 191-220. (PHOCO).
Shahid Javed Burki, A Revisionist History of Pakistan (Lahore, 1998), entire
(PHOCO). This is out of print, and was never welcome inPakistan; it
challenges the accepted wisdom about her history. Burki worked in the
World Bank, and has lectured at UVa. Enjoy the LARGE FONT.
In-class DVD: “Pakistan Zindabad [Long Live Pakistan],” directed by Pascale
Lamche, 2007. This will be split between two weeks of classes.
11 Feb.Afghanistan: Subsistence, Persistence, Local Autonomy
Barfield, “Introduction,” “People and Places,’ and “Conquering and Ruling
Premodern Afghanistan,” 1-109
Farah Ahmedi, The Other Side of the Sky, 1-69. This goes quickly but sharply.
18 Feb.Identity, Cooperation, and Resistance, then and now (short chapters)
Imtiaz Gul, The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan's Lawless Frontier (New
York: Viking, 2010), chapter one, "Pakistan's Dangerous Game," 1-10;
chapter two, "A Cauldron of Militancy," 11-20; andchapter three, The
Kaloosha Operation," 21-35. (PHOCO)
Ahmad Rashid, Taliban (Yale U. Press, 2001), “Preface and Acknowledgments,” vii-xii; “Introduction: Afghanistan’s Holy Warriors,” 1-16; ch. 6, “Challenging Islam: The New Style Fundamentalism of the Taliban,” 82- 94; ch. 7, “Secret Society: the Taliban’s Political and Military Organization,” 95-104; ch. 8, “A Vanished Gender: Women, Children
and Taliban Culture,” 105-116; ch. 9, “High on Heroin: Drugs and the
Taliban Economy,” 117-127; ch. 10, “Global Jihad: the Arab Afghans
and Osama Bin Laden,” 128-140. Note: this book has small pages.
Constable, Ch. 1, "The Flood," 3-24; Ch. 2, "Sahibs," 25-49; Ch. 3, "Honor,"
50-72, and Ch. 4, "Hate," 73-91.
Writing assignment #1: Write a pledged, two-page essay on how ethnicity, regionalism, and religious ideology—whether backed by outside forces or not—have challenged both Afghanistan and Pakistan in the past, and/or now undermine their unity and functioning. My mailbox at 4PM on Monday, 23 February. See this syllabus p. 1, above, for standards. (Note: no footnotes needed for this paper.)
25 Feb. Secular ideals, insurgent successes, crippling confrontations
Barfield, “Anglo-Afghan Wars and State Building in Afghanistan,” 110-163.
TBA
In-class video: Duane Baughman and Johnny O’Hara, “Bhutto:
Democracy was Her Greatest Revenge,” 2011, 111 minutes.
4 Mar.Pakistani Hopes, Dreams, and Fearsome Reality
Ahmad Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink,
chapter 1, "Osama and Obama, Legacy and Inheritance, 1-22;
chapter 2, "Pakistan in Crisis," 23-45;
chapter 3, "Pakistan: Who Betrayed Whom?" 46-67
chapter 4, "Afghanistan: First Surge and the Failure of Elections," 68-89.
11 Mar.Spring break
18 Mar. "War on Terror, Inc. " -- Allies and Adversaries
Rashid, chapter 7, "A Sliver of Hope: Counterinsurgency in Swat," 137-159;
chapter 8, "Pakistan: Broken Relations, Crimes, and Misdemeanors,"
160-186.
Barfield, ch. 4, “Afghanistan in the 20th Century: State and Society in Conflict,”
164-271.
In-class video, “The Fixer: Afghanistan Behind the Scenes,” Directed by Aaron
Rocket, 2008. 40 minutes.
25 Mar.Islamism--or is it Pashtun nationalism?--resurrected
Barfield, ch. 5, “Afghanistan Enters the Twenty-first Century,” 272-337.
Rashid, chapter 5, "Afghanistan: Political and Military Fault Lines," 90-112
chapter 6 "Afghanistan: Talking to the Taliban," 113-136
Writing assignment #2: Three typed, edited pages (format described above). Choose one major issue covered in the readings and discussions, and assess it in its historical context. If it is a seemingly intractible problem, suggest a rational but culturally sensitive solution for it. Hard copy due in my 3rd floor Nau Hall mailbox at noon Monday, 30 March. I will edit and return in class on 1 April for your revisions; resubmit in my mailbox,
clipped (not stapled) to the penultimate draft on Friday, 3 April, at noon.
1 Apr. Everyday Islam vs. fundamentalist Islam: the world-wide cosmic culture war between cosmopolitan outlooks and Salafi utopianism
RB Mini-Lecture: What is everyday Islam, mostly known as Sufism? Why is it important in Pakistani and Afghan culture, politics and economy? Why is it important to Americans and the rest of the world? How is it different from fundamentalist Islam?
David Pinault, Notes from the Fortune-Telling Parrot: Islam and the Struggle
for Religious Pluralism in Pakistan (London: Equinox, 2008), “Introduction: Pluralism and Religious Identity in Pakistan,” ix-xii;
ch. 1, “My Fortune-Telling Parrot Triggers Trouble in Lahore: Street
Rituals and the Legacy of Religious Pluralism,” 1-10;
ch. 3, "Pakistani Christians and the Prospects for Inter-Religious
Resistance to the Blasphemy Laws," 38-58;
ch. 4, "Ritual and Community Identity: Shia-Sunni Relations in Pakistan,"
59-94;
ch. 7, “Jinns and Sorcery in Lahore: Textual Sorces and Personal Experiences,” 122-150;
ch. 10, “The Politics of Jogging: Women’s Status in Pakistan,” 194-204;
ch. 12, "The Hazards of being a Free-Thinker: Prince Dara Shukoh and the
Prospects of Religious Pluralism in 21st-century Pakistan," 210- 226.
8 Apr.Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the “War on Terror,” updated
Barfield, chapter. 6, “Some Conclusions,” 337-350.
Rashid, chapter 9, "Changing the Narrative--or Preparing for the Worst," 187-
212.
Constable, chapter 10, "Drones," 237-265; chapter 11, "The Murder of
Democracy, 266-288; and "Epilogue," 289-294.
15 Apr. Twenty-first century Insurgency, its Causes, and its Discontents
Constable, chapter 6, "Talibanization," 130-158,
chapter 7, "The Seige," 159-181;
chapter 8, "The Girl from Swat," 182-209,
chapter 9, "Justice," 210-236
22 April Presentation and Discussion of paper topics; one final reading
Farah Ahmedi, The Other Side of the Sky (New York: 2005), 70-249.
Each of you will present a three-minute talk on your final paper topic in class, in order to contextualize new information within the framework of readings we have completed. Take this assignment very seriously, prepare thoroughly, and rehearse your class presentations in order to meet this important time constraint. Individual classmates, assigned in advance for this task, will then respond formally to your talk with a spontaneous, minute-long comment, following which you will take questions from your classmates and instructor. This task also needs to be taken seriously; discussants who merely mutter approval, and do not directly engage the topic or the method or both, will embarrass themselves and waste the class’s time.
Your paper topic is obviously your own choice, but the idea is to build a concept on the basis of what you have already read. In the event you wish to go on line, be advised: Wikipedia may not be used. Unsigned articles on the web, or signed articles whose authors cannot be located in an academic position on the web, may not be used. We do not want to base our knowledge on misinformation fed into the internet, either by someone sitting up all night in his jammies in mommy’s basement, or by someone pacing a cave in Tora Bora.
PENULTIMATE DRAFTS DUE in my mailbox in Nau Hall at noon on Monday, 27 April. You may turn in this draft early, but it must be a polished, reasoned effort. I will respond to these drafts within 48 hours, and give them back in a marked box or envelope outside my office, 384 Nau. They are to be returned to me, clipped (not stapled) to the marked penultimate drafts, as FINAL DRAFTS, at noon on Friday, 1 May. Use the envelope or box outside my office door for delivery.
This is a news photo of the Chief Minister of Baluchistan, showing the public that he means business. Those are Glocks. I’m sure they are loaded, with safeties off.