AFGHANISTAN: ETHNIC DIVERSITY AND DISSIDENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81B00401R000600110002-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2005
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 1, 1980
• Content Type: RP

National _., Confidential
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Assessment
Center
Afghanistan:
Ethnic Diversity
and Dissidence
Confidential
GC 80-10025
March 1980
Copy
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Foreign
Assessment
Center
Afghanistan:
Ethnic Diversity
X1
and Dissidence
A Research Paper
Research for this report was completed
on 1 May 1979.
* This paper was originally published in June
1979. Because of the Soviet invasion on 27 December
and heightened interest in Afghanistan, this report
is being reprinted. It reflects new developments but
does not change the basic judgments presented. (uJ
This paper was coordinated with the Office of
Political Analysis. (u)
Confidential
cc aaroo2s
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Afghanistan:
Ethnic Diversity
and Dissidence
Summary The creation of a sense of national unity among the diverse peoples of
Afghanistan has long been a challenging problem to its rulers. Afghanistan
is a tribal society, composed of some 20 ethnic groups of widely varying
backgrounds and cultures. About the only cohesive elements among these
groups are their observance of Islamic law, martial tradition, and a distrust
of government.
Pashtuns make up about one-half of Afghanistan's population. They are not
only the largest ethnic group but also have traditionally wielded the greatest
political power. This historic Pashtun preeminence is in turn a divisive issue
between them and most of the other major Afghan ethnic groups. Other
deep-seated animosities exist among the tribal groups, including the
intratribal split between Sunni and Shia Islamic sects. These factors have
worked together to thwart creation of a unified front or strategy against
central authority.
The present tribal insurgency began in 1978 with the installation of the pro-
Soviet Taraki regime. Afghanistan's devoutly Muslim and fiercely indepen-
dent tribal population believed that the new government was Communist,
atheist, and pro-Soviet. Reform measures brashly introduced by the
government bolstered this belief and were viewed as attempts to displace the
traditional social structure based on Islam and allegiance to family, clan,
and tribe. The recent visible presence of Soviet troops in Afghanistan has
fulfilled the worst fears of the population and has added additional fuel to
the fires of insurgency.
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BA Ouahanhe
Afghanistan
International boundary
Province boundary
? National capital
o Province capital
Railroad
Road
---- Track or trail
Confidential iv
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Afghanistan:
Ethnic Diversity
and Dissidence0
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late December
1979 climaxed nearly two years of gradually increased
Soviet support and presence in the country. The
installation of a Marxist, pro-Soviet regime following
the April 1978 revolution and the introduction of
unpopular social policies ignited atribal-based insur-
gency that has continued and intensified. A better
understanding of the underlying causes of this insur-
gency is provided through an examination of the ethnic
background and culture of the Afghan peoples and
their attitudes toward each other and toward central
government control generally.
By size, the major groups include the Pashtun, Tajik,
Uzbek, and Hazara; other important groups include
the Chahar Aimak, Turkmen, Nuristani, Baluchi, and
Brahui.z Of the total estimated population of
15 million, about 50 percent are Pashtun and nearly
30 percent are Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazara. Total
population estimates, however, are confused by the
kuchis, or Afghan nomads, who number from 2 to 4
million and are members of several ethnic groups.
Many of the tribal people have ethnic ties with peoples
inhabiting adjacent areas of the USSR, Iran, and
Pakistan.
Setting
Afghanistan, slightly larger than the state of Texas, is
the meeting place of diverse physical and cultural
worlds. Physically, Afghanistan is an extension of the
high land mass known as the Iranian Plateau; nearly
two-thirds of the country consists of mountains.
In central and eastern Afghanistan the mountains-
dominated by the Hindu Kush-present a formidable
physical barrier and provide a favorable milieu for
tribal separatism. To the north, west, and southwest,
however, Afghanistan merges with the high plains and
plateaus of central and south Asia. Across this region
of transit has come a succession of peoples-Aryans,
Medes, Persians, Greeks, Turks, and Mongols-bent
on trade and conquest; others have climbed the passes
and crossed the plateaus bearing the message of
Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and Islam. It is
from this mixture of peoples and cultures that the
modern state of Afghanistan has been emerging since
the 18th century.
Each of the approximately 20 ethnic groups in
Afghanistan has certain distinctive physical character-
istics, differing social institutions, and varying sets of
values.' The origins and kinships among the many
groups are a matter of scholarly controversy because of
the lack of indigenous written records, fragmentary
historic sources, and scanty archaeological, anthropo-
metric, and serological evidence.
' For detailed discussion of selected ethnic groups, see pp. 5 and 6.
Despite considerable diversity, there are common ties
of language and religion that provide some element of
cohesiveness among the groups. The common language
is Dari, the Afghan form of Persian (Farsi), which is
used by all groups but is not the first language of any
group. Nearly all of the ethnic groups are Muslim and
about 80 percent are of the Sunni sect, while the
remainder are adherents of the Shia sect. Although the
two sects are contentious, the division has not resulted
in the bloody confrontations that have occurred in
other Muslim lands.
Ethnic Attitudes and Rivalries
Tribes and tribalism remain important in Afghanistan,
particularly among the Pashtun, whose Durrani tribal
families have ruled the country since its unification by
one of them in the 18th century. The Pashtun are
strong in number; some of their tribes, such as the
Durrani, Ghilzai, and Yuzufazai, individually have at
least a million members. The degree of tribal loyalty,
however, varies considerably among the Pashtun, and
tribal feuds and rivalries at times have been divisive
forces in the country. The Durrani, though divided into
numerous subtribes or clans and widely scattered,
usually have rallied to a common cause when the need
arose.
'There is no standard or agreed spelling of the names of the ethnic
groups in Afghanistan. In the absence of an official census list, the
names used here are those that appear most consistently in
authoritative sources. For example, alternate names for Pashtun
include Pushtun (name used in Pakistan) and Pathan (the Indian
corruption of Pashtun); Uzbeg or Uzbak for Uzbek; Turkoman for
Turkmen; and Chahar Aimak, simply Aimak.
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Most of the major ethnic groups believe that Afghani-
stan is run by the Pashtuns for the Pashtuns. What
prevails, in their view, is a form of internal colonialism.
Pashtuns typically govern most provinces, even those
where another ethnic group is in the majority, and hold
most administrative posts. The Pashtuns' superior
position is reflected in the growth and modernization of
Kabul, which provincial Uzbeks and Hazaras view as
burgeoning at their expense. Although improvements
in health facilities, roads, airfields, and agriculture
have been made in other provinces, past government
efforts have been concentrated in Pashtun-
administered or Pashtun-settled provinces.
Antigovernment, anti-Pashtun alienation is particu-
larly strong among the Uzbeks, described as a sophisti-
catedand capable people who provide most of the
country's professional men and entrepreneurs.
A Uzbek often has little confidence, or feels he has no
real stake, in the economy and prefers to stash his
wealth in the equivalent of a sock under the mattress.
On the other hand, the Uzbeks have a reputation
among the Pashtuns for indolence and procrastination,
though there has been little if any active discrimination
or hostility between them.
The Hazaras generally have preferred to keep their
central mountain homeland where they are literally
almost inaccessible to all forms of government
authority-from tax collection to police. In recent
years, however, a few thousand have left their moun-
tains as Army recruits or to settle in cities where most
of them are employed as manual laborers and servants.
Traditional hostility toward them because of their
adherence to the Shia sect of Islam, combined with
their Mongoloid features and their indifference to
Kabul, has contributed to their inferior social and
economic status.
Of the four major ethnic groups, the Tajiks are the
least likely to oppose acts of Pashtun colonialism. They
are described as a peaceful people-traditionally
poets, dreamers, and intellectuals-who are unasser-
tive in their pride of being Tajik. The Tajiks have lived
in harmony with the Pashtuns, and a number of them
have held high government posts. Neither inter-
marriage nor social intercourse between the two
peoples is common, however.
The kuchis include members from nearly every ethnic
group in the country and possibly represent one-fourth
of the total population. The kuchi regards his way of
life as the most dignified and distrusts variation and
change. For many years the kuchis have taken their
caravans to Pakistan and India to trade wool and
animal products for goods they could in turn trade to
farming communities in Afghanistan; the poorer
nomads go to Pakistan during the winter months to sell
their labor. The periodic closing of the Afghan-
Pakistani border have caused all of them hardship.
Government attempts to settle the kuchis permanently
have met with little success because they are highly
suspicious of any attempt to restrict their movements
or record their numbers, and feel little if any loyalty to
the abstract concept of the state or the Kabul-centered
government.
Resistance to the Regimes
Opposition and resistance to the pro-Soviet Takari and
Amin regimes were increasing among the peoples of
Afghanistan prior to the Soviet invasion. The
heavyhanded suppression of the mullahs and other
government actions that impinge on the Islamic way of
life stirred hostility in the villages and rural areas
where 85 percent of the population lives. Resentment
also grew among the less conservative urbanites-even
among some of those loyal to the government-
because they felt the regimes challenged basic Islamic
institutions that they at least respect.
The pro-Soviet stance of the regimes coupled with the
presence of Soviet advisers aroused historical feelings
of mistrust of Russians. To an Afghan, the policies
followed were tantamount to treason and a threat to his
fiercely held independence. These feelings have inten-
sified with the visible presence of large numbers of
Soviet troops in the country and the installation of a
puppet regime headed by Babrak Karmal.
The programs of the Taraki-Amin regimes for social
and land reform were another cause of opposition.
Most of the resistance was in response to the govern-
ment's use of force in its attempt to bring about reform
in one year that other Afghan governments failed to do
in 70 years. The stubbornness of the people was brashly
combated by cadres who were as fanatical in their
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efforts to bring change as the people were in their
resistance to that change. But, more importantly, the
programs were regarded as attempts to displace tribal
structure and family ties and were viewed as violations
of Islamic precepts of authority and purdah.'
In implementing land reform, government officials
found recipients reluctant to accept land because of
loyalty to tribal leaders or fear of reprisals if the
regime was overthrown. Little or no compensation was
paid for land confiscated by the government, contrary
to Islamic law, and most of the best land apparently
was not redistributed. Moreover, the Taraki govern-
ment did not offer alternatives when it did away with
the traditional system of credit, whereby farmers
borrowed from moneylenders or landowners against
future crops. Farmers who were given poor land that
lacked adequate water or irrigation and who were
without seed or cash simply abandoned their new
holdings. The program also created hostility between
the landowners and the nomads who lost grazing rights
recognized by the former landowners with whom they
had ethnic and sometimes family ties. Pressure from
their mullahs and fellow tribesmen, together with the
inability to profit from newly acquired land in the short
time since the program was initiated, dissuaded new
landowners from cooperating with the government.
Because only about 10 percent of the people are
literate, an illiteracy eradication program was initiated
for everyone between the ages of 14 and 40. Reaction
to this program was particularly hostile, mainly
because it forced women out of purdah into public life.
Even those tribesmen not opposed to their womenfolk
learning to read and write were incensed at the idea of
having them taught by male teachers. The seculariza-
tion of education in general, the arrest and imprison-
ment of mullahs, and the introduction of a politically
orientated curriculum further aroused the people.
Resistance to these programs not only resulted in the
destruction of government offices and other official
buildings but also in the assassination of government
' The institution of purdah is particularly strict in Afghanistan.
Women must be covered from head to foot in public, and they are
generally confined to the home. Even their contact with male
relatives is limited. Only when they work in the fields, or if they are
nomads or servants, are women freed from some of the constraints of
purdah.
officials, party cadres, teachers, and police sent into
the provinces to implement the programs. Many
Russians-estimates are as high as 300 and include
women and children-were also killed. Violent elimi-
nation of the uninvited has always been the expedient
way of solving local problems in Afghanistan.
The Pashtuns-the ethnic group of Taraki, Amin, and
Karmal-pose the greatest threat to any Soviet-
controlled government in Afghanistan. Their tradi-
tional desire for revenge has grown over the past year
with the purges instituted by the Taraki government;
hardly an extended family has not had at least one
member imprisoned or eliminated. As the principal
landowners in Afghanistan, the Pashtuns also have
opposed land reform programs. They are responsible
for most of the insurgency since April 1978, though old
internal rivalries have prevented much cooperation
among the various tribes. Prior to the Soviet invasion,
the spread of Pashtun guerrilla forces and increased
desertions from the Afghan Army had caused a serious
drain on the regime's resources.
The Soviet invasion and installation of Babrak Karmal
as President of Afghanistan is unlikely to alter the
prospects for prolonged insurgency. Resistance contin-
ues and its basic causes remain. Although the Karmal
regime has sought to broaden its base of support and
has indicated a slowing of radical social programs, a
vast gulf separates the objectives of a Soviet puppet
regime and the tribal traditions and Islamic founda-
tions upon which Afghan society is based.
The People
Major Ethnic Groups. The Pashtuns have been the
dominant people in Afghanistan since its beginning as
a nation in the 18th century. They are concentrated in
the east and south, but in the late 1800s many were
forcibly resettled north of the Hindu Kush. Loyalty to
the clan or tribe varies from group to group but is
usually strong, and all have extreme pride in their
Pashtun identity. The majority of them are farmers,
usually freeholders, and a number are landlords
employing non-Pashtuns as tenants or laborers. Except
for a few tribes which are Shiite, the Pashtuns are
adherents of the Sunni sect of Islam. They are
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Ethnic Groups in Afghanistan
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predominantly light-skinned brunettes, longheaded
with prominent facial features, and of slender build.
Brown eyes predominate but hazel or blue eyes are not
unusual among them. They speak Pashto, an Iranian
variant of Indo-European and related to Persian,
Baluchi, and Kurdish.
The Tajiks are the second largest ethnic group and are
scattered throughout the country, with major concen-
trations in the east and west. They are not considered
to be a distinct group, but consist of several peoples
who share no more than a name, a language (Tajiki, a
Persian dialect), and sedentary living habits. Those in
the west are sometimes called Fairswan and probably
are distantly related to the people of eastern Iran.
Those north of the Hindu Kush are believed to be
descended from ancient Iranians who have mixed with
Turkic peoples. The mountain Tajiks, who have
Mongolian admixture, appear to have been among the
earliest or, according to Soviet ethnologists, the
indigenous inhabitants of the far northeast.
Tajiks are not tribal, but they do have a strong sense of
community loyalty. Most are tenant farmers and
laborers; some engage in trade or handicrafts. They are
not belligerent except for a few groups of mountain
Tajiks who some consider as aggressive as the Pashtun.
Similar to the Pashtun, the Tajiks are adherents of
both the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, but the
majority are Sunni. Scanty anthropometric studies
describe the Tajiks as roundheaded with oval faces and
usually of slender build. They are light-skinned bru-
nettes; occasionally there are individuals with reddish
or yellowish colored hair. Even among the mountain
Tajiks, lightness of skin and hair color can be found
blended with Mongoloid traits.
The Uzbek live north of the Hindu Kush on the plain of
the Amu Darya. Uzbek is a name applied to Turkic
tribesmen who came to Afghanistan in the mid-15th
century. The Uzbek are a mix of Turko-Mongol
peoples who intermingled with descendants of an
ancient Iranian plateau people. Modern Uzbek have
either Mongoloid or Caucasoid features, or a blend of
the two. They tend to be roundheaded, have yellow-
white skin color and broad cheekbones, and occasion-
ally the epicanthic fold. The Uzbek have relinquished
their tribal affiliations and nomadism and are mainly
farmers; however, many are successful merchants and
artisans. Unlike the Pashtun and Tajik, the Uzbek are
adherents of the Sunni sect of Islam and have no Shiite
minority. Their language, Uzbeki, is believed to be a
derivation of a classical Turkic language.
The Hazara homeland, which is called Hazarajat,
consists of the upper Helmand valley area west of
Kabul. Smaller groups are located farther north in
Bamian and in the far northeast in Badakhshan. The
Hazara are believed to be of Turko-Mongol origin.
They possibly are descendants of Mongol soldiers who
intermarried with a mountain Tajik population in the
13th and 14th centuries, although it is mere likely that
their ancestors predate the Mongol conquests.
Whatever their origin, the Hazara culturally resemble
the mountain Tajiks but speak a Persian dialect called
Hazaraghi. Physically, they have coarse black hair,
yellow to yellow-brown skin color, are roundheaded
with broad faces and prominent cheekbones, and have
a high incidence of the epicanthic fold.
Unlike the Tajiks, they are divided into tribes and,
although some are nomadic, the majority are pastoral
farmers. The Hazara are the only major Afghan ethnic
group that adheres to the Shia sect of Islam. Reput-
edly, they are physically strong, enduring, and indus-
trious. They make good soldiers and are regularly
recruited into the Afghan Army.
Other Ethnic Groups. To the north and west.of the
Hazara live the Chahar Aimak ethnic group, which is
divided into four main subdivisions or tribes. The main
group includes small cultural groups of mountain
peoples, about whom little is known. The Chahar
Aimak are generally believed to be of Turko-Mongol
origin, but there is a theory that peoples of Indo-
European origin have been included in this group.
Mongoloid traits, however, are dominant among the
Chahar Aimak population. Many of the Chahar
Aimak are seminomadic and live in yurts or yurtlike
tents; the remainder are farmers. They speak a dialect
of Farsi that contains many Turkic loan words, and
they follow the Sunni sect of Islam.
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The Turkmen, who live mainly in the northwest, are
another Turkic group like the Uzbek. Most authorities
believe the Turkmen descended from the Oghuz Turks
who came to Afghanistan in the 11th century,
although they may have other strains in their ethnic
background. They speak a dialect of the Turkic family
of languages and are adherents of the Sunni Islamic
sect. The Turkmen, unlike the Uzbek, are still pastoral
tribal nomads, and they maintain few contacts with
other Afghans. During the 1920s their numbers
increased when Turkmen entered Afghanistan from
the north as refugees from Soviet collectivism. They
have a distinct economic role as breeders of Karakul
sheep whose pelts-Karakul and astrakhan or Persian
lamb-are a main Afghan export. The Turkmen
women are the dyers and weavers of the deep red
"Bokharan" rug, another leading export.
The nomadic Baluchi speak an Iranian language and
are adherents of the Sunni sect of Islam. They are
found in the sparsely populated southern borderlands
of Afghanistan and are related to the Baluchi who
settled in villages south of Herat during the migration
of the Baluchi eastward from Iran in earlier times.
The Brahui, also located in southern Afghanistan,
include both farmers and nomads who speak a
Dravidian language. They are believed to be descended
from an aboriginal people driven south by the Aryans
and possibly to share a common ancestor with other
dark-skinned, Dravidian-speaking peoples of south
Asia.
The Nuristanis live in the eastern mountains of
Afghanistan. Their origin and kinship are ethnic
mysteries, for they have a range of skin, eye, and hair
coloration that includes a blond strain. At one time
they were considered to be descendants of ancient
Greeks, but it is now thought they maybe related to an
earlier people from central Asia. They are renowned
mountaineers. Subdued by an Afghan ruler in the 19th
century, many were converted to Islam (Sunni sect),
and the name of their country was changed from
Kafiristan (land of infidels) to Nuristan (land of light).
The Nuristanis consist of two main groups subdivided
into a number of tribes. They speak dialects of an Indic
variant of Indo-European that is closely related to
Dardic. Their traditional religious practices-now
largely unobserved~onsist of a combination of
animism and polytheism, featuring ancestor worship,
animal sacrifices, wooden idols, and grave effigies. The
Nuristanis carry on a mixed agricultural and pastoral
economy, farming the lower slopes but perching their
villages high above the valley floor. They prefer the
isolation of their mountains and deeply resent govern-
ment interference.
The Kizilbash, descendants of a Turkish garrison left
in Kabul by a Persian conqueror in the mid-18th
century, are an urban group which adheres to the Shia
sect of Islam. They generally are well educated, and
some hold important government positions or are
traders. Other strictly urban groups include Hindus,
Sikhs, and Jews, who primarily are merchants, traders,
and moneylenders in the towns and cities throughout
Afghanistan. The Kirghiz are a pastoral Mongoloid
people who speak a Turkic dialect, are members of the
Sunni sect of Islam, and inhabit the Wakhan Corridor
area in the far northeastern extension of Afghanistan.
Other minority groups are the Moghuls, who live in the
western and northern parts of the country and claim
descent from Ghengis Khan, and the nomadic "Arabs"
or "Sayyid," who live on the northern plains.
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