The Afghan Conundrum
No physical occupation and military presence of foreign powers and yes no puppet government either. No meddling in our affairs by outside powers through foisted governments and structures. Yes I was dreaming; a dream that has been dreamt thousand times over in the colonised world. The reality took over in Afghanistan before the dream could unfold. Afghan and Afghanistan are nationalist terms and following the logic of nationalism they discount the ethnic, regional and religious composition of the people that make a nation. The Hazara, Baloch, Pashtuns, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks and Tajiks are some of the communities who consider Afghanistan their home. A list of communities cannot describe Afghanistan better. Can a religion define Afghanistan, when various communities individually and collectively hasn't? Afghanistan’s history and recent episodes suggest otherwise. Afghanistan history is no longer its own history but a history of cold war, I suspect it is also true about its future. It be...