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| FCR and administration of FATA
Saqib Saleem |
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| FCR the blackest of the block law, became the foundation of the colonial control system, and was inter-linked to the heart of Pashtunwali, both culturally and legally. It has been alleged that in creating the FCR, the British stole the pashtun idiom and made it appear as if the Pathans were actually governed by their customary law.
The tribal areas did not easily permit the entry of outsiders, whenever an invader entered India from the north; the tribes joined as mercenaries or pillaged the attackers.
Therefore, controlling the borderlands to the north and west of Mughal India or British India became a central concern of the respective rulers in London, Delhi, Kabul or now in Islamabad.
The political map has changed over the centuries, but the problem of controlling the borderlands to the north - west has remained unchanged.
When the British took over the north west frontier from the Sikhs. They physically took possession up to the foothills. No attempt was made to move into the mountains, where the tribes lived.
The five trans - Indus districts from Peshawar to DG Khan together with Hazara to the north, became the frontier line of the new Punjab province.
The administration of the Punjab was basically the same as in other parts of India, except two major differences.
Only the best officers were selected by Lord Dalhousie to administer this new land. Both civilian and a few military service officers were included in what became known as the Punjab Commission.
Later, when Lord Curzon separated the Frontier districts form the Punjab to form NWFP in 1901, the service was called the Political Department, which later became the Political service.
The aim of administration was initially the same as was tried so successfully by the British in the rest of India.
It was to mould a heterogeneously diverse population into the single British Indian nation, and the Pathans of the frontier were expected to bring a society which sought redress through the blood-feud within the smug formalisms of British India.
While the pathans of the plains were dealt with standards of a European type administration.
Those of the hills were left to manage themselves through tribalism. They were administered loosely by the adjoining Deputy Commissioner through a system of middleman. It was a method of indirect control through influential intermediaries.
However, the hill tribes had other ideas. They continued to raid and plunder the plains. Military units of light infantry were developed to assist the Deputy Commissioners in obtaining redressal from the tribes through reprisal raids, blockades and “barampta” of the hostile tribes.
The birth of the Frontier Force Rifles and Guides Cavalry, owe their origin to this phase of development.
Border police called the Frontier Constabulary, screened the border between the districts and hill tribes.
These administrative changes seem to have had little impact on the tribes. The greater the improvements in administrative measures, the worse the situation became.
To control the tribes, the British began a system of obtaining agreements from them, which were negotiated as a trade-off for ending a reprisal operation. The rationale behind the agreement seems to be to create an aura of order and responsibility in the minds of the hill tribes and thereby slowly introduce the seeds of a “British Indian” way of life.
The tribe in return promised good behavior and secured employment and allowances. In other words, a subsidy to collectively maintain the king’s peace by the whole tribe, who were made a party to the agreement.
As we will later see the tribesman’s life based on Pashtunwali was supposedly codified. Whether the FCR was a clever maneuver by the British to enter the tribal way of life and to control it from within, is not at issue.
What is important to note is that the tribesman successfully prevented all future legal attempts at control in the presence of FCR! 103 years later the same law is still in place. He has been so successful, that he has even obtained constitutional prohibition against interference with his way of life.
After various attempts to neuter the tribesman, Britain reached the conclusion that the Pathans would not give up their allegiance to Pashtunwali. Therefore in 1872, they settled by issuing the first version of the FCR, which according to them codified the tribal collective responsibility conundrum into law.
The Frontier Crimes Regulation, 1903.
The law’s main purpose is to ensure the status quo and to retain the hegemony of the elite Maliks or tribal elders under the political agent.
Many have classified this law and its longevity as the result of a clever British manipulation of the concept of jirga and its conversion into a legend as if the tribes always had this system of management throughout history!
Nothing could be further from the truth.
British, to prolong their control over the Fata in the Great Game against Russia. That episode has ended but Pakistan since independence continues to retain instruments of control of that era.
The regressive tribal system may have had its advantages for controlling the tribes. But it scores very low in terms of human rights, development and integration of the tribesmen into Pakistan.
The tragedy is that the Constitution of Pakistan supports the continuation of this repressive and primitive state of affairs through Art 246, 247.
In 60 years there has not been a single empowering enactment in favor of the tribesmen except the adult franchise privilege provided to them in 1997 elections.
As a result about 4 million tribesmen have been fixed into an outmoded and primitive social construction, created during the imperial past. They remain a hostage of the buffer state era when they were supposed to act as the “prickly hedge,” against a Russian advance towards India.
That was the reason that the British left the area and its people under developed.
A developed infrastructure would favor an occupier! It stands to reason that men would be required to defend the land in case of invasion.
If the human capital was developed there was little possibility for an educated person to remain in such a land. |
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