A better explanation than Churchill's of the Pashtun worldview: We make men!

A Canadian reader writes in to respond to the
quotation I ran from Churchill
about Pashtuns. He argues this is a better one, and I agree. He writes:

--

By Laeeque K. Daneshmend


Best Defense guest columnist

Evelyn Howell writes
this in the preface of his monograph "Mizh,"
first published in 1929. Howell had been the "Resident Political Agent" in
South Waziristan during the mid-1920s:

"I spoke above of political
agents as the custodians of civilization. Against this definition, if he were
to hear it, I am sure that Mehr Dad, or any other intelligent Mahsud malik,
would emphatically protest. Their argument, which is not altogether in the
sub-conscious plane, may be stated thus --

'A civilization has
no other end than to produce a fine type of man. Judged by this standard, the
social system in which the Mahsud has been evolved must be allowed immeasurably
to surpass all others. Therefore let us keep our independence and have none of
your qanun [law (and order)] and your
other institutions which have wrought such havoc in British India, but stick to
our own riwaj [(tribal) custom] and be
men like our fathers before us.'

After prolonged and
intimate dealings with the Mahsuds I am not at all sure that, with
reservations, I do not subscribe to their plea."

Laeeque K. Daneshmend is a professor at Queen's
University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.