Tropic of Chaos

by Christian Parenti

  7 Walt W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

  8 Charles Tilly, “War Making and State Making As Organized Crime,” in Bringing the State Back In, ed. Peter Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 169–191.

  9 Tilly, “War Making and State Making,” 170.

  10 Tilly, “War Making and State Making,” 183.

  11 Anthony Giddens, The Nation-State and Violence, vol. 2 of A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987).

  Chapter 9

  1 We were in the little village of Tutu in Sherzad District. Khogyani is made up of a cluster of districts: Bihsud, Khogyani, Sherzad, Shinwar, Bati Kot, Pachir Wa Agam, and, depending on who is explaining the region, parts of Chaparhar and Surkh Rod.

  2 Matthew Savage et al., “Socio-Economic Impacts of Climate Change in Afghanistan,” Department of International Development and Stockholm Environment Institute DFID CNTR 08 8507, executive summary, 2.

  3 “Floods in Pakistan” (publication of the Humanitarian Communication Group, United Nations, October 4, 2010).

  4 Tage R. Sivall, “Synoptic-Climatological Study of the Asian Summer Monsoon in Afghanistan,” Geograf iska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography 59, no. 1/2 (1977): 67–87; chart on 76.

  5 Savage et al., “Socio-Economic Impacts of Climate Change in Afghanistan,” 5.

  6 Raja Anwar, The Tragedy of Afghanistan (London: Verso, 1988), 69.

  7 Louis Dupree, Afghanistan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

  8 James P. Sterba, “Starving Afghan Children Await Death Along Roads,” New York Times, June 16, 1972, 1; Sterba e-mail to author, April 9, 2009.

  9 Henry Kamm, “Afghans Striving to Aid Famine Areas,” New York Times, November 19, 1972, 28.

  10 “Upheaval in Kabul,” New York Times, July 20, 1973, 30.

  11 “Afghan Parliament, in Session for a Year, Has Voted No Legislation,” New York Times, November 22, 1970.

  12 James P. Sterba, “Afghans Begin Inquiry on Distribution of Food for Famine Relief,” New York Times, July 11, 1972, 6.

  13 “Leftist Protest Mars Agnew’s Arrival in Kabul: Students in Afghan Capital Fail to Halt Motorcade Crowds Welcome Visitor,” New York Times, January 7, 1970.

  14 An Afghan Village, produced by Norman Miller with the co-operation of Toryali Shafaq Afghan Films and the Government of Afghanistan, 1974.

  15 “Afghan King Overthrown: A Republic Is Proclaimed,” New York Times, July 18, 1973.

  16 Kamm, “Afghans Striving to Aid Famine Areas.”

  17 “Afghanistan Coup Topples Monarchy,” MERIP Reports, no. 19 (August 1973): 18.

  18 “Afghans Seem Happy That King Is Gone,” New York Times, July 24, 1973.

  19 Amaury de Riencourt, “India and Pakistan in the Shadow of Afghanistan,” Foreign Affairs 61, no. 2 (winter 1982): 416–437.

  20 Anwar, The Tragedy of Afghanistan, 78–81.

  21 The story of Murtaza Bhutto is laid out in historical and personal detail in Raja Anwar, The Terrorist Prince: The Life and Death of Murtaza Bhutto (Verso: London, 1997), and also in Fatima Bhutto’s Songs of Blood and Sword (New York: Nation Books, 2010).

  22 S. R. Sonyel, “Enver Pasha and the Basmaji Movement in Central Asia,” Middle Eastern Studies 26, no. 1 (January 1990): 52–64; Martha B. Olcott, “The Basmachi or Freemen’s Revolt in Turkestan, 1918–24,” Soviet Studies 33, no. 3 (July 1981): 352–369 ; William S. Ritter, “The Final Phase in the Liquidation of Anti-Soviet Resistance in Tadzhikistan: Ibrahim Bek and the Basmachi, 1924–31,” Soviet Studies 37, no. 4 (October 1985): 484–493.

  23 For more on this history, see Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (New York: Penguin, 2004).

  24 Savage et al., “Socio-Economic Impacts of Climate Change in Afghanistan,” 5.

  25 Matthew King and Benjamin Sturtewagen, Making the Most of Afghanistan’s River Basins: Opportunities for Regional Cooperation (New York: East West Institute, 2010), 17.

  26 Savage et al., “Socio-Economic Impacts of Climate Change in Afghanistan,” 21.

  27 Emma Graham-Harrison and Sue Pleming, “Spectre of Afghan Drought Brings Hunger, Poppy Fears,” Reuters, January 14, 2010.

  28 “Floods Destroy 3,000 Houses in Takhar Abdul Matin Sarfaraz,” Pajhwok Afghan News, May 7, 2010; “Floods Inflict Heavy Damage on Four Districts,” Pajhwok Afghan News, May 9, 2010.

  29 Steff Gaulter, “Flood of Misery: Pakistan’s Uneasy Relationship,” Al Jazeeria.net, August 9, 2010.

  30 Graham-Harrison and Pleming, “Spectre of Afghan Drought”; Sediqullah Bader, “Afghanistan: Drought, Poppy Profits Cause Wheat Shortage,” Inter Press Service, August 7, 2006.

  31 Graham-Harrison and Pleming, “Spectre of Afghan Drought.”

  32 Quoted in Johann Hari, “Legalize It; Why Destroy Poppies and Afghan Farmers When the World Needs Legal Opiates?” Los Angeles Times, November 6, 2006.

  33 Ahmed Rashid, Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (New York: Viking, 2008), 401.

  34 Michael Renner, “Water Challenges in Central-South Asia,” Noref Policy Brief No. 4 (Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre, December 2009).

  Chapter 10

  1 Quoted in Timur Toktonaliev and Izomiddin Ahmedjanov, “Why Anger Finally Boiled Over in Kyrgyzstan,” Bradenton Herald (Florida), April 20, 2010.

  2 Luke Harding, “Kyrgyzstan Opposition Seizes Power After Day of Protests,” Guardian, April 9, 2010. Numerous reports noted the utility price hikes, but few explored their history and causes. See Michael Schwritz, “Kyrgyzstan, Facing Continuing Violence, Reaches Out to Russia for Help,” New York Times, June 13, 2010; see also “Kyrgyzstan: A Hollow Regime Collapses,” Asia Briefing No. 102, International Crisis Group, April 27, 2010, www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/central-asia/kyrgyzstan/B102-kyrgyzstan-a-hollow-regime-collapses.aspx.

  3 Michael Schwirtz, “Fierce Fighting in Kyrgyzstan Poses Challenge to Government,” New York Times, June 12, 2010.

  4 “Kyrgyz Govt Calls for Increasing Utilities Prices,” Russia & CIS Business and Financial Daily (newswire), April 2, 2008.

  5 Andrew E. Kramer, “Government Buildings Retaken in Kyrgyzstan,” New York Times, May 14, 2010; “Uzbekistan: Concern at Ethnic Trouble in Kyrgyzstan,” Institute for War and Peace Reporting, May 25, 2010, http://iwpr.net/report-news/uzbekistan-concern-ethnic-trouble-kyrgyzstan; Jonibek Kadamjayov, “Fergana Valley: Relations Cooling, Uzbek-Kyrgyz Border Growing Increasingly Violent,” EurasiaNet.org, March 9, 2010, www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/eav030910a.shtml.

  6 Luke Harding, “Kyrgyzstan Calls for Russian Help to End Ethnic Riots,” Guardian (UK), June 12, 2010.

  7 “Where Is the Justice? Interethnic Violence in Southern Kyrgyzstan and Its Aftermath,” Human Right Watch, August 16, 2010, www.hrw.org/en/reports/2010/08/16/where-justice-0.

  8 Kramer, “Government Buildings Retaken in Kyrgyzstan”; “Uzbekistan: Concern at Ethnic Trouble in Kyrgyzstan.”

  9 “Electricity Cut at Night in Kyrgyzstan for Six Months: Minister,” Agence France-Presse, April 14, 2008; “Bakiyev Calls for an End to Rolling Blackouts in Kyrgyzstan,” Central Asia General Newswire/Interfax, January 12, 2010.

  10 Peter Leonard, “Uzbeks Rebut Critics of Pullout from Power Grid,” Associated Press, December 3, 2009.

  11 Gulnara Mambetalieva, “Energy Fears As Kyrgyz Winter Approaches: Threat of More Blackouts Despite Efforts to Hoard Water for Hydropower Ahead of Cold Season,” RCA Issue 557, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, December 3, 2008, http://iwpr.net/report-news/energy-fears-kyrgyz-winter-approaches.

  12 Mambetalieva, “Energy Fears.”

  13 Quoted in Mambetalieva, “Energy Fears.”

  14 Quoted in Mambetal
ieva, “Energy Fears.”

  15 “Kyrgyz Protest Electricity Price Hike,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, February 25, 2010, www.rferl.org/content/Kyrgyz_Protest_Electricity_Price_Hike_/1968192.html.

  16 “Bishkek Mayor Believes Rise of Electricity, Heating Tariffs to Bring Poor Population to Abject Poverty,” AKIpress News Agency, November 13, 2009.

  17 Ahmed Rashid, “The Fires of Faith in Central Asia,” World Policy Journal 18, no. 1 (spring 2001): 45–55.

  18 Martin C. Spechler, “The Economies of Central Asia: A Survey,” Comparative Economic Studies 50, no. 1 (March 1, 2008): 30–50.

  19 Ahmed Rashid, “The New Struggle in Central Asia: A Primer for the Baffled,” World Policy Journal 17, no. 4 (winter 2000–2001): 33–45: 42.

  20 “Millions of People in Central Asia Live Below the Poverty Line,” Times of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan), August 10, 2010.

  21 Spechler, “The Economies of Central Asia.”

  22 Gareth Evans, “Force Is Not the Way to Meet Central Asia’s Islamist Threat,” International Herald Tribune, March 10, 2001.

  23 S. R. Sonyel, “Enver Pasha and the Basmaji Movement in Central Asia,” Middle Eastern Studies 26, no. 1 (January 1990): 52–64; Martha B. Olcott, “The Basmachi or Freemen’s Revolt in Turkestan, 1918–24,” Soviet Studies 33, no. 3 (July 1981): 352–369 ; William S. Ritter, “The Final Phase in the Liquidation of Anti-Soviet Resistance in Tadzhikistan: Ibrahim Bek and the Basmachi, 1924–31,” Soviet Studies 37, no. 4 (October 1985): 484–493; Louis Dupree, Afghanistan (New York: Oxford, 2002).

  24 Ahmed Rashid, Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia (New York: Penguin, 2002), 44.

  25 Rashid, Jihad, 96.

  26 “KGB Chief Visits Soviet Border Areas Attacked by Afghan Rebels,” Associated Press, April 30, 1987.

  27 “Pakistan’s ‘Fanatical’ Uzbek Militants,” BBC News, October 29, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8331860.stm.

  28 “ Volume of Water in Toktogul Exceeds 19.472 Billion Cubic Meters,” zprtssrg.com, August 2, 2010.

  Chapter 11

  1 Stephan Faris, “The Last Straw,” Foreign Policy (July 1, 2009).

  2 Phillips Talbot, “Kashmir and Hyderabad,” World Politics 1, no. 3 (April 1949): 321–332: 323.

  3 Talbot, “Kashmir and Hyderabad,” 327. Both parties were said to have secretly accepted an agreement to fix the Pakistan-Indian border along the Line of Control in 1971. But when Pakistan finally won the release of its ninety thousand prisoners of war captured in East Pakistan and Bangladesh, it reneged.

  4 Alice Thorner, “The Kashmir Conflict,” Middle East Journal 3, no. 1 (January 1949): 17–30: 18.

  5 Thorner, “The Kashmir Conflict,” 19.

  6 Thorner, “The Kashmir Conflict,” 25.

  7 Thorner, “The Kashmir Conflict,” 25.

  8 Robert Trumblull, “Use of Regulars Laid to Pakistan,” New York Times, July 18, 1948.

  9 Quoted in Undala Z. Alam, “Questioning the Water Wars Rationale: A Case Study of the Indus Waters Treaty,” The Geographical Journal 168, no. 4 (December 2002): 341–353.

  10 Sumit Ganguly, Conflict Unending: India-Pakistan Tensions Since 1947 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002); J. V. Deshpande, “Talking with Pakistan,” Economic and Political Weekly 36, no. 16 (April 21–27, 2001): 1303–1306.

  11 Alam, “Questioning the Water Wars Rationale.”

  12 Alam, “Questioning the Water Wars Rationale.”

  13 Alam, “Questioning the Water Wars Rationale.”

  14 Alam, “Questioning the Water Wars Rationale.”

  15 From June to mid-August 2010, fifty-seven protesters had been killed. Aijaz Hussain, “Officer Lauded in Indian Kashmir for Hurling Shoe,” Associated Press, August 16, 2010; Tariq Ali, “Not Crushed, Merely Ignored,” London Review of Books 32, no. 14 (July 22, 2010).

  16 Jessica Stern, “Pakistan’s Jihad Culture,” Foreign Affairs 79, no. 6 (November–December 2000): 115–126: 117.

  17 Stern, “Pakistan’s Jihad Culture,” 118.

  18 Ben Arnoldy, “The Other Kashmir Problem: India and Pakistan Tussle over Water,” Christian Science Monitor, August 11, 2010.

  19 Shripad Dharmadhikary, “Mountains of Concrete: Dam Building in the Himalayas,” Table 3, International Rivers Network, December 2008, www.internationalrivers.org/files/IR_Himalayas.pdf.

  20 “India Constructing 52 Dams on Pak Water,” The Nation, April 9, 2010.

  21 Andrew Buncombe and Omar Waraich, “India Is Stealing Water of Life, Says Pakistan,” The Independent (UK), March 26, 2009.

  22 Athar Parvaiz, “Indus Water Treaty Agitates Kashmiris,” Inter Press Service, October 15, 2008.

  23 Ifrah Kazmi and Maria Fatima, “ Water—Save the Last Drop!” Business Recorder, May 29, 2010.

  24 Manipadma Jena, “Not a Single Drop to Drink,” The Telegraph (Kolkata, India), May 6, 2010.

  25 Karin Brulliard, “Rhetoric Heated in Water Dispute Between India, Pakistan,” Washington Post, May 28, 2010.

  26 M. Zulqernain, “Pak Must Keep Option of Force over Water Row with India: JuD,” Press Trust of India, May 10, 2010.

  27 “Pak Radical Outfit Issues Warning to India over Water Dispute,” Press Trust of India, May 30, 2010.

  28 Ahmed Rashid, Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (New York: Viking, 2008), 221.

  29 Christian Parenti, “Afghanistan: The Other War,” The Nation, March 27, 2006.

  30 Parenti, “Afghanistan”; see also the documentary Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi, directed by Ian Olds (HBO, 2009).

  31 Matt Waldman, “The Sun in the Sky: The Relationship Between Pakistan’s ISI and Afghan Insurgents” (Discussion Paper 18, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, June 2010), 1; also see Declan Walsh, “Clandestine Aid for Taliban Bears Pakistan’s Fingerprints,” Guardian, July 5, 2010.

  32 Dennis C. Blair, “Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community” (testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, February 2, 2010).

  33 “U.S. Seeks to Balance India’s Afghanistan Stake,” Reuters, May 31, 2010; Abdul Waheed Wafa and Alan Cowell, “Bomber Strikes Afghan Capital; At Least 41 Die,” New York Times, July 8, 2008; Anand Gopal, “Indian Embassy in Kabul Is Bombed,” Wall Street Journal, October 9, 2009; Aman Sharma, “Indians Easy Target in Kabul,” Mail Today (India), February 28, 2010.

  Chapter 12

  1 R. D. Oldham, “The Evolution of Indian Geography,” The Geographical Journal 3, no. 3 (March 1894): 169–192: 180.

  2 The Western press has announced the decline of the Maoists ever since the date of their birth. For example, see Kasturi Rangan, “Maoist Movement Declining in India,” New York Times, August 5, 1972. Then, three years later the same author in the same paper reported, “Maoist extremists in India, after being quiet for nearly 3 years, have become active again.” Kasturi Rangan, “Maoists Resume Violence in India,” New York Times, June 9, 1975.

  3 See Figure 2.5 in Main Report, vol. 1 of Drought in Andhra Pradesh: Long-Term Impacts and Adaptation Strategies, Final Report (Washington, DC: South Asia Environment and Social Development Department, World Bank, September 2005), 28.

  4 “Hyderabad: Silver Jubilee Durbar,” Time, February 22, 1937, www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770599,00.html. Despite the nizam’s decadence, he occasionally showed concern for public welfare. When adivasis rebelled in the 1930s, he sent out a German anthropologist, Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, to better understand the tribal people’s grievances. Haimendorf came back recommending investment in education and health care as a means to counteract the social and economic exclusion of the tribals. To his credit, the nizam followed the suggestions, and the Gond people of Adilabad District saw conditions improve considerably. To this day the Gonds remember Haimendorf fondly, even as one of their own.

  5 N. S. Jodha, “Role of Credit in Far
mers’ Adjustment Against Risk in Arid and Semi-Arid Tropical Areas of India,” Economic and Political Weekly 16, no. 42/43 (October 17–24, 1981): 1696–1709; J. G. Ryan et al., “Socio-Economic Aspects of Agricultural Development in the Semi-Arid Tropics” (paper presented at the International Workshop on Farming Systems, ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India, November 18–21, 1974).

  6 Edward Duyker, Tribal Guerrillas: The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).

  7 “Chaos in West Bengal,” New York Times, March 18, 1970. On the reluctance of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) to actually rule, see “The Reluctant Rulers,” Economic and Political Weekly 2, no. 10 (March 11, 1967): 510–511. Williams Borders, “Once-Volatile Indian State Peaceful Under Red Rule,” New York Times, January 28, 1978; Kasturi Rangan, “Five-Party Marxist Coalition Takes Over West Bengal,” New York Times, June 22, 1977.

  8 Joseph Lelyveld, “Left Communists in West Bengal Are Deeply Split,” New York Times, July 5, 1967. Naxalite methods were a hybrid of modern ideological zeal and the bloody-minded pragmatism of West Bengal social banditry: Pulan Devi plus The Little Red Book. To their credit, the Naxalites also organized nonviolent mass movements that used direct actions to occupy land, confront landlords, and set up road blockades to demand justice, an end to repression, and economic concessions from the state.Throughout India, Marxist parties have played crucial roles in coalition governments or even dominated them. Very often their progressive reforms have led to real development. Not only were these reforms progressive in content, but they were often radical in form: policy was not just delivered from the top down, but grassroots mobilization was also facilitated. Under the first United Front government in West Bengal in the early 1970s, four Marxist parties held the balance of power; the same rough coalition was later elected as the Left Front. In those heady days, Jyoti Basu, of the Communist Party (Marxist), was given the Home Ministry portfolio and thus had control of the state police. He used these forces to help peasants facilitate land seizures and played referee during the sometimes violent confrontations with the employer class. But the developmentalist thrust of most Indian communists was never enough for the Naxalite fanatics. In their eyes the mainstream communist parties were a Soviet-style capitulation to imperialism. The Naxals preferred the righteous path of Chairman Mao. In those days, West Bengal was a crazy Red maelstrom of center-left versus left, versus ultraleft, versus underground left.