Book Reviews / Iran and the Caucasus 13 (2009) 219-224 219
Matthias Weinreich, We Are Here to Stay: Pashtun Migrants in the Northern Areas of Pakistan, photographs by S. Delogu, Islamkundliche Untersu- chungen, Band 285, Herausgegeben von G. Winkelhane, Berlin: “Klaus Schwarz Verlag”, 2009, 120 pp.
M. Weinreich’s study of modern migration processes in what is now called the Northern Areas of Pakistan, comprising the six administrative districts in the high mountain valleys of the Eastern Hindukush (Gilgit, Ghizar, Diamer, Skardu, Ganche and Astor), is based mainly on the author’s field materials, collected between 1993 and 1997 during an ethno-linguistic research project and partly financed by the German Re- search Council (DFG) within the framework of the German-Pakistani project on the Karakoram Culture Area (CAK). The materials include real life-stories recorded from a wide range of local male informants, people of various backgrounds and professions, as well as systematised observations of the social and linguistic situation in the area. For quot- ing extensive statistical and factual data pertaining to the Northern Ar- eas development, and the description of earlier periods in regional his- tory, the author refers to a number of scholarly works, mostly recent publications by German experts in the field (H. Kreutzmann, A. Ditt- mann, M. Sökefeld, E. Bauer, D. Hallberg, K. Decker, and others). As the book title plainly states, the study is confined to the Pashtun migrants community in the region. Consequently, the author dwells on the community’s emergence and expansion in recent decades, its struc- tural changes within historically predetermined patterns, its social, economic, cultural, and linguistic positions among indigenous ethnic groups, and general tendencies in its future existence. Chronologically, the process of Pashto-speakers settling in the Northern Areas is divided into four periods: pre-colonial (until 1892), colonial (1892-1947), post- partition (until 1978), and after the Karakoram Highway opening in 1978. For each of these periods, with the exception of the first less cov- ered by documented material, M. Weinreich considers administrative measures of the regional authorities to integrate the Northern Areas into the wider space of their political dominion as a major incentive for the economic and social rise of the local communities and, concur- rently, the influx of incomers, including Pashtuns, with a range of life- support purposes. After its annexation into the Kashmir principality in 1891-1892, the Northern Areas were, in turn, controlled by Dogra princes, the British colonial administration, and the Pakistani government. As is clearly shown in the book, the Northern Areas development was mostly fos-
Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 DOI: 10.1163/160984909X12476379008485 220 Book Reviews / Iran and the Caucasus 13 (2009) 219-224 tered by the incessant construction and upgrading of the roads and bridges network, such as the launching of the renovated Gilgit-Astor- Burzil Pass route in colonial times, or the Chilas-Babusar Pass, Gilgit- Gupis-Shandur Pass and Indus Valley tracks after Partition (pp. 25, 40- 41). The arrangement of road infrastructure brought about an ad- vancement in other public spheres that favoured the circulation of re- sources and the increase in demand for traders, businessmen, labourers, service workers, state employees, and even farmers. Drawing on his own fieldwork experience and previous research, M. Weinreich con- firms the generally shared opinion that the turning point in the course of these migratory movements, as well as in the overall progression of the Northern Areas, was the building of the modern year-round Karako- ram Highway, which ensured overland connections with China's Xinji- ang province and also the revival of urban centres along its route through the Hindukush mountains. Collecting and analysing data allow the author to state that “Pashtun entrepreneurs were among the first to exploit the commercial opportunities created in the wake of the new infrastructural opening”, and that in the 1980-90s there was “an unpar- alleled rise in new Pathan arrivals” (p. 55). According to their residential status, Pashtun migrants in the North- ern Areas are divided into temporary and permanent settlers. Each group has its own dynamism in growth and employment preferences. M. Weinreich remarks that “by the mid 1990s, seasonal Pashto-speaking migrants had clearly outnumbered their permanent counterparts”, since the reasons for permanent migration had disappeared (pp. 55, 104). As the author states (p. 18), there are two old technical terms in Pashto, which relate, to some extent, to these forms of dwelling: dera “temporary place of residence”, and kor “permanent family household”. It is worth mentioning that in the early Pashto writings of the 17th-18th centuries, these terms are always consciously applied to denote one’s family estate, usually an ancestral domicile (kor), and a living-place out- side one’s property, where one stops for a certain period of time, often for a couple of nights during some business travel or a military cam- paign (dera). If a person en route is accompanied by his family (kor)women and childrenthe latter may change its signifier to kada, which originally means “nomadic family”. Among modern Pashtun mi- grants, the term kor, as we see, still implies a permanent dwelling with family on one’s ancestral property; thus, today’s permanent migration as a social phenomenon should obviously meet both criteria possess- ing private real estate and living with family members.