Social class and it’s interplay with other social factors in Swat Taliban movement: An anthropological inquiry

Abstract

The crisis that emerged in Swat, Pakistan in 2007 is the critical area of analysis in the current article. The Swat crisis has been observed by different scholars, journalists, and academics in their research, both foreigners and local. However, the basic understanding of the issue remained ahead of the actual socio-cultural context of the area. The form of militant groups of Swat and other Pukhtun areas are somehow diverse. Its study needs the socio-cultural, economic and political context in relation to the region. The primary concern of this current research is to observe the claim of class factor, which some writers viewed as the holistic cause of militancy in Swat. They evaluated the entire situation within the framework of Marxist philosophy. However, on the contrary, the facts do not support this viewpoint. The Taliban in Swat never motivated people on the basis of Marxist progressive philosophy, but instigated them according to the gamut of their interpretations of religion as well as including Pukhtun cultural practice of retaliation.