From “Unruly” to “Peaceful and Law-Abiding:” Writing Punishment in Afghanistan, 1901–1919

This essay examines the views of British officials and Afghan intellectuals between 1901 and 1919, a period when the Afghan state significantly reduced corporal punishments. British agents and officers criticized these reductions, arguing that the Afghan population was trapped in an earlier stage of history that required harsh physical penalties. Believing in a linear progression of history with Britain at the forefront and Afghanistan bringing up the rear as a “semi-savage” nation, they insisted that physical punishment was essential for molding Afghans into law-abiding citizens. In contrast, Afghan intellectuals praised their government’s reductions in corporal punishment, viewing them as a return to normality after two decades (1880–1901) of unusually harsh penal laws. While Afghan intellectuals also held that their country trailed the West in education, science, and technology, they viewed history as a complex process in which all peoples, including Afghans, could rapidly develop and come to play equally dynamic roles.