darogha

Between February and April 1895, the British darogha at Jamrud, Gajju Mall, notified his superiors of the attempted passage of 856 camel loads of sugar weighing over 6.5 tons. 58 A pass from the Durrani qafilabashi in Peshawar had to be presented by the Afghan nomad traders to the British darogha at Jamrud for their camels to be received there.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

The qafilabashi arranged for the nomads to transport as much state property as possible, and the qafilabashi passes and receipts they presented at Jamrud were designed to indicate the tax-free status of the nomads 'cargo to the darogha stationed there.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

This policy applied to Abd al-Rahman's personal and Durrani state property, and the actions of the Jamrud darogha in response to the new variables in the trans-border sugar trade were manifestations of a more encompassing colonial policy.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

Although it was not feasible for him to physically inspect each camel load, the darogha was responsible for validating all cargo's legitimate conformity with the requisite criteria for taxless passage through the Khaibar.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

No matter where they paid their fees, the nomads received a pass for their expenditure from the Peshawar qafilabashi that was necessary for them to be formally received by the darogha or British official stationed at Jamrud, the eastern "gate" of the Khaibar Pass. 57 The nomads 'textual, fiscal, and physical engagement of the Peshawar qafilabashi was ostensibly confined to the animals used to convey Durrani state property to Kabul.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

Competing trade documents prompted tangible social interaction between state functionaries such as the Peshawar qafilabashi and the Jamrud darogha, and between each of those officials and the nomads, as documents from 1896 indicate.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

The darogha was responsible for registering these camels as carrying tax-free goods in colonial ledgers containing Khaibar toll-payment records.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

This arrangement resulted in the Jamrud darogha often only inscribing in colonial record books the potential transit taxes due from the nomads for their textually coerced commercial traversing of the Khaibar, and the sugar episode indicates the British did not attempt to collect many of these fees from the nomads.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008

These records refer to the qafilabashi's generalized interference in the darogha's activities by "acting as if the whole place (Jamrud) belonged to him (the qafilabashi)," the qafilabashi causing a night time commotion at Jamrud when the darogha was registering some 700 to 800 camels for the next day's travel, the qafilabashi verbally assaulting Afghan nomads whom he claimed refused to carry Durrani government stores, and his "thrashing the kuchis, imposing double fines and seizing their camels."

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier 2008