Jihad on the Frontier: A History of Religious Revolt on the North-West Frontier, 1800-1947

Jihad is an idea and phenomenon receiving increasing popular, policy and scholarly attentions. The current violence in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, encompassing much of its borderlands with Afghanistan, is often depicted as a jihad, with many linking it to a larger global 'war on terror'. Yet religious, or rather rhetorically religious violence has a long history on the Frontier. From at least the advent of British administration in the region in the nineteenth century, there have been repeated jihads against the intrusions of colonial authority, often in the same places with a similar cast of characters. But violence on the Frontier is more than some simplistic outbreak of religious bigotism. This article explores the issues raised by the repeated episodes of jihad on the Frontier and the literature addressing its occurrence.