History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c44.s2.3

v3.c44.s2.3

Weak as the Afghans are for conducting distant or long campaigns on a large or organized scale, they are weaker still in diplomacy and internal administration. An ambitious man among them gathers together a number of families and makes himself chief for the time being; another man does the same thing, and, if more successful in rapine, supplants the former. These ever-forming ever-dissolving groups of families are the only effective forces of an Afghan clan for offence or defence; the nominal chieftain merely governs on the sufferance of his followers. This lack of a common head makes it impossible for an Afghan clan to enter into any treaty obligation for the whole body, even if they knew the sacredness of plighted word,—for they have no machinery for ensuring respect for such undertakings from all their members. The family and not the clan is the true unit of Afghan society.