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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
One must always bemoan the lack of adequate statistics when discussing population problems in Afghanistan.1 Few nations in Asia, however, have adequate data-collecting procedures: only 9 of the 41 Asian nations, encompassing about 8 per cent of Asia's total population, according to a recent UNO survey.
1 Louis, Dupree, ‘Population Review 1970: Afghanistan,’ American Universities Field Staff Reports, South Asia Series, Vol. XV, No. 1, 1971.However, this lack should be at least partly remedied by the current Afghan Demographic Studies project of the Ministry of Planning, Government of Afghanistan, undertaken jointly with the State University of New York (Buffalo) and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The project publishes brief progress reports twice a month in Kabul.Google Scholar
2 For example: Firoozi, F., ‘Iranian Censuses of 1956 and 1966: A Comparative Analysis,’ The Middle East Journal, 24 (2), 220–8, 1970;Google Scholar
Jones, L. W., ‘Rapid Population Growth in Baghdad and Amman,’ The Middle East Journal, 23 (2), 209–15, 1969;Google Scholar
Paul, J. Magnarella, ‘From Villager to Townsman in Turkey,’ The Middle East Journal, 24 (2), 229–40, 1970;Google Scholar
Population Census of Pakistan, 1961 (many volumes have been published), along with Statistical Yearbook and other periodic publications, Central Statistical Office, Government of Pakistan; Report of the Population Growth Estimation Experiment: Description and Some Results for 1962 and 1963, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Karachi, 1968;Google Scholar
Sabzwari, M. A., ‘Urban Population and Growth of Urban Areas in Pakistan,’ Journal of Rural Development and Administration, 4 (1), 27–34,Google Scholar
Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, Peshawar, Pakistan, 1964;Google Scholar
Spencer, R. F. (ed.), and Kasdan, L. (Program Chairman), Migration and Anthropology, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1970 (papers read at the annual meeting of the American Ethnological Society);Google Scholar
Urban-Rural Differences in Southern Asia: Some Aspects and Methods of Analysis, UNESCO Research Centre on Social and Economic Development in Southern Asia, Delhi, 1962.Google Scholar
3 Bruno, A. Schiro, The Statistical System of Afghanistan: A General Overview with Guidelines for Improvement, mimeographed report to the Ministry of Planning, Royal Government of Afghanistan, Kabul, 1970, p. 20.Google Scholar
4 Among them (not all published): Population Census of Greater Kabul (1965); Household Expenditure Survey of Kabul (1968); Lashkargah Household Expenditure Survey (1965); Socio-Economic Surveys of Housing and Living Conditions (1970); Pilot Census of Agriculture (1965); Nation-wide Agricultural Survey (1966–67); Urban Consumer Price Index of the Ministry of Planning (1961–71); Farm Surveys by Faculty of Agriculture with assistance of University of Wyoming Contract Team (several Bulletins and technical Information Reports published). Two American graduate students (Nigel Allan and Chris L. Jung) have recently completed Ph.D. theses on specific topics relating to the rural-urban scene.Google Scholar
5 For a discussion see Dupree, L., ‘Afghanistan 1968: Part I: Government and Bureaucracy,’ American Universities Field Staff Reports, South Asia Series, Vol. 12, No. 4, 1968.Google Scholar
6 Dupree, L., ‘The Changing Character of South-central Afghanistan Villages,’ Human Organization, 14 (4), 26–9, 1956.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7 See Dupree, L.,‘Aq Kupruk: A Town in north Afghanistan, Parts I and II’, American Universities Field Staff Reports, Vol. X, nos. 9–10, 1966.Google Scholar
Also published in Louise Street (ed.), Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East, Vol. II, N.Y., 1970, pp. 344–7.Google Scholar
8 See Gypsies: Wanderers of the World, National Geographic Society, Washington, 1970, Ch. 8;Google Scholar
Dupree, L., Afghanistan (Princeton University Press, 1973), Chart 6.Google Scholar
9 Dupree, L., ‘The Green and the Black: Social and Economic Aspects of a Coal Mine in Afghanistan,’ American Universities Field Staff Reports, South Asia Series, Vol. VII, No. 5, 1963.Google Scholar
10 Ferdinand, K., ‘Nomad Expansion and Commerce in Central Afghanistan,’ Folk, 4: 123–159, Copenhagen, 1962.Google Scholar
11 Kolars, J., ‘Locational Aspects of Cultural Ecology: The Case for the Goat in Non-Western Agriculture,’ Geographical Review, 5 (4), 577–84, 1966.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12 Tapper, N., ‘The Advent of Pushtūn Māldārs in North-western Afghanistan,’ Bull. S.O.A.S., 36 (I), 55–79, 1973.Google Scholar
13 Dupree, L., ‘“Pushtunistan”: The Problem and its Larger Implications,’ Parts I-III, American Universities Field Staff Reports, South Asia Series, Vol. V, Nos. 2–4, 1961.Google Scholar
14 Processes similar to those described by Charles, P. Loomis in ‘Tentative Types of Directed Social Change Involving Systemic Linkage,’ Rural Sociology 24 (4), 383–90, 1959.Google Scholar
15 Uberoi, J. S., ‘Social Organization of the Tajiks of Andarab Valley’ (thesis, Australian National University, Canberra, 1964).Google Scholar
16 Greater Kabul Census, Population Survey Office, Ministry of the Interior, Royal Government of Afghanistan, 1965; Kabul, Technical Report Prepared for the R.G.A. for the United Nations Development Programme, U.N.O., N.Y., 1970. The Greater Kabul Census was a partly successful U.N.O.-sponsored pilot project to train census-takers for a later national effort.Google Scholar
17 Chris, L. Jung, Observations on the Patterns and Procedures of Rural-Urban Migrations to Kabul, Occasional Paper #, The Afghanistan Council of the Asia Society, n.d. (probably 1971).Google Scholar
18 Hatch, Nancy Dupree, An Historical Guide to Kabul, 2nd ed., The Afghan Tourist Organization, Kabul, 1972; first ed. puplished under name, Nancy Hatch Wolfe.Google Scholar
19 Quoted by Jung, , Rural-Urban Migrations to Kabul, p. 2, from the Gazetteer of Afghanistan, Part IV, Kabul, Government of India, Supt. of Govt. Printing, Calcutta, 1910, p. 230. All six volumes of the Gazetteer of Afghanistan have been published by Akademische Druk-u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz, Austria,Google Scholar
under the editorship of Ludwig, Adamec: Historical and Political Gazetteer of Afghanistan, vols. I (Badakhshan), 2 (Farah), 3 (Herat), 4 (Kandahar), 5 (Northern Provinces), 6 (Kabul).Google Scholar
20 This process (proximity to urban center migration patterns) was long ago recognized by Ravenstein, E. G. in his classic article, ‘The Causes of Migration,’ Journal of the Statistical Society, XLVIII (2), 06, 1885.Google Scholar
Also see Jung, , Rural-Urban Migrations to Kabul, p. 4.Google Scholar
21 Jentsch, C., ‘Structural Changes of Nomadism in Afghanistan,’ The Geographical Review of Afghanistan, 7 (2), 8–13, Kabul, 1969;Google Scholar
Jentsch, C., Das Nomadentum in Afghanistan, Band 9, Afghanische Studien, Meisenheim, 1973.Google Scholar
22 Grötzbach, E., ‘Some Economic Processes and Their Regional Differentiation in the Hindu Kush, Afghanistan,’ The Geographical Review of Afghanistan, 7 (2), 1–7, Kabul, 1969.Google Scholar
Grötzbach, E., Kulturgeographischer Wandel in Nordost-Afghanistan seit dem 19 Jahrhundert, Band 4, Meisenheim, 1972.Google Scholar
23 The G.K.C. indicates that 127,432 migrants in the Greater Kabul Area (out of a total population of 435,203) divide in the following manner: 19,482 had been in Kabul for less than a year; 43,984, from 1–4 years; 54,312, 5 or more years; 9,654, unknown. Interesting statistics from the unpublished U.N.D.P. Kabul survey include: 70 per cent of the migrants came from rural areas; 85 per cent moved directly to Kabul; 42 per cent, ages between 15–34; migrant males outnumbered females two to one; two-thirds of the males were unmarried (many came to earn bride price); 70 per cent non-literate (probably a gross understatement—L.D.).Google Scholar
24 Dupree, L., ‘Afghanistan: 1968: Part IV: Strikes and Demonstrations,’ American Universities Field Staff Reports, South Asia Series, Vol. XII, No. 7, 1969.Google Scholar
25 Jung, , Rural-Urban Migrations to Kabul, p. 5.Google Scholar
