Mass desertion reveals Egyptian peasants’ silent resistance to conscription

Evidence

The size and scale of desertion is more eloquent that any allegations by nationalist historians regarding how the population of Egypt thought of the Pasha’s army and his regime in general. The scale and regularity of desertion was the most striking testimony to the fellahin’s willingness to resist a regime they found oppressive, intolerant and inhuman. There is something almost splendid about defying Mehmed Ali and his authorities in that way and at that level. Desertion and the authorities’ frustration with it show how much Mehmed Ali’s policies found no echo in the fellahin’s minds and souls. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1350

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to descent-from-above modernization literature and to resistance studies of subaltern populations; echoes ‘weapons of the weak’ frameworks.