Shaping the Italian Policy on the North-West Frontier: Giuseppe Tucci and the Limits of the Strategy of “Peripheral Destabilization” (1936-1943)

Giuseppe Tucci played an important role in shaping Italian politics towards Asia under both Fascism and the Republic. In the Fascist period, Rome was a rally point for Asian nationalists such as Subhas Chandra Bose and Mohammad Iqbal Shedai. On the field, the Italian Legation in Kabul forged links with the frontier tribes to spread sedition along the North-West Frontier. Nonetheless, their joint efforts to fuel a strategy of “peripheral destabilization” proved unfruitful. Confirming Tucci’s opinion, the intellectuals and the Indian population were unwilling to replace the Raj with another foreign domination. If they wanted to free themselves from the British, «it was not to place someone else in their shoes» (Iqbal)