Part I

The Myths of relations between Pashtuns and Tajiks and Persian speakers in Afghanistan

This article is part of a series on the blame games of Pashtuns who blame others like Punjabis, Tajiks, ISI, CIA, USA, NATO, and West etc for their problems and not themselves.

I see another myth that especially Tajiks or other Persian speakers in Afghanistan are responsible for the downfall of Pashto and Pashtuns in Afghanistan. This is usual that Pashtuns of Afghanistan or Pakistan blame Punjabis for the problems of Pashtuns in Pakistan while Pashtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan blame Tajiks for the problems of Pashtuns in Afghanistan. Tajiks are at the helm of affairs in spite of being minority while Pashtuns being in majority are second class citizens in Afghanistan and their language Pashto is secondary in importance generally and in Kabul the capital city and government departments , media , universities , business circles etc Pashto almost does not exist. Pashtuns and others blame all this on Tajiks and on their cultural, political, economic, social dominance and their language Dari/Persian linguistic invasion.

For me its a myth that all this is because of Tajiks and Persian speakers. Its a reality that Pashtuns and Pashto does not have the status as it should have but this is not because of Tajiks or other non Pashtuns in Afghanistan this is because of Pashtuns themselves who being majority are living like a minority, and don’t struggle in the right way to achieve their due status

In Pakistan we blame Punjabis, in Afghanistan we blame Tajiks. This is a very wrong approach. I agree that Pakistan and Afghanistan are two different countries and we may understand them accordingly but the similar point is that in both cases, Pashtuns are responsible for their own faults. In Afghanistan at least they should have the political power which they deserve, not to oppress others but at least they should be known by their language, their culture and their own identity. I see in foreign countries when some one talks of Afghanistan and its language they talk of Dari, not Pashto, they learn Dari for going to Afghanistan, all the jobs require Dari, all the documentaries are made in Dari. In all embassies of Afghanistan and other offices, the forms are in Dari, all correspondence is in Dari, no where Pashto appears.
If some one talks of Pakistan, everything in English or Urdu, nothing in Pashto.

Where is the identity of Pashtuns? No where! The term AFGHAN is now no more only for Pashtuns and thus we can’t say AFGHANISTAN is the land of Pashtuns. Nowhere is the language of Pashtuns prevailing. They don’t have their own land, their own identity, and now terrorism, extremism and obscurantism have put the last nail in their coffin. All this is because of Pashtuns themselves not because of Tajiks or others. Pashtuns are so much tolerant to others that they adopt every thing others offer and forget their own language and culture. Except Abdali Baba, and Khushal Baba, no Pashtun leader did any thing for Pashto and Pashtuns as a nation or separate entity, including those who ruled India, Afghanistan and some even in Pakistan. Pashto never received any royal or court support from the Pashtun rulers. For all this Tajiks have no blame Pashtuns themselves are to be blamed.

Every body knows the history of the modern Afghanistan that after Ahmad Shah Baba almost all rulers were Pashtuns, but they did nothing specifically for Pashtuns and Pashto. There were Pashtun rulers that even were unable to speak Pashto like Zahir Shah who used to hire Pashto translators if some body could not speak Dari with him. Pashtuns are in majority in Afghanistan, thus they have no problem of complaining against any other community that others like Tajiks are to be blamed for their downtrodden condition in Afghanistan. The dilapidated situation of Pashto and Pashtuns in Afghanistan is quite simple to understand. It’s mainly because of the weakness of Pashtuns or do you have any one else to be blamed for the bad situation of Pashtuns?

Pashtuns are weak politically, culturally, linguistically, economically and socially in spite of being majority in Afghanistan. Pashtuns being minority are bad in Pakistan, but as majority worse in Afghanistan The solution is self improvement, introspection, education, development , democracy and not criticizing and blaming Tajiks, Punjabis, ISI, NATO ,USA etc.

The only solution so far I found is that instead of wasting our energies on blaming others lets make ourselves strong enough to be a developed people and if there is really any conspiracy against us then we may counter that by more struggle and hard work and not just by blaming others including Tajiks. We may learn from others like Tajiks who like a proud people promote their language and culture. While Pashtuns adopt Dari and Iranian culture so there is no point blaming Tajiks. We should learn from Tajiks that they write their sign boards even in Peshawar in Persian while we Pashtuns don’t have almost not a single private sign board in Pashto in the whole Peshawar or even in the whole Pashtunkhwah, Even in Jalal Abad some times you see Dari not Pashto in public places and public gatherings. Kabul is completely dominated by Dari and Pashtuns usually too use Dari and not their own language. If Pashtuns themselves don’t use their language then how come we blame others?

The solution is creating awareness in almost 70 Million Pashtuns to wake up and become strong enough to counter whatever is against them and to utilize their energies in self development and not blaming others.