The word "pataan"

[sal]

Isi wear black cloaks and carry umbrellas but really they are swords. Bad people.

They wear black cloaks and carry swords?? Are you havin me on?

[khashayar]

It's true. They are a secret organisation dealing with intelligence etc. I don know too much, but others probably can confirm it.

[Azmaray]

yuck that word make me feel sick :S
its like calling ptgm

[sal]

It's true. They are a secret organisation dealing with intelligence etc. I don know too much, but others probably can confirm it.

ohhh ok. thanks for the info!

[khushal]

What's ISI? Someone made it up to divide us??

ISI is Inter Service Intelligence, Pakistans intelligence agency. Idiot is just kidding around with shabahz when he said that.

[Mohsinkhan]

I'm from India and I'm also Pashtun, but in all the documents we write our surname as Pathan not as Pashtun because Indian call us and know us as Pathans not as Pashtuns.
Khan = Pathan = Pashtun = Afghan - all are same.

[graveyardofempires]

I'm from India and I'm also Pashtun, but in all the documents we write our surname as Pathan not as Pashtun because Indian call us and know us as Pathans not as Pashtuns.
Khan = Pathan = Pashtun = Afghan - all are same.

as long as you know who you are.

it would be the best to call yourself Pashtun and educate Indians that you are called Pashtuns and would like to be called like that.

[Master Khan]

I always tell my friend to call my pakhtun and not pathan, and now when he see me he is like "PAKHTUN!!" lol!! great guy.

[AfghanResistance]

The word Pathan is not in our language at all. It is a word utilised by the people of south Asia i.e. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh as well as the British to Identify the Pukhtana.

There are few theories as to where this word originated from, the first is that it was the arabs who first used this word bathan which means the front of a warship or the part of the warship that holds the whole ship together because the Afghans when in war would come together and unite and gallantly fight. Even today many punjabis pronounce the word as bathan.

Another theory is that the Afghans on an annual basis would invade hindustan as it was then and would take the war booty back to their respective lands, this included women i.e. people wives. Path is derived from the sanskrit word for pathni and aan is the word for kidnapper. The people of south asia feared the Afghans so much that they created an idea that if out and about your risk being kidnapped by the pathans.

conclusion: These are only theories and no evidence to back any such thing and therefore to me its just another name, such as Afghan, Pukhtun etc but one that we ourselves do dont identify among ourselves with.

[Khyber Pass]

Lol all my Pakistani friends refer to me as "The Pathan" or "Khan saab." I don't mind the word like alot of my other Pashtun friends do, don't know why people care so much.

[یاسمینه]

According to I. M. Oranskii, the term 'Pathan' is known since 16th cent. It is Indo-Anglicised version of the ethnonym 'Pashtun'.