Is knowing Pashto a requirement to be a Pashtun?

[Amir al Ghaznavi]

and if Pashtunistan is declared and these half ass Pashtuns in Farah or where ever wanna run away to be with their Dari friends, by all means, we;re taking that land though

and we;re gonna stuff Pashto down your throats

[Nick]

I completely understand Fish's comments and I agree to some extend as well. If you visit a Tajik forum then you will see how happy those Tajiks are about 'Tajikized Pukhtoons' in the North and if an celebrity even speaks a word of Dari, they straight-away will accept him as one of their own. But with Pukhtoons, if you don't speak Pukhto despite of being a Pukhtoon then at least you will be cursed a few times before you will finally be accepted. And a non-Pukhtoon who loves to remain within a Pukhtoon culture will be remained that this is not his place. We Pukhtoons should attract 'attention' with love, not with hatred and dismissal towards those who want to be one of us.

I can agree with you, but I personally feel that by calling yourself PAshtun and not speaking Pashtu is abusive. If this was the case then we could say that Afghanistan's population is 73% Pashtun, and reject the other ethnic words such as Farsiwans AND ADD it with Pashtun population, and just leaves Afghanistan with 10% Hazaras, 8% Uzbeks/Turkman/Baloch/Hindus and I assume 9% includes all the Tajik immigrants and Aimaq Qazalbash etc. If that's the case then here is the question are Farsiwans willing to let go of a language so historical and accept the new Language, just because this language represent "Nativeness". Well this was what seems to it might of happened, during Abu Khorasani's period, with initial supporter Amir Kror's period, but during such political conflicts against Arabs, which is why Pashtu was nicknamed Language of Hell amongst many other Languages of the world, many have extincted only remains few languages such as Pashia and Pashtu etc. Ask Why? Well it happens to be that Pashtu got its fame during the dark ages (1290-1600). Where half of the world's population was killed and another 25% of the world's population remains under slavery, survival of the fittest, Afghans gone through political war, religious wars, forcing conversions, slavery etc, despite going through the Dark ages Farsi was still the dominated Language of Mongols and here Pashtu survived and gain Fame, from language of hell set in revenge toward Farsi mongol leader, this Language of became language of Love, Peace, harmony, pride and Islam. Thanks to Beyzad Baba, Raman Baba and Khushal baba, and their honorable Afghanyat and promoting war against outsiders, Otherwise without them this Language would never have been famous as today.


BTW that Tajik Forum you are talking about is not reflecting us ethnic Farsiwans but rather those who are racially Turkic and belong to Turkistan. They too have odd claims like the Hazaras, so don't be influenced, and their forum is death, remains active only by 3 gangsters LOL who are also youtubers. These Members have been defeated from most Afghan forums, so they decided to have a Tajik forum LOL bTW these 3 active members 2 are Tajikistanis and one is Ismaili from Afghanistan.

[Feroza_Banu]

^ahh it explains sooo many things about that forum!... thank you!

[ijaz yousafzai]

Afghan and Pashtun have been the two different names of the same person even before the state of Afghanistan existed, so there shouldn't be any controversy about the two names or about our prefrences. .

khyaal saib! You are right to say that Afghan and Pashtun are synonimous and denote only, Pashtun= Afghan
However now they do not identify the same person in Afghanistan. NOn-Pashtun are also called Afghans.
Btw Iwas amused to hear your " conspiracy theory"

[khyaal]

khyaal saib! You are right to say that Afghan and Pashtun are synonimous and denote only, Pashtun= Afghan
However now they do not identify the same person in Afghanistan. NOn-Pashtun are also called Afghans.

As has been told by several friends that the word afghan also represents nationality.

Btw I was amused to hear your " conspiracy theory"

Look! there is no conspiracy theory.

If you ever happen to read the Urdu translation of Sir Olaf Caroe's book "The Pathans", there you will find in the preface two confidential letters now declassified, in which the Commissioner of Peshawar during 1850's (he was a British) wrote to the then Governer of Punjab that he (the Peshawar Commissioner) had changed the official/court language of Peshawar from Farsi to Urdu/Hindi in order to hasten the process of amalgamation of Pashtun's and their territory into Punjab."

So the British were intent upon dissolving our Afghan identity and I believe that they might have promoted the word Pakhtun out of proportion to create a rift between us and the people of Azad Afghanistan. Over the period of time the word Pakhtun/pashtun has almost completely replaced the word afghan in Occupied Pakhtunwa.

[ijaz yousafzai]

Sir,

Afghan is like German and Russian there is Afghan by nationality and Afghan by ethnicity.

Shouldnt we be hapy that minorities also are being called as Pashtun since they live in the land of Pashtuns.

Wrora! ----and what the " Germans" prefer to be called?

[afghan]

i have to agree with nazia khor, similar situation is with indian pashtun, who takes pride in their origin of being pashtun. most of them dont speak pashto, but they are raised with the certain ways that most pashtun have, we have no right to lable some one as non-pashtun for not speaking pashto. i have met some indian with their last name Yusufzai, who could not speak a word of pashto, but proudly claimed to be a pashtun. many arabs living among us whos first language is pashto, why they are not considered pashtun. similarly Sikh, hindos who speaks only pashto why they are not considered pashtun? like many have stated pashto is a code as well which has to be followed, not just a language.

[Lemar]

Well If you can't speak pashto then you a not full pashtun.

ta sok ye che dasi waye?

Sharkie!
welcome and I had the same thread created when i first joined.
in my mind it doesnt matter but its good to start learning ASAP.

[Lemar]

It doesnt matter but those that insult Pashto saying is not important yet they want to be called Pashtun what about them?

someone who wants to be called pashtun doesnt ever want to insult the language.
I dont get it

[Lemar]

There are many Pashtuns who speak Dari. When you ask them why? They say Pashto is not important.

They dont even have the intention of learning the language. Such Pashtuns I do not consider to be part of my own.

They are millions who speak Dari but they are proud Pashtuns.
I am yet to face someone who is Pashtun and hates Pashtu.

[Lemar]

Well thats their opinion, I dont like to force someone to do something.
my personal opinion would be YOU HAVE TO LEARN IT!

[khyaal]

Anyone with Pukhtun Blood is Pukhtun.

No. Pashtun traitors are our enemies, they are stigma for Pashtuns.

[Brit Chick]

Why is this even a debate, yes of course you need to be able to speak pashto to be a pashtun.

However, this doesn't mean that being able to speak pashto alone is what makes you pashtun, if that makes any sense.

[pukhtana]

Why is this even a debate, yes of course you need to be able to speak pashto to be a pashtun.

However, this doesn't mean that being able to speak pashto alone is what makes you pashtun, if that makes any sense.

In short according to you if I was born to parents who spoke Pashto and now I cant speak it yet I share the blood I am disqualified in being a Pashtun? How silly could that possibly be?


Because of ideas like yours Pashtuns are made 40percent of the Afghan population but in reality we are close to 70 percent.

[ijaz yousafzai]

In short according to you if I was born to parents who spoke Pashto and now I cant speak it yet I share the blood I am disqualified in being a Pashtun? How silly could that possibly be?


Because of ideas like yours Pashtuns are made 40percent of the Afghan population but in reality we are close to 70 percent.

this is, rather the other way round. Pashtuns are considered 40% in Afghanistan, because 20% has lost their language and adopted Dari. The later are bracketed with Tajik in census, which is not correct. However Pakhtuns should feel pride in their own language,Pashto.