How much do Tribes matter nowadays?

[Charsi Malang]

Tribal nationalism , tribal identities and tribal rivalries are strong in southern districts (with exception of Kohat), Balochistan and FATA (with exception of Bajaur)........the ones in Peshawar valley (Peshawar, Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda) , Buner, Swat etc behave differently.....there tribal identity is not pronounced at all and is just ceremonial. The emphasis is more on "Pashtun nationalism" and shedding of tribalism there....areas are densely populated and are on par with Punjab in urbanization.....

Here in southern belt, tribal skirmishes can still happen.......Rarely one tribe against another but one Khel against another Khel within the tribe are frequent......interests of tribe or clan comes first....thus societies are organized along the old and traditional Pashtun set up

Tribal rivalries are strong in my kalay in Kohat. When you look at it superficially it doesn't seem that way, and intermarriages have taken place a hell of a lot. However these sentiments still exist. About 10 -15 years ago there was a bitter clash between two major sections of a certain two tribes that live in my kalay. I'm not going to name the sections involved but it had been going on for a while and was reported on some Pakistani media as well.

[Traveller]

Tribal nationalism , tribal identities and tribal rivalries are strong in southern districts (with exception of Kohat), Balochistan and FATA (with exception of Bajaur)........the ones in Peshawar valley (Peshawar, Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda) , Buner, Swat etc behave differently.....there tribal identity is not pronounced at all and is just ceremonial. The emphasis is more on "Pashtun nationalism" and shedding of tribalism there....areas are densely populated and are on par with Punjab in urbanization.....

Here in southern belt, tribal skirmishes can still happen.......Rarely one tribe against another but one Khel against another Khel within the tribe are frequent......interests of tribe or clan comes first....thus societies are organized along the old and traditional Pashtun set up

What makes Bajaur different from the rest of FATA? And as for the Peshawar valley, I know you live in Peshawar city so what I wonder is if maybe the rural areas are different? Also I don't get how the malakand division doesn't have tribalism when it's mountanous and not very densely populated.

And do you know anything about the situation on the Afghan side of the Durand line?

[Traveller]

Yousafzais dont even use the names of the sections within their tribes as last name.....for example when our Lohani tribe grew in numbers, its four sections started identifying themselves as distinct tribes some times after 17th century (Marwat, Tatur, Miya Khel and Daulat Khel).....Ghilzai is perhaps a largest tribe and its members use the names of its sections as last names e.g Hotak, Ahmadzai, Tokhi, Andar, Nasar, Kharoti etc.....Almost all the Khattaks, even through quite scattered across the districts, use their tribal name as last name.

I've noticed that the Yusufzai proper of Swat, Buner, Shangla, and other parts of the malakand division, tend to have Yusufzai as their last name but the same is not true for mandanr yusufzais of Swabi and Mardan. In fact I've rarely come across people from Swabi and Mardan who had a tribal last name; it's usually "khan" or something similar(Junaid Khan, Younus Khan, and Yasir Shah in Pakistan cricket team are all from Swabi and Mardan). I think it might have to do with how the Yousufzais are given a lot of recognition in northern KPK(the dialect there is called the "Yousufzai" dialect) and they don't feel any real need for more tribal identity.

As a side note I strongly believe that every Pashtun should keep their tribe's name as their last name. Tribes are an important part of our history and culture and keeping them in our last name is an easy and efficient way to preserve them while modernizing at the same time.

[Elite Pakhtun]

I've lived in isb and psh for about 8 years each. In both places, in my experience, the only ones who made a big deal about their tribe were Afridis. Everyone else was more about race, and max their village.

This is just me though.

[Elite Pakhtun]

To be honest, all I know is that we are from Ghazni region and some of our relatives have kept lengthy Shajaras which we can use to trace our ancestory. We have no connection to Ghazni now and mainly identify with the north and Kabul.

" skha" څخه means "from ", it is not the same as "skhaa" which is used northern KPK to mean dirty. Some people use "na", de Kabul na yum or de Kabul skha yum. Both mean same thing.

You sure it's not pronounced "sakha"?