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My main aim in starting the thread (Pakhtun, Afghan & Pathan), was to generate a healthy debate conducive to fixing future goals for the Pakhtuns and to discuss pertinent issues lurking in the minds of the Pakhtuns regarding their future perceptions and course of action. I believe that if the agenda for the future and the intrinsic objectives are not clearly spelled out, then the passion to move forward cannot get momentum and determination. Pakhtuns have been in the vanguard of each and every political movement of the 19th and 20th centuries in the sub-continent and Central Asia but despite rendering tremendous sacrifices, they failed to achieve any cherished political and national gain because the long-term goal was not properly specified and implanted in their souls.
د زړه باز ئې تل د روهـ په زمکه ګرخي
کۀ هجري په دکن ناست خالي بدن دے
اشرف خان هجري
Maj. Raverty observes in his “Notes on Afghanistan”, that Roh is a large tract of country belonging to and inhabited by the Afghans, the easternmost boundary of which extends to Kashmir, and the western to the River Hirmand, a distance of two and a half months journey, and on the north its boundary extends to kashghar and its southern boundary to Baluchistan. It therefore lies between Iran, Turan and Hind, and its people are termed “Rohilahs”. However Dr. Habibullah Tagey defines these boundaries, as River Oxus to the north, the bank of the Arabian Sea to the south, Karman to the west and Hasanabdal to the East.
The Pakhtunland has been described as Pakhtunkhwa by Pakhtun men of pen themselves, which sprawls over the vast land from River Amu to Abaseen and from Herat to Kashmir.
A noted orientalist H.W Bellew describes the Pakhtunland as Afghanistan and defines its boundaries as River Indus to the East, River Oxus up to Khuja-e- Saleh in the North, Arabian Sea to the South and Karman in Paras, to the West.
Most of the parts of today’s Afghanistan, which are held by non-Pakhtuns, were previously inhabited by the Pakhtuns. Kabul, predominantly a Pakhtun city of the yester year has turned Persianized. The Khakhay tribes of the Pakhtuns were major citizens of Kabul at the times of Mirza Ulugh Beg, who was raised to the throne of Kabul by the Yusufzais. Herat has been a major seat of the Abdali rulers, till they were dispossessed by the Iranian sovereign Nadir Shah Afshar. Laveek Pakhtuns held Zabul to Ghazni and Ghazni to Gardez and Mahvee Suri Pakhtuns were firm in Siestan to Ghori up to the celebrated era of Amir Karor, the first known Pakhtun poet and sovereign.
Sir Thomas Holdich observes that Ghor was a vast territory spread from Hind to Iran and from Oxus to Hurmuz. Changez Khan destroyed the social structure of Ghor, annihilating the old inhabitants, Suris and Ghazalis etc, and replaced them with his subjects - the Mongols, whose descendents, the Hazaras have held now the vast land of Ghor and changed its name to Hazarajat. Ghazni was swept by Sultan Mehmud and his father Sabuktagin. His court historian, Utbi has abusively narrated Mehmud’s high handedness on Afghans inhabiting the surroundings.
The Uzbeks migrated to Afghanistan as mercenaries in the forces of Tamer lane. Tajiks consist of Turk and Persian progenies, who do not have a single ethnic origin but have a common lingual bond of Parsiban-Dariban. Tamer lane and his cruel descendents forced Pakhtuns to leave their abodes in large scales. The vacuum at Balkh, Bamyan and Ghor etc was filled by the non-Pakhtun immigrants.
Babar, shamelessly admits in his biography, “Tuzk-e-Babari”, “When we reached Gardez, I divided my army in several sections….we came across a large group of Pakhtuns, who were, at once put to sword by us and were immediately beheaded. I erected a minaret of their skulls”.
With all the demographic disfiguring, still the Northern and Western provinces, like Samangan, Baghban, Kandoz, Takhar, Budakhshan, Balkh, Jozjan Faryab, Badghais, Herat and Farah have a majority of the Pakhtuns, constituting 39% of the population, according to WAK Foundation’s statistics (1996 ) and having majority than any single ethnic group in these (so-called non-Pakhtun) provinces.
Pakhtuns played in the hands of the self-centered sovereigns like Sabuktagin, Mehmud ghaznavi, Moghals etc, as self seeking mercenaries devoid of a shred of the Pakhtun national aspiration. It was Mir Vais Neka, for the first time that kindled Pakhtun national fervor in the hearts of the Pakhtun in 18th century AD, some eighty two years before the French Revolution (1789 A.D). He defeated safavid power with the might of Pakhtuns muscles and established the first Pakhtuns national sovereignty in Kandahar in 1709 AD. His able son Shah Mehmood Hootak extended his domain to Asfahan and forced Shah Hussain Safavi to put his crown in his feet. The Hotaki sovereignty only lasted for 32 years, when Nadir Shah Afshar of Persia, defeated Shah Hussain Hotak and held the Pakhtunland.
After the murder of Nadir Shah Afshar by his own bodyguards in his army camp in 1747 AD, one of his Afghan commanders Ahmad Khan parted way with the Persian Empire and marched towards Kandahar with his Afghan contingent. He was appointed as the King of Afghans by a Jirga consisting, solely of the Afghan (Pakhtun) elders at Sher-e-Surkh in the suburb of Kandahar and thus “Afghanistan” ( named so later),came into being under the Afghan king Ahmad Shah Abdali. Historians have identified the boundaries of the contemporary Afghanistan during the reign of Ahmad Shah Abdali, as having River Oxus to the North, Arabian Sea to the South, Karman to the West, Sirhind and Tibet peaks to the East, with its capital at Kandahar. Except some expansions, Ahmad Shah Baba succeeded in carving out a Pakhtun state, which has been the historical abode of the Afghans (Pakhtuns) for thousand years and was called Aryana in the ancient historical record.
It is of immense political interest to note that only Pakhtun elders took part in the Jirga, which appointed Ahmad Shah Abdali (Durrani) as the King (Mashar). The prominent among them were, Haji Jamal Khan, the elder of Barakzais, Noor Mohammad Khan, the elder of Ghalzais, Mohabat Khan, the elder of Popalzais, Musa Khan, the elder of Sakzais and Nasrullah Khan, the elder of Noorzais. The proceedings of the Jirga continued for 9 days at the graveyard of Sher-e-Surkh, where a recluse Sabir Shah Malang was living in a mud hut in the graveyard. He was not part of the Jirga, but miraculously, he plucked an ear of wheat from the nearby field and put it as a semblance of crown in the turban of Ahmad Shah Durrani, after he was appointed by the Jirga as the Mashar . Lamentably one of his sons and a successor, Taimur Shah was more Persianized and apart from a Yusafzai wife, his all other nine wives were non-Pakhtun. He, not only shifted the capital from Kandahar to Kabul, but he also promoted Dari at the cost of Pashto and relegated Pakhtun culture. Parsi was the language of the Court and Pakhtun nobles were encouraged to switch over to Persian and Qazalbash ways of life. His ministers and advisors were mostly non-Pakhtun and a Qazalbash was his personal bodyguard, who wielded overwhelming influence. He (Taimoor Shah) kept Peshawar as his winter capital.
The Sadozai dynasty founded by the great Ahmad Shah Abdali, gave way to Barakzai and Mohammadzai dynasty of the Pakhtuns, who further deteriorated the socio-cultural fabric of Afghanistan. The historical Pakhtunland, vividly described in the ancient historical record and carved out by the Great Ahmad Shah Abdali, was not safeguarded by the later Afghan rulers, who were mostly self-seekers and opportunists, on the risk of Pakhtun destiny. Amir Yaqoob Khan was made handicapped and Afghanistan made crippled by the British under the shameful Treaty of Gandamak in 1879 AD. Yaqoob Khan left Khyber, Michni, Thall, Kurram, Sibbi, Pishin to British government for an annual subsidy of 60,000 pounds and forfeited his authority over his external affairs in favour of the British. One of the scions of Barakzai rulers, Amir Abdur Rehman sold out 30% of his Pakhtun land and 40% of Pakhtuns to British India, on 12th Nov, 1893 AD, under the infamous Durand Agreement and thus the winter capital of Afghanistan, Peshawar and other eastern Pakhtun areas were broken away officially from Afghanistan and made part of the British India up to the hilltops of Khyber and Bolan. Peshawar was the splendid winter capital where Shah Shuja had, once received the British envoy Manstuart Elphinstone and Amir Dost Mohammad Khan was seen in his majestic splendor by Alexander Burnes, another British representative, but now the Winter Capital was torn apart. Sikhs conquered it in 1833 due to cowardly withdrawal of Sardar Azim Khan, which was officially lost to Sir Mortimer Durand by the Afghan Ruler. The subsequent Afghan rulers endorsed the Durand Treaty in the years, 1905, 1919 and 1921 AD. The dominant Parsiban lobby in Afghanistan has always discouraged the idea of re-amalgamation of Afghanistan’s lost Pakhtun territories in the fatherland, now held by Pakistan.
Amir Abdur Rehman was satisfied for enjoying a peaceful rule, though in a crippled and dismembered Afghanistan. He brokered peace with his neighbor by making the Eastern Pakhtuns as cheap scapegoat. The later Afghan rulers did not seriously bother about their lost territories and people. They kept at bay from the affairs of the Eastern Pakhtuns, except keeping a few stipend holders in the tribal belt.
The mass migration (Hijrat) of the Pakhtuns in Pakhtunkhwa in 1920, in favor of the Usmanid Caliphate of Turkey, has brought awesome tales of indifference and aloofness from the Afghan government of the time. When the Eastern Pakhtuns returned from Afghanistan, they were in shambles and all their belongings and even their women-folk, were forcibly snatched away from them. Bacha Khan was also a young refugee among the migrants. When he called on the king of Afghanistan, Ghazi Amanullah Khan, an interpreter was engaged during the talks ironically between the two Pakhtun stalwarts, because the Pakhtun king could not speak Pashto.
The Pakhtuns spearheaded a war of independence against the British colonialists in British India, but the afghan rulers kept aloof. Faqir of Ipi, a Torikhel Wazir and a consummate guerilla tactician, led a pierce armed up-rising against the British, which was suppressed by savage British operations, lasted from 1936 to 1938 but the Afghan rulers kept deaf and dumb. The person of Faqir of Ipi was so formidable that George Cunningham the Governor of NWFP, had to admit as reported by Charles Miller in his book, Khyber, in his words, “He (Faqir of Ipi) is not only implacable but also completely incorruptible…..who would rid me of this turbulent priest”. A similar fate was meted out to Haji Sahib Taurangzai’s armed insurgence in Mohmand Agency in 1935. The British launched a major punitive operation against the Mohmands by using aircrafts, armor and heavy artillery but the Afghan rulers never raised any protest. The Red-Shirt Movement was constrained to turn its face to Gandhi as the Afghan government had been following an evident evasive policy and it was avoiding harnessing the muscles of its lost population to square the deal with the British usurpers. The Afghan government refrained from inflicting an avenging blow to the declining British power in the Pakhtunland, despite a window of opportunities was opened to it. Fraser Tytler recalls,”…Even in the darkest days of 1940 (2nd world war), the king (Zahir Shah) and his advisors faced the imminent prospect of the breakdown of the British Empire, and having considered the situation, reaffirmed their neutrality. It was a fine gesture at one of the darkest moments in British history”. More humiliating was the fear of Afghan rulers when they evicted the German diplomats from Kabul, against the wishes of the people, on a single ultimatum from the British government.
After inking of the Durand Line Agreement, a large scale insurgence against the firingis was unleashed in 1896 AD by the Salarzais, Momands, Sapis, Afridis, Orakzais, Waziris, Masoods, but the Afghan government did not care to gear the tide against its enemy. At the same time Umara Khan Jandoli, who was called the Afghan Napoleon by his arch rivals, the British, led armed campaigns against the colonialists but he was also not abetted by the Afghan rulers in the closest proximity. The massive disturbance in the Pakhtunland compelled the British to establish a separate “North West Frontier Province” in 1901 under a Governor at Peshawar to deal exclusively with the Pakhtuns’ agitation. Political analysts think that if the Afghan government had started “Quit Pakhtunistan” movement on the pattern of “Quit India” movement, which was started by the Congress in 1942-43, a ripe time when the British power in the Sub-continent was vulnerable due to its entanglement in the imbroglio of the Second World War, then the scenario might have had different in 1947, when the British were leaving the Sub-continent. The pity was that Afghan government had no plans and desire about its lost territories and Pakhtun population. They were only interested in a “peaceful” seclusion.
If we analyze the reluctance of Afghan rulers of claiming back its lost territories and people, we come across some bitter and startling realities. The harsh fact is that the Afghan rulers did not wish to retrieve their lost territories and population on two counts;
-The Eastern Pakhtuns were more politically conscious and had been anti-imperialists, therefore the despotic Afghan Rulers considered them detrimental their dictatorial rule as they could sow the seeds of political awareness in a United Afghanistan, where politicking was banned..
- The hegemonial lobby of Parsiban-Dariban aristocracy and bureaucracy impeded to get the Eastern Pakhtuns back in the fold as this move was to result in tilting more the demographic and social structures in favor of the Pakhtuns, which could disturb the status quo.
Khudai Khidmatgars and Zalmay Pakhtoon, pulping the situation, assembled at Bannu on 25th June, 1947 and coined “Independent Pakhtunistan” for the first time. S.Fida Yunas (“Abdul Ghaffar Khan-Pushtunistan and Afghanistan”), refers to the Bannu Resolution adopted in the session, which stated “This joint session unanimously decides that here in this country [North West Frontier Province] an independent government of all Pakhtuns shall be established, the Constitution of which will be based on the Islamic principles of democracy, equality and social justice. This session appeals to all the Pukhtuns to unite together on one plateform to achieve this noble aim and not to bow before the power of anybody except that of the Pakhtuns”. The Afghan government found a way out and was constrained to support it superficially, as a Pakhtun Nationalist Movement was launched in Afghanistan by Abdul Majeed Zabuli, which was supported by the erstwhile Sardar Daud Khan. The Afghan government, except Sardar Daud Khan, pursued a tactful policy to support Pakhtunistan movement to appease its Pakhtun population. Conspicuously it did not press for getting back its lost land. The Afghan envoy to the United Nations, Mr. Hosyn Aziz voted against the membership of the newly-created country, Pakistan to the UN. He made a statement in the General assembly that the Pakhtuns should be given right of self-determination to choose between, either joining Pakistan or to be independent but he did not utter a word to urge joining their fatherland, Afghanistan. The negative vote was mysteriously withdrawn on 23rd October, 1947 and Pakistan was admitted in the family of the United Nations.
Before that a farce referendum was imposed on the Pakhtuns on 20th July, 1947 by the British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, asking the Pakhtuns to choose between India and Pakistan. The Khudai Khidmatgars boycotted the referendum, as they declared that the issues were of no concern to the Pakhtuns in the absence of a third option of “Azad Pakhtunistan”. S. Fida Yunas (Ibid), adds, “…Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan said that the frontiers Pathans had their own distinct history and culture, and this could not be preserved unless they had full freedom to maintain and develop their own institutions. They, therefore claimed that the plebiscite should not be on the basis of a choice between Pakistan and India but there should be a third alternative of an independent Pakhtunistan….a state of their own ….as they feared the domination of the Punjab”. Shahsawar Sangarwal observes in “Da Afghanistan Da Tareekhi Jughrafeye Sarangwalay”, “The Afghan government kept silent on the question of referendum in 1947. If Afghan government wanted the Eastern Pakhtuns could be enfolded with, either peaceful means or by the use of force. Afghanistan had a regular disciplined army and the new Pakistan was dependent on the British-Indian army which was under the process of transition, therefore it was unable to offer resistance”. The learned analyst believes that such passive attitude of King Zahir Shah was a great historical crime. Another Afghan political observer, Ghulam Mohammad Zarmalwal, opines in his work, “Afghanistan,-Tar Wrostee Afghana”, “Afghan government has been playing games with its Pakhtun population by rendering only lip-service to the cause of Pakhtunistan, by merely naming a Chowk and observing a Day, housing a few political exiles, and doing nothing more”.
Syed Qasim Rishtia (Khaterat-e-Siasi), recalls the proceedings of a Kabul’s high-powered meeting on Pashtunistan attended by Sardar Shah Mehmood Khan, Sardar Shah Wali Khan, the entire cabinet, some officials of foreign ministry and press and describes as to why a claim on the Pakhtunland was given up by Kabul as deliberated on in the meeting. The proceedings of the meeting stated “The land has been separated from Afghanistan almost one hundred years ago. The people of that area have lived under different conditions and led a different style of life. A new relationship for them would not be easy…..The people, particularly of occupied Pushtunistan are politically awakened, have a semi-democratic political organization, are educationally more advanced in the North-Western Province and Quetta than the people of Afghanistan. In all probabilities if such a demand was put to them, it will be rejected out rightly by them….. One Mohsin Feroz who was the Director of the Bakhtar Agency, he put forward a simple and short formula, saying, “The resolution of the problem of Pushtunistan is only a march (war- attack). The formula was not received well and many, in fact, even laughed at it”.
The last 28 years of living in “exile” with the Eastern Pakhtuns in the after matter of the Saur Revolution, did not result in appropriate socializing of the Lar and Bar Pakhtuns to squeeze mental distance and to dismantle social barriers. No encouraging trend of inter-marriages developed among the “Lara Ao Bar” Pakhtuns in a span of time which sociologists believe, was sufficient to bring about mutual integration on the re-union of the lost brethren.
The people, who still believe in the idea of getting back to the fold of “Loy Afghanistan”, are living in utopia and against the wishes of the people on the helm of affairs in Afghanistan. The other option of living in Pakistan with any name and any “guarantee” contains very bleak prospective in the light of past mistrusts, breaches and treacheries. No true guarantee exists which can curb the brute dominance of Punjab, the frequent abrogation and suspension of the constitution and usual military coup, in Pakistan. Pakhtunistan is the only option, as Pakhtuns are not destined to live under the Brown Sahibs in Pakistan, who refused to live under the yoke of the powerful White Masters. A viable Confederation with Afghanistan could be the next phase to integrate the “Lar Ao Bar” Pakhtuns in the Sub-Continent of Pakhtunkhwa, to preserve the cherished legacy of the Great Ahmad Shah Baba. It is an uphill task but can be achieved by the miracles of unity and political will, which, we are lacking today, tremendously. Pakhtun intelligentsia and Nationalists have to undergo an arduous task of instilling these goals in the heart and soul of the Pakhtuns.
Let’s remember the great freedom fighter and the exalted Pakhtun poet, Fazle Mehmood Makhfi, who made the following yearnings a quarter to century ago;
Khudaya!Daase Wakht Ba Raashi
Che Zmong Jehaz Ba Ham Wee
Laka Baaz Ba Pa Hawaa Shee
Pa Tarkho Ubo Ba Sam Wee
Rail Ba Ham Zmong Paida Shee
Taar Ba Hum Pa Har Qadam Wee
Za Ba Khpal Jarnail Pase Wom
Pa Dushman Ba Jor Matam Wee.
خدايه داسې وخت به راشي
چې زمونږ جهاز به هم وي
لکه باز به په هوا شي
په ترخو اوبو به سم وي
رېل به هم زمونږ پيدا شي
تار به هم په هر قدم وي
زه به خپل جرنيل پسې ووم
په دښمن به جوړ ماتم وي
Let’s find out and implant in our grains a pragmatic prospective between the two popular propositions of Pakhtuns destiny, namely (i) Loy Afghanistan and (ii) Pakhtunistan. The former concept has never been encouraged and the later supported only skin-deep by the Afghan rulers.
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Za yam Sakhi Arsala Khan
They formed the strong nuclei of Alaptagin’s, Subaktagin’s,Mehmud Ghaznavi’s and Mughal’s triumphant armies but they remained merely headless opportunists interested only in the booties .Later, they offered a heroic struggle for the freedom of the Sub-continent, but when they achieved it by ousting the British colonialists, they suddenly found themselves in a blind alley as the “Pakhtun national goal” was never clarified to them in explicit terms,( --will be dealt with in a subsequent article), and hence they could only replace the White Masters by the Brown Sahibs. Our so-called Pakhtun nationalist leadership has been resorting to obscure terminology and vague discourses about the destiny of the Pakhtuns, switching over stances, somersaulting and hood winking the simple Pakhtuns. I believe that we have reached a cross road where we need to make decisions “now or never”. In the prevailing international and regional political scenario, Pakhtuns are under sharp focus of international and regional political actors but before they are carried away by the brewing storm, they need to wake up to the occasion and harness their fate themselves. They, now desperately need to stop playing as mere mercenaries in the hands of the aliens without thinking of their own national interests and the future of their progenies. I firmly believe that strong nationalist sentiments are deeply engraved in the grains of the Pakhtuns, which need to be streamlined, focused, converged and put in a direction leading to a well-defined tomorrow of the Pakhtuns. This thread as the motive was has agitated several sharp questions, which will be addressed in the succeeding paragraphs, in the limited ambit of my meager understanding. I would first venture to define the historical geography and demography of the Pakhtunland (Pukhtun Watan), described in the annals of history to move this debate further.
Pakhtunland has been mentioned by the historians and its own people as Roh and Pakhtunkhwa. Afghanistan is a recent (18th century) political state carved out of some of the territories of Roh and Pakhtunkhwa, while Pakhtunistan is a very recent political name, coined in the 20th century to denote a limited area of the Pakhtunland. The Pakhtun poets of the yester years have invariably used “Roh” as their native country in their poetry. For example; Ashraf khan Hijri, the eldest son of Khushal Khan Khattak, remembers his native land, Roh during his imprisonment by the Moghals in Daccan in a stanza;
Da zra baz ye tal da Roh pa zmaka garzi
Ka Hijri pa dakkan naast khali badan de.
(Ashraf Khan Hijri)
Pakhtunland has been mentioned by the historians and its own people as Roh and Pakhtunkhwa. Afghanistan is a recent (18th century) political state carved out of some of the territories of Roh and Pakhtunkhwa, while Pakhtunistan is a very recent political name, coined in the 20th century to denote a limited area of the Pakhtunland. The Pakhtun poets of the yester years have invariably used “Roh” as their native country in their poetry. For example; Ashraf khan Hijri, the eldest son of Khushal Khan Khattak, remembers his native land, Roh during his imprisonment by the Moghals in Daccan in a stanza;
Da zra baz ye tal da Roh pa zmaka garzi
Ka Hijri pa dakkan naast khali badan de.
(Ashraf Khan Hijri)
د زړه باز ئې تل د روهـ په زمکه ګرخي
کۀ هجري په دکن ناست خالي بدن دے
اشرف خان هجري
Maj. Raverty observes in his “Notes on Afghanistan”, that Roh is a large tract of country belonging to and inhabited by the Afghans, the easternmost boundary of which extends to Kashmir, and the western to the River Hirmand, a distance of two and a half months journey, and on the north its boundary extends to kashghar and its southern boundary to Baluchistan. It therefore lies between Iran, Turan and Hind, and its people are termed “Rohilahs”. However Dr. Habibullah Tagey defines these boundaries, as River Oxus to the north, the bank of the Arabian Sea to the south, Karman to the west and Hasanabdal to the East.
The Pakhtunland has been described as Pakhtunkhwa by Pakhtun men of pen themselves, which sprawls over the vast land from River Amu to Abaseen and from Herat to Kashmir.
A noted orientalist H.W Bellew describes the Pakhtunland as Afghanistan and defines its boundaries as River Indus to the East, River Oxus up to Khuja-e- Saleh in the North, Arabian Sea to the South and Karman in Paras, to the West.
Most of the parts of today’s Afghanistan, which are held by non-Pakhtuns, were previously inhabited by the Pakhtuns. Kabul, predominantly a Pakhtun city of the yester year has turned Persianized. The Khakhay tribes of the Pakhtuns were major citizens of Kabul at the times of Mirza Ulugh Beg, who was raised to the throne of Kabul by the Yusufzais. Herat has been a major seat of the Abdali rulers, till they were dispossessed by the Iranian sovereign Nadir Shah Afshar. Laveek Pakhtuns held Zabul to Ghazni and Ghazni to Gardez and Mahvee Suri Pakhtuns were firm in Siestan to Ghori up to the celebrated era of Amir Karor, the first known Pakhtun poet and sovereign.
Sir Thomas Holdich observes that Ghor was a vast territory spread from Hind to Iran and from Oxus to Hurmuz. Changez Khan destroyed the social structure of Ghor, annihilating the old inhabitants, Suris and Ghazalis etc, and replaced them with his subjects - the Mongols, whose descendents, the Hazaras have held now the vast land of Ghor and changed its name to Hazarajat. Ghazni was swept by Sultan Mehmud and his father Sabuktagin. His court historian, Utbi has abusively narrated Mehmud’s high handedness on Afghans inhabiting the surroundings.
The Uzbeks migrated to Afghanistan as mercenaries in the forces of Tamer lane. Tajiks consist of Turk and Persian progenies, who do not have a single ethnic origin but have a common lingual bond of Parsiban-Dariban. Tamer lane and his cruel descendents forced Pakhtuns to leave their abodes in large scales. The vacuum at Balkh, Bamyan and Ghor etc was filled by the non-Pakhtun immigrants.
Babar, shamelessly admits in his biography, “Tuzk-e-Babari”, “When we reached Gardez, I divided my army in several sections….we came across a large group of Pakhtuns, who were, at once put to sword by us and were immediately beheaded. I erected a minaret of their skulls”.
With all the demographic disfiguring, still the Northern and Western provinces, like Samangan, Baghban, Kandoz, Takhar, Budakhshan, Balkh, Jozjan Faryab, Badghais, Herat and Farah have a majority of the Pakhtuns, constituting 39% of the population, according to WAK Foundation’s statistics (1996 ) and having majority than any single ethnic group in these (so-called non-Pakhtun) provinces.
Pakhtuns played in the hands of the self-centered sovereigns like Sabuktagin, Mehmud ghaznavi, Moghals etc, as self seeking mercenaries devoid of a shred of the Pakhtun national aspiration. It was Mir Vais Neka, for the first time that kindled Pakhtun national fervor in the hearts of the Pakhtun in 18th century AD, some eighty two years before the French Revolution (1789 A.D). He defeated safavid power with the might of Pakhtuns muscles and established the first Pakhtuns national sovereignty in Kandahar in 1709 AD. His able son Shah Mehmood Hootak extended his domain to Asfahan and forced Shah Hussain Safavi to put his crown in his feet. The Hotaki sovereignty only lasted for 32 years, when Nadir Shah Afshar of Persia, defeated Shah Hussain Hotak and held the Pakhtunland.
After the murder of Nadir Shah Afshar by his own bodyguards in his army camp in 1747 AD, one of his Afghan commanders Ahmad Khan parted way with the Persian Empire and marched towards Kandahar with his Afghan contingent. He was appointed as the King of Afghans by a Jirga consisting, solely of the Afghan (Pakhtun) elders at Sher-e-Surkh in the suburb of Kandahar and thus “Afghanistan” ( named so later),came into being under the Afghan king Ahmad Shah Abdali. Historians have identified the boundaries of the contemporary Afghanistan during the reign of Ahmad Shah Abdali, as having River Oxus to the North, Arabian Sea to the South, Karman to the West, Sirhind and Tibet peaks to the East, with its capital at Kandahar. Except some expansions, Ahmad Shah Baba succeeded in carving out a Pakhtun state, which has been the historical abode of the Afghans (Pakhtuns) for thousand years and was called Aryana in the ancient historical record.
It is of immense political interest to note that only Pakhtun elders took part in the Jirga, which appointed Ahmad Shah Abdali (Durrani) as the King (Mashar). The prominent among them were, Haji Jamal Khan, the elder of Barakzais, Noor Mohammad Khan, the elder of Ghalzais, Mohabat Khan, the elder of Popalzais, Musa Khan, the elder of Sakzais and Nasrullah Khan, the elder of Noorzais. The proceedings of the Jirga continued for 9 days at the graveyard of Sher-e-Surkh, where a recluse Sabir Shah Malang was living in a mud hut in the graveyard. He was not part of the Jirga, but miraculously, he plucked an ear of wheat from the nearby field and put it as a semblance of crown in the turban of Ahmad Shah Durrani, after he was appointed by the Jirga as the Mashar . Lamentably one of his sons and a successor, Taimur Shah was more Persianized and apart from a Yusafzai wife, his all other nine wives were non-Pakhtun. He, not only shifted the capital from Kandahar to Kabul, but he also promoted Dari at the cost of Pashto and relegated Pakhtun culture. Parsi was the language of the Court and Pakhtun nobles were encouraged to switch over to Persian and Qazalbash ways of life. His ministers and advisors were mostly non-Pakhtun and a Qazalbash was his personal bodyguard, who wielded overwhelming influence. He (Taimoor Shah) kept Peshawar as his winter capital.
The Sadozai dynasty founded by the great Ahmad Shah Abdali, gave way to Barakzai and Mohammadzai dynasty of the Pakhtuns, who further deteriorated the socio-cultural fabric of Afghanistan. The historical Pakhtunland, vividly described in the ancient historical record and carved out by the Great Ahmad Shah Abdali, was not safeguarded by the later Afghan rulers, who were mostly self-seekers and opportunists, on the risk of Pakhtun destiny. Amir Yaqoob Khan was made handicapped and Afghanistan made crippled by the British under the shameful Treaty of Gandamak in 1879 AD. Yaqoob Khan left Khyber, Michni, Thall, Kurram, Sibbi, Pishin to British government for an annual subsidy of 60,000 pounds and forfeited his authority over his external affairs in favour of the British. One of the scions of Barakzai rulers, Amir Abdur Rehman sold out 30% of his Pakhtun land and 40% of Pakhtuns to British India, on 12th Nov, 1893 AD, under the infamous Durand Agreement and thus the winter capital of Afghanistan, Peshawar and other eastern Pakhtun areas were broken away officially from Afghanistan and made part of the British India up to the hilltops of Khyber and Bolan. Peshawar was the splendid winter capital where Shah Shuja had, once received the British envoy Manstuart Elphinstone and Amir Dost Mohammad Khan was seen in his majestic splendor by Alexander Burnes, another British representative, but now the Winter Capital was torn apart. Sikhs conquered it in 1833 due to cowardly withdrawal of Sardar Azim Khan, which was officially lost to Sir Mortimer Durand by the Afghan Ruler. The subsequent Afghan rulers endorsed the Durand Treaty in the years, 1905, 1919 and 1921 AD. The dominant Parsiban lobby in Afghanistan has always discouraged the idea of re-amalgamation of Afghanistan’s lost Pakhtun territories in the fatherland, now held by Pakistan.
Amir Abdur Rehman was satisfied for enjoying a peaceful rule, though in a crippled and dismembered Afghanistan. He brokered peace with his neighbor by making the Eastern Pakhtuns as cheap scapegoat. The later Afghan rulers did not seriously bother about their lost territories and people. They kept at bay from the affairs of the Eastern Pakhtuns, except keeping a few stipend holders in the tribal belt.
The mass migration (Hijrat) of the Pakhtuns in Pakhtunkhwa in 1920, in favor of the Usmanid Caliphate of Turkey, has brought awesome tales of indifference and aloofness from the Afghan government of the time. When the Eastern Pakhtuns returned from Afghanistan, they were in shambles and all their belongings and even their women-folk, were forcibly snatched away from them. Bacha Khan was also a young refugee among the migrants. When he called on the king of Afghanistan, Ghazi Amanullah Khan, an interpreter was engaged during the talks ironically between the two Pakhtun stalwarts, because the Pakhtun king could not speak Pashto.
The Pakhtuns spearheaded a war of independence against the British colonialists in British India, but the afghan rulers kept aloof. Faqir of Ipi, a Torikhel Wazir and a consummate guerilla tactician, led a pierce armed up-rising against the British, which was suppressed by savage British operations, lasted from 1936 to 1938 but the Afghan rulers kept deaf and dumb. The person of Faqir of Ipi was so formidable that George Cunningham the Governor of NWFP, had to admit as reported by Charles Miller in his book, Khyber, in his words, “He (Faqir of Ipi) is not only implacable but also completely incorruptible…..who would rid me of this turbulent priest”. A similar fate was meted out to Haji Sahib Taurangzai’s armed insurgence in Mohmand Agency in 1935. The British launched a major punitive operation against the Mohmands by using aircrafts, armor and heavy artillery but the Afghan rulers never raised any protest. The Red-Shirt Movement was constrained to turn its face to Gandhi as the Afghan government had been following an evident evasive policy and it was avoiding harnessing the muscles of its lost population to square the deal with the British usurpers. The Afghan government refrained from inflicting an avenging blow to the declining British power in the Pakhtunland, despite a window of opportunities was opened to it. Fraser Tytler recalls,”…Even in the darkest days of 1940 (2nd world war), the king (Zahir Shah) and his advisors faced the imminent prospect of the breakdown of the British Empire, and having considered the situation, reaffirmed their neutrality. It was a fine gesture at one of the darkest moments in British history”. More humiliating was the fear of Afghan rulers when they evicted the German diplomats from Kabul, against the wishes of the people, on a single ultimatum from the British government.
After inking of the Durand Line Agreement, a large scale insurgence against the firingis was unleashed in 1896 AD by the Salarzais, Momands, Sapis, Afridis, Orakzais, Waziris, Masoods, but the Afghan government did not care to gear the tide against its enemy. At the same time Umara Khan Jandoli, who was called the Afghan Napoleon by his arch rivals, the British, led armed campaigns against the colonialists but he was also not abetted by the Afghan rulers in the closest proximity. The massive disturbance in the Pakhtunland compelled the British to establish a separate “North West Frontier Province” in 1901 under a Governor at Peshawar to deal exclusively with the Pakhtuns’ agitation. Political analysts think that if the Afghan government had started “Quit Pakhtunistan” movement on the pattern of “Quit India” movement, which was started by the Congress in 1942-43, a ripe time when the British power in the Sub-continent was vulnerable due to its entanglement in the imbroglio of the Second World War, then the scenario might have had different in 1947, when the British were leaving the Sub-continent. The pity was that Afghan government had no plans and desire about its lost territories and Pakhtun population. They were only interested in a “peaceful” seclusion.
If we analyze the reluctance of Afghan rulers of claiming back its lost territories and people, we come across some bitter and startling realities. The harsh fact is that the Afghan rulers did not wish to retrieve their lost territories and population on two counts;
-The Eastern Pakhtuns were more politically conscious and had been anti-imperialists, therefore the despotic Afghan Rulers considered them detrimental their dictatorial rule as they could sow the seeds of political awareness in a United Afghanistan, where politicking was banned..
- The hegemonial lobby of Parsiban-Dariban aristocracy and bureaucracy impeded to get the Eastern Pakhtuns back in the fold as this move was to result in tilting more the demographic and social structures in favor of the Pakhtuns, which could disturb the status quo.
Khudai Khidmatgars and Zalmay Pakhtoon, pulping the situation, assembled at Bannu on 25th June, 1947 and coined “Independent Pakhtunistan” for the first time. S.Fida Yunas (“Abdul Ghaffar Khan-Pushtunistan and Afghanistan”), refers to the Bannu Resolution adopted in the session, which stated “This joint session unanimously decides that here in this country [North West Frontier Province] an independent government of all Pakhtuns shall be established, the Constitution of which will be based on the Islamic principles of democracy, equality and social justice. This session appeals to all the Pukhtuns to unite together on one plateform to achieve this noble aim and not to bow before the power of anybody except that of the Pakhtuns”. The Afghan government found a way out and was constrained to support it superficially, as a Pakhtun Nationalist Movement was launched in Afghanistan by Abdul Majeed Zabuli, which was supported by the erstwhile Sardar Daud Khan. The Afghan government, except Sardar Daud Khan, pursued a tactful policy to support Pakhtunistan movement to appease its Pakhtun population. Conspicuously it did not press for getting back its lost land. The Afghan envoy to the United Nations, Mr. Hosyn Aziz voted against the membership of the newly-created country, Pakistan to the UN. He made a statement in the General assembly that the Pakhtuns should be given right of self-determination to choose between, either joining Pakistan or to be independent but he did not utter a word to urge joining their fatherland, Afghanistan. The negative vote was mysteriously withdrawn on 23rd October, 1947 and Pakistan was admitted in the family of the United Nations.
Before that a farce referendum was imposed on the Pakhtuns on 20th July, 1947 by the British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, asking the Pakhtuns to choose between India and Pakistan. The Khudai Khidmatgars boycotted the referendum, as they declared that the issues were of no concern to the Pakhtuns in the absence of a third option of “Azad Pakhtunistan”. S. Fida Yunas (Ibid), adds, “…Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan said that the frontiers Pathans had their own distinct history and culture, and this could not be preserved unless they had full freedom to maintain and develop their own institutions. They, therefore claimed that the plebiscite should not be on the basis of a choice between Pakistan and India but there should be a third alternative of an independent Pakhtunistan….a state of their own ….as they feared the domination of the Punjab”. Shahsawar Sangarwal observes in “Da Afghanistan Da Tareekhi Jughrafeye Sarangwalay”, “The Afghan government kept silent on the question of referendum in 1947. If Afghan government wanted the Eastern Pakhtuns could be enfolded with, either peaceful means or by the use of force. Afghanistan had a regular disciplined army and the new Pakistan was dependent on the British-Indian army which was under the process of transition, therefore it was unable to offer resistance”. The learned analyst believes that such passive attitude of King Zahir Shah was a great historical crime. Another Afghan political observer, Ghulam Mohammad Zarmalwal, opines in his work, “Afghanistan,-Tar Wrostee Afghana”, “Afghan government has been playing games with its Pakhtun population by rendering only lip-service to the cause of Pakhtunistan, by merely naming a Chowk and observing a Day, housing a few political exiles, and doing nothing more”.
Syed Qasim Rishtia (Khaterat-e-Siasi), recalls the proceedings of a Kabul’s high-powered meeting on Pashtunistan attended by Sardar Shah Mehmood Khan, Sardar Shah Wali Khan, the entire cabinet, some officials of foreign ministry and press and describes as to why a claim on the Pakhtunland was given up by Kabul as deliberated on in the meeting. The proceedings of the meeting stated “The land has been separated from Afghanistan almost one hundred years ago. The people of that area have lived under different conditions and led a different style of life. A new relationship for them would not be easy…..The people, particularly of occupied Pushtunistan are politically awakened, have a semi-democratic political organization, are educationally more advanced in the North-Western Province and Quetta than the people of Afghanistan. In all probabilities if such a demand was put to them, it will be rejected out rightly by them….. One Mohsin Feroz who was the Director of the Bakhtar Agency, he put forward a simple and short formula, saying, “The resolution of the problem of Pushtunistan is only a march (war- attack). The formula was not received well and many, in fact, even laughed at it”.
The last 28 years of living in “exile” with the Eastern Pakhtuns in the after matter of the Saur Revolution, did not result in appropriate socializing of the Lar and Bar Pakhtuns to squeeze mental distance and to dismantle social barriers. No encouraging trend of inter-marriages developed among the “Lara Ao Bar” Pakhtuns in a span of time which sociologists believe, was sufficient to bring about mutual integration on the re-union of the lost brethren.
The people, who still believe in the idea of getting back to the fold of “Loy Afghanistan”, are living in utopia and against the wishes of the people on the helm of affairs in Afghanistan. The other option of living in Pakistan with any name and any “guarantee” contains very bleak prospective in the light of past mistrusts, breaches and treacheries. No true guarantee exists which can curb the brute dominance of Punjab, the frequent abrogation and suspension of the constitution and usual military coup, in Pakistan. Pakhtunistan is the only option, as Pakhtuns are not destined to live under the Brown Sahibs in Pakistan, who refused to live under the yoke of the powerful White Masters. A viable Confederation with Afghanistan could be the next phase to integrate the “Lar Ao Bar” Pakhtuns in the Sub-Continent of Pakhtunkhwa, to preserve the cherished legacy of the Great Ahmad Shah Baba. It is an uphill task but can be achieved by the miracles of unity and political will, which, we are lacking today, tremendously. Pakhtun intelligentsia and Nationalists have to undergo an arduous task of instilling these goals in the heart and soul of the Pakhtuns.
Let’s remember the great freedom fighter and the exalted Pakhtun poet, Fazle Mehmood Makhfi, who made the following yearnings a quarter to century ago;
Khudaya!Daase Wakht Ba Raashi
Che Zmong Jehaz Ba Ham Wee
Laka Baaz Ba Pa Hawaa Shee
Pa Tarkho Ubo Ba Sam Wee
Rail Ba Ham Zmong Paida Shee
Taar Ba Hum Pa Har Qadam Wee
Za Ba Khpal Jarnail Pase Wom
Pa Dushman Ba Jor Matam Wee.
خدايه داسې وخت به راشي
چې زمونږ جهاز به هم وي
لکه باز به په هوا شي
په ترخو اوبو به سم وي
رېل به هم زمونږ پيدا شي
تار به هم په هر قدم وي
زه به خپل جرنيل پسې ووم
په دښمن به جوړ ماتم وي
Let’s find out and implant in our grains a pragmatic prospective between the two popular propositions of Pakhtuns destiny, namely (i) Loy Afghanistan and (ii) Pakhtunistan. The former concept has never been encouraged and the later supported only skin-deep by the Afghan rulers.
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Za yam Sakhi Arsala Khan
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