where did the word "Pathan" came from

[Michin Khel]

We marwats are lodhis, i remember we have ruled india.

[Yousafzai Pakhtun]

hmmmmmm Lodhis......who were defeated in Panipat by Babur....

Luffy there is a book written on the Origin of Marwat tribe....."History of Marwats" i have seen this book with Dr. Fazl ur rahim Marwat.....It contains good information regarding Marwats.....it also has some pics of well known Marwat sardars.....

[Michin Khel]

hahaha you know 1 lakh lodhis were defeated by 12 thousand mughals.
Yes i have read that book.

[Yousafzai Pakhtun]

hahaha you know 1 lakh lodhis were defeated by 12 thousand mughals.
Yes i have read that book.

You are right 1 lakh lodhis were defeated by 12 thousands mughals because constant fighting with his own companions like Daulat khan had grown him weaker.....Daulat khan invited Babur to attack Ibrahim lodhi...Babur was a clever fighter he first adviced Daulat khan and his other colleagues to attack the Sultan they attacked him and got defeated...after that babur organised his forces and attacked Ibrahim who had already suffered a lot with the hand of his fellow afghans....and thus got defeated in the famous battle of panipat.....but i am glad that Sher Shah another pathan of his tribe took the revenge from Humayun......

[Michin Khel]

yup inter-tribal feuds are our weak point.

[KhalsaWarrior]

Indians had their first contact with our racial (and not necessarily linguistic) ancestors in around 1500BC. That's when our people descended from the mountains of the Hindu Kush and captured everything south and east of the Ganges. Our kings fought against the native Indians and them amongst each other. We gave them their language and we created a caste system to maintain our hegemony. They, in return, started worshiping the Aryan kings as gods. The Vedas, Rig Vedas and the Mahabharat myth were all written during that era.

Since the Indians took our ancestors as gods (whom they still worship today), it's easy to conclude that they did not despise us but were instead in awe of us. Despite the mounting evidence for this Aryan invasion theory, Indians keep denying. In the modern world, the only people who resemble those war-like Aryans are the Pashtun people along with the Nuristanis and Gilgitis and perhaps some other non-Mongoloid peoples of Afghanistan.

LZ, Romila Thapar (I tend to take her as the authority on Indic studies as do many others) broadly points to a wide region from around the southern Caspian Sea to the Eastern Iranian plateau (present Pashtun areas) as the geographic origin of the early nomads (also called Aryans). Ethnic origins we cant be sure about. As they were nomads and constantly displacing other populations we cant really be sure if they were ancestors of present day Pashtuns. The early nomads into the sub-con could have not been not related to Pashtuns and just passed through Pashtun areas before coming to India. Or may be Pashtuns were themselves nomads that later displaced these nomads.

The basic thing is that there has been so much mixing in the sub-con that its hard to say who the early nomads (Aryans) were. Pashtuns could have common ancestors with these early nomads but whats to say that Pashtuns themselves weren't originally from different lands than they currently occupy?

And what all ancient ethnicities have contributed to the formation of the Pashtun ethnicity as we know it now? There are a lot of unanswered questions out there.


On the topic, its true that Pathan is not a slur in India. In fact its a title associated with awe and respect. Before joining PF, I had no idea that its a derogatory term. But yeah, I would rather call people as they would like themselves to be called.

[Master Khan]

I wish this word would die from the face of the earth, I don't care what said about it, but at the end of the day, we call ourselfs "PASHTUN or Pakhtun".
We don't want to use a indian Punjabie word to discribe ourselfs.

[khanzadha]

PATHAN IS OK
peace

[Master Khan]

its not!!

[torkham]

it is word of indian origin for pashtun. in this context indian includes pkistanis, since the land of pakistan before 194x was british india, and before that it was india or mughal hindustan and generally called hind.

since non-pashto speakers east of khyber could not pronounce pakhtun, ended up reducing it to pathan over time.

parthian/pathan is not possible as word parthian has been used in modern times by europeans, so indian changing parthian to pathan is nonsence.

pashtun settlers in patan[india] being called pathan also nonsense as pashtun settled in delhi to calcutta.

afghan/pashtun in afghanistan do not have pathan as a name. so this by deduction leaves pathan a word of indian origin to refer afghan/pashtun.

[Sabur]

the word PATHAN

The word Pathan in India is used for money lenders originally form Kabul. They are also calle dKabuli Pathans.

The pathans settled in India over the centuries do not ise the word Pathan with their name .they use Khan or samply clan aname.

Pathan is exclusive fo rmoneylenders(soodkhor pathans)

[roadrunner]

it is word of indian origin for pashtun. in this context indian includes pkistanis, since the land of pakistan before 194x was british india, and before that it was india or mughal hindustan and generally called hind.

since non-pashto speakers east of khyber could not pronounce pakhtun, ended up reducing it to pathan over time.

parthian/pathan is not possible as word parthian has been used in modern times by europeans, so indian changing parthian to pathan is nonsence.

pashtun settlers in patan[india] being called pathan also nonsense as pashtun settled in delhi to calcutta.

afghan/pashtun in afghanistan do not have pathan as a name. so this by deduction leaves pathan a word of indian origin to refer afghan/pashtun.

Probably the most accurate explanation.

Better than the ones that emit "Pakistan" to everything.

Another one is that it's from "Pratisthana" or well-established. Of course some see it as meaning robber for their own agenda.

[Michin Khel]

Pashtuns were stereotyped as dumb in india and were called ulo ka patha. Ulo ka patha shortened to patha and patha changed to pathan gradually.

[Pakhtunzai]

^Really?

[Midnight_Sun]

Pathan is a corruption of Pakhtun, it's been noted in several scholarly books, eg. Rawlinson, UNESCO's voluminous Central Asia series, and Caroe.

Also, whomever said that we 'gave' Indians a language is rather arrogant. There were villages and cities throughout what is today, South Eastern Iran, Southern Afghanistan, and Pakistan that existed before the nomadic Aryans migrated down here from the North. In fact, humans and ancient Humans like Homo Erectus and Neanderthals (who many believe had their own language) also were known to roam these regions before Homo Sapiens even arrived.

I think everybody needs to take a step back and just realize that chest thumping and pride isn't anyway to learn about culture.