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102-671: People become Pashtunized when they settle in Pashtun-dominated areas and adopt Pashtun culture and language. Pashtunization is a specific form of cultural assimilation and has been taking place in Pashtun-populated regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan for several centuries. "In the eighth and ninth centuries, ancestors of many of today's Turkic-speaking Afghans settled in the Hindu Kush area (partly to obtain better grazing land) and began to assimilate much of

204-605: A Pashto TV channel in Pakistan . Pashto cinema is based out of the Pakistani city of Peshawar . The Pakistani city of Karachi is believed to host the largest concentration of Pashtuns. There are more than 19 million Pashtuns in Afghanistan, constituting 48% of the population. Other sources say that up to 60% of Afghanistan's population is made up of ethnic Pashtuns, forming the largest ethnic group in that country. Pashto

306-453: A royal decree of Zahir Shah formally granted Pashto the status of an official language, with full rights to use in all aspects of government and education – despite the fact that the ethnically Pashtun royal family and bureaucrats mostly spoke Persian. Thus Pashto became a national language , a symbol for Pashtun nationalism . The constitutional assembly reaffirmed the status of Pashto as an official language in 1964 when Afghan Persian

408-487: A bid to make Pashto the interethnic language of Afghanistan and remove Dari as an official language. Before the overthrow of Mohammad Najibullah in 1992, Pashto made up more than 50% of media in Afghanistan. A Soviet GRU dossier described Najibullah as "A Pashtun nationalist , he is one of the motivating spirits of the policy of “ Pashtunization ” of Afghan society. Within his closest circle he speaks only in Pashto . He

510-512: A commitment towards provincial autonomy for Pashtuns, which was already guaranteed by Pakistan's Constitution, but stripped by the Bhutto government when the One Unit scheme was introduced. Bacha Khan who previously strived greatly for Pashtunistan later on in 1980 during an interview with an Indian journalist, Haroon Siddiqui said that the "idea of Pashtunistan never helped Pashtuns. In fact it

612-574: A much bigger country than Pakistan for their independence. Sardar Daoud Khan , who was the-then prime minister of Afghanistan supported a nationalistic reunification of the Pashtuns in Pakistan with Afghanistan. He wanted Pashtun-dominated areas like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baloch-dominated areas like Balochistan to become part of Afghanistan. However, his policy of reunification of Pashtuns antagonized Non-Pashtuns like Tajiks , Uzbeks and Hazaras living in Afghanistan. Non-Pashtuns believed that

714-568: A new Iranian ruler; the military genius and commander Nader Shah . Besides Persian, Turkmen, and Caucasian forces, Nader was also accompanied by the young Ahmad Shah Durrani , and 4,000 well trained Abdali Pashtun troops from what is now Afghanistan. After the death of Nader Shah in 1747 and the disintegration of his massive empire, Ahmad Shah Durrani created his own large and powerful Durrani Empire , which included all of modern-day Afghanistan, North east Iran, Sindh, Punjab, Baluchistan and Kashmir. The famous couplet by Ahmad Shah Durrani describes

816-557: A promoter of the wealth and antiquity of Afghanistan's Pashto culture." From the 16th century, Pashto poetry become very popular among the Pashtuns. Some of those who wrote in Pashto are Bayazid Pir Roshan (a major inventor of the Pashto alphabet ), Khushal Khan Khattak , Rahman Baba , Nazo Tokhi , and Ahmad Shah Durrani , founder of the modern state of Afghanistan or the Durrani Empire . The Pashtun literary tradition grew in

918-522: A variety very similar to it, while others have attempted to place it closer to Bactrian . However, neither position is universally agreed upon. What scholars do agree on is the fact that Pashto is an Eastern Iranian language sharing characteristics with Eastern Middle Iranian languages such as Bactrian, Khwarezmian and Sogdian . Compare with other Eastern Iranian Languages and Old Avestan : Zə tā winə́m /ɐz dɐ wənən/ Az bū tū dzunim Strabo , who lived between 64 BC and 24 CE, explains that

1020-421: Is "one of the primary markers of ethnic identity" amongst Pashtuns. A national language of Afghanistan , Pashto is primarily spoken in the east, south, and southwest, but also in some northern and western parts of the country. The exact number of speakers is unavailable, but different estimates show that Pashto is the mother tongue of 45–60% of the total population of Afghanistan . In Pakistan , Pashto

1122-468: Is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family , natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan . It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa . It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ( افغانی , Afghāni ). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns , it is one of

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1224-536: Is checked via military and has become much less common in comparison to the past. Depending on the source, the ethnic Pashtuns constitute 42-60% of the population of Afghanistan . In neighboring Pakistan they constitute 15.42 percent of the 200 million population , which does not include Pashtun diaspora in other Pakistani cities and provinces. In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan, Pashto speakers constitute above 73 percent of

1326-454: Is inclined to select colleagues not for their professional qualities but for their personal devotion to him, predominantly relatives and fellow-villagers". Strand states that Pashtunization continues to occur due to intermarriages between Pashtun women and indigenous Dardic Indo-Aryan and Nuristani men. Strand states that Pashtun wives rarely learn their native husband's language due to the "chauvanistic" attitude of Pashto speakers leading to

1428-757: Is one of the official languages of Afghanistan , the Afghan National Anthem is recited in Pashto language and the Pashtun dress is the national dress of Afghanistan. Since the late 19th century, the traditional Pashtunistan region has gradually expanded to the Amu River in the north. However, most Pashtun living in north of the Helmand River tend to speak Dari instead of Pashto . Important government positions in Afghanistan have historically been held by Pashtuns. The Afghan Armed Forces

1530-550: Is spoken by 15% of its population, mainly in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern districts of Balochistan province. It is also spoken in parts of Mianwali and Attock districts of the Punjab province , areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and in Islamabad . Pashto speakers are found in other major cities of Pakistan, most notably Karachi , Sindh, which may have the largest Pashtun population of any city in

1632-508: Is taught poorly in schools in Pakistan. Moreover, in government schools material is not provided for in the Pashto dialect of that locality, Pashto being a dialectically rich language. Further, researchers have observed that Pashtun students are unable to fully comprehend educational material in Urdu. Professor Tariq Rahman states: "The government of Pakistan, faced with irredentist claims from Afghanistan on its territory, also discouraged

1734-695: The Afghan military across the poorly-demarcated Durand Line into the Pakistani Bajaur Agency in order to manipulate events in the region and press the Pashtunistan issue; these plans ultimately came to nothing after the Afghan troops were defeated by Pakistani irregular forces. In support of the quasi-invasion, the Afghan government engaged in an intense propaganda war via radio broadcasts. Pakistani government decided to retaliate against

1836-611: The Bannu Resolution , demanding that the Pashtuns be given a choice to have an independent state of Pashtunistan composing all Pashtun majority territories of British India, instead of being made to join the new state of Pakistan. However, the British Raj refused to comply with the demand of this resolution. The NWFP joined the Dominion of Pakistan as a result of the 1947 NWFP referendum , which had been boycotted by

1938-692: The Durand Line Agreement was signed between Afghan "Iron" Amir Abdur Rahman and British Viceroy Mortimer Durand . In 1905, the North-West Frontier Province (today's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ) was created and roughly corresponded to Pashtun majority regions within the British domain. The FATA area was created to further placate the Pashtun tribesmen who never fully accepted British rule and were prone to rebellions, while

2040-601: The Great Game and leaving about half of historical Pashtun territory under British colonial rule; after the partition of British India , the Durand Line now forms the internationally recognized border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The traditional Pashtun homeland stretches roughly from the areas south of the Amu River in Afghanistan to the areas west of the Indus River in Pakistan; it predominantly comprises

2142-563: The Khudai Khidmatgar , started using the word "Pathanistan" to refer to the region, and later, the word "Pashtunistan" became more popular. The native or indigenous people of Pashtunistan are the Pashtuns (also known as Pakhtuns, Pathans and historically as ethnic Afghans ), an Iranic ethnic group. They are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and the second largest in Pakistan. The Pashtuns are concentrated mainly in

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2244-542: The Musulmans of the Kohistan (the mountains), and how matters stood there, they said, "Don't call it Kohistan, but Afghanistan ; for there is nothing there but Afghans and disturbances." Thus it is clear that for this reason the people of the country call their home in their own language Afghanistan, and themselves Afghans . But it occurs to me, that when, under the rule of Muhammadan sovereigns, Musulmans first came to

2346-751: The Niedermayer–Hentig Mission , to join the Central Allies on behalf of the Caliph in a Jihad ; some revolutionaries, tribals, and Afghan leaders including a brother of the Amir named Nasrullah Khan were in favour of the delegation and wanted the Amir to declare Jihad. Kazim Bey carried a firman from the Khalifa in Persian. It was addressed to "the residents of Pathanistan ." It said that when

2448-631: The Pashto language , and identity have been based. Alternative names historically used for the region include Pashtūnkhwā or Pakhtūnkhwā ( پښتونخوا ), Pathānistān, or simply the Pashtun Belt . During British rule in India in 1893, Mortimer Durand drew the Durand Line , fixing the limits of the spheres of influence between the Emirate of Afghanistan and British India during

2550-499: The Soviet Union and economic downturn caused by the blockade imposed by Pakistan, Daoud Khan was forced to resign by King Zahir Shah . Under King Zahir Shah rule, relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan improved and Pakistan opened its border with Afghanistan. However, later on in 1973, Daoud Khan seized power from King Zahir Shah in a military Coup d'état and declared himself the first president of Afghanistan. After seizing

2652-653: The Soviet-Afghan War in Afghanistan, millions of Afghans including non-Pashtun people fled to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa . Pashtuns in Pakistan make up the second largest ethnic group after Punjabis with about 16% of the population, totaling over 30 million. This figure only includes the native Pashto speaking inhabitants of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Northern Balochistan, and does not include the Pathans settled in Punjab and Sindh who make up significant numbers alongside

2754-449: The " Now or Never " pamphlet stands for the second letter in "P a kistan". However, this name has failed to capture political support in the province. There was support, however, to rename North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) as Pakhtunkhwa (which translates as "area of Pashtuns"). Nasim Wali Khan (the wife of Khan Abdul Wali Khan) declared in an interview: "I want an identity. I want the name to change so that Pathans may be identified on

2856-927: The "Red Shirts") were members of a civil rights movement . Its leader Bacha Khan claimed to have been inspired by the Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi . While the Red Shirts were willing to work with the Indian National Congress from a political point of view, the Pashtuns living in the NWFP desired independence from India. However, the Bacha Khan wanted the Pashtuns areas in British India to remain part of United India instead of gaining independence. In June 1947, Mirzali Khan (Faqir of Ipi), Bacha Khan , and other Khudai Khidmatgars declared

2958-675: The 17th-century "warrior-poet" Khushal Khan Khattak assembled Pashtun armies to fight against the Mughal Empire in the region. During this time, the eastern parts of Pashtunistan were ruled by the Mughals while the western parts were ruled by Safavid Iran . Pashtunistan first gained an autonomous status in 1709, when Mirwais Hotak successfully revolted against the Safavids in Loy Kandahar . The Pashtuns later achieved unity under

3060-608: The 1930s, a movement began to take hold to promote Pashto as a language of government, administration, and art with the establishment of a Pashto Society Pashto Anjuman in 1931 and the inauguration of the Kabul University in 1932 as well as the formation of the Pashto Academy (Pashto Tolana) in 1937. Muhammad Na'im Khan, the minister of education between 1938 and 1946, inaugurated the formal policy of promoting Pashto as Afghanistan's national language, leading to

3162-457: The 1942 Cripps Mission , and 1946 Cabinet Mission to India , the Afghan government made repeated attempts to ensure that any debate about the independence of India must include Afghanistan's role in the future of the NWFP . The British government wavered between reassuring the Afghan to the rejection of their role and insistence that NWFP was an integral part of British India. During World War II,

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3264-597: The 20th century by the Musahiban . Many non-Pashtuns living in close proximity with Pashtuns have been Pashtunized. For example, in the central Ghor Province , some southern groups of Aimaqs have adopted Pashto language. In the eastern Laghman Province and Nangarhar Province , many Pashayi are bilingual in Pashto. Following the Saur Revolution , the Khalqists attempted to undermine the status of Dari in

3366-523: The 7th century and began introducing Islam to the native Pashtun people. The Pashtunistan area later fell to the Turkish Ghaznavids whose main capital was at Ghazni , with Lahore serving as the second power house. The Ghaznavid Empire was then taken over by the Ghorids from today's Ghor , Afghanistan. The army of Genghis Khan arrived in the 13th century and began destroying cities in

3468-770: The 8th century, and they use the writings found in Pata Khazana . Pə́ṭa Xazāná ( پټه خزانه ) is a Pashto manuscript claimed to be written by Mohammad Hotak under the patronage of the Pashtun emperor Hussain Hotak in Kandahar ; containing an anthology of Pashto poets. However, its authenticity is disputed by scholars such as David Neil MacKenzie and Lucia Serena Loi. Nile Green comments in this regard: "In 1944, Habibi claimed to have discovered an eighteenth-century manuscript anthology containing much older biographies and verses of Pashto poets that stretched back as far as

3570-439: The Afghan army was routed with heavy casualties. Several Afghan army soldiers were also captured by Pakistani soldiers and they were paraded in front of international media which in turn caused embarrassment for Daoud Khan. As a consequence of Daoud Khan's actions, Pakistan closed its border with Afghanistan which caused economic crisis in Afghanistan. Because of continued resentment against Daoud's autocratic rule , close ties with

3672-526: The Afghan government declared that it recognized "neither the imaginary Durand nor any similar line" and that all previous Durand Line agreements were void . Bacha Khan when took an oath of allegiance to Pakistan in 1948 in legislation assembly and during his speech he was asked by PM Liaquat Ali Khan about Pashtunistan to which he replied that it's just a name to the Pashtun province in Pakistan same like Punjab , Bengal , Sindh and Baluchishtan are

3774-528: The Afghan government's Pashtunistan policy by supporting Non-Pashtun opponents of the Afghan government including future Mujaheddin leaders like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ahmad Shah Massoud . This operation was remarkably successful, and by 1977 the Afghan government of Daoud Khan was willing to settle all outstanding issues in exchange for a lifting of the ban on the National Awami Party and

3876-603: The Afghans, while Pashtunistan is a reference to this land by its language. Mention of this land by the name of Afghanistan predates mention by the name of Pashtunistan, which has been mentioned by Ahmad Shah Durrani in his famous couplet, by 6th-century Indian astronomer Varāhamihira , 7th-century Chinese pilgrim Hiven Tsiang , 14th-century Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta , Mughal Emperor Babur , 16th-century historian Firishta and many others. The men of Kabull and Khilj also went home; and whenever they were questioned about

3978-668: The Ayub period (1958–1969) was the gradual integration into Pakistani society and the military-bureaucratic establishment. It was a period of Pakistan's political history which saw a large number of ethnic Pashtuns holding high positions in the military and the bureaucracy. Ayub himself was a non-Pashto speaking ethnic Pashtun belonging to the Tarin sub-tribe of the Hazara District in the Frontier. The growing participation of Pashtuns in

4080-558: The British were defeated, "His Majesty the Khalifa, in agreement with allied States, will acquire guarantee for independence of the united state of Pathanistan and will provide every kind of assistance to it. Thereafter, I will not allow any interference in the country of Pathanistan." (Ahmad Chagharzai; 1989; pp. 138–139). However the efforts failed and the Afghan Amir Habibullah Khan maintained Afghanistan's neutrality throughout World War I. Similarly, during

4182-566: The British, such as the Punjab region and the Balochistan region . The Anglo-Afghan Wars were fought as part of the overall imperialistic Great Game that was waged between the Russian Empire and the British. Poor and landlocked, newly born Afghanistan was able to defend its territory and keep both sides at bay by using them against each other. In 1893, as part of a way for fixing the limit of their respective spheres of influence,

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4284-713: The Frontier tribes and has every intention of treating them generously, provided they abstain from outrages against the people of India." The Durand Line and Pashtunistan issues have been raised by different Afghan regimes in the past. However, it may no longer be a concern. Pashtuns are now so well integrated in Pakistani society that the majority will never opt for Pashtunistan or Afghanistan. Afghan-Pashtun refugees have been staying in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for more than 30 years. Threat perceptions about Afghanistan need re-evaluation so that suitable changes are made in our Afghan policy. Prominent 20th century proponents of

4386-825: The Khalaj as a "tribe of Turks" that had been going through a language shift . Some of them left the area during the Mongol invasion of Central Asia towards the Indian subcontinent , where they built empires such as the Khalji dynasty of Delhi . Because of their language shift and Pashtunization, the Khalji were looked upon as Pashtuns (Afghans) by the Turkic nobles of the Delhi Sultanate. Many former Pashai speakers have adopted

4488-467: The Khudai Khidmatgar movement, including Bacha Khan and then-chief minister Dr. Khan Sahib, as they were ditched by the leadership of Congress. About (99.02%) of the votes were cast in favor of Pakistan and only 2,874 (0.98%) in favor of India. The concept of Pashtunistan has varying meanings across Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, Pashtun nationalists look after the interests of

4590-548: The Pakistani Government resulted in the erosion of the support for the Pashtunistan movement in the Province by the end of the 1960s. Afghanistan and Pashtun nationalists did not exploit Pakistan's vulnerability during the nation's 1965 and 1971 wars with India, and even backed Pakistan against a largely Hindu India. Further, had Pakistan been destabilized by India, nationalists would have had to fight against

4692-529: The Pashto Movement and eventually allowed its use in peripheral domains only after the Pakhtun elite had been co-opted by the ruling elite...Thus, even though there is still an active desire among some Pakhtun activists to use Pashto in the domains of power, it is more of a symbol of Pakhtun identity than one of nationalism." Robert Nicols states: "In the end, national language policy, especially in

4794-645: The Pashtun areas on the ground that it served as the Pashtun seat of power since 1709 with the rise of the Hotaki dynasty followed by the establishment of the Durrani Afghan Empire . According to historic sources, Afghan tribes did not appear in Peshawar valley until after 800 AD, when the Islamic conquest of this area took place. Agreements cited by the Afghan government as proof of their claim over

4896-470: The Pashtun ethnic group and have support only from them. They favor the ideas of Lōy Afghānistān or "Greater Afghanistan", and maintain an irredentist claim on the entire Pashtun-populated region. The Pashtunistan demand also served the cause of domestic Afghan politics, where several successive governments used the idea to strengthen "Pashtun ethnic support" for the state. This policy intensified ethno-linguistic rivalry between Pashtuns and non-Pashtuns in

4998-418: The Pashtun tribes include Article 11 of the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1921 , which states: "The two contracting parties, being mutually satisfied themselves each regarding the goodwill of the other and especially regarding their benevolent intentions towards the tribes residing close to their respective boundaries, hereby undertake to inform each other of any future military operations which may appear necessary for

5100-450: The Pashtunistan cause have included Khan Abdul Wali Khan and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan . Ghaffar Khan stated in the Pakistan Constituent Assembly in 1948 that he simply wanted "the renaming of his province as Pashtunistan same like Punjab , Sindh and Baluchishtan are the names of provinces of Pakistan as ethno-linguistic names, Another name mentioned is Afghania where the initial "A" in Choudhary Rahmat Ali Khan's theory stated in

5202-478: The Pashtunistan region around Peshawar was invaded by Ranjit Singh and his Sikh army in the early part of the 19th century, but a few years later they were defeated by the British Raj , the new powerful empire which reached the Pashtunistan region from the east. Following the decline of the Durrani dynasty and the establishment of the new Barakzai dynasty in Afghanistan, the Pashtun domains began to shrink as they lost control over other parts of South Asia to

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5304-419: The Pashtunistan wound". In 1979 under General Secretary Nur Muhammad Taraki the Khalqists regime in Afghanistan changed the official map to include NWFP and Balochistan as new "frontier provinces" of the DRA . The Khalqist regime also sought to make Pashto the sole language of the Afghan government and the lingua franca, they did so by undermining Dari . The Afghan anthem under the communist regime

5406-481: The Pashtuns are politically separated by the Durand Line between Pakistan and Afghanistan, many Pashtun tribes from the FATA area and the adjacent regions of Afghanistan, tend to ignore the border and cross back and forth with relative ease to attend weddings, family functions and take part in the joint tribal councils known as jirgas . Though this was common before the war on terror but after several military operations conducted in FATA, this cross border movement

5508-431: The Pashtuns. This occurred in the Peshawar sub-region in the early 16th century, during the period of the Suri dynasty of Delhi. It intensified in the mid-18th century under Pashtun emperor Ahmad Shah Durrani , when he conquered non-Pashtun territories and established the Durrani Empire . During the reign of Abdur Rahman Khan in the late 19th century, some Pashtuns settled in the north of the country, while Tajiks from

5610-499: The Pathan community in the city of Kolkata , often nicknamed the Kabuliwala ("people of Kabul "). Pashtun diaspora communities in other countries around the world speak Pashto, especially the sizable communities in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia . Pashto is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan, along with Dari Persian . Since the early 18th century, the monarchs of Afghanistan have been ethnic Pashtuns (except for Habibullāh Kalakāni in 1929). Persian,

5712-409: The Persian Safavids as their easternmost provinces. During the early 18th century, Pashtun tribes led by Mirwais Hotak successfully revolted against the Safavids in the city of Kandahar. In a chain of events, he declared Kandahar and other parts of what is now southern Afghanistan independent. By 1738 the Mughal Empire had been crushingly defeated and their capital sacked and looted by forces of

5814-432: The Society's annual meeting in 1927. In 1955, Pashtun intellectuals including Abdul Qadir formed the Pashto Academy Peshawar on the model of Pashto Tolana formed in Afghanistan. In 1974, the Department of Pashto was established in the University of Balochistan for the promotion of Pashto. In Pakistan, Pashto is the first language around of 15% of its population (per the 1998 census). However, Urdu and English are

5916-474: The aim of reunification of Pashtuns areas was to increase the population of Pashtuns in Afghanistan. As a result, Daoud Khan was extremely unpopular with Non-Pashtun Afghans. Bacha Khan stated that "Daoud Khan only exploited the idea of reunification of Pashtun people to meet his own political ends". In 1960 and later in 1961, Daoud Khan made two attempts to capture Bajaur District in Khyber Pakthunkhwa , Pakistan. However, all of Daoud Khan attempts failed as

6018-401: The association the people have with the regional city of Kandahar: "Da Dili takht herauma cheh rayad kam zama da khkule Pukhtunkhwa da ghre saroona". Translation: "I forget the throne of Delhi when I recall the mountain peaks of my beautiful Pukhtunkhwa." The last Afghan Empire was established in 1747 and united all the different Pashtun tribes as well as many other ethnic groups. Parts of

6120-401: The backdrop to weakening Pashtun power following Mughal rule: Khushal Khan Khattak used Pashto poetry to rally for Pashtun unity and Pir Bayazid as an expedient means to spread his message to the Pashtun masses. For instance Khushal Khattak laments in : "The Afghans (Pashtuns) are far superior to the Mughals at the sword, Were but the Afghans, in intellect, a little discreet. If

6222-428: The children speaking Pashtun as their primary language. Pashtunistan Pashtunistan ( Pashto : پښتونستان , lit.   'land of the Pashtuns ') or Pakhtunistan is a historical region on the crossroads of Central and South Asia , located on the Iranian Plateau , inhabited by the Pashtun people of southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan , wherein Pashtun culture ,

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6324-438: The city of Patna , and dwelt there, the people of India (for that reason) called them Patans—but God knows! The Pashto name Pakhtunistan or Pashtunistan ( Pashto : پښتونستان ( Naskh ) ) evolved originally from the Indian word "Pathanistan" ( Hindustani : پٹھانستان ( Nastaleeq ) , पठानिस्तान ( Devanagari ) ). The concept of Pashtunistan was inspired by the term " Pakhtunkhwa ". British Indian leaders, including

6426-424: The city of Peshawar was directly administered as part of a British protectorate state with full integration into the federal rule of law with the establishment of civic amenities and the construction of railway, road infrastructure as well as educational institutes to bring the region at par with the developed world. During World War I, the Afghan government was contacted by the Ottoman Turkey and Germany , through

6528-539: The commission and publication of Pashto textbooks. The Pashto Tolana was later incorporated into the Academy of Sciences Afghanistan in line with Soviet model following the Saur Revolution in 1978. Although officially supporting the use of Pashto, the Afghan elite regarded Persian as a "sophisticated language and a symbol of cultured upbringing". King Zahir Shah (reigning 1933–1973) thus followed suit after his father Nadir Khan had decreed in 1933 that officials were to study and utilize both Persian and Pashto. In 1936

6630-434: The country. These claims are contested in Pakistan, where Pashtun politics centers on political autonomy rather than irredentist politics. Since the late 1940s with the dissolution of British India and independence of Pakistan , some rigid Pashtun nationalists proposed merging with Afghanistan or creating Pashtunistan as a future sovereign state for the local Pashtun inhabitants of the area. At first, Afghanistan became

6732-409: The culture and language of the Pashtun tribes already present there." The Khalaj were originally a Turkic tribe which had long domiciled in the Ghazni , Qalati Ghilji (also known as Qalati Khalji), and Zabulistan regions of present-day Afghanistan. They intermarried with the local Pashtuns and gradually adopted the Pashtun culture. Najib Bakran's geography, Jahān Nāma (c. 1200–1220), described

6834-419: The delineated Pashtunistan region is Pashto. Depending on the region other languages are also spoken such as Dari in Afghanistan and Gujari , Balochi , Hindko , and Urdu in Pakistan. The Pashtuns practice Pashtunwali , the indigenous culture of the Pashtuns, and this pre-Islamic identity remains significant for many Pashtuns and is one of the factors that have kept the Pashtunistan issue alive. Although

6936-410: The different tribes would but support each other, Kings would have to bow down in prostration before them" Pashto is a subject–object–verb (SOV) language with split ergativity . In Pashto, this means that the verb agrees with the subject in transitive and intransitive sentences in non-past, non-completed clauses, but when a completed action is reported in any of the past tenses, the verb agrees with

7038-443: The eighth century. It was an extraordinary claim, implying as it did that the history of Pashto literature reached back further in time than Persian, thus supplanting the hold of Persian over the medieval Afghan past. Although it was later convincingly discredited through formal linguistic analysis, Habibi's publication of the text under the title Pata Khazana ('Hidden Treasure') would (in Afghanistan at least) establish his reputation as

7140-438: The ethnonym Safi and often refer to themselves by the mountain valleys in which they live, whereas in Swat and Indus Kōhestān many former Dardic speakers now claim to be Pashtuns. Pashtunization may also refer to the settling of Pashtun tribes onto lands where non-Pashtun tribes live or more broadly the erosion of the customs, traditions and language of non-Pashtun peoples due to the political power and regional influence of

7242-400: The field of education in the NWFP, had constructed a type of three tiered language hierarchy. Pashto lagged far behind Urdu and English in prestige or development in almost every domain of political or economic power..." Although Pashto used as a medium of instruction in schools for Pashtun students results in better understanding and comprehension for students when compared to using Urdu, still

7344-645: The government of Nazi Germany proposed an alliance with neutral Afghanistan in order to destabilize British control over the north-west of its domain in India. In return, the Afghans sought that NWFP and the Port of Karachi would be ceded to the Kingdom of Afghanistan with German military aid, so that it could gain valuable access to the Arabian Sea . Such a plan would require annexation of NWFP, Baluchistan and Sindh provinces. The Khudai Khidmatgars (also known as

7446-399: The government of Pakistan has only introduced Pashto at the primary levels in state-run schools. Taimur Khan remarks: "the dominant Urdu language squeezes and denies any space for Pashto language in the official and formal capacity. In this contact zone, Pashto language exists but in a subordinate and unofficial capacity". Some linguists have argued that Pashto is descended from Avestan or

7548-506: The indigenous culture of the Pashtuns, and this remains significant for many Pashtuns. Although the Pashtuns are politically separated by the Durand Line between Pakistan and Afghanistan, many Pashtun tribes from the FATA area and the adjacent regions of Afghanistan, tend to ignore the border and cross back and forth with relative ease to attend weddings, family functions and take part in the joint tribal councils known as jirgas . Depending on

7650-718: The leadership of Ahmad Shah Durrani , who founded the Durrani dynasty and established the Afghan Empire in 1747. In the 19th century, however, the Afghan Empire lost large parts of its eastern territory to the Sikh Empire and later the British Empire . Many famous Indian independence activists emerged from the region include Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his anti colonial Khudai Khidmatgar movement to free

7752-500: The literary language of the royal court, was more widely used in government institutions, while the Pashtun tribes spoke Pashto as their native tongue . King Amanullah Khan began promoting Pashto during his reign (1926–1929) as a marker of ethnic identity and as a symbol of "official nationalism" leading Afghanistan to independence after the defeat of the British Empire in the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919. In

7854-532: The maintenance of order among the frontier tribes residing within their respective spheres before the commencement of such operations." A supplementary letter to the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1921 reads: "As the conditions of the Frontier tribes of the two governments are of interest to the Government of Afghanistan. I inform you that the British government entertains feelings of goodwill towards all

7956-407: The map of Pakistan..." On 31 March 2010, Pakistan's Constitutional Reform Committee agreed that the province be named and recognized as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa . This is now the official name for the former NWFP. Pashto Pashto ( / ˈ p ʌ ʃ t oʊ / PUH -shto , / ˈ p æ ʃ t oʊ / PASH -toe ; پښتو , Pəx̌tó , [pəʂˈto, pʊxˈto, pəʃˈto, pəçˈto] )

8058-527: The names of provinces of Pakistan as ethno-linguistic names, contrary to what he believed and strived for Pashtunistan an independent state. During the 1950s to the late 1960s, Pashtuns were promoted to higher positions within the Pakistani government and military, thereby integrating Pashtuns into the Pakistani state and severely weakening secessionist sentiments to the point that by the mid-1960s, popular support for an independent Pashtunistan had all but disappeared. An important development in Pakistan during

8160-646: The native communities of these two provinces. In addition, there are 1.7 million Afghan refugees of whom majority are Pashtuns. These refugees, however, are expected to leave Pakistan and settle in Afghanistan in the coming years. Three Pakistani presidents belonged to the Pashtun ethnic group. Pashtuns continue to occupy important places in the military and politics, with the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan who leads Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Awami National Party led by Asfandyar Wali . In addition to this, some Pashtun media, music and cultural activities are based out of Pakistan, with AVT Khyber being

8262-483: The native elements of the lexicon are related to other Eastern Iranian languages . As noted by Josef Elfenbein, "Loanwords have been traced in Pashto as far back as the third century B.C., and include words from Greek and probably Old Persian". For instance, Georg Morgenstierne notes the Pashto word مېچن mečә́n i.e. a hand-mill as being derived from the Ancient Greek word μηχανή ( mēkhanḗ , i.e.

8364-461: The north were brought to the south. This was done for political reason, mainly to prevent Russian invasion. In the meantime, thousands of Hazaras left Hazarajat to settle in Quetta (now in Pakistan ) and Mashad in what is now Iran , after Abdur Rahman Khan 's depredations in the aftermath of 1888–1893 Uprisings of Hazaras . Some Pashtunization attempts were later made in the early part of

8466-546: The north while the Pashtun territory was defended by the Khalji dynasty of Delhi . In the 14th and 15th century, the Timurid dynasty was in control of the nearby cities and towns, until Babur captured Kabul in 1504. During the Delhi Sultanate era, the region was ruled by mainly Afghan and various, largely Sunni, Hanafi-jurisprudential driven Turkic dynasties from Delhi , India. An early Pashtun nationalist

8568-530: The only government to oppose the entry of Pakistan into the United Nations in 1947, although it was reversed a few months later. On July 26, 1949, when Afghanistan–Pakistan relations were rapidly deteriorating, a loya jirga was held in Afghanistan after a military aircraft from the Pakistan Air Force bombed a village on the Afghan side of the Durand Line. As a result of this violation,

8670-515: The population as of 1998. Since the 2nd millennium BC , the region now inhabited by the native Pashtun people had been conquered by Ancient Iranian peoples , the Medes , Achaemenids , Greeks , Mauryas , Kushans , Hephthalites , Sasanians , Arab Muslims , Turks , Mughals , and others. In recent age, people of the Western world have nominally explored the area. Arab Muslims arrived in

8772-465: The possessed in the genitive construction, and adjectives come before the nouns they modify. Unlike most other Indo-Iranian languages, Pashto uses all three types of adpositions —prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions. *The retroflex rhotic or lateral, tends to be a lateral flap [ 𝼈 ] at the beginning of a syllable or other prosodic unit, and a regular flap [ ɽ ] or approximant [ ɻ ] elsewhere. In Pashto, most of

8874-654: The power, the Daoud Khan's government started proxy war against Pakistan. Daoud Khan's government established several training camps for anti-Pakistani militants in Kabul and Kandahar with the aim of training and arming those militants to carry out their activities against Pakistan. On the other hand, Mirzali Khan and his followers continued their guerilla war against the Pakistani government from their base in Gurwek . In 1960, Afghan Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan sent

8976-685: The region from British control. In 1969, the autonomous princely states of Swat , Dir , Chitral , and Amb were merged into the Pakistani NWFP. In 2018, the Pashtun-majority Federally Administered Tribal Areas , formerly an autonomous buffer zone with Afghanistan, were also merged into the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (previously known as the NWFP), fully integrating the region with Pakistan proper. The Pashtuns practice Pashtunwali ,

9078-496: The source, the ethnic Pashtuns constitute 42-60% of the population of Afghanistan . In neighboring Pakistan they constitute 18 percent of over the 241 million population , which does not include Pashtun diaspora in other Pakistani cities and provinces. The name used for the region during the Middle Ages and up until the 20th century was Afghanistan . Afghanistan is a reference to this land by its ethnicity, which were

9180-433: The south and east of Afghanistan but also exist in northern and western parts of the country as a minority group. In Pakistan they are concentrated in the west and north-west, inhabiting mainly Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Balochistan . In addition, communities of Pashtuns are found in other parts of Pakistan such as Sindh , Punjab , Gilgit-Baltistan and in the nation's capital, Islamabad . The main language spoken in

9282-420: The southwestern, eastern and some northern and western districts of Afghanistan, as well as most of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Balochistan in Pakistan. The region is bordered by Punjab to the east, Balochistan to the south, Kohistan and Chitral to the north, and Hazarajat and Tajik-inhabited territory to the west. The 16th-century revolutionary leader Bayazid Pir Roshan of Waziristan and

9384-444: The subject if it is intransitive, but with the object if it is transitive. Verbs are inflected for present, simple past, past progressive, present perfect, and past perfect tenses. There is also an inflection for the subjunctive mood . Nouns and adjectives are inflected for two genders (masculine and feminine), two numbers (singular and plural), and four cases (direct, oblique, ablative, and vocative). The possessor precedes

9486-515: The then president of Afghanistan, Sardar Mohammed Daoud Khan recognised Durand Line as international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He made this declaration while he was on an official visit to Islamabad , Pakistan . Daoud would be overthrown by Khalqist military officers in 1978 leading to the formation of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan which was dominated by Pashtun Khalqists who would go on to "reopen

9588-491: The tribes inhabiting the lands west of the Indus River were part of Ariana . This was around the time when the area inhabited by the Pashtuns was governed by the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom . From the 3rd century CE onward, they are mostly referred to by the name Afghan ( Abgan ). Abdul Hai Habibi believed that the earliest modern Pashto work dates back to Amir Kror Suri of the early Ghurid period in

9690-418: The two official languages of Afghanistan alongside Dari , and it is the second-largest provincial language of Pakistan , spoken mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the northern districts of Balochistan . Likewise, it is the primary language of the Pashtun diaspora around the world. The total number of Pashto-speakers is at least 40 million, although some estimates place it as high as 60 million. Pashto

9792-411: The two official languages of Pakistan. Pashto has no official status at the federal level. On a provincial level, Pashto is the regional language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and north Balochistan . Yet, the primary medium of education in government schools in Pakistan is Urdu. The lack of importance given to Pashto and its neglect has caused growing resentment amongst Pashtuns. It is noted that Pashto

9894-658: The world. Other communities of Pashto speakers are found in India , Tajikistan , and northeastern Iran (primarily in South Khorasan Province to the east of Qaen , near the Afghan border). In India most ethnic Pashtun (Pathan) peoples speak the geographically native Hindi-Urdu language rather than Pashto, but there are small numbers of Pashto speakers, such as the Sheen Khalai in Rajasthan , and

9996-782: Was also traditionally dominated by Pashtuns however the fall of the Najibullah regime in 1992 led to the creation of the Tajik dominated Islamic State of Afghanistan . The majority of the Afghan Taliban are ethnic Pashtuns, with past Pashtun leaders such as Mullah Mohammed Omar , Mohammad Rabbani and Jalaluddin Haqqani . The current leaders of the Taliban include Pashtuns such as Abdul Kabir , Hibatullah Akhundzada and Sirajuddin Haqqani . Afghanistan makes its claim on

10098-432: Was never a reality". He further said that "successive Afghan governments have exploited the idea for their own political ends". It was only towards the end of Mohammed Daoud Khan regime that he stopped talking about Pashtunistan. Later on, even Nur Muhammad Taraki also talked about the idea of Pashtunistan and caused trouble for Pakistan. He also said that "Pashtun people greatly suffered because of all this." In 1976,

10200-579: Was officially renamed to Dari . The lyrics of the national anthem of Afghanistan are in Pashto. In British India , prior to the creation of Pakistan by the British government, the 1920s saw the blossoming of Pashto language in the then NWFP : Abdul Ghafar Khan in 1921 established the Anjuman-e- Islah al-Afaghina (Society for the Reformation of Afghans) to promote Pashto as an extension of Pashtun culture; around 80,000 people attended

10302-409: Was only in Pashto and not Dari with non-Pashtuns being required to sing it in Pashto . Up until the overthrow of Dr Najibullah's Homeland Party regime in 1992, Afghan governments had favored Pashto in the media and over 50% of Afghan media was in Pashto. After 1992 with the formation of the Tajik led Islamic State of Afghanistan , this number dropped drastically. Following the outbreak of

10404-472: Was the "Warrior-poet" Khushal Khan Khattak , who was imprisoned by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for trying to incite the Pashtuns to rebel against the rule of the Mughals. However, despite sharing a common language and believing in a common ancestry, the Pashtuns first achieved unity in the 18th century. The eastern parts of Pashtunistan were ruled by the Mughal Empire , while the western parts were ruled by

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