Pashtun diaspora

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The Pashtuns (Pashto: پښتون) or Pathans (Urdu: پٹھان, Hindi: पठान) have many communities world wide. Though their homeland is in South Asia, they are found in the Middle East, Europe, and other parts of the globe.

These communities include substantial numbers who claim Pashtun descent (and perhaps to a lesser extent culturally) and not linguistically.

Contents

[edit] Pashtuns in South Asia

[edit] Pashtuns in Afghanistan

Pashtuns are the majority ethnic group in southeastern Afghanistan, compromising 42% of Afghanistan's population or 12,500,000 persons[1]. The term Pashtun is historically synonymous with the term Afghan, the term used to describe a person from the country of Afghanistan. Kandahar is a major city in Afghanistan which is a stronghold of the Pashtun culture.

[edit] Pashtuns in Pakistan

Pashtuns are the secong largest ethnic group after the Punjabis in Pakistan, comprising over 15% of Pakistan's population (28 million persons)[2]. About 3 million are refugees from Afghanistan who migrated there during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Peshawar and Quetta are Pakistani cities with significant numbers of Pashtuns.

The following delineates the population of Pathans in the provinces of Pakistan[3]:

In ethnic terms, substantial ethnic communities reside in Attock district and Mianwali. Other communities include large numbers of Muhammadzais in Kasur, and other larger communities have settled around Multan which was formerly part of the Durrani Empire.

[edit] Pashtuns in India

Shabbir Hasan Khan Josh, an Urdu-speaking poet of Pakhtun origin from Malihabad (UP, India), wrote that the Pathans of India took pride in their ethnicity and considered bravery and aggressiveness a part of it. The Pathans of India did not speak Pashto, though, according to Raverty, 'in the territory of the Rampur Nawwab, whole towns and villages may be found in which the Afghan language' was spoken up to 1860[5]. Their genealogical tables, in common with their Pashto-speaking counterparts, were in Persian, which appears to have been the language of literacy among the Pakhtuns. Prior to the Partition of India, if one were to count the Pashtun population of the North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, India had the largest population of Pashtuns in the world, numbering at least 30-40 million in number.

Major Indian Pathan tribes lived in the following areas. While, many persons belonging to these tribles moved to the Afghan-Pakistan border, others chose to stay and thus, descendants of these tribes still reside in the parts of India listed below[6]:

  1. Rohillas mainly live in Uttar Pradesh.
  2. Bangashes living in Farrukhabad
  3. Yousafzai other than Rohillas living in Tonk, Baroda, and Bhopal
  4. Mianas in Southern India
  5. Lodhis and Suris of North India

Many Pashtuns worked in the Indian independence movement. While many supported the Muslim League's demand for Pakistan, several Pashtuns opposed it in favor of a united and secular India. These included Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, his son Khan Wali Khan, Indian diplomat Mohammed Yunus, Pakistani opposition leader Mufti Mahmud and Balochistan-based Pashtun leader Abdul Samad Achakzai.

Today around 11,904,000 Pathans reside in post-partition India[7]. The following delineates the population of Pathans in the states of India[8].

[edit] Pashtuns in the Middle East

A significant population of Pasthuns serving as migrant workers is found in the Middle East.

[edit] Pashtuns in Europe

A large number of Pashtuns have migrated from their homeland, South Asia, to Europe. The following statistics give information on the number of Pashtuns in European countries:

[edit] Pashtuns in Other parts of the World

[edit] Australia

Large numbers of Afghans were recruited in the 19th century during the initial British development of Australia. These consisted of men who were not allowed to bring their families with them, many married local aborigines and are now known as Ghans[11].

[edit] References

  1. ^ CIA - The World Factbook - Afghanistan
  2. ^ Population Census Organization, Government of Pakistan - Population by Mother Tongue
  3. ^ Pushtan, Southern, Afghani of Pakistan
  4. ^ Part of the region bordering Pakistan falls in the disputed Kashmir region which is claimed by India
  5. ^ Shabbir Hasan Khan Josh, Yadon ki Barat [Urdu: The Wedding Procession of Memories] (Lahore: Maktaba Sher-o-Adab, 1964), p 341, passim.
  6. ^ Pashto Language & Identity Formation: Contemporary South Asia, July 1995, Vol 4, Issue 2, p151,20
  7. ^ Pushtan, Southern of India
  8. ^ Dawat Magazine: Study of the Pathan Communities in four States of India
  9. ^ Ethnologue report for Southern Pashto: Iran (1993)
  10. ^ Joshua Project: Pushtoon, Southern
  11. ^ Afghan histories in Australia: The story of the Ghans
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