| Total population |
|---|
| 10,000 |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Delhi |
| Languages |
| Religion |
| Related ethnic groups |
Afghans in India are a large community numbering up to 10,000.[1] Most are recent Hindu and Sikh refugees who fled the Taliban regime and political instability back in Afghanistan; they are concentrated in and around Delhi. Muslim families account for only 10% of Afghan nationals in India, although recent migration has seen a boost in numbers.
Apart from citizens and expatriates, there are hundreds of Muslim communities in India which trace their ancestries back to Afghan Pashtun forefathers.
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The Aryan invasion says likely that the origin of Aryans likely came from Afghanistan, then moved into India. Another source states that Aryans were heavily concentrated as many tribes in Nurestan. Interestingly is also clues the origin of Sanskrit, and the idea of Indo-Iranians, where Zoroaster is likely thought to be of such an ethnic group based on the convergence between Sanskrit and Avestan, and the divergence between Nuristani languages and the typical Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi and Urdu.
There have been a connection between Afghanistan and India. Known kindgoms during the Mahajanapadas were Kambojas which constitutes Nuristan and Gandhara which constitutes Peshawar.
The history of Afghans in India is ambiguous since in the medieval era, Afghan and Pashtun were synonymous, meaning that the other ethnic groups in Afghanistan such as Tajiks and Hazaras were not considered Afghan in the past. So in general, this means that in the past, any mentioning of Afghan means Pashtun, and not as a nationality since no such state of "Afghanistan" existed however the region constituting Afghanistan has been connected with India, since the start of the Mauryan dynasty to the End of the Mughal empire, where Afghanistan was connected with India. So really, Afghanistan in the past meant the land directly south of Kabul, denoting Pashtun territories, excluding non-Pashtuns for being Afghan. The rise the Durrani Empire is what caused the adoption of the term Afghan by non-Pashtuns, which is what lead to the change of such a denonym.
Various Pashtuns have ruled parts of India from the Suri dynasty empire, to the Durrani empire's conquest on Indus Valley. There's however various Pashtun rulers that have served as various monarchs of the Khilji dynasty. Rohillas are one notable group of people to establish a state until Mughal rule.
Apart from Pashtuns, when considering the Afghan geographic region itself apart from the synonym with Pashtun, dynasties that was controlled part of the Indian subcontinent are as fallows: Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids up until the Dehli Sultanate, all have which centered in a city that falls in present day Afghanistan, and not necessarily ethnic Pashtun dynasties.
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