Gandapur

The Gandapurs are a Pashtun tribe inhabiting the environs of Dera Ismail Khan, a major commercial center on the west bank of the Indus River, in the southern region of the Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa of Pakistan, near the frontier with South Waziristan. The Gandapurs reside principally in the small town of Kulachi on the bank of the Gomal River, a tributary of the Indus River. They trace their origin to Afghanistan.

They settled in the Dera Ismail Khan area in the 17th century AD. A part of the tribe lives in Sur Kalay in Ghazni Province of Afghanistan.

The Gandâpûr, like many other nomadic Pashtun groups in the region, regularly moved between Afghanistan and the Dâmân plains stretching from the Indus to the eastern slopes of the Solaymân mountains. They combined pastoral nomadism with the transportation and peddling of goods between Central Asia and South Asia. The pattern of these nomadic movements and the transformations of their society fluctuated with the rhythms of trade and the nature of their contacts with the surrounding political economies throughout their history. During the 17th century, most of the Gandâpûr had settled in Dêra Ismâîl Khân, with large numbers engaged in the trade between India and Khorasan, which intensified in the next two centuries.[1]

Contents

History

In sources, Gandapurs are described as syeds. There is a tradition that they are the descendants of Syed Muhammad Gaisu Daraaz who was a Sufi poet of the 16th century AD (it is 14th century); the saint died in 1422. This tradition, as supported by Tarikh-e-Pushtun and Tarikh-e-Gandapur, and by Tarikhe Khan Jahani of the early 17th century, traces the origin of Gandapurs as follows:

The tradition tells us that Tairi married a girl named Gul Andama. Gul Andama belonged to a hostile tribe and so Tairi had to migrate to avoid revenge from his wife's tribe. His father Storay bid him farewell and prayed for him as "Ganda pura" (Pashto words: ganda = "bag" and pura = "full") and it meant "Tairi should always have full bounties and blessings of all kinds" and hence it became the epithet of Tairi and was later known as Gandapur. The original name of Gandapur was Tairi Khan. He had four sons and a daughter. Their names are as follows:

The Khaddal Lavuñ episode

Lavuñ is a small Pashtun tribe residing in and around Qamardin Karez in the west of Zhob district in northwest Balochistan. Gandapurs used to pass through their area while going from their place in Ghazni to Dera Ismail Khan in a usual annual cycle of nomadic life.

Khaddal Lavuñ was chief of the Lavuñ tribe in the 16th century AD. He chose a narrow pass in the way of nomadic tribes going to Dera Ismail Khan and the rest of Indus plain passing through his area and laid there. He demanded that girls from various tribes should come and lift him in their shawls. That was very humiliating demand and none of the tribe could accede to that. When the Gandapurs arrived at the narrow pass, they found Khaddal Lavuñ lying in the pass. When lengthy negotiations bore no fruit, some of the Gandapur young men disguised themselves as girls wearing shawls of women and came to Khaddal. Apparently they had come to lift him in their shawls but they divided him into pieces.

The death of Khaddal Lavuñ brought them in confrontation with the Lavuñ tribe and their route from Ghazni to Dera Ismail Khan no longer remained safe. This led to the separation of the tribe into two parts. One part of the tribe settled in Damaan, Kulachi, Dera Ismail Khan and the other part remained in their original abode in Ghazni, Afghanistan. A distance of more than 450 kilometers between the two places and the enemy tribe inhabiting the route divided the tribe. Over a period of almost four centuries, the two parts of the Gandapur tribe have lost any contact between them.

Gandapur or Afghanpur

When the great Afghan King and warrior Ahmad Shah Abdali gathered all the Pashtun tribes and conquered a large part of the area presently comprising Afghanistan and Pakistan, Gandapurs were part of his army. As the tradition goes, soldiers speaking Persian used to pronounce the "d" in the word Gandapur as soft "d" (like "th" in the English word "the"). With the soft "d", the word "Ganda" would become a Hindustani language word "Ganda" (meaning "not clean" or "untidy"). When Ahmad Shah Abdali came to know that fact, he bestowed upon Gandapurs the title of "Afghanpur". Gandapurs were held in high esteem by Ahmad Shah Abdali.

Size of the tribe

Gandapurs living in Pakistan do not form a very large tribe. They have occupied northern part of Tehsil Kulachi. The area occupied by Gandapurs is roughly one-third of the area as occupied by the Marwat tribe. The population of Gandapurs may range from 70,000 to 90,000. But their influence is relatively large.

The Gandapurs living in Afghanistan may also range between 30,000 to 40,000, according to conservative estimates. They live in Ghazni district in Afghanistan, where they associate themselves with the Tarakai tribe.

There is no interaction between Gandapurs living in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Sub-tribes

The tribe is further divided into the following sub-tribes; it has not been possible to trace how these sub-tribes are interrelated. These are the sub-tribes existing in Kulachi, Dera Ismail Khan region at present. It is also possible that some of these sub-tribes may not be part of the original lineage of Gandapur. They may have been living with Gandapurs and may have merged with them over a period.

Some of the sub-tribes, though living with Gandapurs, are not considered part of the original tree. They are as follows:

In Afghanistan, Gandapurs are considered as cousins or a part of the large Tarakai tribe.

Gandapur villages in Kulachi

Gandapurs reside in many villages other than the city of Kulachi. Important settlements or villages are Maddi, Hathala, Takwara, Rori, Looni,Kundo Kot,Zarkani,Kanori Pota and Gara Abdullah,Gara madda.

Gandapur are a Pashtun tribe and they only speak Pashto language. Large number of Seraiki people also reside with them but they are not Gandapur and do not know Pashto.

Notable people

Since Gandapurs live in Kulachi on lands most barren due to paucity of water, education has been the only means to move forward on the path of development and prosperity. Gandapurs have made a mark in various walks of life and the ratio of educated and talented people is more than any other tribe of Southern Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa as compared to their total population. Some of the important personalities are as follows:

Politics

Literature

Sports

Future of the tribe

The future of the tribe is brighter than that of the other tribes living nearby. The main obstacles to their well-being have been poverty, trade, internal feuds and political maneuvering of the tribe. The completion of the Gomal Zam Dam (presently under construction) would change the economic conditions of the tribe as the barren land would get canal irrigation facilities.

References

  1. ^ Elphinstone, 373.
  2. ^ Sher Muhammad Khan Gandapur Muhammad Jamil Hanifi Encyclopaedia Iranica
  3. ^ Hazrat Faqir Noor Muhammed
  4. ^ The Book of Soul By Hazart Sulatn Bahu (R.A)
  5. ^ http://jang.com.pk/thenews/jul2008-weekly/nos-27-07-2008/spo.htm
  6. ^ http://stats.testmatchextra.com/Players/41/41722/First-Class_Matches.html

Further reading

The most important sources regarding the history of Gandapurs are as follows:

External links