Nuristani people

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Nuristani people

Kautiak villagers in Nuristan province with U.S. Cmdr. (right)
Total population
ca. 125,000–300,000[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
Nuristan Province
Languages
Nuristani languages,
Persian (more precisely Dari) and Pashto also understood widely as second languages
Religion
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Kalash

The Nuristani people are an Indo-Iranian-speaking ethnic group native to the Nuristan region of eastern Afghanistan. The Nuristanis are a people whose ancestors practised what was apparently an ancient Indo-Iranian polytheistic Vedic religion until they were conquered and converted to Islam in the late 19th century by Emir Abdur Rahman Khan.[3] In the mid-1890s, he conducted a campaign in Kafiristan and followed up his conquest with religious conversions,[4][5] the region thenceforth being known as Nuristan, the "Land of Light".[6][7][8][9] Non-Muslim religious practices endure today to some degree as folk customs. In their native rural areas, which was referred to by the local Muslims as Kafiristan before the 19th century, they are often farmers, herders, and dairymen.

The Nuristanis are distinguished from the Kalash of Chitral by their adoption of Islam, territory within Afghanistan, and consolidation with other Afghans. The Nuristan region has been a prominent location for war scenes that have led to the death of many indigenous Nuristanis.[10][11]Nuristan has also received abundance of settlers from the surrounding Afghanistan regions due to the borderline vacant location.[12][13]

Pre-Islamic religion

Noted linguist Richard Strand, an authority on Hindu Kush languages, observed the following about pre-Islamic Nuristani religion:

"Before their conversion to Islâm the Nuristânis practiced a form of ancient Hinduism, infused with accretions developed locally".[14]
They acknowledged a number of human-like deities who lived in the unseen Deity World (Kâmviri d'e lu; cf. Sanskrit deva lok'a-).[14]

Certain deities were revered only in one community or tribe, but one was universally revered as the Creator: the Hindu god Yama Râja called imr'o in Kâmviri[14]

There is a creator god, appearing under various names, no longer as Father Heaven, but as lord of the nether world and of heaven: Imra (*Yama Rājan), Māra 'death' (Nuristani) [15]


He(Yama rajan) is a creator deity called Dezau (ḍezáw) whose name is derived from Indo-European *dheig'h 'to form' (Kati Nuristani dez 'to create', CDIAL 14621); Dezauhe is also called by the Pashto term Khodai. There are a number of other deities, semi-gods and spirits. The Kalash pantheon is thus one of the few living representatives of Indo-European vedic religion.

History

Nuristanis are first mentioned in the Rigveda, the collection of ancient Vedic Sanskrit hymns sacred to Hindus. In the Rigveda, they appear as Alinas, and fought on the side of the sage Vishvamitra in the Battle of the Ten Kings.

Specifically, the Rigveda describes the victory of the Bharatas over Vishvamitra's Puru regiment and its Nuristani, Pashtun, Balochi, Kashmiri, and Bhrigus allies.

Rigveda 7.18.7 says

Together came the Pakthas, the Bhalanas, the Alinas, the Sivas, the Visanins. Yet to the Trtsus came the Ārya's Comrade, through love of spoil and heroes' war, to lead them[16]
  • Alinas: One of the tribes defeated by Sudas at the Dasarajna,[17] and it was suggested that they lived to the north-east of Nuristan, because the land was mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Hiouen Thsang.[18]

Like certain other groups in the region, they sometimes exhibit physical characteristics of light hair, eyes, and skin. There is a large number of these people who live in Chitral, Pakistan the eastern border of Nuristan. Most of these people are from the Kata Family and Janaderi Branch. However there are other Nuristani tribes as well, some of the Kata of Janaderi people live in Ozhor (now Karimabad), Gobor, Buburat, Ayun, Broze and Mastuj. There is a very popular rock associated with this tribe located in Karimabad (Juwara) called kata bont (Kata is the name of the tribe; bont meaning "stone" in the Chitrali language).

In 4th century BC, Alexander the Great encountered them and reduced them after a stubborn and prolonged fight, describing them as being distinct culturally and religiously from other peoples of the region.[1]

Nuristanis were formerly classified into "Siah-Posh (black-robed) Kafirs" and "Safed-Posh (white robed)/Lall-Posh (Red-Robed) Kafirs".[19] Timur fought with and was humbled by the Siah-Posh Kafirs.[20] Babur advised not to tangle with them. Genghis Khan passed by them.[citation needed] In the 19th century, it was typical of the Kafirs to boast about having killed the sons of Ali.[21]

The region is so called "Kafiristan" as the surrounding populations were converted to Islam, the people in this region retained themselves, thus known as "Kafirs".The Arabic word "Kufr" means not only to disbelieve, but also to blaspheme, and therefore, its derivative "Kafir" means one who commits blasphemy against Allah in the Islamic tradition. The "Kafir" here is used to refer to their being non-Muslims and the Nurestan province was hence known as Kafiristan, before the majority were forcefully converted to Islam during Abdur Rahman Khan's rule around 1895. They are now known as Nuristani. However, they have retained some of their old customs and traces of their previous beliefs, which is considered incompatible with the new belief and is disappearing.[22]

"Kafir" has also been traced to Kapiś (= Kapish), the ancient Sanskrit name of the region that included historic Kafiristan; which is also given as "Ki-pin" (or Ke-pin, Ka-pin, Chi-pin) in old Chinese chronicles. That name, unrelated to the Arabic word, is believed to have mutated at some point into the word Kapir. Kapiś, the name of the people of Kapiś/Kapiśa, is believed to have changed to Kapir and then Kafir,[23][24][25][26] because of the lack of 'p' in Arabic. This is similar to how Parsi changed to Farsi.

Soviet war in Afghanistan

General Issa Nuristani was second in command following the King during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Before his assassination, General Issa called the Nuristani people in a "Jihad" against the Soviet Army. The Nuristani people were among the first in Afghanistan to rise against the Soviet invasion. They played an important role in the conquering of some provinces, including Kunar, Nangarhar, Badakhshan, and Panshir. Following the withdrawal of the Soviet troops, the Mawlavy Ghulam Rabani was declared as governor of the Kunar Province.

Most of the former Hindu Kush Kafir people are considered the ancestors of the Nuristanis. Led by the Koms tribe, the Nuristani were the first citizens of Afghanistan to successfully revolt against the communist overthrow of their government in 1978. Thereafter, Nuristan remained a scene of some of the bloodiest guerrilla fighting with the Soviet forces from 1979 through 1989. The Nuristanis inspired others to fight and contributed to the demise of the Afghan communist regime in 1992..

Genetics

A young Afghan Nuristani girl

The Nuristani people's closest relation is to the Kalash people. Furthermore, they have very little genetic relation to neighbouring ethnic groups like Pashtuns and Kashmiris. This is because they have always remained isolated in the mountains which has led them to become a genetically isolated population. It is also speculated that Nuristani people are of different origin altogether assimilated in the region at some point of time in history.

Tribes

Nuristan, in light green

The Nuristani do not have a formal tribal structure as the Pashtuns do, however they do designate themselves by the names of the local regions they are from.[1] In total, there are 35 such designations: five from the north-south valleys and 30 from the east-west valley.

Some of these tribes include:

  • Kata
  • Kom
  • Mumo
  • Jench (of Arnce village)
  • Kshto
  • Dungulio
  • Kalasha
  • Tregami
  • Vasi
  • Askunu
  • Sanu
  • Gramsana

In popular culture

Nuristanis were depicted as their pre-Islamic past the Kafiristanis, as one of peoples inhabiting Kafiristan in Rudyard Kipling's book called The Man Who Would Be King which was then made into a film.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Peter R. Blood, ed. Afghanistan: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 2001.
  2. ↑ http://www.geohive.com/cntry/afghanistan.aspx
  3. ↑ Kalash Religion
  4. ↑ With Camera to India, Iran and Afghanistan: Access to Multimedia Sources of the Explorer, Professor Dr. Morgenstierne (1892–1975)
  5. ↑ Persée : A Kafir goddess
  6. ↑ Martin Ewans, Afghanistan: a short history of its people and politics, Harper Perennial, 2002, p.103
  7. ↑ A Former Kafir Tells His 'Tragic Story'. Notes on the Kati Kafirs of Northern Bashgal (Afghanistan) / Max Klimburg, Eat and West, Vol. 58 – Nos. 1–4 (December 2008), pp. 391–402
  8. ↑ Reflections of the Islamisation of Kafiristan in Oral Tradition / Georg Buddruss Journal of Asian Civilizations — Volume XXXI — Number 1-2 – 2008, Special Tribute Edition, pp. 16–35
  9. ↑ 'The pacification of the country was completed by the wholly gratuitous conquest of a remote mountain people in the north-east, the non-Muslim Kalash of Kafiristan (Land of the Unbelievers), who were forcibly converted to Islam. Their habitat was renamed Nuristan (Land of Light).' Angelo Rasanayagam, Afghanistan: A Modern History, I.B. Tauris, 2005, p.11
  10. ↑ Hauner , M. (1991). The soviet war in afghanistan. United Press of America.
  11. ↑ Ballard, Lamm, Wood. (2012). From kabul to baghdad and back: The u.s. at war in afghanistan and iraq .
  12. ↑ http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/10573-nuristan-a-safe-passage-for-taliban-to-enter-north-and-north-eastern-parts-of-afghanistan
  13. ↑ http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/%28httpDocuments%29/3E2AD065B3616B2D802570B7005876F4/$file/Land_disputes_NRC_june04.pdf
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 http://nuristan.info/Nuristani/Nuristanis1.html
  15. ↑ http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/KalashaReligion.pdf
  16. ↑ http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv07018.htm
  17. ↑ Macdonell, A. A. and Keith, A. B. (1912). Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, I, 39.
  18. ↑ Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index, 1912, I, 39.
  19. ↑ The Gates of India, p 270, Sir Thomas Hungerford Holdich
  20. ↑ Tuzak-i-Timuri, pp 401–08; The History and Culture of the Indian People, Vol VI, 1977, p 117, Dr Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Achut Dattatraya Pusalker, Asoke Kumar Majumdar
  21. ↑ Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River, Alice Albinia, W. W. Norton & Company, 2010, p. 225
  22. ↑ Hunters' Lore in Nuristan
  23. ↑ Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahābhārata: Upāyana Parva, 1945, p 44, Dr Moti Chandra — India.
  24. ↑ Census of India, 1961, p 26, published by India Office of the Registrar General.
  25. ↑ See also: Kāṭhakasaṅkalanam: Saṃskr̥tagranthebhyaḥ saṅgr̥hītāni Kāṭhakabrāhmaṇa, Kāṭhakaśrautasūtra, 1981, p xii, Surya Kanta; cf: The Contemporary Review, Vol LXXII, July–Dec, 1897, p 869, A. Strahan (etc), London.
  26. ↑ S. Levi states that Chinese Kipin is a rendering of an Indian word Kapir (See quote in: Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahābhārata: Upāyana Parva, 1945, p 44, Moti Chandra — India; See also: Bhārata-kaumudī; Studies in Indology in Honour of Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji, 1945, p 916, Radhakumud Mookerji — India).

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