PATHAN COMMUNITY OF INDIA

         PATHAN COMMUNITY OF INDIA

Afghan, Pakhtun, and Pashtun known in the Indian sub-continent as Pathan are an ethnic Indo-Iranian group who speak a language categorized into two varieties with the varieties themselves divided into several dialects. Historically they were known as Afghans or Afghans proper, and their language was referred to as Afghani instead of Pakhto or Pashto. The Pathan homeland is bifurcated between the modern nation-states of Afghanistan and Pakistan and Pashtun nationalism reignited when the Dominion of Pakistan was created after the British Raj ended in the sub-continent. The Pathan or more accurately the northern Pakhtun territory and the southern Pashtun territory of Balochistan province was ceded to Pakistan artificially dividing the Pathans along the porous Pak-Afghan border. 

Very few may know that the Pathans have had a significant role in undivided India's history. The Pathans during Muslim rule in India served as military officers and diplomats for Muslim Sultans. Whole tribes and clans would emigrate from the Pathan homeland and settle in various parts of Muslim-ruled India. Some would amalgamate into local Muslim societies while others would co-exist peacefully while maintaining their ethnic identity, language and culture. In 600 years of Muslim rule in India, 3 Muslim dynasties the Suri, Lodhi and Khilji were Afghan Pashtun dynasties. The Pathans of India are primarily divided into 3 main groupings:

• Pure Pathans/ Pathans proper - Those who settled in India but maintained their Pathan identity in terms of language, culture and ethnicity.  
• Hybrid Pathans - Those Pathans who married local Indian Muslim women their offspring claiming Pathan ancestry from the paternal line. 
• Indianized Pathans - Those who completely assimilated into local Muslim societies of India and are indistinguishable from other Indian Muslim communities. Many Urdu-speaking Muslim communities of North India claim Pathan ancestry.  

The Pathans in India are among one of the largest ethnic groups of India's Muslims. The All India Pakhtun Jirga-e-Hind gives various estimates of India's Pathan population about 3.5 million if the Pathans proper are solely counted. Another factor that must be taken into account in this case is that one group of Pathans have been living in the Indian part of the sub-continent even before partition while others are Afghan Pashtuns who are dual nationals half of their families residing in India and the other half in Afghanistan with constant traveling between India and Afghanistan. Many Indian Pathans have relatives living in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan but due to visa restrictions on both sides of the border, many find it difficult to reconnect with their family members. An exciting aspect of the Pathans of India's Jammu & Kashmir is that the elders who migrated from Northwest Frontier Province (now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan) disdain the gun and drug culture two traits commonly associated with Pathans, a stereotype at best, and claim that they speak pure unadulterated Pakhto or Pashto. They hold jirgas to decide disputes within the community, play traditional sports such as cockfighting, set Pashto pop songs as ringtones on their cellphones and surf the net for news and information in Pashto. However, with the decline of traditional norms, many of the elders fear the cohesion of the community in Kashmiri society with women marrying Kashmiri men and the likelihood of youngsters adopting Urdu and Kashmiri language in preference to Pashto. 

PATHANS OF UTTAR PRADESH  

The state of Uttar Pradesh in India has the largest Urdu-speaking Pathan community among the Urdu-Hindi belt spanning 6 states of North India. The Pathans or the Urdu-speaking Khans in Uttar Pradesh are chiefly found in the cities of Saharanpur, Lucknow, Bareilly, Rampur, the regions of Rohilkhand, Awadh as well as districts of Farrukhabad and QaimGanj. The Urdu-speaking Pathans of Lucknow district in comparison to other districts are predominantly Shia. In some areas of Uttar Pradesh like Aligarh, the Pathans maintain their own residential neighbourhoods. The Pathans have a dominant role in the religious sphere of Uttar Pradesh with many financing the construction of mosques and theological seminaries. Arranged marriages of the Pathans also occur with other Muslim communities of similar status. They have a positive attitude towards education with many in medical and legal professions. There is a composite Pathan influenced Urdu speaking culture in the city of Rampur famous for its Rampuri chaku (knife) popularized in the crime genre of Bollywood movies and used by gangsters of India's underworld. The Rampuri knife is the invention of the Pathans of Rampur and even to this day, the knife industry is a flourishing business in Rampur with young Pathan men carrying them to show off. Guns are also made at a lesser level by the Pathans of Rampur a practice which connects them to their wild Pak-Afghan tribal counterparts. Rampuri dialect like any Pathan-influenced dialect of Urdu incorporates words of Pashto in both their original as well as corrupted forms. The Urdu dialect of the Pathans of Qaim Ganj and Farrukhabad has preserved certain idioms and words which have become obsolete in modern standard Urdu. 

PATHANS OF INDIAN PUNJAB

The historical legacy of the Pathans of Indian Punjab starts with the founding of the state of Maler Kotla in Indian Punjab by a saint of Afghanistan Sheikh Saddruddin-e-Jahan. It is said that the Afghan-origin king of India Behlol Lodhi was on his way to conquer an area when he got caught in a sandstorm. Behlol Lodhi spotted a lamp burning in a hut and when the king found out he came to pay respect to Sheikh Saddruddin-e-Jahan and asked him to pray for him to be blessed with a child. Sheikh Saddruddin in turn married the King's daughter. Behlol Lodhi granted Sheikh Saddruddin the district of Maler Kotla. Sadruddin's Pathan followers settled in the district. One branch became the Punjabi-speaking Pathan nawabs of Maler Kotla while others became the spiritual heirs of Saddruddin with some acting as keepers of his shrine in the state. In Maler Kotla the Pathans are involved in traditional pastimes such as hunting and organizing cattle marts on certain occasions. The community is quite religious with many sending their children to seminaries for Quranic and Islamic education. Many also serve in the local police force and are competent police officers. 

PATHANS OF BIHAR 

The Pathans of Bihar are a community of Pakhtuns settled in the state of Bihar in India. They command a strong social status amongst Bihar's Muslims. Although they have been absorbed into Bihari culture and identity many of them still prefer to marry within their own community and call themselves pure Pathans to distinguish themselves from those of their brethren who have intermarried into Bihar's Muslims. The history of Pathans in Bihar stretches back to the time of the Afghan King of the Sur dynasty Sher Shah Suri (real name Muhammad Fareed Khan) an Afghan Pashtun born in Bihar. Many of his descendants still live in Bihar. The district of Sher Ghati in Bihar has wild Pathans who have maintained their tribal traits. The Pathans of Bihar still follow time-honored traditions observed by Pathan tribals of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Among some of their traditions are the following: 

1. When a child is born, they shoot in the air. Three shots for a male child and two for a female child. 
2. The men shout outside the door of their homes so that any women guests cover themselves up in the presence of men. 
3. In Pathan houses in Bihar, there are separate living quarters for men and women. 
4. A lot of meat is cooked at wedding feasts a staple part of the diet of Pathans. 

PATHANDOM IN BOLLYWOOD 

The Pathans in Bollywood have excelled as actors, directors and producers. Some of the most notable Muslim actors of Bollywood are Pathans or at least have an affinity with the Pathan community. In fact, so much is the influence of Pathans in the Hindi film industry that there is a unique genre of films called Pathan films where actors have portrayed stereotypical Pathan characters. The character of Sher Khan in the Amitabh Bachan starrer Zanjeer was played by Hindu actor Pran whose character was based on the real-life don of Mumbai Karim Lala an ethnic Pashtun from Afghanistan. Many of Bollywood's Muslim Pathans are quite secular when it comes to religion, and some have even married non-Muslim women. The actors' level of proficiency in Pashto varies since most of them settled in India find it easier to converse fluently in Urdu and Hindi. 

Actress Madhubhala known as Marilyn Munroe of Bollywood who played the role of Anarkali in the historic epic Mughal-e-Azam was an Afghan Pashtun. Born in Delhi as Mumtaz Jehan Dehalvi to a Pashtun family of 12 children, Madhubhala's father Attaullah Khan belonged to the royal Mohammadzai clan of Kabul who shifted to Peshawar then to Delhi and finally to Mumbai.  Madhubhala could not only speak Pashto fluently with her family but was also well-versed in Urdu, Hindi and English. 

Amjad Khan who played the role of iconic villain Gabbar Singh in the Dacoit-Western Sholay was a Pathan of a village near Peshawar. Some claim he was Afghan Pashtun and others that he was born to a Pathan family in Hyderabad or Mumbai. 

Popular Indian character actor and comedian who had worked in over 300 films, Kader Khan was a Pashtun of the Kakar tribe who was born in the Afghan capital Kabul. Kader's family migrated to Mumbai where Kader would make a mark for himself in Mumbai's film industry as an actor and screen playwright. 

It was Mehboobullah Khan an Afghan working with AIR (All India Radio) who carried out an in-depth study of India's Afghans and transplanted Pathan community which has immensely contributed to Hindi cinema. After working hours, he would read many books regarding the community but then felt that he needed to do some field research. He finally got a roundabout way and used highly placed contacts who personally knew the Khan superstars. Mehboobullah interviewed nearly all of the major Bollywood Khans and later wrote extensively about his research in a book titled "Afghan Origin Khans Rule Bollywood" published in Dari (Afghan Persian dialect), Pashto and English. The book's title is misleading as all Khans of Bollywood are ethnically not Pathans nor even pure Pathans. Some of the main examples are as follows: 

• Dilip Kumar (real name Muhammad Yusuf Khan) Bollywood's First Khan and a pioneer of method acting, Kumar was born to a Hindkowan Awan family in Peshawar. His mother tongue is Hindko, not Pashto.
• Shahrukh Khan known as Bollywood's King Khan and one of the world's most powerful and highly paid celebrities is a Kashmiri Hindkowan Peshawari from his father's side and an Urdu-speaking Hyderabadi Muslim from his mother's side. Shahrukh or SRK as he is known was born in the capital New Delhi. The actor's paternal cousins in Peshawar contradict his claim of being Pashtun or Afghan Pashtun. 
• Salman Khan - second of three Khans, Salman Khan was born to a Muslim Pathan father Saleem Khan and a Hindu mother Sushila Charak who is half Maharashtrian half Dogra Rajput from Jammu & Kashmir division.
• Amir Khan - known as Bollywood's Mr. Perfectionist, Amir Khan's father Tahir Hussein Khan was an Urdu-speaking Muslim of Pathan origin while his mother Zeenat Hussein is a non-Pashtun Muslim. Amir Khan's paternal forefathers were Afghan Pashtuns from the Herat region of Afghanistan. 
• Saif Ali Khan - sometimes considered the 4th Khan in Bollywood's current Khandom, Saif is an Urdu-speaking Muslim whose paternal forefathers were Afghan Pashtuns of the Barech tribe while his mother, actress Sharmila Tagore is Bengali.

These are just some of the prime examples however there are actors of genuine Pashtun origins. Not every Khan is ethnically a Pathan as the surname Khan has usage in different contexts. During Muslim rule in India, it was a title conferred on Muslim nobles a tradition which the British later carried on when they ruled India. 

NON-MUSLIM PATHANS 

Since religious identity is not equated with ethnic identity therefore not every Pathan is Muslim. Although the majority of Pathans profess Islam there are also Hindu and Sikh Pathans that are Pathans of Hindu and Sikh faith. This is similar to how another major ethnic group of India and Pakistan, the Punjabis, while having similar tribal, clan and caste affiliations, identify themselves as Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Christian Punjabis. The 1947 partition of India led to an exodus of Pashto-speaking Hindus and Sikhs from Northwest Frontier Province and Balochistan into the newly independent Dominion of India. Some of the Hindu communities of Balochistan had a highly Pashtunized culture and spoke a language which was akin to the Pashto of Balochistan. During partition, this community which settled in India was referred to by other Indians as Sheenkhalai (Pashto for "blue-skinned") due to the cultural practice of females to adorn themselves with tattoos. The women would wear the traditional Pathan dress, listen to Pashto music and teach their children how to speak Pashto. Many Pashto-speaking Hindus and Sikhs who fled the disturbances in Afghanistan are now concentrated in and around the environs of India's capital New Delhi. A small community of Pashto-speaking Hindus and Sikhs who migrated from KP's Parachinar district are settled in the state of Himachal Pradesh. The village of Himachal Pradesh where they are settled is also named Parachinar and the community is known for their Pathan attire, their Chitrali influence dance gharra and their dialect of Pashto. 

The Pathan martial identity has given birth to the Muslim version of the caste system in India. Many upper-caste Hindus who converted to Islam have adopted the surname Khan to the extent of adopting Pathan tribal names such as Afridi, Khattak, and Yusufzai. Thus, the upper-caste Hindus who are converts to Islam refer to themselves as Khan, Pathan, Pathan Rajput or Pathan Khanzada Rajput. 

The Pathans of India have a vibrant history, culture and heritage of their own. They have left an indelible mark on the subcontinent's history, especially during India's Islamic era. Although many Pathans of Muslim faith who settled in India gradually lost the ability to speak Pashto, (exceptions still exist) many still prefer to marry within their own communities and preserve their genealogies, language and culture. A society that has the capability to adjust to the existing social milieu, yet underneath currents of the old pattern of ways and thinking still continues. Beyond speech, customs and blood the Indian Pathans are tied to their brethren across borders when it comes to being affected by conflict, by the troubles raging in South Asia. They have created their own resources within their own societies to sustain themselves and have managed to dispel some of the clichés surrounding the community by excelling in numerous fields.