Pashtuns
The Pashtuns (/ˈpʌʃˌtʊn/, /ˈpɑːʃˌtʊn/ or /ˈpæʃˌtuːn/; Pashto: پښتانه, Pax̌tānə; also Pukhtuns), historically known as ethnic Afghans[a] or Pathans[b] are an Indo-Iranian ethnic group[21] native to South-Central Asia,[22] who share a common history and culture. A substantial majority of ethnic Pashtuns shares Pashto, an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family as the native language.
Pashtun men from southern Afghanistan
Globally, the Pashtuns are estimated to number around 50 million,[23] but an accurate count remains elusive due to the lack of an official census in Afghanistan since 1979. The majority of the Pashtuns live in the region regarded as Pashtunistan, which has been split between two countries since the Durand Line border was formed after the Second Anglo-Afghan War.[24] There are also significant Pashtun diaspora communities in Sindh and Punjabin Pakistan, especially in the cities of Karachi and Lahore, and in the Rohilkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, India. A recent Pashtun diaspora has also developed in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, primarily in the United Arab Emirates. The Pashtuns are a significant minority group in Pakistan, where they constitute the second-largest ethnic group or about 15% of the population. As the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan (anywhere between 42 and 60 percent of the population), Pashtuns have been the dominant ethno-linguistic group for over 300 years. During the Delhi Sultanate era, the 15th–16th century Lodi dynasty briefly replaced the preexisting rulers in North India until Babur completely deposed the Lodi dynasty. Other Pashtuns fought the Safavids and Mughals before obtaining an independent state in the early 18th century,[25] which began with a successful revolution by Mirwais Hotak followed by conquests of Ahmad Shah Durrani.[26] The Barakzai dynastyplayed a vital role during the Great Game from the 19th century to the 20th century as they were caught between the imperialist designs of the British and Russian empires.
The Pashtuns are the world's largest segmentary lineage ethnic group. Estimates of the number of Pashtun tribes and clans range from about 350 to over 400.[25][27] There have been many notable Pashtun people throughout history: Ahmad Shah Durrani is regarded as the founder of the modern state of Afghanistan, while Bacha Khan was a Pashtun independence activist against the rule of the British Raj. Some others include Imran Khan, Malala Yousafzai, Shahid Afridi, Shah Rukh Khan, Zarine Khan, Farhad Darya, Abdul Ahad Mohmand, Naghma, Ahmad Zahir, Zakir Husain, Hamid Karzai, Ashraf Ghani, and Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Geographic distribution
The vast majority of the Pashtuns are found in the traditional Pashtun homeland, located in an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and west of the Indus River in Pakistan, which includes Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the northern part of Balochistan. Additional Pashtun communities are located in Western and Northern Afghanistan, the Gilgit–Baltistan and Kashmir regions and northwestern Punjab province (Mianwali and Attock), Pakistan. There are also sizeable Muslim communities in India, which are of largely Pashtun ancestry.[28][29]Throughout the Indian subcontinent, they are often referred to as Pathans.[30] Smaller Pashtuncommunities are found in the countries of the Middle East, such as in the Khorasan Province of Iran, the Arabian Peninsula, Europe, North America and Australia.
Important metropolitan centres of Pashtun cultureinclude Peshawar, Kabul, Quetta, Kandahar, Mardan, Mingora and Jalalabad. In Pakistan, the city of Karachi in Sindh province has the largest Pashtun diaspora communities in the world, with as much as 7 million Pashtuns living in Karachi according to some estimates.[31][32] Several cities in Pakistan's Punjab province also have sizeable Pashtun populations, in particular Lahore.
About 15%[33][34] of Pakistan's nearly 200 million population is Pashtun. In Afghanistan, they are the largest ethnic group and make up between 42–60% of the 32.5 million population.[35][36] The exact figure remains uncertain in Afghanistan, which is also affected by the 1.3 million or more Afghan refugeesthat remain in Pakistan, a majority of which are Pashtuns. Another one million or more Afghans live in Iran. A cumulative population assessment suggests a total of around 49 million individuals all across the world.[23]
Tribes
A prominent institution of the Pashtun people is the intricate system of tribes. The Pashtuns remain a predominantly tribal people, but the trend of urbanisation has begun to alter Pashtun society as cities such as Kandahar, Peshawar, Quetta and Kabul have grown rapidly due to the influx of rural Pashtuns. Despite this, many people still identify themselves with various clans.
The tribal system has several levels of organisation: the tribe, tabar, is divided into kinship groups called khels, in turn divided into smaller groups (pllarina or plarganey), each consisting of several extended families called kahols.[37] Pashtun tribes are divided into four 'greater' tribal groups: the Sarbani, the Bettani, the Gharghashti, and the Karlani.
By.... Fazal Hayat
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