A noted Afghan poet Abdul Bari Jahani, feels pride in his well acclaimed lyrics sung by the legendary ustad Nashanas;
Ka Tajak dee ka Uzbak dee yao Afghan de
Da de Khawrey Hazara, Turkman Zma dee
Some of us are skeptical of this assimilation as it is fated to submerge the pakhtun majority culturally and ethnically. The minorities consisting of Tajiks ,the natives of Tajikistan who linguistically relate to Iran, Uzbaks relate to a central Isian republic of Uzbakistan and Hazaras, having religious ties with Iran ( and proven more loyal lot to Iran), have been very hostile to the pakhtuns as testified by the recent times and they have always raised a slogan of the “usurped nations” or (Millat-hae sitam deeda), cursing Pakhtuns on one pretext or another. The followers of Ahmad Shah Masood, Rasheed Dostam, Tahir Badakhshi, Bahruddin Baes, and ustad Rabbani have always stabbed pakhtuns in the back when they laid hands on any opportunity. The wrath of the savage squads of the Northern Alliance on the isolated pockets of the Pakhtun population is now a dark part of the history. All these hostile minorities are united in a confederacy of “Parsibans” against the pakhtuns, (like the Turks and Mongols founded a united Moghal confederacy to rule others). The former “Sazman-e-Inqilabi Zakhmat kashan-e-Afghanistan” (SAZA) and the leftist Parcham Party wielded venomous aspirations against pakhto and pakhtuns. The Tajik Babrak Karmal boasted to say, “whosoever who speaks to me in the language of Tarakai and Hafeezullah Ameen, is my sworn enemy”. These immigrants, who migrated with the armies of the Timurlane and the others belonging to the Turkish, Persian and Moghal origins, now have their high stakes of cultural supremacy in the realm of pakhtun majority. It is pity that the notorious Russian harbored war-lord Masoud has been declared as an Afghan National Hero, while the great Ahmad Shah Baba is being debased. The dismantling of Ahmad Shah Baba’s giant concrete portrait and the erection of Ahmad Shah Masoud’s similar giant portrait at Ghazi Stadium at Kabul speak volume of the value of real Afghan heroes in today’s Afghanistan.
King Zahir Shah declared Pashto language as a national language in the Constitution of Afghanistan during his monarchy but practically it remained a relegated, second rate and fast losing language in Afghanistan. The so-called Pakhtun rulers were destitute themselves in their own language. The Afghan bureaucracy neither speaks Pashto nor writes Pashto and it has practically adopted Dari as the only national language. They shamelessly call the Pakhtuns a “majority without culture’ (Aksariat-e- be farhang).This alarming situation can be palped from the fact that though pakhtuns constitutes 62.83% of the Afghanistan’s population, however only 40% rural population speaks Pashto.
The United Nations Information DATA presents gruesome statistics which states that the hegemonial Tajik group in Afghanistan has been swallowing 8% pashtuns in the linguistic and cultural quagmire.
An eminent pakhtun intellectual Dr. Mian Sohail Insha laments in his book, “Pukhtanee Qaumi Jorakht”( National Composition Of the Pakhtuns), “The term “Afghan” met with such a mockery that all the alien writers use this name for all the residents of Afghanistan but the minorities inside Afghanistan, like Hazzraz, Uzbaks, Tajaks etc use it only for the pakhtuns”. But, ironically the government of Afghanistan and more lamentably the Pakhtun intellegensia inside Afghanistan also use it for all the citizens of Afghanistan. One of the Five Stars of Afghan literature, Ustad Abdual Hai Habibi, has vehemently advocated the use of “Afghan” name for all the Afghanistanis in his pamphlet, “Afghan ao Afghanistan”. This scribe wonders whether Khushal Baba had girded his lions for the honor of the Tajiks, Uzbaks etc, when he said his famous verse;
“Da Afghan Pa Nang Me O Tarala Toora”
Some disgruntled Parsiban may turn around and accuse me of being a “Paki Fatan” who is on a “mission” to sow the seeds of discord amoung the “Afghans” but let me clarify the position in the first instance in an unambiguous terms. I do neither see any destiny for the pakhtuns in a punjabized Pakistan, nor in a persianized Afghanistan.
Punjabis and Parsibans are equal usurpers and persecutors of the Pakhtuns and therefore pakhtuns ought to get rid of the two obvious enemies. Pakhtuns have been a formidable nation and its destiny lies in its own state, Pakhtunistan, where Pakhtuns are ruled by the Pakhtuns for the Pakhto and the pakhtuns. (After all Afghanistan has never advocated the merger of its lost territories in itself in any forum and only has offered lip-service to the Pakhtunistan movement as an eye-wash).
Any appellation, which due to prevailing political expediency, does not discriminate a Pakhtun from a Punjabi and a Parsiban, does not suit a pakhtun and therefore I would prefer to be called a Pakhtun than an Afghan, although my revenue record still shows me as an Afghan . This plea gets its further impetus from the present political corruption of the previous historical meaning of the name “Afghan” (which only denoted Pakhtuns in each and every corner of the world). We are, now left with the stark and harsh fact that all Pakhtuns are Afghans but all Afghans are not Pakhtuns, why, then we should not cling to our own undisputed and long-rooted identity of being “Pakhtuns” and “ Pakhtuns “ alone. A Pakhtun remains a Pakhtun in Pakhtunkhwa, Afghanistan, Europe and America fearing no political syndrome and power gimmicks which can disrobe them of their true title of being a Pakhtun.
In the words of Dr. Mian Sohail Insha,“When we have our own original, etymological, archaeological and particular name, “Pakhtun/Pashtun”, then we should not value and endear the names (Afghan, Pathan, etc) granted to us by the aliens. It is not sagacious to adopt and accept these names advertently or inadvertently. In our territory Pakhtun is a major nation, whose language is Pashto, whose code of life is “Pakhtunwali” and whose country is ‘Pakhtunkhwa’”
Pukhtoona! Raasha tamashe laa zalmee jang jorawee
Da azaday pa dolay jang zalmee pa nang jorawee
Ahmad shah Baba remembers Hameed lodhi and Farid khan ( Sher shah Suri) and pleads the “pakhtuns” to show their skills of sword;
Da hameed Ao da Fareed dawar ba bya shee
Che pa Tooro “pukhtana” kra guzaroona
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