Ethnic Groups of Afghanistan



Ethnic Groups of Afghanistan

Pashtuns Of Afghanistan

The PATHAN (Pashtun) people form the dominant ethnic and linguistic community, accounting for just over half the population. Tribally organized, the Pathan are concentrated in the east and the south. As they gained control over the rest of the country in the 19th century, however, many of them settled in other areas too. The Pashtuns mostly speak Pashtu (although some residing in Kabul and other urban areas speak Dari) and are generally Sunni Muslims. They are divided into tribal and sub-tribal groups to which they remain loyal. These tribal divisions have been the source of conflict among Pashtuns throughout their history. Even today, the Pashtun parties are divided along tribal lines. The majority of Pashtuns make their living off of animal husbandry and agriculture as well as some trade. In Afghanistan, Pashtuns have traditionally resided in a large semi-circular area following the Afghan border form north of the Darya-e-Morgab east and southward to just north of the 35' latitude. Enclaves of Pashtuns live scattered among other ethnic groups in much of the rest of the country, especially in the northern regions and in the western interior due to the resettlement policies of Amir Abdul Rahman Khan, who ruled Afghanistan from 1880 to 1901.

From its founding in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani, Afghanistan has traditionally been dominated by the Pashtuns, who before 1978 constituted a 51% minority in the country. However, as a result of the 1979 Soviet invasion the population distribution in Afghanistan has changed. About 85% of the 6.2 million Afghan refugees who fled to Iran and Pakistan and around the World due to the Russian invasion and the war that followed it are Pashtuns. This, accordingly, lowered the percentage of Pashtuns inside Afghanistan temporarily and raised the percentages of the country's other ethnic groups. By the mid-1990s many of the refugees returned restoring the Pashtuns to their status of the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan constituting about 45% of the population.

The Soviet invasion of December 1979 has been the major determining factor in Afghanistan's ethnic relations since that point in time. From that time Until mid-1991 the various factions of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, all dominated by Pashtuns, controlled the country's government. All other factions either opposed or aligned themselves with the PDPA (with most in the opposition), including several Pashtun factions. It is not within the scope of this chronology to document the constant shifts in alliances between various factions, both between the opposition and government camps and within them. However, it should be noted that most of the factions were ethnically homogeneous and were engaging in a constant shifting of alliances worthy of traditional balance of power theory and continue to do so today. The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 has only affected the power relations among the country's various factions but has not changed the fact that they are in constant competition with each other.

The Dari-speaking TAJIK are the second-largest community, accounting for approximately 25% of the population. They are strongly identified with sedentary farming and town life, mostly in the fertile eastern valleys north and south of the Hindu Kush. Some 11% of the population are Turkic, mostly UZBEK and TURKMEN, who live in the northern plains as farmers and herders. The central mountains yield a meager living to some 1.1 million HAZARAS, a Mongoloid people who mostly speak Persian. There are many smaller communities, the most important of which are the NURISTANIS of the high mountains of the east and the BALUCH of the desert south.

The Turkic Groups of Afghanistan

North of the Hindu Kush in Afghan Turkistan, a substantial number of people (perhaps 1.6 million) are descended from the Central Asian Turks who frequently invaded from the north. The most populous Turkish group in Afghanistan is the Uzbeks, who have broad, flat faces and lighter skin than the Pushtuns. They are farmers and stockmen, breeding the karakul sheep and an excellent type of Turkman horse. These people have kinsmen in the central republic of Uzbekistan. Many Uzbeks fled into northern Afghanistan in the 1920s to escape the suppression when the Soviet government was trying to stamp out their customs and Moslem religion.

Less numerous are the Turkmen, who live along the southern of the Amu Darya, and the Kirghiz, who live in the Wakhan Corridor. Most of he Kirghiz, a nomadic people who herd yaks, were driven out of their pastures by the Soviet Army in order to stop the passage of Chinese armaments. through the Wakhan Corridor. The Turkish tribes speak an archaic form of Turkish, and generally Persian as well. The men wear large, soft leather boots, belted cloaks, and turbans. They also wear greatcoats with sleeves long enough to envelop the hands in cold weather or store away small packages. the women wear long dresses in bright floral patterns over their leggings. The nomadic tribes of Afghan Turkistan still dwell in the yurt, a dome-shaped felt tent on a collapsible wooden frame typical in Central Asia.

Tajiks of Afghanistan

The Tajiks are mostly Sunni Muslims and speak Persian. They live predominantly in the north-east and in the west. Some also live in Kabul. Because they make up the bulk of Afghanistan's educated elite and possess considerable wealth, they have significant political influence. Their influence lies predominantly in the government ministries, public services and trade bodies. Those living in rural regions engage in agriculture and herding. They have no specific social structure and tend to adopt those of their neighbors.

The Tajiks are a sedentary people, numbering about 3.5 million, who live in many sections of Afghanistan. They are also the principle inhabitants of the republic of Tajikistan across the northern border. They are often called Farsiwans, meaning "Persian-speaking". Slender and light skinned, the Tajiks have aquiline noses and usually black hair, although occasionally red and blond. Their history is vague, and it is possible that they were living in this area before the Aryan invasion.

There are several important concentrations of Tajiks in Afghanistan. The plains-dwelling Tajiks live mainly in Herat Province on the Iranian border, in Parwan Province, and around Kabul. They are town- dwelling traders, skilled artisans, and farmers, many of hem prosperous enough to be regarded as middle class. Because they have settled in the towns, they have replaced tribal organization with village orientation and a strong sense of community loyalty. The landowners (zamindars) have emerged as village leaders.

Another group of Tajiks lives in the northeastern mountains of Afghanistan, where they are poor, village-dwelling farmers. From their ranks emerged one of the canniest resistance leaders, Ahmad Shah Masoud, whose successes in guerilla fighting brought repeated sweeps by the Red Army against the Tajik strongholds in the deep valleys of the north-east.\

The Tajiks are the second largest group after the Pashtuns. They are also the Pashtuns' closest rivals for power and prestige. However, with two brief exceptions, one in the 14th century and one for nine months in 1929, they never ruled their region. They survived the Soviet occupation in a much less fragmented state than the Pashtuns, thus putting them in a better position to challenge Pashtun dominance.

Hazaras of Afghanistan

The Hazaras speak Farsi and are mostly Shi'i Muslims (primarily Twelver Shi'i, some Ismaili Shi'is), yet there are also some Sunni Muslim Hazaras. They settled in Afghanistan at least as far back as the 13th century. Hazaras have always lived on the edge of economic survival. As a result of Pashtun expansionism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries which was fueled by Sunni prejudices against the Shi'i (thus attracting the help of the mostly Sunni Tajiks and Uzbeks) the Hazaras were driven to the barren dry mountains of central Afghanistan (the Hazarajat) where they live today separated into nine regionally distinct enclaves. The Hazaras are primarily sedentary farmers practicing some ancillary herding. Many Hazaras also migrated to the major towns, particularly Kabul where they occupied the lowest economic rungs. It is perhaps this economic deprivation which caused the Hazaras and other Shi'i to organize politically during the 1960s and 1970s and concentrate on gaining political autonomy for themselves during the Soviet occupation. During the Soviet occupation, the Soviets abandoned any pretense of controlling the region. During this time, the Hazaras engaged in a violent civil war.

From its founding in 1747 by Ahmad Shah, Afghanistan has traditionally been dominated by the Pashtuns, who before 1978 (the date of the last reliable census in Afghanistan) constituted a 47% minority in the country. However, as a result of the 1979 Soviet invasion the population distribution in Afghanistan has changed. About 85% of the 6.2 million Afghani refugees who fled to Iran and Pakistan due to the invasion and the war that followed it are Pashtuns. This, accordingly, lowered the percentage of Pashtuns in Afghanistan's population and raised the percentages of the country's other ethnic groups until the mid-1990s when many of the refugees returned. This raised the percentage of Hazaras in Afghanistan from 8% in 1978 to 14% in 1987. The Hazaras now constitute about 9% of Afghanistan's population.

The Soviet invasion of December 1979 has been the major determining factor in Afghanistan's ethnic relations since that point in time. The Hazaras were among those who fought against the Communist government and they succeeded in liberating much of their homeland early on in the civil war. During the 1980s, they reached an agreement with the government in Kabul that in exchange for not attacking the government, the Hazaras were allowed to live relatively independent lives. The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 has only affected the power relations among the country's various factions but has not changed the fact that they are in constant competition with each other. However, the population shift that occurred during the 1980s has weakened the Pashtuns and allowed other ethnic groups to become more involved in the country's government.

Thus, the civil war is a mixed blessing; it puts the Hazaras in physical jeopardy (along with the rest of the Afghan population) but it makes them useful as allies. Once the civil war ends, it is likely that the Hazaras will again be shut out of power and suffer from religiously fueled discrimination and lose the independence that they gained in their war with the former Communist government.

Other Minority Ethnic Groups in Afghanistan

There are several other smaller ethnic groups scattered around the country, such as the Nuristanis, who live in the remote mountains northeast of Kabul along the Pakistan border. They claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great. Sculptured wooden idols and ancestral images carved by the Nuristanis before they were converted to Islam at sword point in the late nineteenth century are preserved in the Kabul Museum. Some of them are almost life-size and were probably used to honour deceased ancestors and in healing ceremonies. 

Half a million Chahar Aimaqs, whose origin is vague, live west of the Hazarajat in the region between Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat and Bamiyan triangle. Baluchis nomads drive their flocks across the border from their province in southwestern Pakistan. They live mostly in the southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Nimruz and Farah. 

Different communities of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs have different histories. Hindus have always lived in Afghanistan. That's one reason why they call themselves Kandharis and not Multanis and Seraikies. Some of the old temples in the area also point to this theory. The word Kandh in Seraiki means wall. Kandahar used to have many walls. The Helmand river flowing in that area was labeled "Rud-e-hind-wa-sind" by Arabic manuscripts. The language spoken by Afghan Hindus in Kandahar known as Kandhari is probably "Jataki". (Information about the word Kandh, the Helmand river and Jataki is from a Seraiki Linguist by the name of Ijaz Bloach.) There's Chahbra family in Bombay who traces his ancestry back to someone from Kabul from ten generations back. There are many families from India, mostly Sikh, who have the last name of Kandhari.

The Afghan Hindus living in Kabul (Kabulis) are descendents of Hindu Shahis. Ahmad Shah Baba in the 18th century brought few Hindu families from Multan and Sind area for commerce and the community grew and never left Afghanistan. The Sindhi speaking community of Afghan Hindus must have come from Sindh at some point in history. Same would be true of Punjabis and  Shikarpuris. Some Sikhs and Hindus came to Afghanistan from Pakistan after the partition of 1947. Currently Afghan Hindus are living all over the globe   including United States, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, India, and Pakistan. There is very little told about them in history books. We are not aware of any research done about Afghan Hindus, their origins, culture and languages.

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