July 22, 2005
Non-Pashto Speaking Kakazai/Kakay Zai Afghan/Pathans and Pashto-Speaking ‘Real’ Afghan/Pathans
Someone has recently sent me an article by Mr. Majid Sheikh, which he wrote about the background of ‘Kakkayzai’ in Lahore. [1]
In a way, I do find a connection between Mr. Majid Sheikh’s article in the context of what my elders have been insisting all along, history and traditions of Afghanistan. After all, Afghan/Pathans love horses and Afghanistan’s national sport is Buzkashi, a primeval form of polo.
Just for the reference, I would like to reiterate, as per my elders (late and alive), Kakazai/Kakayzai/Kakay Zai Afghan/Pathans came with the invading armies of Mehmood/Mahmud Ghaznavi (971 - 1030) .etc [2] to the subcontinent.
Now there are some Pashto-Speaking Afghan/Pathans out there who like to indulge themselves into the arrogance of being ‘Real’ Pathans and therefore out-casting all the non-Pashto speaking Afghan/Pathans as non-Pathans, just because they speak Pashto. In their mind, ONLY the Pashto-Speaking Afghan/Pathans can be ‘REAL’ Pathans, which doesn’t only go against the logic and common sense but also the ancient history of Afghanistan by itself where most of the Afghan/Pathans claim to be hailed from.
These naïve Pashto-Speaking ‘REAL’ Pathans don’t pay attention to the fact that there are plenty of Pashto-Speaking Punjabis, Hindkos and Sikh .etc living in the NWFP and even in Afghanistan and YET they are NOT Pathans just like the offspring of these Pashto-Speaking ‘Real’ Pathans, settled in the West or elsewhere, who don’t speak ANY Pashto at all.
In other words, speaking Pashto has NOTHING to do with being an Afghan/Pathan for the mere fact that one’s language can be changed by settling somewhere where that language is not spoken but being Afghan/Pathan, an ethnicity, cannot.
Mehmud Ghaznavi and Shahabuddin Ghauri were both Turkic and so other Afghan/Pathan conquerors.
Ironically, these Pashto-Speaking ‘Real’ Pathans love to own the tales of bravery of Mehmud Ghaznavi and Shahabuddin Ghauri .etc as their Afghan/Pathan heritage despite the fact that both, Mehmud Ghaznavi and Shahabuddin Ghauri, were Turkic. And yet they have got the audacity to deny the same rights to some of non-Pashto Speaking Afghan/Pathans.
Can these Pashto-Speaking ‘Real’ Pathans deny the contributions of Mehmud Ghaznavi and Shahabuddin Ghauri to Afghans/Pathans’ history?
If they do then they deny their own background and therefore the tales of their bravery, truthfulness .etc that Afghans/Pathans are famous for.
One needs to study the ancient history of Afghanistan, not only under the light of books written by foreign scholars and travelers but also by the native authors, to learn about the background of Kakazai/Kakayzai/Kakay Zai and other Afghans/Pathans.
And last but not the least, these so called Pashto-speaking ‘REAL’ Afghan/Pathans needs to snap out of their trance/ecstasy of arrogance of being “The Real” solely upon their ability to speak Pashto – specially - when some of them are still confused, to this day, about their own background. Before out-casting Kakazai/Kakay Zai/KakayZai Afghan/Pathans OR ANYBODY else as NON-PATHANS, they need to figure out who they really are. [3]
Notes:
[1]. “Lahore’s Kakkayzai ‘horse traders’ - by Majid Sheikh - http://www.dawn.com/2004/09/05/fea.htm#2
[2]. http://www.bookrags.com/biography-mahmud-of-ghazni/
[3]. “Who are the Pakhtuns?” - by Rahimullah Yusufzai -
http://www.peshawar1.com/htmls/rahimullah/rahim67.html
Related Link:
“Kakay Zai / Kakazai :: Pathans ::”
by Ali Khan
http://www.kakazai.com/2005/07/10/about/
Read Page 180-181 in Urdu
Read Page 178-179 in Urdu
Read Page 176-177 in Urdu
