The Myth of Pashtun Weakness

Query:

Hi Mr. Rokhan I read your post across the internet and must say that I am in agreement with most of what you say. I always wonder why the Pashtun is such an indecisive character and lack historical and political acumen. I find him an individual that lack direction and full of personal weaknesses and ashamed to stand up for the rights of his race. Even the present day ANP after 100 years don't know what are they fighting for. Just opposite to this, we see a clarity of what Gandhi wanted for India. Lack of education and a sense of racial solidarity is lacking in the Pashtuns. I wonder whether the Pashtun will let loose of the apron strings of Punjab. The Pashtun is like an eternal child who don't want to grow up as a race. Religious fairy tales and an exaggerated sense of bravery tends to delude them. Anyone looking at the Pashtun can see he is a coward running away from responsibility and reality of life. I look forward to your reply.

 

Response:
 

Thank you for taking the time to read my reflections. The issue which you raised is very important. The weaknesses of Pashtuns to which you have pointed are not particular to Pashtuns. Look at the Pakistani state and its inhabitant nations. Which one do you think have a clear vision for the future? Set aside the nations, Pakistan as a state after its disintegration into two parts has not even realized what it stands for. How do you expect Pashtuns who have been the victims of state brutalization along with Baloch, Sindhis, Seraikis and Mahajirs to have a clear vision? I am not advocating the weaknesses of Pashtuns or for that matter any third world nation, however, a bit optimistically, Pashtuns at least have had their state since 1747. Their slow pace to grow as a nation is due to heavy indoctrination by Muslim clergy, foreign infiltration into their lands and lack of political vision in their leadership to regain , retain and maintain the old Afghan empire. Pashtuns in Pakistan despite all the institutionalized Punajabisation and Urdufication have managed to be the second in the higher echelons of power after Punjabis. The most indigenous struggle for freedom from the British was none other than that of Pashtuns in the form of Khudai Khidmatgar movement. The only mistake they did was not to struggle for their independent state which ultimately strengthened Punjabi imperialism.

 

Having said that giving due respect to the proportion of truth in your thoughts, may I opine that it has been the absence of a true nationalistic ideological party not only in Pashtuns but even in other nations that they have been kept aloof from their glorious history and rich cultural traditions due to which they stand nowhere as the so called Islamic identity , as any truth loving person  would agree, is nothing but a fake abstraction to intellectualize the Arab imperialism in a sacred form. This use of religion even over shadowed the percentage of truth in the moral teachings of the great Arab leader like Muhammad. 

 

The bright side of the picture is that as far as Pashtun belt in Pakistan is concerned, I think the political consciousness is more than ever before and that is why we have an antithesis in the form of PKMAP of Mahmud Khan Achakzai to an already existing entity of ANP. In Afghanistan, though war and foreign agendas have been inflicted upon them by interventionists but there is a hidden surge of political consciousness and state nationalism among the youth, educated lot and Diaspora who have tasted the bitterness of defacto secondary citizenship in other countries.

 

In conclusion the very clear solution for the Pashtuns is an independent Pakhtunistan as a state or a
Pakhtunistan consisting of current Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Attock, Mianwali, Pashtun belt of Baluchistan as a single province with provincial autonomy and free from the clutches of Punjab in Pakistan ofcourse with FATA as a semi autonomous province due to the Durand line issue. The third option which the forces of history might enforce on the people of south Asia would be the change in the geographical boundaries due to the formation of Loy [greater] Afghanistan, Independent Kashmir [consisting of Pakistan admin and Indian admin parts], Khalistan /greater Punjab, Karachi city state, Sindho desh including the Sindhis on Indian side, North India [possibly Greater Maharashtra], the merger of West Bengal, Bihar and current Bangla desh into a state and a separate South Indian state [Tamil Nado]. However the time for their emergence is proportional to the order in which I mentioned their founding.

[Pir Rokhan- 25- Dec- 2010]