Content area
Full Text
Abstract
Although the study of the origin of the Afghans has gained much attention previously among the local and some European scholars, the same cannot be said precisely in the present times. It became a neglected topic and no proper research has been done on this important topic for some obvious reasons. Since the last few decades the region has gone through tremendous extraordinary changes and these and similar other academic issues have been given secondary importance. The whole region became a conflict zone where many warring parties were seen in pursuing 'their' personal agendas. Chaos and anarchy prevailed in the area and this resulted in the upsurge of militancy and scholastic discussions seem irrelevant.
The main purpose of the present paper is to clear the misconception/myths regarding the origin of the Afghans and to apprise the people of the importance of the subject. It will help understand the contentious issue and will also help in explaining the matter which remained unresolved for many years. Utmost care has been taken by utilizing both primary and authentic secondary sources to recuperate the analysis by converging arguments both in favour and against the various theories presented.
"No ethnological problem is more complicated and intricate" writes C. C. Davies, "than that which is presented by the North-West Frontier of India. Hidden away in dark, inhospitable nullahs and still darker ravines, in lonely mountain passes and on barren, windswept plains, dwells a people, the human flotsam and jetsam of the past" (Davies 1974:37). More than ten million people inhabiting Afghanistan, Pakistan and India are known variously as Afghans2, Pathans and Pashtuns. Who and what these people are have not yet been made completely clear. Numerous theories have been put forward to explain the origin of the Afghans. They have been traced as Jews, Armenians, descendants of Hazrat Ibrahim, Bani Solymi and the Aryans.
Several Pashtun historians are of the opinion that the Pashtuns originated from Israelites. The first one who pleaded for the theory was Khwaja Ni'mat Ullah. According to him it so happened that once in the reign of Jahangir-the Mughul King, the question of the origin of the Afghans was discussed. The Persian ambassador spoke ill of the Afghans as descended from devs and amused...