All Khans are Pathan, but all pathans are not Khan, ... but majority of Pathans use Khan as their last names! ...
Now Khans have sub casts as well, I am a proud KHAN and my sub caste is Yousuf Zai, we are called as Pathans, and they are spread all over the world, but the origion is either Afghanistan and NWFP areas ...
there are 100s sub caste, but the most famous, educated and high in numbers are Yousuf Zai... they are living in Afghanistan, Pakistan and in india as well!
Brilliant , I think you've answered my question.Thanks.
But just to finish I know a few people that have the surname Khan they are not Pathans but Gujar , unless Gujar is another sub caste.
I need help on an assignment relating to the caste systems in pakistan , In particular I need some info on the caste "Khan" do they have sub castes, do they live in any particular region in Pakistan etc etc.
The only bit of info on the net I can find is on Wikipedia , not much I'm afraid.
Any information no matter however little will help.
Thank you in advance.
Rumi
I know about our family history ranging back about a hundred years. I do know that their is a book on our family history from ferozsons and growing up I have seen and read a bit about it.From what I understand there are subcategories like Yusuf zai, Mehmand, Niazi. I can find more about that apparently my brother is a history buff for what I have seen:)
Brilliant , I think you've answered my question.Thanks.
But just to finish I know a few people that have the surname Khan they are not Pathans but Gujar , unless Gujar is another sub caste.
Anyway , thanks again :)
Thanks :-)
Yeah I know some Punjabi, Rajput, Siraki, Potohari, Niazi etc also use Khan as part of thier names, but they are not origional Khans, ... they are mixed up generations! Like if a Khan marries a Punjabi or a Rajput or hinko person, and as a result thier kids get 'khan' as part of thier names! ... its a mixed caste, not pure pathans! ...
Khan living in india got married with locals, and have thier generation thier! ...
A pure Khan is white-pink, well built person! but these days you can witness a black or dark khan too... they are mixed...
My grand-grand Papa was moved from Peshawar or Jalal-Abad(Afghanistan) to india, he got married to another Khan thier and hence we have our family tree! ... in india Aamir Khan, Salman, SRK, Dilip (Yousuf Khan) , Qadir Khan etc are having similar back grounds as of mine! ... india is not origion for Khan! Origin of Khans is only NWFP and Afghanistan :-)
We also have some Khan by title, they have nothing to do with Pathans but they got this title by Britishers when they were governing indo-Pak :-)
I know about our family history ranging back about a hundred years. I do know that their is a book on our family history from ferozsons and growing up I have seen and read a bit about it.From what I understand there are subcategories like Yusuf zai, Mehmand, Niazi. I can find more about that apparently my brother is a history buff for what I have seen:)
That must be an interesting read , can you ask your brother if he has any information on Kashmiris, I read somewhere that they originated from Iran and then migrated to Kashmir eventually filtering into India / pakistan.I am interested in the sub caste Mughal Mir in particular.
Khan is not a caste , neither it is a tribe. It is a title. A mongolian title which was later adopted by turks and people of indo-iranian stock such as Pashtuns, Balochs and persians. It signified noble upper class heritage in india so some converts from rajput community also adopted it. As well as by some shudra/dalits when claiming fake origin.Turks got russified and no longer use it, it was never that popular in persia, so the major communities who are still using it are Pashtuns and balochs. Why “khan sahab” got synonymous with pashtun in Pakistan?. Because in in the 18th century india, majority of the settlers from west, were pashtuns, who took advantage of decline of mughal empire and migrated to india in very large numbers. Nadir shah and abdali invasions further facilitated settlements of pashtuns in india. Pashtun with prominent khan names became very familiar faces in 18th century hindostan. They were fighting and warring in every corner of hindostan. In punjab’s kasur, hoshiarpur, jalandur, pathankot, malerkotla, sirhind etc they were in power struggle with sikhs. In U.P and delhi, Pashtuns got known as ruhelas who became major players in politics and wars of northren india. In bihar and bengal, aliverdi khan siezed power with the help of bihar’s pathans and created an army with big chunk of them being pathans. In Malwa orakzai pashtuns founded bhopal. In rajasthan yousafzais founded tonk state. In gujrat babee pashtuns took control of large territories. In the entire central india, pindari raiders, mostly consisted of pashtuns and led by pashtun leaders, became the fearsome and notorious auxillary forces of marathas. In karnatak, hyderabad and mysore, pathans/pashtuns recruited heavily in their armies.
Well our family name is Khan, but my family are Abbasi’s (from my daada) and my daadi’s side are sayeds.
I dont really understand castes. Here in the UK growing up in a pakistani community mainly consisting of people from mirpur the caste system is very popular with them and a deciding factor for everything almost
My surname is khan and I’m pathan and all the khans I know are Pathans unless they couldn’t find a better surname Lol. There are also some Asians that are khans too!
Poor attempt at humour. Did you see me quoting OP?. I was addressing general audiance of gupshup , and also of google. Google ranking of this site is very high, i no longer waste my time in chit chat and one-liners of no value. Some one may search for this question on google, may stumble upon this thread and my reply.
jo khoobsorat hotay nazar aatay hain
