Re: What does "khocha" means?
Interesting. I might be wrong, but may be someone had referred Pathan Chokidars (probably first and common profession Pathan people adapted when they moved from their areas) as bat / chimgadaR (due to night duty) and then this got popular reference for Pathan. Just a guess and no offense intended.Once this Partner (Memon) in our firm passed offending remarks to me and a Pathan lady trainee. When he asked me about my home town, he came up 'udhar to daku' hote hain. I replied 'mobile to yahan ziada chhinte hain aur boriyon se lashen bhi idhar hi milti hain'. He was taken back ' ae yaar. main to mazaq kar raha tha'.To Pathan lady, he said 'tum pathan log to cycles pe kapRa bechte ho.. yahan kaise?'. She replied 'Boulton market main Memonon ki kapRe ki dukanen hain. aap yahan kaise?'
I doubt that, khuchy=bat is used by a small tribe which are not into chowkidari at all. One tribe has another word for bat "asmaan chakalay", that would translate into sky's shawl.And historically pashtuns were rather soldiers of invading armies then chowkidaar of houses in sindh or elsewhere. This was not our first profession, invaders and conquerors couldnt be chowkidaar of conquered people. Can you imagine mahmood ghaznavi soldiers, lot of whom were pashtuns, doing chowkidaari of indians?. During mughal period, pashtuns were deprived from nobility and soldiery, so they either acted as free mercenaries to fight for any side. The chowkidaari trend is perhaps phenomena of 20th century.