First of all, let me thank you all for making these last 5 weeks a wonderful expereience for me. I found this site while “googling” for information on India-Pak test series early this year and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it since then. Yes, we’ve had discussions/arguments/fights (sometimes), but hey, that’s becoz we play hard and party harder…
Now my question - I’ve heard a lot about “pathans” as part of this series and I’ve wondered who are the pathans in Pakistan team (and India team, too). Before I ask specific names, let’s first define “pathan”.
So, who exactly is a pathan? Is it the people who come from NWFP in Pakistan and adjoining areas in Afganistan (Kabul??)? Is it specific to the region or is it specific to a tribe?
Are all “Khans” pathans? Who in Pakistani team is a pathan apart from Afridi? What about these players -
Imran Khan
Yonis Khan
Moin Khan
What about Irfan Pathan and Zahir Khan? Are they pathans too?
What about Shahrukh Khan, Dilip Kumar, and Raj Kapoor? (They come from Peshwar and sorrounding areas)
All "Khans" are not pathans, like Moin Khan, Zaheer Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan are more of "wannabes", Irfan "Pathan" is a second step towards claiming the "pathan" being while not actually being one.
Pathans are ones who live in NWFP and some in Baluchistan (perhaps the migrated ones). There are many "pathans" who migrated to other parts and their later generations are still recognized as Pathans due to several factors....
actually this should be discussed in Pak Affairs forum.
pathan = ppl living around the lahore/rawalpindi area i think .... this was wen india and pakistan were still one nation i believe... i could be wrong.... i think afridi might be......
Member of a people of northwestern Pakistan and Afghanistan, numbering about 14 million (1984). The majority are Sunni Muslims. The Pathans speak Pashto, a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. The Pathans comprise distinct groups. Some live as nomads in the high mountains with herds of goats and camels; others, such as those living in the Swat Valley, are farmers; and still others are traders or seasonal labourers. The Pakistani Pathans are now claiming independence, with the Afghani Pathans, in their own state of Pakhtoonistan, although this has not yet been recognized.
Pathans are ones who live in NWFP and some in Baluchistan (perhaps the migrated ones). There are many "pathans" who migrated to other parts and their later generations are still recognized as Pathans due to several factors....
actually this should be discussed in Pak Affairs forum.
(All this is from my own knowledge :D)
Shahrukh's family roots are in Peshawar,in fact he still has some of his extended family living there. Prithvi raj kapoor(raj kapoor's father) also came from Peshawar and was a hindu pathan,so did Dilip kumar(aka Yousuf khan).
Hmm interesting question. Heres some info from the back of my head.
Pathans are people originally from the NWFP (North West Frontier Province) in Pakistan and alot from Afghanistan.
There are two main types of Pathans.. ones that are from Persia.. they speak persian and are mostly shia muslim. The others (majority) speak pashto and are mostly sunni muslim.
In the Pakistani province of NWFP majority of pathans are the pushto speaking, sunni muslims pathans. They are very rough and tough people because of the trying and testing living conditions they grow up in, for example living in mountainous areas etc. During the mughal and british rule, much of India's army consisted of pathans and sikhs.. both being a very strong and brave people, with each person having foot long balls. Because of serving in the military pathans spread about in the whole subcontinent and alot of them went to major cities in India and Pakistan.
There was a very famous pathan Don in Mumbai i believe his name was Karim Lala.. he died a few years ago. In Karachi there are over 1 million pathaan people. Their most common trade is construction work and running roadside hotels. Alot of them are also in the trucking industry. A few common things in pure pathans are very very fair skin (the persian ones look almost white). Often brown-blondish hair, ability to speak pushto. And most of all strength and durability. Usually one peshawari pathan equals ~2-3 karachi people strength wise :p
Now as for pathans of cricket. The name 'Khan' does mean the person has some roots with pathans but it doesnt usually mean the person is pure pathan. Because there has been so much race mixing and intermarriages, most of the Khan's today are less than 1/32 pathan. In the pakistani team, the pure pathans are Yasir Hameed, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Arshad Khan (these are all from Peshawar, though Afridi was raised in karachi). Imran Khan is sort of halfway there :p (he's from Lahore). Moin Khan, Majid Khan waghaira aren't pathans.
Hardly any of the indian Khans are pathans. None from the movie industry. Dilip Kumar maybe (Yusuf Khan). Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan are no exceptions either. All these people might be able to trace their roots back to original pathans but because of race mixing none of them could be considered 100% pathan.
All of the above info is sort of general so there are exceptions in every case.
I am not sure how or why we say that Indians with Khan at the end are not Pathans!
Fact is that due to migration from the areas around NWFP, many people ended up in what is now India ( ie not Pakistan )
Whether, a person who lives in Karachi can confidently call himself a Pathan and a guy living in Dehli cannot is strange.
All I would say is that you can only differentiate between Pathan and Non Pathan based purely on the language they speak ie Pushto.
In that way, Zaheer Khan is NOT a pathan and Afridi is! Whether, Zaheers ancestors are from that region is another issue ( if you dont go by the language definition) then both Irfan and Zaheer are as genuine a Pathan as Afridi!
Can I also add, that as Muslims, the ethinicity of Zaheer or Irfan or Afridi is irrelevant - the Kalima is the greatest equalizer!
The original homeland of pathans or afghans is ko-suliman ,the north-eastren balochistan.From this place they migrated outwards in different periods of time.
Nowadays they are settled in afghanistan, N.W.F.P,attock,mianwali,and kasur districts of punjab, and comprise 48% of baloachistan province (infact they are magority people in balochistan i.e balochistan is misnomer). In addition to this there are large colonies of pathans in multan (have u heard of multani pathans) karachi, kashmir, northern areas and gilgit.
number of tribes also live in india settlled during reign of pathan rulers like lodhi and suri dynasties.This include suris,lodhis,formulis,mianas,rohillas,sarawanis,zamands,baraechis,lohanis.....so many people they are in india that their population reached to many millions.
Pathans have fair complexation and strong physique. In india ,they have intermixed with local populations but have retain many characteristics. Those muslims who have surname of khan are usually (not always) are light skinned and musculer as compred to other muslims and Hindus.This is because they have traces of pathan blood in them. They were high-ranked people in india therefore some people just put khan at the end of their names to hide their indian origin.
Zaheer khan and irfan pathan are genitically pathans ,both belong to same place. their forefathers migrated centuries ago from swat to gujrat for better future.
Shah khan is more pure pathan as compared to salman khan,amir khan and saif ali khan.Yes he has roots in peshawar like dilip kumar. Saif ali khan famliy belong to patuadi nawabs whose ansestor is afghan worrier habib khan (1801). kapoor family belongs to peshawar evident from their features.Feroze khan, sanjay khan, amjad khan, ziad khan and fardeen khan are other filmi actors of pathan origin.
Younis khan is a pathan from mardan and speak pushto.
shahid afridi is definately a pathan of afridi tribe.
Yasir hameed and arshad khan are also pushtuns from peshawar.
Who says imran khan is a half pathan? infact he belong to niazi tribe in mianwali,one of the pure pushtun tribe. He can speak pushto.
i do not know about moin khan but as he belong to karachi he can be a non-pushto speaking pathan.
All durranies in punjaband most people of kasur are non-pushto speaking pathans or afghans.
i hope u get answer
There is a famous saying which i heard from a friend of mine who happens to be a pathan “all pathans think waist down”. There you have it, your defination of a pathan.
Zaheer khan and irfan pathan are genitically pathans ,both belong to same place. their forefathers migrated centuries ago from swat to gujrat for better future.
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cutesponge: people from hazara ARE pathan. hazara is populated by descendents of utmanzai and durrani tribes. anyone from NWFP is pathan - anyone who has roots there and consider themselves pathan are pathan. it is a state of mind. you cant be from lahore, change your name to khan and call yourself a pathan (like imran khan). he is from niazi family and they can trace their roots back to a region CLOSE to attock, but not in NWFP. umar gul is also a pathan.
Anyone from NWFP and adjoining areas, especially those in Afghanistan are ALSO Pathans !
Why is there such a fixation with being Pathan ? Are you a Pathan if you live in the area or are you Pathan if you have certain genes ( the genome project does not have a study on this yet! ) or can you be a Pathan if your ancestors are from the area, generally known for its Pathan culture ? ( Zaheer, Imran, Irfan etc are such examples )
In my view, being Pathan is a cultural thing - not a genetic trait ( although people feel that these people have fair skin etc but what if a Pathan person marries someone from Bihar ? Will the resulting child who is not fair be considered a Pathan ? )
the khan of pathans have a "noon" with a dot at the end of their name(urdu). the khans with a "noon guna" are the marasis, arnt they? like nusrat fateh ali kha*n *
does anyone get wot im saying??
[quote=“GreenAadmi”]
Anyone from NWFP and adjoining areas, especially those in Afghanistan are ALSO Pathans !
nope not everyone from NWFP is pathan. and neither are the hazara ppl pathan. hazara is divided into four districts. out of which 2 districts Haripur and Abbotabad has Hindko speakers in majority while butgram has pathans in majority with the 4th districts i.e. Mansehra has about 70% hindko speakers and 30% Pathans.
and this i know for sure that Yasir Hameed is not a Pathan he is hindko speaking.
