Muhammad Abubaker Saddique

Muhammad Abubakar Saddique Saba Pirzadeh SS 100 19th December 2016 The Resilient: Why have the pathans never been conquered? Despite centuries of close contact with the outside world, the Pathan still remains a mystery to the foreigners and himself. The pathans are a race which speak the Pushto language or its various dialects and follow the Pukhtoonwali code. Their dated history goes back 5000 years, but their origin is still debatable. The pushto poet, Ghani khan presented a brief but thorough account on the origin of pathans. Two most acclaimed theories about their origin suggest that the pathans are either the descendants of the Greeks or are one of the lost tribes of Israel. Pathans show similarity to the Jews in their names and in the division and subdivision of tribes and casts. The attributes and physical characteristics of the pathans however are more Spartan than Jewish. They are big, fair and known for their physical strength. A Pathan, like the ancient Greeks loves poetry and wars, residing between extremes in almost every walk of life. They are extremely proud and have trouble connecting with the outside world. Overall the personality of Pathan is neither of a Jew or a Greek but of a temperamental individual that might be a trustworthy companion or a deadly enemy. The pathans have never known the middle-ground, which perhaps is their greatest quality and their biggest drawback (Khan, Ghani). Their code, the pukhtoonwali code restricts them towards living a particular life. The code consists of five salient features, “Milmastia(hospitality), badal(revenge), nang( honour), nanawatai(forgiveness or asylum) and Naamus (protection of women). This code however has not always come to great effect in the modern world. Currently the pathans are divided by the Afghanistan-Pakistan border living on both sides of the Durand line. They have stood for centuries between the Khurasaan or the South Western silk route and the Indian subcontinent, at the very spot that has been involved in various wars and occupations. The area is towered by various mountainous ranges and great rivers which make it a beautiful yet difficult environment to play out a life. As people say “the land was made for the men, not the men for the land”, the terrain provides a perfect argument for the physical stature of the pathans. This particular piece of land demands resolute characteristics to survive. The pathans have always inhabited this land in the form of tribes and groups identified by their tribal names and distinct characteristics. The fertile land, unconquerable rough terrain and its strategic value makes it extremely desirable and irresistible. These economic and geographical prospects of the area have attracted great civilizations and empires which lead to wars and occupations. These clashes of civilizations have forged the history of pathans which is not found in books but the ruins and remains of these empires. Leaders, dictators and colonizing regimes have come, fought and lost. Despite knowing the intentions of the invaders, the pathans have welcomed them for they are an outcome-oriented nation. The pathans have always been satisfied in discontent and alarms, but idea of having a master or an invader can never cross their mind. Their ignorance accepted poverty and illiteracy but their pride never made compromise with the enemy. Starting with alexander, the world’s major powers have followed to the “Pukhtoon land” for one reason or another. Since Alexander’s voyage to conquer the world and his famous encounter with the pathans in the Khyber and Bajaur agencies, wars have been the pastime of generations of the pathans. "The Pashtun tribes are always engaged in private or public war. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian. Every large house is a real feudal fortress....Every family cultivates its vendetta; every clan, its feud.... Nothing is ever forgotten and very few debts are left unpaid” (Churchill, Winston). But the striking question is that why some of the greatest armies of the world failed to keep hold of the pathans? Why some of the most well assembled fighting forces of the world fought with terribly equipped Pathan tribes and lost? Consequently, why have the pathans never allowed moderation and compromise even in the worst of conditions? These strings of thoughts pave way for a study of wars which have been the only source of research. Their distance from the outside world has kept them extremely under developed and ignorant but their battle strategies, bravery and fury have kept the enemies at bay. Despite endless criticism from the outside world, the pathan refuses to change. They may have their differences among themselves but when it comes to countering an external threat, they make their temporary peace and unite to face the adversary. “Continuous wars have made the pathans a fierce fighting nation but it is the nature of their code, their geographical edge and their tactical brilliance that has made them unconquerable”. The pathans have never fought for power, wealth or glory, but to safeguard the very few core values that form the inflexible pukhtoonwali code. Henry Walter Bellew, a British medical officer in Afghanistan describes the characteristics of Pathans as “The pride of the Pashtun is a marked feature of their national character. They eternally boast of their descent, their prowess in arms and their independence and cap it all by "am I not a Pashtun” (Bellew, henry Walter). Like the Greek, they have loved their new swords and old wives. History and war provides us countless examples when pathans fought for revenge when their women were dishonored. The tale of the first Anglo-Afghan war portrays a perfect scenario of how pathans fought and destroyed some of the world strongest forces in the name of honor and pride. In the late 1820’s two of the most powerful colonizing nations of the world, the British and the Soviets were expanding at a rapid rate. The British came to the Indian subcontinent through the East India trading company, stayed and build a stronghold. The soviets expanded south, colonizing small nations like the present day Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Both powers knew they were about to meet but there was a slight problem. The area in between was a barren land with no information about its people and culture. The British were desperate for intelligence about this place remote and impoverished Kingdom, Afghanistan. In 1831 they sent out a traveller in disguise, Alexander Burnes, a handsome young military officer who was well known for being polite, respectful and extremely confident. He set out from Delhi from Delhi, travelled for about 12 months studying the pathans and taking notes for the British Empire. In his book, travels into Bukhara, Burnes described pathans as elegant, charming, excellent hosts and extremely proud (Burnes, Alexander). He went on to give a detail account of the people living in the area and then settled in Kabul for future endeavors. Despite Burnes’ suggestion not to send an infantry of occupation to Afghanistan, the Victorian army’s pride and their plan to sabotage Soviet’s expansion forced them to send an army of 17000 under the command of General Elphinstone to Afghanistan in 1839. The young officers of the Victorian army were extremely motivated and thought this as an easy victory. They carried exotic whines, had large envoys of dancers, musicians and entertainers and were in great spirits. They arrived in Kabul in March 1839, deposed the king Dost Muhammad and appointed their own man Shah Shuja to the throne. They kept their distances from the local people and lived in protected compounds. They often carried muskets and travelled in groups. This created a sense of suspicion and curiosity among the Afghans who had never seen an army as Alien as the British. After a couple of months, the wives of the British Officers and begin to arrive and European babies were born. This further fueled the suspicions because it meant that the British were here to stay. On one October night in 1841, news spread through the bazaars and tea houses in Kabul that the British were interfering with local Afghan women. The deposed leader Dost Muhammad took full advantage of the situation and called for Afghans to take revenge of this inhumane act which had sullied Afghan honor. His call for Jihad spread like wild fire and within a few days 40,000 Afghan warriors from all across the country rushed towards Kabul. On 2nd November, 1941 Alexander Burnes who called Kabul his home and pathans his people, walked through the narrow streets of Kabul gazed by eyes that no longer welcomed him. He suddenly rushed towards the balcony of his chambers where he’d entertained for so long and in beautiful Pushto requested Afghan generosity and their treatment of a guest. The locals, with their pride wounded, killed him savagely and put his head on display in the bazaar. The British garrison commander, General Elphinstone signed a treaty of retreat where they would leave behind all heavy weapons and the pathans will give them safe passage out of the country. As the British set foot on this dangerous journey back home, the deposed leader Dost Muhammad urged Afghans to take revenge. After walking for about two nights out in 3 foot snow, they reached the jaws of hell, formally known as the khord valley. Afghans, thirsty for revenge, were waiting in the valley. Out of the 17000 who set foot out of Kabul two days earlier, only one person, Dr. Brydon escaped the attacked and reached the British Garrison in Jalalabad. They assume he is only the first of thousands of troops to make it, and the gates opened and a party sent out. Realizing the truth, that night, the commanding officer orders the bugles to be sounded all night. William Dalrymple, writes in his book “noise of the trumpets echoing with the wail of the winds sounded like an elegy to the dead army” (Dalrymple, William. The Battle for Afghanistan). The British were dealt a deadly blow. A huge part of the Victorian army had extinguished by a nation that was considered by most British officers as an empty failed state. That weakened the British authority in the subcontinent and started the downfall of the British Empire. The pathans, however, took great pride in their resistance to the British and caused further confusions in the minds of those who long waited to gain information about this specific race of people and this foreign unknown land.( Afghanistan The Great Game - A Personal View by Rory Stewart). A new generation of British officers again invaded Afghanistan in 1879 in what was known as the second Anglo-Afghan war, but terribly failed. They were fighting an outnumbered afghan army in Maiwand, in the Kandahar province and were on the verge of claiming a victory. But in the middle of the fight, the afghans heard the cries of a battle girl named Malalai, who had no scarf upon her head and asked for the pathans to safeguard their values and honor. The British were utterly defeated and this time they had learnt their lesson. The wars with the British were a statement to the world. The pathans were left undisturbed in both the world wars and enjoyed a relatively peaceful era until they were visited by another superpower of its time. It was the overwhelming sense of pride and honor for their women that the pathans saw off a superpower as mighty as the British. A Pathan is a blend of romance and fury. Ghani Khan, a pushto poet beautifully describes pathans when he says, “The Pashtuns are a rain-sown wheat: they all came up on the same day; they are all the same. But the chief reason why I love a Pashtuns is that he will wash his face and oil his beard and perfume his locks and put on his best pair of clothes when he goes out to fight and die” (Khan, Ghani). The most valiant characteristic of a pathan is that he cannot be bought with wealth and lust of power but with love and respect. Since Alexander, armies set foot into the land of pathans with the intentions to conquer them. The pathans have always waited, studied their enemy, evaluated their outcome and then started resistance. Manreet Sodhi Someshwar beautifully depicts the attitude of pathans when she says, “Pukhtoon with love will accompany you to the hell but with force not even to heaven” (Someshwar, Manreet Sodhi). Another high profile war in the history of the modern era provides a perfect example when another external superpower tried to force its ideology on the Afghans and suffered devastating consequences. In 1979, a century after the second Anglo-Afghan war, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan unaware of its people and culture. The Soviets had studied the British-Afghan wars deeply and called modern Afghanistan a third world country that cannot withstand their large and up to date military. The Soviet repeated the same mistakes and raided the Pathan tribes and villages. This was seen as utter disgrace by the Pathans and they called for war. Although divided by the Durand line, the pathans on the other side of the porous border quickly joined to defend their people and their ideology. The pathans at first were reluctant to fight a straight out war against the modern warfare of the Soviets. Having the geographical edge, the pathans attacked in small groups and took the fight to the enemy. Both sides suffered heavy casualties in the first years of the war. But the pathans had everything at stake, their honor and their motherland. The soviets were exhausted and lost the will to fight. They called the war as a fight against stones and rocks and mountains with the enemy nowhere to be seen. The war lasted 10 years marked by the disintegration of the Soviet Empire and a huge loss to their economy. The war signified the tactical brilliance and bravery of the pathans and their methods to engage their enemy. Another superpower fell, another empire was ruined, and again the adversary had learned their lesson. The Soviet general in charge of the soviet forces in Afghanistan while addressing the NATO conference in 2006 stated “"You will flee from there. Many have fought them; first and foremost, the British fought there in the 19th century. The astonishing thing today is that Nato and the coalition seem to have learnt nothing, neither from their own experience nor from our experience. The resistance is, in my opinion, growing. Such behavior on the part of the intractable people of the region is to my mind understandable. It is conditioned by centuries of tradition geography, climate and religion. We saw over a period of many years how the country was torn apart by civil war… But in the face of outside aggression, Afghans have always put aside their differences and united.” (2006 Riga summit). Mahatma Gandhi in his book “on non-violence” applauded the pathans by stating “Yours is the true non-violence, it is the non-violence of the strong, not the non-violence of the weak and starving”(Gandhi, Mahatma). But what made Gandhi state such a contradictory claim about a race of people which were known for their wars and unforgiving nature. The remarkable thing about pathans is that they have always stood against tyranny and injustice. Colonel 'Buster' Goodwin stationed for twenty years on the Frontier expresses his feelings about Pashtuns this way: "Our dealing with Pashtuns was a gentleman's game. No matter how poor a Pashtun was, he might meet the King of England or the Viceroy of India but he'd look him in the eye and shake hands with him as if to say, I'm as good a man as you are” (Goodwin, Colonel). A man’s ethical identity has more to do with his personal, mental and political awareness than with geographia. It was the nature and their distinct characteristics which prevented them to fall prey to an ideological war with their enemies. They were conquered by a far stronger thought that an army, the Pukhtoonwali code. A nation known for their strength and perseverance have fallen prey to their own set of rules and regulations, and for the most part, it has come at a great cost. These inflexible rules have kept the pathans at a distance from the outside developing world. They treat guests as Gods but cannot bear a foreign entity stepping foot on their land. The pathan has always been a mystery, he loves fighting but hates to be a soldier, loves music but has contempt for the musician, he is kind and gentle but hates to show it, he is proud with strange principles. The wars fought across history tell more about a pathan than books and that has been his weakness. The pathan can be equally good with a pen in his hands instead of a sword but has to realize that words, literature and art are far more powerful than swords and guns. The pathans should welcome change in the same way they welcome their enemies. A people that are deeply affiliated with their roots are destined to become great. But the world has always visited them with bullets and spears and the pathans consequently have answered a pinch for a blow. This creates a room for a debate where both sides can learn and come to an agreement. Nevertheless, the pathans have been an excellent fighting force with little regard for their enemy. As Dr Sher Bahadur khan, author of the book “History of Hazara” states : God has blessed this race with a political acumen, daring nature and generosity which are the basics for running a government”(Bahadur, Sher). Ghani Khan’s couplets make up a perfect image of a pathan. “If I chance upon flowers, I fill my lap with fragrance And I spread it all over, smiling and cheering; If I chance upon a world of colors, I become a rainbow; In parti-colored glory, I dance like a white candle. In the house of revelry, when I find the cupbearer, I become a mad ecstasy, unfolding in dreams. If the world grows dark, bringing fire, lightning, and curse, I am a Puhktoon mountain of courage, intrepid and unyielding; And in times of mourning, I sit by the wise Laughing at them, And laughing at myself. (Khan, Ghani) Works Cited Khan, Ghani. The Pathans. Lahore: Frontier Post Publications, 1994. Print. Churchill, Winston. The story of the Malakand field force: an episode of frontier war. London: Longmans, Green, 1898. Print Bellew, H. W. Afghanistan and the Afghans. Place of publication not identified: General , 2009. Print. Burnes, Alexander, and James D. Lunt. Travels into Bokhara. Together with A narrative of a voyage on the Indus. Karachi: Oxford U Press, 1973. Print. Dalrymple, William. The battle for Afghanistan. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. Print. Afghanistan: The great game. Perf. Rory Stewart. N.d. DVD. Web. Khan, Ghani. Da panjrey Chaghar. N.p.: 1950, n.d. Print. Russell, Jesse. 2006 riga summit. Place of publication not identified: Book On Demand Ltd, 2013. Print Gandhi, Thomas Merton, and Gandhi. Gandhi on non-violence. New York: New Directions Pub. Corp., 1965. Print. Goodwin, Buster. Life among the Pathans (Khattaks). London: Col. E. Goodwin, 56, Addison Ave., 1969. Print. Muḥammad, Faiḍ, and Robert D. McChesney. The history of Afghanistan: Fayz Muḥammad Kātib Hazārah's Sirāj al-tavārīkh. Leiden: Brill, 2013. Print.