Pathan

View more Literature & Language videos

Pathans is a name given to speakers of Pashtu (Pakhtu) living in Afghanistan and more particularly on the North-West frontier of British India and to their descendants living in India, notably in Rohilkhand. They played an important part in the history of India supplying three dynasties which ruled in Delhi and mercenary soldiers in many areas, as well as forming a large part of invading forces. During the British period the name was especially applied to the warlike and independent tribes of the frontier, among the most important of which were the Yusufzays of Swat, the Mohmands of the Kabul river, the Afridis of the Khyber, the Waziris of north Waziristan, and the Mahsuds of south Waziristan. The original weapons of the Pathans were the composite bow and long dagger; later they acquired matchlocks and at the end of the 19th century modern rifles with which they became even more formidable adversaries both to each other and to any who sought to penetrate their country. Divided as they were into tribes, septs, and clans and penetrated by family feuds they had little central organization but in times of crisis rallied under a war leader, often a religious figure such as the Waziri Faqir of Ipi. They observed a social code known as Pashtunwali. Their economy was based upon animal herding supplemented by trading, raiding, blackmail levied on caravans, and allowances paid by governments to keep them quiet. Some settled inside the British administrative frontier and took up agriculture. Pathans were recruited into sepoy regiments from an early period but more generally into regular and irregular units from the time of the first British occupation of the Punjab in 1846. In the last years of British rule some Pathans were given King's Commissions. After 1947 they formed (after the Punjabi Muslims) the second largest group in the Pakistan army and supplied three of the first four C-in-Cs. Many Pathans migrated to the larger cities of Pakistan, especially Karachi, and became involved in business ventures, notably transport, and, not infrequently, in violent crime.

Bibliography

• Ahmad, Akbar S., Pukhtun Economy and Society (London, 1980).
• Caroe, Sir Olaf, The Pathans (London, 1958)

— Malcolm E. Yapp