The Case Against Pukhtoonkhwa A resolution to change the name of NWFP to Pukhtoonkhwa was passed by the provincial legislature on November 14, 1997. The after shocks of that self righteous and selfish acts are being felt all across the Frontier. Whereas there was jubilation in some parts of the province, there were also wide spread demonstrations in others. In Hazara the irate populace blocked the Karakoram highway to express their displeasure. The unhappiness was not limited to the Hindko speaking people--Hindkowan, of the province.
By Sayed Amjad HussainMany Pushtuns were outraged as well. Somehow the Awami National Party (ANP) does not understand why a great number of people in the Frontier are so upset. Public debate on this issue has degenerated into name calling, threats, and intimidation. The party had said that anyone who dares to disagree with the name change should leave the province. The Wall Street Journal in a scathing editorial on December 8, 1997, called our peculiar culture of political intolerance as Ghunda Politics.
The Frontier province was carved out of the Punjab in 1901 to expedite and facilitate British control along the western frontier of British India. It was never intended to be a mono-lingual or mono-ethnic entity. Six years earlier in 1895, the British had coerced a weak and compliant King of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman Khan, to agree to border demarcation between the two countries. The Durand Line, as the border came to be known, cut across tribes and mountain ranges without any regards to geography or history. Historically the area west of the Indus had always been under the influence of Afghanistan. That historic claim, 1895 boundary demarcation not withstanding, was the basis for Afghanistan’s demand for the creation of an independent Pakhtoonistan in the broad belt between Indus and the Durand line at the time of partition of British India in 1947. ANP’s predecessor the Red Shirts lost big when the people of the province opted to join Pakistan in a referendum. The Red Shirts then and ANP now have one thing in common with the successive governments in Afghanistan; they are totally oblivious to the sensitivities of Non-Pushtuns in the province. To them no other people live in the province and even if there are, they are of no consequence.
Accurate demographic statistics are hard to come by. It is established that Hindko is a dominant language in the divisions of Hazara and Dera Ismail Khan and is spoken widely in areas of Peshawar, Kohat and Bannu. A clear picture did not emerge after the last census in 1981 because the questions about language were flawed and ambiguous. It is widely believed that Hindko is spoken by at least 50 percent of the population of the province. Why, the question begs for an answer, outside world and particularly the world east of the Indus has remained oblivious to the presence of Hindko language and the people who speak this language.
The reasons are many. The most important and perhaps the most damaging has been glorification of the Pushtun culture and Pushtu language at the expense of other cultures and languages by the colonial writers and administrators. The exploits of the British fighting the wild and unruly tribesmen along the turbulent western frontier of British India made a fascinating reading back in London. Whereas there were equally resolute people resisting the British within the “settled” areas, their struggle was not worth noting. Some how the exchange of gunfire across the Khyber mountains was more romantic than the heroic exploits of, say, the citizens of Peshawar city. The incident that turned the tide against the British in the province happened in Peshawar city when a protesting crowd set fire to an armored car and pelted the British officers with rocks in Qissa Khani bazaar. The resultant firing on that fateful April day in 1930 killed a hundred people. There were many other such examples. It was not, however, the stuff that moved Rudyard Kipling to write The Ballad of East and West.
Despite some overlap there are two distinct cultures in the province; the Pushtun culture and Hindko culture. Both cultures are inextricably linked and deeply steeped in the languages they represent. Customs, traditions and codes of conduct practiced by the two peoples are different and separate. The concept of pushtunwali, the very foundation of the Pushtun culture, is in some ways alien to non Pushtuns. Similarly the traditions and customs of the Hindko speaking people are strange to Pushtuns. Further complicating the picture is the fact that there are other distinct languages spoken in Baltistan, Chitral, and Kohistan.
ANP leadership represents the elitist mind set that has tried to dictate public policy in the Frontier from the early forties when Abdul Jabbar Khan (Dr. Khan Sahib) led the Congress government in the province. This mind set of Pushtun superiority at the expense of other languages and cultures was reinforced and condoned by the Colonial administrators, writers and historians. For example, Sir Olaf Caroe the last British governor of the province and an eminent scholar of Pushtun history skims over Hindko language and Hindko-speaking people of the province in his definitive tome on the subject, The Pathans. The pattern of neglect and denigration continued after the independence more or less in a willful manner.
Here are some facts. There is a full fledged department of Pushtu studies in the University of Peshawar, a Pushtu Academy, a Pushtu Literary Board, a Pushtu dictionary project, and a number of literary organizations named after famous Pushtun poets. All these entities are supported by the provincial government. There are none for Hindko and other languages.
ANP and its nationalist supporters contend, erroneously, that all citizens of the province, irrespective of the language they speak, are Pushtuns, but they have done precious little to instill confidence in the non Pushtun people of the province. When Pushtun nationalists were in the forefront of creating the Pushtu Academy by a special act of the Provincial Assembly in the early sixties, there was no effort to recognize other languages too. Thanks to the government patronage today Rahman Baba and Khushal Khan Khattak are celebrated as great poets but the significant contributions of Ahmad Ali Sain and many other Hindko poets remain unknown. If you have never heard of Ahmad Ali Sain then I need not argue this point any further.
It is ironic that the Pushtu language and the Pushtun culture were introduced to outside world, particularly to rest of the country and the world by Farigh Bukhari and Raza Hamdani, two Hindkowan Peshawari writers and poets. Farigh Bukhari also wrote “Bacha Khan”, a definitive book on the life and work of the great Pushtun leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan. It is also ironic that many of the well-known Hindkowan leaders and writers are known as Pushtuns outside the Frontier. Sardar Abdur Rab Nishter, Abdul Qayum Khan, the iron fisted first chief minister of NWFP, President Ayub Khan, Pitras Bukhari, Ahmad Faraz and the great actor Dilip Kumar to name a few.
Hindko is an ancient language that was spoken in Gandhara- the present day Afghanistan, NWFP and western parts of the Punjab. Stone tablets in Khorashti alphabet dating back to first century AD have unmistakable resemblance with the present day Hindko. Whereas historians and archeologists have deciphered Khorashti writings and have translated it, none have paid any attention to its links with the present day Hindko.
Official neglect at the highest levels of the provincial government has created an atmosphere where the status of Hindko and of the people who speak it, has remained inferior to the status of Pushtu and the people who speak it. Private attitude and public policy have perpetuated the myth that Hindkowans are inherently inferior to Pushtuns.
In 1995 I had a rare opportunity to meet privately with the great actor Dilip Kumar in Toronto, Canada. We spoke in Peshawari Hindko and talked about Peshawar city and its unique culture. I asked him if he would support the idea of a Hindko Academy to promote Hindko literature. He was most enthusiastic about the idea and gave me a letter of support. He cautioned, however, that the efforts to establish a Hindko academy should not in any way offend the sensitivities of our Pushtun brothers. Now the irony of the whole situation is that Dillip Kumar and his family had not lived in Peshawar for over sixty years, but he understood the dynamics of the dominant language and culture and was reluctant to offend their sensitivities in the process of preserving his own language and culture. I wonder how many Pushtun nationalists felt the same way about Hindkowan at the time of establishment of the Pushtu Academy.
It is perhaps unfair to put all the blame on ANP and its supporters for the neglect of the Hindko language and culture. Had these turn coats articulated the sentiments of their constituents to their party bosses, ANP would have not been able to ram rod the idea of renaming the province down the throat of an intimidated and compliant provincial legislature.
This would have also sent a clear message to the government officials about their cavalier and dismissive attitude towards Hindko speaking people and their genuine concerns. For over six years this writer has been trying to engage powers that be into a meaningful dialogue about the plight of Hindko language. Two recent governors, one previous chief minister, two pervious chief secretaries and two previous vice chancellors of the University of Peshawar did not respond to the correspondence on this subject. Ditto for the current provincial chief of ANP. Their silence speaks volumes. For those of us who straddle both languages and cultures this attitude is painful indeed. What ANP did in the legislative Assembly was nothing short of committing an act of violence against the majority of inhabitants of the province. It is a pity that the Muslim League, remained a silent spectator to this cultural onslaught.
In the final analysis it is not the name change per se that has angered majority of Hindkowan of the province but a long standing dismissive majority attitude toward them. Whether the province is called NWFP or Pukhtoonkhwa will eventually be decided by the National Assembly and the Senate. In the mean time the ANP and the provincial legislature could start taking some confidence building measures to regain their credibility with the Hindkowan of the province. They can start by passing a bill to establish a Hindko Academy and starting a department of Hindko studies in the University of Peshawar. It do not think it is much to ask.
But instead of engaging in a civil debate on the issue of name change of the province, those who dare to disagree are being told to either put up or shut up or better still, leave the province.
Sayed Amjad Hussain is an Op-Ed page columnist with the daily Blade of Toledo, Ohio and a clinical professor of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the Medical College of Ohio.