| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 43 [1] [2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Kabul and other regions | |
| Languages | |
| Pashto · Dari · Punjabi | |
| Religion | |
| Sikhism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Punjabi diaspora |
Punjabis in Afghanistan were residents of Afghanistan who were of Punjabi ancestry. There was historically a small Punjabi community in the country, mainly consisting of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus. [3]
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Punjab lies to the east of the Pashtun region and has shared borders with Afghanistan at various points in history. [4] For several centuries, dynasties centered in modern Afghanistan expanded towards Punjab, such as the Kushans, Kidarites, Hephthalites, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Khaljis and Durranis. Other kingdoms common to both regions include the Indo-Scythians, Indo-Parthians and Kabul Shahis. In his 1857 review of J.W. Kaye's The Afghan War, Friedrich Engels describes Afghanistan as "an extensive country of Asia" which "formerly included... a considerable part of the Punjab." [5] In the 19th century, the Sikh Empire originating in Punjab made a series of incursions towards the Afghan frontiers, capturing large swathes of territories to the Khyber Pass.
Afghan Sikh history is considered to stretch back 200 to 500 years. [6] [7] Not all Sikhs are of Punjabi origin however; a small minority include locals whose ancestors adopted Sikhism during Guru Nanak's 15th century expeditions to Kabul. [7] In the 18th century, Hindu Khatri merchants from Punjab settled in Afghanistan and dominated regional trade. [8] [9] The Sikh and Hindu population in Afghanistan may have numbered as much as 250,000 in the 1940s. [7] Both communities were particularly well-represented in business and government positions. The reign of Zahir Shah was considered prosperous. [7] Some of them were wealthy landowners. [10] In 1947, some Sikhs from Potohar in northern Punjab arrived in Afghanistan while fleeing violence during the partition of India. [7]
The population of Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan stood up to 100,000 prior to the 1990s. [10] The Soviet invasion in 1979 and the ensuing Afghan civil wars sparked a mass exodus and the community declined drastically. Most migrated to Pakistan or India, while others resettled in North America and Europe. [11] The current population is around 3,000. [6] [3] The majority live in Kabul. [9] During the Taliban regime, Sikhs and Hindus were forced to wear yellow arm bands for identification as well as hang yellow flags over their homes. [6] Some discrimination still persists as they are often barred from government jobs, viewed as immigrants or threatened for ransom because they are considered rich. [7]
Most of the Afghan Sikhs and Hindus adopted Afghan customs and assimilated into the local culture, speaking Pashto or Dari. [7] However, Punjabi is still spoken by some at home. [10] There have been efforts to teach Punjabi to the younger generation, as it is also the language of Sikh religious texts. [9] The Afghan government opened two Punjabi schools in Kabul and Jalalabad, facilitating the Sikh community. [3]
The history of preceding the country's independence in 1947 is shared with that of Afghanistan, India, and Iran. Spanning the western expanse of the Indian subcontinent and the eastern borderlands of the Iranian plateau, the region of present-day Pakistan served both as the fertile ground of a major civilization and as the gateway of South Asia to Central Asia and the Near East.
Punjab is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. Punjab's capital and largest city and historical and cultural centre is Lahore. The other major cities include Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Sialkot, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, and Bahawalpur.
Sikhs are people who adhere to Sikhism (Sikhi), a monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term Sikh has its origin in the word śiṣya (शिष्य), meaning 'disciple' or 'student'.
The Punjabis, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group associated with the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. They generally speak Standard Punjabi or various Punjabi dialects on both sides.
Khatri is a caste of the Indian subcontinent that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantilistic professions such as banking and trade, they were the dominant commerical & financial administration class of Late-Medieval India some in Punjab often belonged to hereditary agriculturalist land-holding lineages, others were engaged in artisanal occupations such as silk production and weaving while some were scribes learned in Sanskrit and Persian too
The North-West Frontier was a region of the British Indian Empire. It remains the western frontier of present-day Pakistan, extending from the Pamir Knot in the north to the Koh-i-Malik Siah in the west, and separating the modern Pakistani frontier regions of North-West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan from neighbouring Afghanistan in the west. The borderline between is officially known as the Durand Line and divides Pashtun inhabitants of these provinces from Pashtuns in eastern Afghanistan.
Hinduism in Afghanistan is practiced by a tiny minority of Afghans, believed to be about 30-40 individuals as of 2021, who live mostly in the cities of Kabul and Jalalabad. Afghan Hindus are ethnically Pashtun, Hindkowan (Hindki), Punjabi, or Sindhi and primarily speak Pashto, Hindko, Punjabi, Dari, and Hindustani (Urdu-Hindi).
The history of Peshawar is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent. The region was known as Puruṣapura in Sanskrit, literally meaning "city of men". It also found mention in the Zend Avesta as Vaēkərəta, the seventh most beautiful place on earth created by Ahura Mazda. It was known as the "crown jewel" of Bactria and also held sway over Takshashila. Being among the most ancient cities of the Indian subcontinent, Peshawar has for centuries been a center of trade between West Asia, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.
Moga is a city in the Indian state of Punjab. It was made a part and headquarters of the Moga district on 24 November 1995, by the then Chief Minister Harcharan Singh Brar. Before becoming a district, Moga was a part of Faridkot District as a tehsil. Moga is situated on the National Highway 95. The area of Dharamkot block with 150 villages has been merged into Moga district, which falls under the jurisdiction of Ferozpur division.
Awtar Singh or Awtar Singh Khalsa was an Afghan politician. He was the Sikh representative to the Loya Jirga from Paktia Province. He was the only non-Muslim representative there. His native tongue was Punjabi. He was in charge of the main Sikh temple (Gurdwara) in Kabul.
Hindkowans, also known as the Hindki, is a contemporary designation for speakers of Indo-Aryan languages who live among the neighbouring Pashtuns, particularly the speakers of various Hindko dialects of Lahnda. The origins of the term refer merely to "Indian speaking" people rather than to any particular ethnic group. The term is not only applied to several forms of "Northern Lahnda" but also to the Saraiki dialects of the districts of Dera Ghazi Khan, Mianwali, and Dera Ismail Khan, which border the southern Pashto-speaking areas.
Afghanistan is an Islamic state, in which most citizens follow Islam. As much as 90% of the population follows Sunni Islam. According to The World Factbook, Sunni Muslims constitute between 84.7 - 89.7% of the population, and Shia Muslims between 10 - 15%. 0.3% follow other minority religions.
The Sikhs are adherents to Sikhism the fifth largest organized religion in the world, with around 25 million adherents. Sikh History is around 500 years and in that time the Sikhs have developed unique expressions of art and culture which are influenced by their faith and synthesize traditions from many other cultures depending on the locality of the adherents of the religion. Sikhism is the only religion that originated in the Punjab region with all other religions coming from outside Punjab. All the Sikh gurus, many saints and many of the martyrs in Sikh history were from Punjab and from the Punjabi people. Punjabi culture and Sikhism are mistakenly considered inseparably intertwined. "Sikh" properly refers to adherents of Sikhism as a religion, strictly not an ethnic group. However, because Sikhism has seldom sought converts, most Sikhs share strong ethno-religious ties as therefore it's a common stereotype that all Sikhs share the same ethnicity. Many countries, such as the U.K., therefore misconcievingly recognize Sikh as a designated ethnicity on their censuses. The American non-profit organization United Sikhs has fought to have Sikh included on the U.S. census as well, arguing that Sikhs "self-identify as an 'ethnic minority'" and believe "that they are more than just a religion".
The Punjabi diaspora mainly refers to the descendants of ethnic Punjabis who emigrated out of the Punjab region before Independence of Pakistan and India. The Punjabis who migrated after the independence of both countries are either part of Pakistani diaspora or Indian diaspora, depending on which Punjab they originated from. Punjabis constitute the largest ethnic group in both diasporas. The Punjabi diaspora worldwide is between 2.5 and 10 million, mainly concentrated in the UK, Canada, the United States, Western Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.
Punjab is a state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the north and northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast, and Rajasthan to the southwest; by the Indian union territories of Chandigarh to the east and Jammu and Kashmir to the north. It shares an international border with Punjab, a province of Pakistan to the west. The state covers an area of 50,362 square kilometres, which is 1.53% of India's total geographical area, making it the 19th-largest Indian state by area out of 28 Indian states. With over 27 million inhabitants, Punjab is the 16th-largest Indian state by population, comprising 23 districts. Punjabi, written in the Gurmukhi script, is the most widely spoken and the official language of the state. The main ethnic groups are the Punjabis, with Sikhs and Hindus as the dominant religious groups. The state capital is Chandigarh, a union territory and also the capital of the neighbouring state of Haryana. The five tributary rivers of the Indus River from which the region takes its name are the Sutlej, the Beas, the Ravi, the Chenab and the Jhelum. Of these, the first three flow through Indian Punjab.
Sikhism inAfghanistan in the contemporary era is limited to small populations, primarily in major cities, with the largest numbers of Afghan Sikhs living in Jalalabad, Ghazni, Kabul, and to a lesser extent in Kandahar and Khost.
Pakistan is a diverse country and the major Pakistani ethnolinguistic groups include Punjabis, Pashtuns, Sindhis, Saraikis, Muhajirs, Balochs, Pothoharis/Paharis and Brahuis, with significant numbers of Kashmiris, Chitralis, Shina, Baltis, Kohistanis, Torwalis, Hazaras, Burusho, Wakhis, Kalash, Siddis and other various minorities.
Noorpur Thal Tehsil, is a Tehsil an administrative subdivision of Khushab District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The city of Noorpur Thal is the headquarters of the tehsil which is administratively subdivided into 10 Union Councils. It comprises a major part of the Thal desert.
Punjabi nationalism or Punjabiyat is a vision that emphasizes that Punjabis are one nation and promotes the cultural unity of Punjabis around the world. The demands of the Punjabi nationalist movement are linguistic, cultural, economic and political rights. Baba Farid Ganjshakar is considered as the Father of Punjabi nationalism. Baba Bulleh Shah, Waris Shah and Bhai Vir Singh have immense contribution to Punjabi Boli. Punjabiyat or Punjabi nationalism is the name of a cultural and language revitalization movement of the Punjabi language. It also focuses on the political, social and literary movement for preservation of Punjabi literature, Punjabi language and Punjabi culture by unity of Greater Punjab. In Pakistan, the goal of the movement is to stop the state-sponsored suppression of Punjabi in favor of Urdu, while in India the goal is to bring together the Sikh and Punjabi Hindu communities and promote the Punjabi language in regions of Northern India. Supporters in the Punjabi diaspora focus on the promotion of a shared cultural heritage.
Hinduism is a minority religion in Punjab province of Pakistan followed by about 0.2% of its population. Punjab has the second largest number of Hindus in Pakistan after Sindh. Hinduism is followed mainly in the Southern Punjab districts of Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur.
Before 1894, the Afghan border ran along the boundary of the trans-Indus frontier districts, formerly occupied by the Sikhs, and was virtually defined by the extreme limits of the Indus plain's westward extension.
The principal cities of Afghanistan are Kabul, the capital, Ghuznee, Peshawer, and Kandahar.
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