Afghan identity: does it really exist? [thread]

If you ask an afghan nationalist about the history of Afghanistan he will tell you that in the 1700s Ahmad shah Durrani rose up, united the Afghan tribes and created Afghanistan. They will also tell you that during the 1800s when

Russia invaded Central Asia, ethnicities from that region ran towards Afghanistan and sought refuge there and now Afghanistan is multiethnic.

To the first point on the emergence of Afghanistan, this is nothing but fairytales created by nationalists of certain ethnicity who want

to legitimise their ethnic biased policies. In reality the empire of Ahmad shah Durrani was not called Afghanistan but the sadozai dynasty, Ahmad shah was not a Pashtun nationalists in fact he on many occasions fought against the ghilzai Pashtuns, massacring them and committing

other crimes against them, he also changed his name from the Pashtun abdali to the persian durrani (which his tribesmen go by till this day). Also worth noting that Ahmad shah was a loyal friend of Nader shah afshar and wanted to create a similar state to the afsharids.

Just read Ahmad shah’s biography (Ahmad shahi which he wrote in persian) no where does he even mention the word Afghan, Afghanistan or pashtunwali but he does mention that he is the king of khorosan.

Now to the second point they push. Although it is true that people fled across the Amu River into what is now called Afghanistan, but in those days there was no border and people were moving to other lands their fellow people lived. This narrative is pushed to portray that

Pashtuns were the only inhabitants before 1800s and the other ethnicities are recent migrants (to whom they “gave shelter”to), therefore saying power and decision making should be remain to them and the other ethnic groups should live like “second class citizens or guests”.

Only a deluded Pashtun nationalists would believe such nonsense, reading the history of the region it has always been persianate and has always been ruled by Persians (tajiks) or persianised turks and in recent times persianised (to some extent) Pashtuns.

In reality Afghanistan was created as a buffer state (from what remained the saddozai dynesty) between the Russian empire and British empire (as to not get into contact and conflict). The British put their loyal servants in power who happened to be Pashtuns and named the country

after them. Every since then the Afghan (Pashtun) identity was forced, firstly during the time of abdurrahman Khan when he massacred hazaras and resettled Pashtuns in the north. Then during amanullah khan and mahmud tarzi (amanullahs father in law) another more modern form of

Afghan nationalism was formed, inspired by the young Turks of turkey. They quickly gave northern lands inhabited by tajiks and uzbeks to Pashtuns from south and Pakistan. And as time went on more and more of this pashtunisation was pushed. Zahir shah renaming Farsi into dari and

writing in the illegitimate constitute that all citizens of afg are afghans (without asking what the non Pashtuns thought of this) and now we are here today.

Well one thing the constant wars and ethnic conflicts that date back from now to abdurrahman khans time show is that this

pashtunisation policy is not working, the people will not unite under the Afghan term or identify with it. Persian is already the de facto Lingua Franca and has been the identity of the region since the sassanid times (that’s almost 2000 yrs). You cannot swap that with Pashtun

identity that till a 100 yrs ago didn’t even have an alphabet.

Khorosani identity is on the rise and the Tajiks uzbeks hazaras and other ethnic minorities have united under this banner, if our Pashtun friends are genuine about peace and unity then it’s time for them to unite under this identity with us.