Allama 1ball Profile picture
Jul 27 19 tweets 5 min read
1/n Quick thread on #Afghanistan's indigenous Hindus & the present state of the Pakhtuns. Based on speaking with a Hindu lady who lived and worked there, speaks Dari and Pashto, did several field projects there, & was invited to speak at US State Dept. on security-related issues.
2/n Most Afghan Hindus are indigenous to Afghanistan, in the sense that they are the oldest inhabitants there at this point. There are some who went there from India only a few centuries ago, and are no less "Afghan", but most have been there prior to all others known today.
3/n Some indigenous Afghan Hindus are classified as Tajik & even Uzbek. More educated in today's times, & follow Persianate culture, i.e., they are basically Persian & Turkic Hindus.

But majority of native Afghan Hindus are Pakhta (#Sanskrit Pakta), or Pakhtun/Pashtun...
4/n Further east in the Subcontinent, we mistakenly call Pashtuns "Pathan", probably due to historical confusion with Pathania Rajputs (from around Pathankot, Punjab).

Native Pakhta Hindus are generally less educated, and follow traditional Pakhtunwali - the Pashtun Maryada.
5/n Traditional Pashtun Muslims also obey Pashtunwali over & above Islamic Shari'ah.

Pashtun Muslims usually refer to Pashtun Hindus as "Lala" - completely unrelated to the Punjabi/Hindi word for trader/merchant. Rather, it is Pashto term of respect/affection for older brother.
6/n This is because traditional Pashtun Muslims retain awareness of their Hindu ancestry & so the existence of remaining few Pashtun Hindus is critical for their historical ethnic identity & traits. They consider Pashtun Hindus to embody more ancient & "correct" Pashtun traits.
7/n Folk customs confirm. E.g., if a Pashtun child has a speech defect/delay, they feed him "naan-e-Hindu": naan from the hand of a Hindu Pashtun. Gandhar once produced #Sanskrit scholars, so the idea of correct speech/pronunciation is tied to those who still read that language.
8/n The great #Sanskrit grammarian Panini is supposed to have been from this community, from Salatura, in traditional Pashtun territory, as attested by Xuan Zang's observation of his memorial there. This book gives some details.
9/n In large parts of the northern Subcontinent as well as Iran, areas that had Arabic script imposed deformed the phonetics of the people of those regions. #Sanskrit-based script is essential to preserving the integrity of Sanskrit-based languages. Post-Islam, #Pashto lost that.
10/n Traditional Pashtun calendars are also influenced by lunisolar Hindu calendar. But all this apart, the separate identity & ethnic history of Pashtuns will be lost if they are made to ignore their Hindu past - this is being openly said by prominent Pashtun academics like ...
11/n ...Afghan academics like Prof. Dr. Abdul Khaliq Rashid of Ghazni, currently living in Canada & scholar of Dari & Pashto. Apart from the intrinsic link of the Pashtun identity with ancient Hinduism, intellectuals like him also say this link is being deliberately erased...
12/n Afghan Pashtun intellectuals allege that Islamists & especially Pakistanis, including their "Gul Khans" (Paki Pashtuns brainwashed by the establishment) are deliberately erasing the ancient Hindu history of Pashtuns for several reasons.
13/n These Pashtun intellectuals allege that Anglo-Pakistani propaganda is pushing the idea that nothing is known for certain about Pashtuns before the 13th century CE at the earliest. They are also trying to pass off native Afghan Pashtun Hindus as originally "Punjabis".
14/n By trying to typecast Afghan Hindus as "Punjabi", Pakistan hopes to remove the last strands of Pashtun identity's rootedness in the region, erode Pashtunwali as a separate culture, & make them more malleable. Exporting "Punjabiat" also has geostrategic benefits to the east.
15/n Exporting Punjabiat has same goals as exporting Kashmiriat did last century: make gullible #Kashmiri Hindus feel racially & culturally separate from the rest of Hindus, dilute Indian history of the region, suggest Turko-Iranic roots, & sing peans to syncretism of Islam.
16/n Afghans urge that India recognize Pashtun Hindus. Many Pashtun Hindu refugees in India have historically been forced to dissolve their identity in becoming Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sindhi later & eventually lose their language. Just 1 example:

hindustantimes.com/more-lifestyle…
17/n Typical Islamist method of denying Hindu Pashtun identity is to suggest they are Indian migrants who have been given protection & so adopted the tribal name & language. Complete nonsense. Nowhere in the world do folk customs evolve to call protected guests "older brother".
18/n Dharma has produced the oldest living religion on earth (Vedic Hinduism) & the newest established religion (#Sikhi), with Jainism & Buddhism inbetween. At least 3 of those have had a significant presence in Afghanistan, which Islamists want to erase through Talibanization.
n/n So, it is imp. for all Dharmics to raise awareness of indigenous Pashtun Hindu culture in Afghanistan & reinforce the claim they have on their homeland. Imp. for Afghan Sikhs too, tho majority of them are more recent migrants (as recent as Javed Akhtar's ancestors in India).

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More from @Parikramah

Apr 19
#Sanskrit airport

airport
विमानपत्तनं

aircraft
विमानं, वायुयानं

air transport
विमान-परिवहणं

hangar
विमानाश्रयः

baggage
संभारः, पेटी, पेटिकाः

baggage-claim
पेटीप्राप्तिः

baggage-carousel
पेटी-परिपथः

contd.
#Sanskrit airport

ticketing
पत्रक-विक्रयः (Raghuvira), चीटिका-विक्रयः

check-in (v.)
अभिलिखति

air traffic control
वायुसञ्चार-नियमनं

runway
विमानपथः

take-off (airplane)
उत्तरणं

landing
अवतरणं

flight mode (phone)
विमानावस्था

card
पत्रकं

contd.
#Sanskrit airport

cabin crew|crew (airplane)
कोष्ठागारिकः

air hostess
कोष्ठागारिका

wing (airplane)
पक्षः (Raghuvira - from समपाङ्गणसूत्रधारः)

overhead bin (airplane)
शिरोपरि-पूलः

raft
उडुपः

life-jacket
प्लावकं

seat-belt
आसनपट्टी

contd.
Read 6 tweets
Oct 15, 2021
1/n Straits of Bosphorus. An Islamic savant called Said Nursi, called Bediuzzaman (sort of like YugPurush) by his fans, said he had a vision of Imam Rabbani (Sirhindi) when meditating here once…
2/n Bediuzzaman Said Nursi wanted to say that he takes the baton from Imam Rabbani.

Imam Rabbani (Ahmad Sirhindi) is considered the second greatest Islamic theologian after Imam Ghazali. They both fused the current state of Sufism back into ulema-centered Islam…
3/n Imam Rabbani popularized the theology of “wahdat ash-shahood” - oneness of witnessing. This is a lame misappropriation of Vishishtadvaita, whose Ramanandi proponents were active in the area around where Sirhindi grew up. This reductionistic plagiarism was subhanallah’ed.
Read 19 tweets
May 13, 2021
#Sanskrit Legalese विधिसम्बन्धि-शब्दावली - (A)

acquittal संशुद्धि, शुचि:
affidavit शपथपत्रं
abetment अनूत्तेजनं, अपसाहाय्यं
allegation आरोप:, अभिकथनं
appeal पुनरावेदनं
argument वाद:
arrest आसेध:, निग्रहणं
assault प्रहार:, आघात:
appellate पुनर्विचार:
Contd...
...contd...

personal attorney प्रतिहस्तकं, प्राभिकर्ता
attorney न्यायवादी
pleader अभिवक्ता
barrister विधिवक्ता
advocate अधिवक्ता
counsellor समुपदेष्टा, मन्त्रणाकार:

jurisdiction क्षेत्राधिकार:

...contd...
Contd. #Sanskrit Legalese विधिसम्बन्धि-शब्दावली - (B)

bail प्रतिभू:
security पारिभाव्यं
collateral surety प्रातिभाव्यं
bail bond लग्नक:, प्रतिभूकरणं

bailiff आसेधक:

bankrupt(cy) नष्टनिधि:, विपन्नार्थ:, अशक्तानृण्य:

Bar विधिज्ञ-परिषद्
Bench न्यायपीठ:

Contd..
Read 18 tweets
Aug 7, 2020
1. Thread on the family lineage Nehruvian India's first Minister for Education, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad - which is also intertwined with the family lineage of Jawaharlal Nehru himself.
2. Maulana Azad's maternal great-grandfather Shiekh Qazi Sirajuddin, came to India from Herat (Afghanistan) with Abdali's invading army. Abdali appointed him Qazi of Punjab and advisor to Nuruddin, his viceregent in Abdali's 'Punjab Sultanate'.
3. He later died during at Multan in a battle with Maharaja Ranjit Singh's #Sikh army - a fact that Maulana Azad notes bitterly in his memoirs, though takes pride in his martyrdom.

He is buried outside the Lahori gate in Multan.
Read 8 tweets
Jun 27, 2020
1. Next 21 tweets on #Sikh tradition's relationship with different languages & scripts in Indic core & extended MidEast/Mongol/Tibet/E.Asian family.

What were the cultural undercurrents of the first Sikh movement towards Indicization?

What derailed this?

What about the future?
2. #Sikh Guru Angad ji pioneered the re-introduction of Indic script in Punjab. Rolled back imposition of modified-Arabic script.

#Gurmukhi is derived from Sharada script of #Kashmiri Hindus. Related to far flung Tocharian script. Is only surviving member of that script-family.
3. #Sindhis, Hindus from #NWFP & Hinglaaj (present-day #Balochistan), + today's #Kashmiri Hindus' Indic scripts have lost currency. Most now use modified-Arabic script.

These groups should consider adopting #Gurmukhi as script for their languages as they reclaim their identity.
Read 21 tweets
Apr 8, 2020
Timeline of Tablighi Jamaat event at Nizamuddin Markaz

indiatoday.in/india/story/ti…

#ExposeEqualityLabs
1/n Tablighi Jamaat, far from bng an innocuous socio-cultural org, as liberal media would like you to blv, is a radical Islamist hydra with multiple heads, has its tentacles spread worldwide, with corroborated connections to violence, vandalism, terrorists #ExposeEqualityLabs
Read 29 tweets

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