PASHTUNS SHORT REVIEWS OF TWO BOOKS

3. PASHTUNS
SHORT REVIEWS OF TWO BOOKS
A.H Amin
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15772.44169
THE PASHTUNS-THE UNRESOLVED KEY TO THE
FUTURE OF AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN- ABU
BAKAR SIDDIQUE-RANDOM HOUSE INDIA-2014 –
A.H Amin
Journal of Book Reviews
Volume 7
ISBN-13: 978-1500994792
ISBN-10: 1500994790

4. I first heard about Mr Abu Bakar Siddique when I was
struggling very hard to produce first issue of Journal
of Afghanistan Studies in Kabul in July 2004.
My dear friend and mentor on Pashtun studies Prof
Rasul Amin spoke very highly about him and also
gave me a paper of his on Pashtun separatism in
Pakistan.
I was very keen to read this book .
The book is divided in FOUR parts.Theatre of
conquest , Pakistan , Afghanistan and a final part
titled as conclusion.
Since an over ambitious effort was made to capsulate
Pashtun history into some 271 pages including an
index the result is brevity at the cost of substance.

5. It is hard for an earnest Pashtun writing a history of
Pashtuns to admit that Pashtuns were worst victims
of manipulation and Pashtun history is a triumph of
manipulation over autonomy.Since Pashtun history is
harsh and bitter it is no easy task to write Pashtun
history truthully and escape the label of a cynic or
being branded as pessimistic !
Juma Khan Sufi an eminent Pashtun intellectual
lamented in his book on Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
that Pastuns were retrogressive and
reactionary.When I researched reasons for this , I
was forced to conclude that this again was triumph
of manipulation.

6. Dynamics of Nations and Pakhtun Politics By
Pukhtoon Khan Book Review by A. H Amin-2008

7. "Dynamics of Nations and Pakhtun Politics" is a bold
attempt by a fiery Pashtun scholar to reinterpret
Pashtun history and attempt to see things as they
were rather than how they were distorted by the
official Paskistani establishment.
As a young man and to date I have seen ethnicity as
the central theme in Pakistan as it may be in other
nations.
Historically Pashtuns were used as cannon fodder by
all Muslim rulers of Indo Pak from the era of
Mahmud of Ghazni till to date. However after 1947
their mis-use as cannon fodder was institutionalized
and perfected. This refers to Pakistan.

8. Born in a family with a strong Pashtun ancestry and
displaced through centuries of migration, war and
history in between Nimroz, Ningrahar, Ludhiana and
Aligarh all along I saw that Pashtuns were secretly
feared and despised or feared and disliked by other
ethnicities.
Their military and intellectual accomplishments were
only grudgingly recognised despite the fact that
Pashtun intellectuals dominated both Urdu and
Persian literature and produced the finest warriors
starting from Nawab Shefta Khan Bangash to Ahmad
Faraz.

9. Pashtun warriors were the topmost be it the armies
of Ghor or the armies of Mughals or the armies of
Persia.
One fact remains unchanged throughout Indo Pak
Afghan Iran Muslim history. Pashtuns were
manipulated and used to achieve political agendas of
other nationalities. Initially it was Turks using
Pashtuns, followed by Mughals using Pashtuns
followed by Sikhs using Pashtuns, followed by British
using Pashtuns and finally the Pakistani state led or
manipulated by Punjabis with junior partners, some
Khattaks and Yusufazis misusing Pashtuns.
Finally this manipulation was exposed very openly

10. from 1978 when Pakistans Punjabi dominated
military establishment set about destroying the only
Pashtun state or lets say Pashtun dominated state in
the world " Afghanistan" .All in the name of Islam.
Deep buried below was the hatred and fear of
Pashtuns rationalised as Islam and Jihad.
Afghanistan's infra structure, its institutions, its
crops, its people all were destroyed in name of Islam.
Since Pakistani policy by design stressed supporting
the Afghan insurgents in Pashtun areas closer to
Pakistan's borders, maximum damage of Afghan war
of 1979-1992 was in Pashtun areas. The non Pashtun
areas remained untouched literally.

11. The very idea of Pakistan supporting characters like
Hikmatyar and later Mulla Umar was Machiavellian
.Bring the Pashtuns in maximum conflict with USSR ,
Northern Alliance and later USA.All so that they are
bled white and remain the servants and vassals of
Pakistans military establishment forever.
The Pashtun has one trait that places him above all
races in this region. If he believes in an idea he goes
to the last extent in fighting for it. The intensity of
this trait is greater as you travel west and relatively
less as you travel east where Pashtuns were
Punjabised and thus corrupted as in Karak, Kohat and
the districts bordering Punjab.

12. My guides to Pashtun history were my friends Aslam
Watanjar and Prof Rasul Amin.
9/11 led to direct US intervention in Afghanistan. The
intense jealousy of Pakistan's Punjabi dominated
establishment was aroused just like when the USSR
has decided to aid Afghans after 1953.Thus the
renewed covert Pakistani support to Taliban after
9/11.
Pukhtoon Khan has dissected all the contradictions in
treatment of Pashtuns in his book. At points he
appears one sided while in reality this is the
expression of sadness at being unjustly treated by
fellow Muslim Punjabis in name of Islam.

13. Pukhtoon Khan offers a solution for Pashtun
emancipation but it would be a difficult and severely
uphill struggle.
One can hope that all Pashtuns would read his book
and understand history, not as it is propagated but as
it happened.

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