Important thread about the unknown genocide of Kalash and Kafiristan tribes.
PS: This will be a long but informative thread about the past and present of a hardly known Hindu tribal community.
Please read until the end.
Who are the Kalash?
The Kalash is a native tribe of around 4000 people residing in valleys of the Chitral District in Pakistan. This district shares borders with Nuristan in Afghanistan. Unlike their neighbors, the Kalash are NOT Muslim even today. Their history in the last 600 years has been one of fierce resistance, determination to survive and fight back in the face of repeated genocides and prospect of extinction.
I begin by positing forth a few factual technicalities before proceeding with the actual story. Readers interested in actual story are free to skip whatever follows in brackets. [Until 1895, the neighbors of Kalash people on Afghan side of the border, known today as Nuristanis, formed one cultural continuum with Kalash and shared their Non-Muslim religion.
They were known to Muslims as ‘Safed Posh Kafirs'(‘White Robed Kafirs’) and ‘Siyah Posh Kafirs'(‘black robed Kafirs’). This entire Hindukush region was formerly known as Kafiristan (Lands of the Kafirs). Durand line divided Kafiristan into two. Kalash people fell under British protection, but another section of Kafiristan fell to the lot of Afghan king Amir Abdur Rahman.
The Amir forcibly converted the Kafiristan on his side of the border in 1895. This Kafiristan was then renamed as ‘Nuristan'(‘Land of the light’). Linguistically speaking, the Kalash people are speakers of Indic language family (Sanskrit language group) whereas Nuristani languages are classified as a separate branch of Indo-Iranian linguistic family. Having specified these internal distinctions, the rest of the thread continues to tell the one history of Kafiristan and its people].
The Kalash people, like many other groups of this region such as Pamiris and Hunza, display a relatively high frequency of Europoid Physical characteristics including fair skin, light eyes and blond hair. [This does not imply that every Kalash exhibits such physical characteristics. Many among them are physically indistinguishable from Punjabis].
This has led to a slug-fest of modern day ethnic appropriation and totally baseless claims. There is a popular myth that Kalash are descended from Alexander. Despite the fact that Alexander and his Greeks never entered Chitral and despite the complete absence of anything Greek including art, architecture, loanwords, religious influence etc among Kalash, the myth continues to persist. However, modern scholarship and genetics has completely refuted this myth of Greek origin of Kalash. The Kalash are genetically much closer to a Tiwari Brahman of Uttar Pradesh than they are to any Greek.
Sources: https://journals.uio.no/actaorientalia/article/view/4847…
https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6822619/
The Kalash are HINDUS. Scholars classify Kalash/Nuristan religion as ‘ancient Hinduism’.
Noted Nuristan linguist Richard Strand says ‘Before their conversion to Islam the Nuristanis practiced a form of ancient Hinduism‘. Noted Harvard linguist Michael Witzel says “In Kalash religion, many of the traits of myths, ritual,society, and echo many aspects of Ṛgvedic religion“.
Recently, historian Augusto Cacopardo published his fieldwork which established beyond any doubt that social and cultural customs of Kalash are identical to Vedic.
Here are some Vedic/Hindu customs of Kalash:
1) Worship of Indra and Mahandeo(Shiva).
2)Avoidance of Sapinda marriages until 7th generation. Avoidance of cousin marriages like North Indian Hindus.
3)Avoidance of eggs, chicken and other foods prohibited in Hindu Dharmashastras.
4)Vedic concept of cleanliness and ritual purity.
5)Vedic festivals like Chaturmasya(Chowmos).
6)Stories of Pandava brothers.
Of course, this is not to say that Kalash religion is exactly identical to Puranic Hinduism. Geographically isolated from mainstream Hindus for millennia, Kalash lacked reception of newer religious developments within Hinduism and developed their own peculiarities. Yet, because of the same background, scholars classify Kalash religion as ‘Para Vedic religion’ or ‘Ancient Hinduism’.
Having elucidated their Hindu heritage, I narrate the history of brave resistance and determination shown by Kalash Kafiristani Hindus in face of repeated invasions, ethnic cleansing and impending Genocide.
In 11th century, Mahmud Ghazni invaded Kabulistan and defeated Hindu Shahis. He claimed that he completely uprooted idolatry and raised the triumphant flag of Islam everywhere in his kingdom. However, as we shall see, this claim turns out to be nothing but an empty boast. He failed.
Not only have the Kafirs survived Ghaznavid onslaught. They also reoccupied many of their former territories and drove back Muslim invaders.
Almost 400 years after Ghazni boasted of uprooting all infidels, Timur invaded India:
When he came to this Hindu Kush region, the local Muslim Pathans fell at Timur’s feet. They begged Timur to rescue them from these Kafirs. They said: ‘ Sir Timur, please save us. These Kafir idolaters blackmail us and exact annual tribute from us. On failure to pay, they carry us away. We fly at your feet for protection’. So much for Ghazni’s ‘extermination of Kafirs’. Source: Tuzuk-I-Timuri.
When Timur inquired further, he was told that the entire region from Kabul to Kashmir was ruled by Kafirs. In other words, during c. 1398, the entire region from Kabul to Kashmir was still ruled by Kafiristani Hindus. They exacted tribute from Afghans and local Muslims.
As a true Jihadi, Timur declared he would exterminate and wipe out the existence of these Kafir Hindus. He invaded Kafiristan with a very large army. He personally led charge and surrounded them from all sides. Timur’s army began ‘dispatching unbelievers to hell’. Timur ordered a tower of skulls of Kalash Kafirs to be built.
However, the Kafir Hindus were not ones to crumble. A great number of them were kiIIed. Therefore, they tactically withdrew. On the same occasion, however, they fell upon a commander of Timur named Burhan Aghlan. Owing to fear of Kafirs, this commander dropped his arms and fled. Timur’s army was routed.
A small community of tribal Hindus in stuck in Hindu kush. A sea of Muhammadan enemies all around them. A large army of Timur to exterminate them. One would expect these Kafirs to be uprooted. However, exactly the opposite happened. This is a testament to the Hindu resistance and willpower to survive.
1527: Around 130 years after Timur, we hear of these Kafirs again. This time from Babur’s autobiography. Not only did these Kafirs survive Timur’s onslaught, they recovered and reestablished their kingdom. They in fact exacted tributes from Muslims living as far as Panjshir.
The next Jihadi attack on Kafiristan was led by none other than secular hero Akbar. In 1581, Akbar reached Jalalabad. He sent an army to plunder and destroy Kafiristan.
Was the mighty Mughal army of Akbar able destroy the Kafirs?
Was it able to force them into submission? The answer is a clear no. We have testimony of Portuguese Jesuit traveler Benedict Goës who traveled to this region in 1603, 22 years after Akbar’s invasion. He says that Kafiristan was an independent kingdom in which no Musalman was allowed to enter (Although Hindu merchants were allowed). Any Muslim who tried to entered Kafiristan was executed. This clearly shows Kafiristan still maintained its independence.
https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/goes.html
As they could not directly exterminate the Kafirs, the Mughals opened another front of war: Raids into Kafiristan. Abduction, rαpe and enslavement of Kafir women.These captured women were distributed among Jihαdi soldiers. This policy was carried out by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb himself. His armies raided into Kafiristan and abducted women. Aurangzeb presented a Kafir slave girl to his son Bahadur Shah. This poor Kafir slave girl had already changed multiple hands.
Abducting and rαping Kalash women became Jihαdi past time. So much that markets in Central Asia were filled with these Kalash slaves. This slave trade continued unabated until 20th century. Muzlims especially craved for Kalash women who were renowned for their beauty.
The sεx slavery of Kalash girls well into the 19th and 20th centuries. The Nizam of Hyderabad himself purchased 10-12 year old Kalash girls as sεx slaves. This Kalash girl was the daughter of a priest.
She was abducted by local Muslim Mehtar and sold to Nizam for 500 rupees. Her parents petitioned the British to return their girl to them. But no help ever came from British.
A point to be noted here. Even after geographical isolation and no contact for millenia, Kalash language vocabulary is remarkably closer to Sanskrit.
A few examples will suffice.
Most Hindus do not know about Kalash and Nuristani people and their persecutions. Likewise, most Kalash themselves are unaware of any connection to Hindus. But their enemies knew better. Muslim authors such as Baihaqi and Abul Fazl often referred to Kalash and Kafiristanis as ‘Hindus’.
The proof of Hindu genocide can be found in Afghan Pashto language itself. In Afghan language, there are genocidal songs against these Hindus.
One such song reads- “As long as Kafiristan exists, I cannot sleep in peace. Let Kafiristan be destroyed and let it never be inhabited. Go friend, go to Katar and bring me a Kafir maid“(euphemism form sεx slave).
What Muslim rulers from Timur to Babar to Akbar dreamt but could not accomplish was done by Afghan king Amir Abdur Rahman in 1895: The genocide of Kafiristanis. However, he could not accomplish this genocide alone. He was aided politically, economically and militarily by British in this unholy task. More on this below.
(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread posted by @TrueIndology on May 05, 2024, with minor edits to improve readability and conform to HinduPost style guide)
