From: vishalagarwal@...
Message: 11021
Date: 2001-11-06
--- In cybalist@..., markodegard@... wrote:
I have no idea exactly where it is, and a more
> westerly approach (via or west of the Afgan 'panhandle') seems more
> logical, but my knowledge fails here.
VA: This is called the Wakkan or Wakkhan corridor.
> The media has been giving us lots of stuff about this part of the
> world. The pattern for the past several thousand years seems to be
> mountain-dwelling warriors always ready to sweep down from
Afganistan
> into the Indus valley and points east.
VA: But remember that invasions occur once in a while but peaceful
migrations take place all the time. After the Islamic invasions even,
people have moved from the Indus plains into Afghanistan - in fact
the Hindu community of Afghanistan (decimated in recent years and
months) was drawn from Multan. Gypsies are a prime example of a
community that moved in a direction opposite to that indicated by you.
> Another thing you notice on current television. With lots of these
> Afgans, if you gave them a shave and a haircut, and put them in
jeans
> and T-shirts, they would look perfectly in place on any European or
> North American street.
VA: With the Pakhtoons and some Hazaras - yes.
>
> I wonder just how long it's been since Iranian displaced Indic in
this
> part of the world.
VA: Do you mean language or culture? Linguistically, the area has
always been Iranian although Indic languages might have been used for
religious purposes. As far as religion is concerned -
First Arab attack on Zabol took place in 654 AD.
Much of Afghanistan was ruled by the Shaivite Hindu Shahiya rulers
whose domain extended from Kabul to Himachal Pradesh (the boundaries
shifted). It till about 200 years for Muslims to defeat the Afghans
and convert them to Islam, accompanied by a terrible slaughter and
forcible conversions (there were sizeable Hindu communities as late
as 1500 AD) accompanied by several Hindus fleeing and settling down
elsewhere in India. The NWFP and W Punjab took another 100 years to
occupy. In the meantime, the Shahiyas moved their capital eastwards
from Kabul to Peshawar to Lahore to Nagarkot and finally they fled to
Kashmir (which was under Hindu rule till the 14th century) where the
descendants then died out.
In 1947, about 7% of NWFP was Hindu and now it is 0%. About 12.5%
Baluchistan was Hindu (now 1%), 28% Sindh was Hindu (now 6%). Reasons
for the demographic change are not difficult to fathom.
Many of my own ansectors came over from these regions in the last
century. They were offered a choice between death and Islam and they
chose to flee to India.
Vishal