An Intangible Heritage

[Charwak]

History On being air-brushed out of one’s home

S. Amjad Hussain

Recently an interesting book about the old walled city of Peshawar by Dr. Raj Wali Shah Khattak, a well-known Pashto writer and poet was published. (An Intangible Heritage: The Walled City of Peshawar, InterLit Foundation, Peshawar, 2005). The book discusses history and linguistic and cultural traditions of the old walled city. It is a well-written and handsomely produced book but suffers from one glaring omission. The book is not about the walled city of Peshawar. The city that Khattak Sahib describes in his book is some mythical city that exists only in his fertile imagination.

Let us establish some parameters and points of reference for the old walled city of Peshawar. It was called a walled city because during the Sikh period the city was contained within a mud wall. Subsequently during the British rule the mud wall was replaced with a masonry structure. The wall and the gates were intact through the 1940s. In the past 50 years however most of the gates have given way to extension of the city beyond the old wall. With a large influx of people from Pushtun countryside the demographics have changed.

So when we talk about the walled city we talk about the city as it stood through the 1950’s and before. It was until that time a Hindko-speaking city and the culture and traditions of the city were solidly based on Hindko language. While some of the narrative in the book under discussion, albeit a very small one, is reflective of contemporary Peshawar it certainly cannot be applied to Peshawar of yesteryear.

Now against this backdrop let us examine what Dr. Raj Wali Shah has claimed. He calls the old walled city a Pushtun city and appears to summarily dismiss Hindko language and language-based culture of the city. In discussing the dress, traditions and literature he imports Pukhtun traditions and Pukhtun personalities from the outside and imposes them on the city in such a way that it distorts true picture. Except for a passing and cursory mention of Hindko-speaking people (page 38) there is no mention of either the Hindko language or the culture that spawned it. While he claims Dilip Kumar, Qawi Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Prithvi Raj family as Pushtun (they were all Hindko speakers) he forgets to mention Ahmad Shah (Pitras) Bukhari and his younger brother Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari. Similarly Bhai Gama and Professor Miran Bukhsh, musicians extra-ordinaire, do not make the cut but Pukhtun musicians from outside the city do. In an overzealous attempt to paint the old city in Pushtun colours the famous small-sized waziri bricks are attributed to originate from Waziristan. They were in fact called waziri because of their smaller size in comparison to shahi bricks that were of larger size.

In order to determine the identity of the original inhabitants of the walled city one has to find answers to the following crucial questions. When did Pushtun tribes come to Peshawar valley and before their arrival who lived in the now 2000-year old Peshawar? Is there any historic evidence that Peshawar City, unlike the countryside, has always been populated by an indigenous Hindko-speaking people?

According to historic sources Pukhtun/Afghan tribes did not appear in Peshawar Valley until after 800 AD (Tarikh-e-Farishtah; H.G. Raverty Notes on Afghanistan; Peshawar District Gazetteer 1897-98.) This is also the time when we find the earliest Pashto writing.

So who lived in the area before the appearance of Pushtun tribes?

There is archeological evidence that Hindko language, as it is spoken through the province, was the language spoken in its ancient form in Gandhara that included wide swaths of present-day Punjab, NWFP and Eastern Afghanistan. A stone tablet excavated near Attock gives us clue to the language spoken in Peshawar and its environs. It is written in Kharoshthi script but when phonetically translated it has uncanny resemblance to Hindko that is spoken in Peshawar City and elsewhere in the province including Kohat, parts of Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and Hazara. (For phonetic translation see Peshawar, Historic City of the Frontier, second edition 1995 page 295 by Ahmad Hasan Dani).

Is there any other evidence that Hindko-speaking people dominated the city life in Peshawar?

Let us observe Peshawar through the eyes of the famous English historian H.G. Raverty who visited the city in 1850 and left a detailed account of its neighbourhoods, its crafts and its inhabitants. About the demographics he made the following observation:

The inhabitants of the city are a mixed race consisting of people called Peshawurees, who do not pretend to trace their descent; Hindus of the Kutree and Seik tribes, Kashmirians, Afghans and Mughals; but the latter are very few in number.

Of a population 42,000 he did not mention Afghans (Afghans and Pushtuns were synonymous then) as part of the commercial and civic life of the city. Most of the streets and neighbourhoods that he mentions in great detail have Hindko names and some have Persian names but not a single one with a Pushtu or Pushtu-sounding name.

We find another interesting facet in Tarikh-e-Farishtah (Nawal Kishore Press, Lucknow 1850) where the city is referred to by its Hindko name Pishore and not by its Pashto name Khar or Pekhawar. Tarikh-e-Farishtah is considered an authoritative source on the history of Pushtuns and it has been quoted by many Pushtun researchers (Preshan Khattak, Roshan Khan Roshan and Zafar Kakakhel among others) in their work on the origins of Pushtuns.

Based on these historic references one has to conclude that the old walled city of Peshawar has been a Hindko-dominated city through antiquity and that it continued to be populated by Hindko-speaking people until the very recent past. Conquerors and invaders came and went but the original inhabitants of the city clung on to their language, their culture and their traditions.

Why then the outside world and particularly the world east of the Indus have remained oblivious to the presence of Hindko language and the people who speak this language?

There are many reasons. The most important and perhaps the most damaging has been the glorification of Pushtun culture and Pushto language at the expense of other native cultures and languages by the colonial writers and administrators. The exploits of the British fighting the wild and unruly tribesmen along the turbulent western frontier of British India made fascinating reading at breakfast tables back in London. Whereas there were equally resolute people resisting the British within the cities like Peshawar their struggle was just not glamorous. Somehow the exchange of gunfire across Khyber Mountains was more romantic than the heroic exploits of, say, the citizens of Peshawar City. The incident that turned the tide against the British in the province happened in Peshawar City when a protesting crowd set fire to an armoured car and pelted British officers with rocks in Qissa Khwani Bazaar. The resultant firing on that fateful April day in 1930 killed a hundred people, almost all of them Peshawaris. It was not the stuff however that moved the likes of Rudyard Kipling to write The Ballad of East and West.

On a personal note I have the utmost admiration for Dr. Raj Wali Shah Khattak and his scholarly work in Pashto literature. But I am deeply offended that in his book he has airbrushed me and my people out of a city where my ancestors have lived through the ages and have contributed so much to the shared heritage of Peshawar.

Dr. Sayed Amjad Hussain is Professor Emeritus of Surgery at the Medical University of Ohio and an op-ed columnist for the daily Toledo Blade. He is the author of five books on Peshawar including Yuk Sheher-e-Arzoo, A Short History of The Frontier Town of Peshawar and Aalam Mei(n) Intikhab Peshawar

[Charwak]

By: Dr. Rajwali Shah Khattak

Respected Dr. Amjad Hussain Syed

I am thankful to you for commenting on my book "An Intangible Heritage". I appreciate your critical point of view and I also admit that you are an authority on Peshawar. Your extreme love for Peshawar is not hidden from any one; therefore whenever Peshawar will be under discussion, Your-self would definitely take notice of it. Peshawar, although has about four thousands years ancient history, God knows, as to how many Personalities would have gone through this era but after the mentioned period you were given the title / honor of Baba-i-Peshawar and I agree to it. I welcome your criticism and objections but I want to clarify the points raised by you.

As far as the construction of the wall around Peshawar is concerned, the same is there in my book and I have taken reference of it from the book of Allah Bakhsh Yousafi, however you have rightly pointed out towards Waziri bricks, although this mistake could not be counted as my mistake / intention but I assure you that this footnote is the addition of the typist. I should also mention over here that there too is a reference regarding the Waziri bricks however at present I should not go into this detail and I am in agreement with you.
First of all I would like to mention that the name of my book is "An Intangible Heritage" and not "An Intangible Heritage of the Walled City of Peshawar". The Walled City of Peshawar is a second title of the book because this is one of the main Chapters. Whether your good-self agree to it or not but the people living in the whole of Peshawar Valley are called Peshawaris by the Pashtoons living in the
surrounding hills, Peshawar valley is also called "Sama" the people living inside the walled city of Peshawar are called Khari or Kharyan, and it is evident that there is a clear difference between Peshawari and Kharay.
I am a resident of Peshawar for about last 35 years and I know well that the wall around the city is no more there but the term "walled city: is still in use for the inner city. Peshawar is a city and history tells us that it was a Hindu City once a time then it became a Buddhist city and after that, perhaps, because of the Pashtoonkhwa, it got an Islamic identity, Needless to mention its Durrani identity. Your clan can also be one of the major factors of its Islamic Identity. You belong to the most respected Arabic tribe and your fore fathers might have come to Peshawar hardly about four to five hundred years before. Similar is the case with other central Asian people as well like Bukharis, Ghaznavis, Hamadanis, Gardazis etc. and other people. However authentic historians would not agree to your Statement that "Pukhtoon / Afghan tribes did not appear in Peshawar Valley until after 800 AD".
You have declared Tarikh-i-Farishta as an authentic history to which one would hardly agree as Tarikh-i-Farishta is a controversial book which was written by a court historian of the Mughals, who wrote it for the purpose of degradation of Pashtoons so that to make the Mughal Kings Pleased. I would like to remind you that before the arrival of Yousafzai, Mohammadzai and Khalil etc, in Peshawar valley, there lived a blue blooded Pashtoon tribe of Dalazak already, who were driven out by the Yousafzais in the Period you mentioned. Apart from Dalazak, Herodotus mentions two other tribes around Peshawar i.e. Stagodia and Aparatia as well, which means Khattaks and Afridis according to the historians but I think there is no need to go into its detail here. As far as Hindko language is concerned, I do not disagree to your opinion, however I can claim that the term "Hindko" has been given to Hindko language by the Pashtoons. Before the name "Hindko", it was considered as Lhanda language. The word Hindko is a Pashto word for the language. Before the term Hindko whether it was Lhanda or some other language, would you please let me know if there is any mention of the name Hindko for the language in its four thousands years' history, as you claim. Likewise the term Hindkowan was derived for the Hindko Speakers in the later decades of twentieth century though the Pashtoons still call them Hindkees or Hindkyan but I would not like to indulge in this kind of discussion. The Gandhara was a marvelous civilization but the fact is that it is dead since long ago whereas the Pashtoon Civilization is still a living civilization. For the birth of a civilization, race, ethnicity, language and geographical location etc. is a must.
You are talking of Hindko Civilization, so you are right but it would be an addition to my knowledge if you kindly let me know as to which nation, Hindko could be associated with so that one may say easily that Hindko is the language of such and such race and ethnicity. You yourself is an Arab by race and Babe-i-Hindko is originally a Pathan of Bajore and so is the case with the origin of other Hindko speakers whether or not we should term Hindko an ethnic group? it is something different. Moreover I can be proud of you but Dilip Kumar is no pride for me because my history is full of Ghazis, leaders, warriors, and conquerors. I have not declared Dilip Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan and Raj Kapoor's family and others as Pashtoons rather I have just mentioned that these people born in an area that is irrigated / watered by the river Kabul and Bara. Although their origin too, could be linked some how to the nearby Pashtoon villages except for Prithvi Raj's family which was a Hindu family. Hindko is dear to me and I have respect for it because it is spoken on the soil of Pashtoonkhwa, does not matter if speakers of this language disclaim kinship with Pashto but I have a single complaint from this language that it has not recorded its history itself neither it has preserved its literature in its "four thousands years history", had it done so, we would have known literary stalwarts like the great Khushal Khan Khattak and Rahman Baba. We only know its first ever poet Ahmad Ali Sain who was a very recent poet.
At the end I would like to clarify that I did not mention Pitras Bukhari and others because, perhaps they never wrote in Hindko so is the case with Zulfiqar Bukhari. Prof. Miran Bakhsh and Bhai Gama were the musicians of the past and I was supposed to give the list of living Pashtoon singers and musicians in that particular part of the book.
I don't know why have you blamed me for airbrushing you while I have described in detail the streets, bazaars, houses, utensils and their Hindko names mostly while discussing life style of the Hindko speakers and other living in the walled city. If I have talked about some Pashtoons, it is because I personally know numerous families from Khattaks, Mohmands, Afridis and other Pashtoons living side by side with Hindkowans in the walled city. If the identity of Peshawar is due to the Hindu architecture, archeological remains, I had nothing to do with that as my book is related to "Intangible Heritage" it is neither about the History of Peshawar nor about its Tangible Heritage. I have only written about the intangible heritage and if the information given in my book is wrong then along with me, Gopal Das, Allah Bakhsh Yousafi, and the contributors of the book "Alam Main Intikhab" should also be held responsible.

I have great regards for you.

[farhadyousafzai]

As a relatively illetrate outsider, it may be out of place for me to comment on the subject, but I feel so strong about the issue that I might as well comment using a bit of my knowledge and some commonsense.

a. Peshawar is beautiful because of its diversity- not because of being exclusively Hindko or Pashto speaking. Historically the two communities have lived very harmoniously and continue to do so.
b. The arguement of Dr Rajwali makes great sense. The question is: are the Hindko speaking people a race/ethnic group. Are they decendents of the Gandhara civilisation. What are the roots of the language. One view is that they are the decendents of the camp people who accompanied the various invaders who passed through this route over millenia. The arguement goes like this. In olden times the armies used to move with various components: the soldiers whose job was to fight, and the workers, called 'camp people' to provide the logistic support. These camp people were those people who were to take care of the logistic requirements like food, water, fodder for animals, setting of camps, carriages and the like. Peshawar being the first real 'CAMP' after crossing the Khyber Pass was a place for long stop-overs before going south and eastwords to the Sub- Continent. During these long stop-overs these camp people would settle down here finding the place suitable for living, while the soldiers moved on to fight their wars. Thus over a period of time a community came to live here composed of people of various ethnicities but without any distinct single ethnic links. This arguement is supported by the fact that these people only inhabit the city but not the surrounding areas/villages. Moreover they have historically been engaged in commercial activity as Dr Amjad has rightly pointed out himself. I appologise for lack of any historical reference for this arguement but as I said.....relative illetracy is the excuse.
c. As for Dr S. Amjad Hussain's argument that the reason for the relative decline or lack of notice of the Hindko Language and people is the glorification of Pashtu language, culture by the colonial writers and administrators, I think it is an entirely unjust and biased judgement. The Colonial writers if they did glorify the Pashtun culture and language, it was because that glorification was merited. They would obviously write about those who resisted them in Pukhtunkhwa...Malakand, Waziristan, Khyber, Mohmand , Charsadda ....examples are galore. Any amount of literary logic and arguement can't take away that uniqueness of Pakhtun culture ....which fascinates the world even today.
Thank you and once again sorry for poking my nose in a highly academic discussion.

With due respect to all.