From the day this colonial name was given to Khurasan, this country became a geography of disgust, anger, fanaticism, ignorance, and primitiveness.
Author: Yaqub Yasna, professor at the Beruni University of Afghanistan, member of the Sangar Advisory Council
We all saw that Indian Prime Minister Modi participated in the G20 with the logo of "Bharat" and the sign that was on his desk said "Bharat" instead of "India". Why was the name of India or Hindustan changed to Bharat? Although India is also an old name, and this huge country in the world is usually called India.
But the Indian government is of the opinion that India or Hindustan is not the name by which the people of India themselves call their country, because the people of India call their country Bharat, and Bharat is a name with an older history than India. The root of the word India comes from Sindh where most of the ancient Iranians called the land of India India and Hindustan and it became known to the world as India. The word "Bharat" means "guardian" which has its roots in the famous book "Mahabharata" and Bharat was also the name of a locality.
According to the Indian government, the original, old, and popular name of this country is Bharat and not India. People know their country as Bharat and India is essentially a name from outsiders. "India" is more of a colonial name that was popularized around the world by the British. The British also called India the East Indies because the West Indies was the name of the Native American country.
When Christopher Columbus arrived in America, he thought he was in India and called the native people of America Indians. Westerners then referred to the Native American geography as the West Indies and the Indian country as the East Indies. The Indian government considers this Western interpretation colonial and ironic. Therefore, he considers and uses Bharat as the true, historical, local, and popular name of the country. The government's use of the name Bharat means that the name of India has been officially changed to Bharat.
But the question is why the colonial and fictitious name of Afghanistan does not change and why the governments of this country considered or consider it their father's coat and are sensitive to its preservation and even consider discussions about this name an insult and say that no one should say anything and not write about Afghans.
In a wise and tolerant government, people and society are not nervous about anything, they criticize and educate about everything. Nervousness about anything indicates ignorance and intellectual primitiveness. Let us look without nervousness and pay attention to what “Afghan” is, when Afghanistan became the name of the land of Khorasan, and who gave this name. “Awgon” is the original form of the word “Afghan”, and its older form is “Awghan”. “Afghan” is the Arabic form of the name “Awghan”.
There is a tribe in the region called Pashtuns, Pushtana, and Pathans, whose main and first place of residence was in the Sulaiman Mountains. This place is currently located on the border of Bharat (India) and Pakistan, but in the past it belonged to India. The Pashtuns moved towards Khorasan starting from the tenth century Hijra and began conquests until they captured Khorasan during the time of one of the generals of Nadir Afshar, the king of Iran, named Ahmad Shah Durrani. Since then, Pashtun families have ruled Khorasan under different names like kingdom, republic, emirate and... These Pashtun families never wanted a national government to be formed on the basis of modern principles of governance, i.e. democracy and elections. They have always considered dominance and possession to be the principle of control.
Pashtuns are called Pashtuns in Pakistan, Pathans in India, and Avghans and Pashtuns in Afghanistan. Afghan Pashtuns also call themselves Pashtana and Pashtuns, but Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks call them Avghans. Ordinary Pashtuns are indignant when you call them an Avghan and consider it an insult to themselves. But they don't mind being called Pashtun. Based on this, it turns out that Avghan or Afghan is another name for this people, that is, other people called the Pashtun people Afghan or Avghan. In fact, Avgan was the opposite name of the Pashtun people.
An anti-name is more of a sarcastic name and another name by which others call a nation and associate that name with that nation. But through repetition and popularity of their anti-name, they identify themselves with their anti-name and gain a sense of identity with that anti-name. If we check the texts, Pashtun texts, and the culture and literature of the Pashtun people, these people are called Pashtuns. Juma Khan, a Pakistani Pashtun researcher, says that the original name of our people is Pashtun, and the name "Afghan" was given to us by others and Afghan Pashtun politicians.
The truth is that Afghanistan is mentioned mainly in non-Pashtun texts and culture. In Persian texts such as the History of Bal'ami, Pashtuns are referred to as Afghans, and usually the word "Afghan" is mentioned with several negative connotations. In the explanation section of the Shahnameh in the story “Kake Kuhzad” it is mentioned what label was given to the Afghans.
During the period when the British occupied and colonized India and the Pashtun royal families in Khorasan were in the hands of the British, they used this label for Pashtuns in accordance with the trend of using the words “Afghan” and “Afoghina” in Iranian texts, the territory of Amir Abdurrahman's rule, especially under his son Amir Habibullah, they began to call Afghanistan. Mahmud Tarzi appropriated this name during the reign of Amir Amanullah and tried to make the Pashtun community and the entire people of Khorasan, namely Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazaras, identify themselves with this name and appropriate it for themselves.
But for a hundred years, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, etc., could not identify themselves with the Afghan label, and even Pashtuns call themselves Pashtuns. The label "Afghan" is used by Pashtun politicians and they want to extend this name to Pashtuns and other ethnic groups as it is a colonial name supported by the British and...
Mahmoud Tarzi writes in Siraj al-Akhbar that there are other tribes in Afghanistan that are not Afghans, but they can also be called Afghans. So Mahmud Tarzi invents the Afghan language, Afghan money, etc. and Amanullah was also influenced by Tarzi's ethnic Nazism and said: "Don't call me Amir, Sultan and Shah, call me 'Toluwak'." Toluwak is a Pashtun word meaning “absolute ruler.” Habibie considers Amanullah to be a member of the constitutionalism movement, but this member of the constitutionalism movement is fascinated by this kind of absolutism. The Constitutional Movement is one of Habibie's creations.
Afghan and Afghanistan are colonial names and labels on the Pashtun people and the geography of Khorasan. From the day this colonial name was imposed on Khorasan, this geography became one of sadness, anger, prejudice, ignorance, and primitiveness, and its people were never destined to live as human beings. This name is always accompanied by shame and shame. It is wrong to be nervous about anything, you need to think intelligently about everything you can think about, criticize, and talk about.
For over a hundred years, this colonial name and label was imposed on Khorasan, which in terms of culture and human potential was the jewel of pride of the region and the world. After Khorasan was named Afghanistan, this geography of happiness and development turned into a land of fear, terror, and despondency.
Today we see that a big country like India, with such a good reputation in the world, wants to give up the name given to it by colonialism and use the name Bharat to name the country of India, while the name India is not alien to its culture and stories. But the people and the government of India say that this name is associated with colonialism, and we do not want to be known by the label of colonialism.
Afghanistan is also the colonial name of Khorasan, which was given by the British to steal the cultural and human identity of its people. Therefore, it would be right if we thought rationally, like India, Turkey, and other countries, and correct our mistakes in order to achieve social, cultural, and national unity. One of the corrections is to return this land to the original name of this geography (Khorasan). It is better that people take the initiative to correct this mistake and call the country Khorasan and call themselves “Khorasani”. This action will eventually affect governments and people around the world and the original name will revert to the country.
