Since when did the Afghani language (Pashto) become the official language in Afghanistan?
Source: Rask News Agency.
In the geography of Khorasan and Afghanistan, the Persian language has always been a link between people with different foreign identities and ethnic characteristics. Hazaras of Afghanistan and citizens of Tajikistan speak Persian and can speak this language just like residents of Kabul or Tehran.
Also within the country, different ethnic groups, including Uzbeks, Nuristanis, Afghans/Pashtuns, etc., can communicate with each other and carry out their social relations only through this language. But the politicization of the language and the attempt to politically deal with the Persian language on the part of the Afghan kings and the spread of the Afghan language (Pashto) instead of the historical and connecting language of nations is one of the most controversial issues of ethnic supremacy in the modern history of the country, which has gained greater development in less than a century.
Since the formation of the geography called "Afghanistan", most of the rulers of this country have been Pashtuns, but the dominant language in the politics, society, and culture of this country has always been Persian. Although some of the kings of Afghanistan came from influential Pashtun families, they did not know the Pashto language.
Almost all important historical documents in Afghanistan, such as the Taj al-Tawarikh, a book attributed to Amir Abdulrahman Khan, King of Afghanistan from 1880–1901, are written in Persian. Many historical documents in the country show that Persian is the official language of the Afghan government, and the issue was never a source of ethnic or political divisions in the country until a century ago. Fueling this dispute was the attempt by some Afghan (Pashtun) political and cultural figures to create a "national" or Afghan identity for all ethnic groups living in that country.
The approach that Afghan politicians took to create this imposed identity was one of exclusion. In the sense that they tried to implement a nation-building project through assimilation, taking away the cultural and linguistic identity of other ethnic groups and integrating them into the “Afghan” identity. They tried to change the demographic structure and local culture by settling Afghans (Pashtuns) in Persian-speaking areas and translating the Persian names of historical places into Pashto.
The continuation of this political project led to the placement of Pashtuns in the northern regions of Afghanistan. The Afghan government even created an office called the “Office of Naqils (Displaced Persons) in Kataghan.” After this, the King of Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahirshah, in an official decree called for the development and revival of the Pashto language.
This order, issued on March 3, 1937, part of which was quoted by the Islah newspaper dated 12 Khut 1315 (March 3, 1937), gave the following order: “Since in our dear country, Persian language is necessary on one hand and the other hand, most of our nation speaks Afghan [Pashto] language and most of the officers have problems due to ignorance of Pashto language, to remove this deficiency and facilitate official and administrative relations, we decided that along with Persian, which is the language of teaching and writing in Afghanistan, it will also be possible to promote and revive the Afghan [Pashto] language, and first of all government officials should learn this national language.”
From the text of this decree, it is clear that the Persian language was not only the official language in Afghanistan, but was also called by the same name - Persian. On the other hand, the Pashtun elite tried to give a national aspect to the language by changing the name of the language “Pashto” to “Afghan language”. Although in practice, no one else mentioned the phrase “Afghan language” outside their limited circle, efforts by several Afghan (Pashtun) governments to force civil servants to learn Pashto did not yield results, and even today most correspondence between various departments in Afghanistan is conducted in Persian.
The language that Afghans know today as “Pashto” and yesterday’s “Afghan” language in education and official correspondence have become a means of destroying the unity of the Afghan people and many years of conflict; It was a product of the fascist thinking of Amir Habibullahan, who first entered the official curriculum of the Ministry of Education under the name of "Afghani" and by his decree in 1333 AH, corresponding to 1915. AD in the form of a book called "The Afghan Book". This book (Afghan Book) was published in 1917 and distributed throughout the country for educational purposes.
The author of the first book in the Afghan language, Saleh Mohammad Kandahari, who was one of the teachers of the Habibiya school, in a 9-page introduction to this work, written in Persian, explains the plight of the Afghani/Pashto language and also explains the need to teach this language to the Afghans (Pashtuns) and the benefits of learning it.
Upon careful study of this work, it becomes clear that the words “lyceum” and “Pashto” were not common in the country until this time, and the identity of “Pashtuns” was defined by the term “Afghan” or “Afghani”. The author of the “Afghan Book” in the introduction to this work, fully aware of the situation with the “Afghan” language in the country, clearly admits that: “Until today there is no book for teaching in the Afghan language, and the Afghan language is on the verge of helplessness, dying and destruction."
After the assassination of the Afghan Traitor Shah (Nadershah), deliberate political efforts intensified to eliminate the Persian language and change the country's educational program following the interests of the Barekzai family and the desires of the leaders of this family. According to the modern history of Afghanistan, during the ministry of Sardar Naeem Khan, all the Persian books available at that time in the basements of the Ministry of Education were burned in the Zarnigar Park of Kabul in the style of Nazi-fascist policies. Along with this, Sardar Naim Khan, the then Minister of Education, issued an order according to which in the Persian-speaking areas of the country, education in schools should be carried out not in their mother tongue, but in the Afghani (Pashto) language.
The process of imposing Afghan identity and the Afghanization of the country continues to this day. As a result of these biased policies, more and more of the country's children, who had neither an Afghan-Pashtun identity nor knew anything about the new Afghan language, were deprived of modern knowledge and scientific education.
