“Pashtoons and Afghans”

Several people, often consider Passhtoons and Afghans as one. They blend them with each other by neglecting and avoiding the differences between them and vanishing thier identities. But in fact, they are not one. There is a clear and major difference between the two. “Pashtoons constitute a nation while Afghans constitute a state”.

It is a universal fact that nationalism is not restricted by boundries while citizenship is. Keeping in view the truth, it can be derived that Pashtoons may be anywhere in any of 193 states of the world but Afghans must be the citizens of Afghanistan. That’s why niether all the Afghans are Pashtoons nor all the Pashtoons are Afghans.

Most of the people are also of the view that Pashtoons and Pashtoonwali are only related, restricted and rooted in Afghanistan but they aren’t. If the fact is so, Then Who were Pashtoons before the creation of Afghanistan? Where were Pashtoons before the creation of Afghanistan? Were the ancestors of Pashtoons decsended after the emergence of Afghanistan? Did the origination of Pashtoons occured after the creation of Afghanistan? No, no. The fact is not so.

Pashtoons have thier own identity and Afghans have thier own. Pashtoons were present before the creation of Aghanistan but Afghans emerged with the emergence of Afghanistan. Pashtoons were/are/will not be restricted by boundries and geographies but Afghans were/are/will. The identity of Pashtoons is lineless and timeless but the identity of Afghans is spaciotemporal and is assosiated with the geography of Afghanistan. Pashtoons were pashtoons before the creation of Afghanistan, are Pashtoons after the creation of Afghanistan and will be Pashtoons after the collapse of Aghanistan. They were/are Pashtoons in Arab, they were/are Pashtoons in Ajam but the thesis is reverse in the case of Afghans. Shortly, A Pashtoon may be the citizen of any state of the world but an Afghan must be the citizen of Afghanistan.

The major misconception and misconstruction in thier blend-up is that people mostly think that Pashtoons were exclusively and primarily breathed in Afghanistan but the fact is reverse. Afghanistan has not given birth to Pashtoons but Pashtoons have given birth to Afghanistan.

Shortly, it can be concluded that the inhabitants of the state of Afghanistan are Afghans including Pashtoons, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmens, Aimeks, Nuristanis, Durrani, Pashayi Ghilji etc. But Pashtoons, regardless of boundries, constitute a nation and may be Pakistani, Afghanistani, American, Italian or French etc.

THANKS