Hinduism in Afghanistan

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Afghan Hindus
افغان هندوان
هندوس افغانی
Kabul Museum, Afghanistan
Total population
30-40 (2021)[1]
700,000 (1970)
Regions with significant populations
Larger diaspora in India, Germany, United States, United Kingdom, and Canada[2]
Religions
Hinduism[3]
Languages
Dari, Pashto, Hindko, Punjabi, Sindhi, and Hindustani (Urdu-Hindi)

Part of
Blue Mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif
The largest mosque in Afghanistan
Majority
Sunni Islam
Minority
Historic/Extinct
Controversy

Hinduism in Afghanistan is practiced by a tiny minority of

Hindkowan (Hindki), Punjabi, or Sindhi and primarily speak Dari, Pashto, Hindko, Punjabi, Sindhi, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu
).

Before the

Islamic conquest of Afghanistan, the Afghan people were multi-religious.[7] Religious persecution, discrimination, and forced conversion of Hindus in Afghanistan perpetrated by Muslims, has caused the Afghan Hindus, along with Buddhist and Sikh population, to dwindle from Afghanistan.[8]

Background

Apart from the Hindkowans, the

Pakthun."[16]

Fondukistan, which is also dated to the same period.[24]Hinduism further flourished under the rule of Hindu Shahis, but went into sharp decline with the advent of Islam through the Ghaznavids, who defeated the Shahis. Nonetheless, it continued as a significant minority in Afghanistan until the 21st century, when its number of followers fell to a few hundred.[25][26][27]

History

Hinduism by country
Africa
Asia
Europe
North America
Caribbean
Oceania
South America
Full list
Further information: Hindu and Buddhist heritage of Afghanistan
Vedic tribes in northwestern ancient India (present-day Afghanistan), 1700-1100 BCE
The Mahajanapadas, including the Gandhara and Kamboja regions c. 500 BCE
Gold dinar of Kanishka II, emperor of the Kushan Empire, with Lord Shiva (200–220 CE)
Mihira, Yajna and Oesho". British Museum
.
Shahi Period, 9th century. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
.

Prehistory and ancient period (3300–550 BCE)

By roughly 2000–1500 BCE,

Gandharis and Kambojas.[9] The Pashayi and Nuristanis are present day examples of these Indo-Aryan Vedic people.[29][30][31][32][33]

Persian, Greek, and Mauryan periods (550–150 BCE)

Most historians maintain that Afghanistan was inhabited by ancient

Seleucid-Mauryan War.

Alexander took these away from the Arians and established settlements of his own, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus (Chandragupta), upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange 500 elephants.[34]

— Strabo
, 64 BCE–24 CE

Classical period (150 BCE–650 CE)

When the Chinese travelers

Hephthalite rulers did not recognize Buddhism but "preached pseudo gods and killed animals for their meat".[35]

Turk & Kabul Shahi, Zunbil dynasty (650–850 CE)

Further information:
Hindu kush were ruled by the Zunbils, offspring of the southern-Hephthalite. The eastern parts (Kabulistan) were controlled by the Turk Shahis
.

The Zunbil and Kabul Shahis were connected with the

Hindu, not Buddhist or Zoroastrian"; nonetheless he still mentions them having parallels with Tibetan Buddhism and Zoroastrianism in their rituals.[36][37]

The Kabul Shahi ruled north of the Zunbil territory, which included

Abdur Rahman bin Samara, along with 6,000 Arab Muslims, penetrated the Zunbil territory and made their way to the shrine of Zun in Zamindawar, which was believed to be located about five kilometres (three miles) south of Musa Qala in today's Helmand Province of Afghanistan. The General of the Arab army "broke of a hand of the idol and plucked out the rubies which were its eyes in order to persuade the Marzbān of Sīstān of the god's worthlessness."[38]

Though the early Arab invaders spread the message of Islam, they were not able to rule for long. Hence, many contemporary ethnic groups in Afghanistan, including the Pashtuns, Kalash, Pashayi, Nuristanis and Hindkowans continued to practice Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism. The Kabul Shahis decided to build a giant wall around the city to prevent more Arab invasions, and this wall is still visible today.[39]

Hindu Shahi (850–1000 CE)

Further information: Hindu Shahis

Indian sub-continent. Most of them were either Hindus or Buddhists. "[40]

In 870 AD the Saffarids from medieval Zaranj, located at the Nad-e Ali site of modern-day Iran (not to be confused with the similarly named modern city of Zaranj in Afghanistan),[41] conquered most of Afghanistan, establishing Muslim governors throughout the land. It is reported that Muslims and non-Muslims still lived side by side before the arrival of the Ghaznavids in the 10th century.

"Kábul has a

Istahkrí
, 921 AD

The first confirmed mention of a Hindu in Afghanistan appears in the 982 AD

geographical term to describe someone who was native from the region known as Hindustan (Indian subcontinent), and Afghan as someone who was native from a region called Afghanistan.[44]

Decline (1000–1800 CE)

Defeat of the Hindu Shahis, led by Jayapala against the Ghaznavid Empire, led by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1001 CE.[45]

When Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni began crossing the Indus River into Hindustan (land of Hindus) in the 10th century, the Ghaznavid Muslims began bringing Hindu slaves to what is now Afghanistan. Martin Ewans in his 2002 book writes:

Even then a Hindu dynasty the Hindu Shahis, held Gandhara and the eastern borders. From the tenth century onwards as Persian language and culture continued to spread into Afghanistan, the focus of power shifted to Ghazni, where a Turkic dynasty, who started by ruling the town for the Samanid dynasty of Bokhara, proceeded to create an empire in their own right. The greatest of the Ghaznavids was Mahmud who ruled between 998 and 1030. He expelled the Hindus from Ghandhara, made no fewer than 17 raids into India. He encouraged mass conversions to Islam, in Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan."[46]

Al-Idirisi testifies that until as late as the 12th century, a contract of investiture for every Shahi king was performed at Kabul and that here he was obliged to agree to certain ancient conditions which completed the contract.[47] The Ghaznavid military incursions assured the domination of Sunni Islam in what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan. Various historical sources such as Martin Ewans, E.J. Brill and Farishta have recorded the introduction of Islam to Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan to the conquests of and Mahmud:

The Arabs advanced through

Hindushahis, held Gandhara and eastern borders. From the tenth century onwards as Persian language and culture continued to spread into Afghanistan, the focus of power shifted to Ghazni, where a Turkish dynasty, who started by ruling the town for the Samanid dynasty of Bokhara, proceeded to create an empire in their own right. The greatest of the Ghaznavids was Muhmad who ruled between 998 and 1030. He expelled the Hindus from Gandhara, made no fewer than seventeen raids into northwestern India and succeeded in conquering territory stretching from the Caspian Sea to Varanasi. Bokhara and Samarkand also came under his rule.[48] He encouraged mass conversions to Islam, of Indians as well as Afghans, looted Hindu temples and carried off immense booty, earning for himself, depending on the viewpoint of the observer, the titles of 'Image-breaker' or 'scourge of India'.[48]

Mahmud used his plundered wealth to finance his armies which included mercenaries. The Indian soldiers, presumably Hindus, who were one of the components of the army with their commander called

sipahsalar-i-Hinduwan lived in their quarter of Ghazna practicing their own religion. Indian soldiers under their commander Suvendhray remained loyal to Mahmud. They were also used against a Turkic rebel, with the command given to a Hindu named Tilak according to Baihaki.[49]

In his war on

al-Utbi, Mahmud acquired 500,000 slaves that included children and girls. Men were sold as slaves to even common merchants. The amount of slaves captured in Nardin plummeted their price and male slaves were even bought by common merchants. After raiding Thanesar, he acquired 200,000 slaves.[50]

The renowned 14th-century Moroccan Muslim scholar Ibn Battuta remarked that the Hindu Kush meant the "slayer of Indians", because slaves brought from India who had to pass through there died in large numbers due to the extreme cold and quantity of snow.[51]

The Ghaznavid Empire was further expanded by the

Suris and the Durranis
.

Modern period

The main ethnic groups in Afghanistan which practice Hinduism today are the

Sindhis who are believed to have come along with Sikhs as merchants to Afghanistan in the 19th century.[52] Till the collapse of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, there were several thousand Hindus living in the country but today their number is only about 1,000.[53] Most of the others immigrated to India, the European Union, North America or elsewhere.[4]

Afghan Hindus and Afghan Sikhs often share places of worship. Along with the Sikhs, they are all collectively known as

Hindko. The local Hindu community in Afghanistan is mostly based in the city of Kabul. The 2002 loya jirga had two seats reserved for Hindus[54] and former President Hamid Karzai's economic advisor, Sham Lal Bhatija was an Afghan Hindu.[55]

During the Taliban 1996 to late 2001 rule, Hindus were forced to wear yellow badges in public to identify themselves as non-Muslims. Hindu women were forced to wear burqas, a measure which was claimed to "protect" them from harassment. This was part of the Taliban's plan to segregate "un-Islamic" and "idolatrous" communities from Islamic ones.[56]

The decree was condemned by the Indian and U.S. governments as a violation of religious freedom. Widespread protests against the Taliban regime broke out in Bhopal, India. In the United States, Abraham Foxman, chairman of the Anti-Defamation League, compared the decree to the practices of Nazi Germany, where Jews were required to wear labels identifying them as such.[57] Several influential lawmakers in the United States wore yellow badges with the inscription "I am a Hindu", on the floor of the Senate during the debate as a demonstration of their solidarity with the Hindu minority in Afghanistan.[58][59][60]

Since the 1990s, many Afghan Hindus have fled the country, seeking asylum in countries such as India, Germany and United States.[61]

In July 2013, the Afghan parliament refused to reserve seats for the minority group as a bill reserving seats for the mentioned was voted against. The bill by the then president Hamid Karzai, had tribal people and "women" as "vulnerable groups" who got reservation, but not religious minorities as per the religious equality article in the constitution.[62]

Notable people

  • Atma Ram – Afghan Minister and Author.
  • Niranjan Das - Afghan politician
  • Celina Jaitley – Indian Bollywood actress born to an Indian father, Colonel V. K. Jaitly and an Afghan Hindu mother, Meeta Jaitly, who was also from Kabul and was a nurse in the Indian Army.[63][64][65]
  • Annet Mahendru – American actress born in Kabul to a Punjabi Indian father, Ghanshan "Ken" Mahendru, whose family had emigrated to Afghanistan from Delhi and a Russian mother, Olga.[66][67][68]

Diaspora

See also:
Dari
(older generation)

As both populations are frequently merged in historic and contemporary estimations, the population ratio between Afghan Sikhs and Hindus is estimated to be 60:40 according to historian Inderjeet Singh.[a]

With a wide range of population approximations in the absence of official census data and with much of the community concentrated in the provinces of Kabul, Nangarhar, Ghazni, and Kandahar, the Afghan Hindu population was estimated to be between 80,000 and 280,000 in the 1970s,[4][69][b][70][71][c] as per estimates by historian Inderjeet Singh, Ehsan Shayegan with the Porsesh Research and Studies Organisation and Rawail Singh, an Afghan Sikh civil rights activist.

In the time of 1980's after the

Islamization and Taliban insurgency also contributed in the diaspora.[76] The decline was seen mostly in Pashtuns-dominated areas,due to Pashtunistan and Pashtun nationalism,[77] with the Afghan Hindu population declining to 3,000 by 2009.[69]

As per the 2017 data, more than 99% of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus have left the country in the last 3 decades.[71] Many of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs have been settled in Germany, France, United States, Australia, India, Belgium, the Netherlands and other nations.[4]

The Afghan Hindu population declined to approximately 50 in 2020.

Taliban takeover. As a result, only one Hindu priest remains in the nation today, also acting as Temple guard.[78]

Demographics

Historical Population
YearPop.±%
1980180,000—    
200579,521−55.8%
201010,700−86.5%
202050−99.5%
Source: [d][79][80][81]
Year Percent Increase
1980 1.6%
2005 0.35% -1.25%
2010 0.04% -0.31
2020 0.04% -

Ancient Hindu temples

Further information:
Hindu temples of Kabul and List of Hindu temples
Place Description Other information Ref.
Polusha Bhima Devi (Durga) and temple of Maheshvera Visited by Xuanzang [82]
Sakawand Temple dedicated to Surya [83][84]
Asamai Temple The Asamai temple is at the foothills of the central Kabul hill Koh-e Asamai [85]
Bhairo Temple Shor Bazaar [86]
Mangaldwar Mandir [87]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ According to Singh, there were at least 2 lakh Sikhs and Hindus (in a 60:40 ratio) in Afghanistan until the 1970s.[4]
  2. ^ “In the 70s, there were around 700,000 Hindus and Sikhs, and now they are estimated to be less than 7,000,” Shayegan says.[69]
  3. ^ “An investigation by TOLOnews reveals that the Sikh and Hindu population number was 220,000 in the 1980's.[71]
  4. ^ As both populations are frequently merged in historic and contemporary estimations, the population ratio between Afghan Sikhs and Hindus is estimated to be 60:40 according to historian Inderjeet Singh.[4] The 1980 estimate is derived from this population ratio, using the average of the estimated population range of 80,000 to 280,000 from the era, taken from the preceding source, along with the three following sources.[69][70][71]

References

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Sources

External links

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