Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is all set to make his own comeback to Bollywood with Pathan. Pathan is a much awaited and extremely over hyped movie, and entire Bollywood is going gaga over it.
SRK fans are eagerly waiting for Pathan’s release and the director and producer are also leaving no stones unturned to make this movie like no other. According to some sources “No Bollywood film has ever shot song sequences in these places. We have seen how the trailer and songs are putting more emphasize on the word ‘Pathan’.
We feel its an over hyped term used by the Bollywood to showcase Pathan tribe as a group of some brave and wise people. Pathan movie shows him as some high profile spy, who flaunts guns and other gadgets, enjoy company of so called hot actress, have 6-pack abs and chiseled body. He sings songs like “Jhoome Jo Pathan” etc.
Bollywood has systematically created a larger than life image of Pathan, and Shah Rukh is trying his best to encash this to bring people to the theater. However truth is slightly different to their propaganda. Contrary to the claims of Bollywood about Pathans, this tribe even today wear salwar out of fear of Sikh warrior Hari Singh Nalwa. It is called Pathani suit, which is actually a salwar kameez worn by women.
Afghanistan, which is known as a graveyard of the empires. It is said that it could not be controlled by anyone completely. In recent times, the two prominent superpowers of the world including the USA and erstwhile USSR had to pull out their forces as the battles for establishing control dragged on for decades with no result in sight.
But Hari Singh Nalwa, a legendary Sikh commander, tamed the turbulent forces (read Pathans) at play in Afghanistan and earned the reputation of the most feared Sikh warrior there. Hari Singh Nalwa was a commander of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s force. He remained Governor of Kashmir, Hazara and Peshawar.
He defeated various Afghans and established control over various regions along the boundary of Afghanistan and prevented Afghans from entering Punjab through Khyber pass, which was the main route to enter India by the foreign invaders from 1000 AD till early 19th century.
The Former Vice Chancellor (VC) Of Guru Nanak Dev university (GNDU) Amritsar, Dr S P Singh once said, “In Afghan folklore, mothers used to take his name in front of their unruly children to quieten them. To control them mothers would say, ‘Don’t cry otherwise, Haria Ragle (Hari Singh Nalwa is coming).”
Pathans wear salwar out of fear of Hari Singh Nalwa
Few years ago, Tehreek-Ae-Taliban Pakistan, a terrorist group with influence from the Pathans, had implemented a dress code for all the Pathans, and that dress code was that all the Pathans have to wear Pathani Suit. The then Crown of Swat princely state of Pakistan, Miyangul Aurangzeb made a controversial statement.
Miyangul Aurangzeb, who was a former parliamentarian of Pakistan and former governor of Balochistan, had condemned the Talibani dress code and said that the Taliban has no knowledge about its history, in fact the dress code that Taliban is implementing is not the correct dress code of the Pathans.
Miyangul Aurangzeb said that the Salwar was worn by Pathan men out of fear of the sword of Hari Singh Nalwa and not voluntarily. At that time, Miyangul Aurangzeb’s statement had deeply hurt the sentiments of the alleged Marde Momin of Pakistan Imran Khan because Miyangul Aurangzeb had told the historical truth.
Shahrukh himself is not a Pathan
SRK claims Pathan/Pashtun descent paternally. However a little digging around will reveal that it is a blatant lie and he’s actually of a mixed background on his paternal side.
Here a person from KPK region exposed Shah Rukh Khan’s ancestry.
Shah Rukh’s father, Taj Mohammed Khan, was from Qissa Qawani, Peshawar. Now many will correlate that Peshawar is predominantly Pashtun and therefore Shah Rukh too also bear Khan surname, which is the most common Pashtun surname. The ‘Khan’ surname is of Turko-Mongol origin, commonly found in parts of South Asia and Iran.
However there is another prominent community in Peshawar known as Hindkowans, in fact this community are the native indigenous population and founders of Peshawar, with the Pashtuns being migrants who settled during the mid-14th century.
Hindkowans are Punjabis that uniquely live in Peshawar, and speak a unique dialect of Punjabi known as Hindko. It’s also spoken in India, by the families of Hindu and Sikh migrants who came from Peshawar during 1947.
So given this information, Shah Rukh’s father was indeed a Hindkowan, with no trace of Pashtun heritage. Shah Rukh’s mother is fully Hyderabadi, and therefore ancestrally Shah Rukh is not Pathan.
So it may be that Shah Rukh (Hindkowans) claims Pathan ancestry as a means to assimilate into Peshawar’s Pathan dominated society in an attempt at social mobility, essentially embellishing their identity and origins. While, unfortunately most of the people fall for his propaganda and consider Shah Rukh as Pathan, which is an utter lie.
