Pashtuns – circa 1879
What is the secret of the resilience and bravery of the fiercely independent Afghan tribes who keep battling until the very end when the alien forces come to subdue them?
This question baffled all those who tried to conquer Afghanistan – the Mughal troops in the 16th and 17th centuries to the British in the 19th and Russians in the 20th centuries – and failed.
And now in the 21st century, the NATO troops are discovering that with all the technological power in their hands, they can’t make much headway in Afghanistan after so many years of occupation.
A young Indian scholar has given a new twist to this seemingly unfathomable question by referring to great Jewish rabbis who mention Afghanistan and Pakistan as the home of ‘Lost Tribes.’
Says the Israel National News: “Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi, a representative of the Afghanistan’s Afridi tribe and an historian, has a Ph.D. on Medieval and Modern Indian History, and his research paper was entitled: ‘Indian Jewry and the Self-Professed ‘Lost Tribes of Israel’ in India.’
“Dr. Aafreedi refers to great Jewish rabbis, such as Saadia Ga’on and Moses Ibn Ezra, who mention Afghanistan and the Pathan territories in Pakistan as the home of Jews descended from the lost tribes. He also notes that a number of medieval Arabic and Farsi texts refer to the same phenomenon.
“In the 19th century some British travelers and officers, like Sir Alexander Burnes and J.P. Ferrier, wrote about the Israelite origin of Afghan tribes. Pashtun tribes mainly live in the highlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and they are divided into 60 tribes and 400 clans.
“Many Pashtuns don’t conceal their descent. For example, Emir Abdul Rahman, the grandfather of the former Afghan Shah Amanullah, stated expressly in his History of the Afghans that the Afghan tribes were of Israelite origin.”
So is it yet another classic example of brothers annihilating their own kith and kin…owing to sheer ignorance??? But then who is interested in history???
Ages ago I read a masterpiece What is History? by E. H. Carr, and its interesting review by Professor Alun Munslow.
To read some interesting write-ups please click here…
Finally some quotes:
“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.” – Henry Ford
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“History, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in…. I read it a little as a duty; but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars and pestilences in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all – it is very tiresome.” (spoken by Catherine Morland in ‘Northanger Abbey’) – Jane Austen
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“Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.” – Oscar Wilde
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“Patriotism ruins history.” – Goethe
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“Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.” – Gustave Flaubert
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.