Afghan Hindus and Sikhs Read online

  Dedicated to the resilience of the

  Afghan Sikhs and Hindus.

  Table of Contents

  FOREWORD

  PREFACE

  1.Introduction

  2.Afghan Hindus under Ghaznavi Rulers in 11th and 12th Centuries

  Hindus and battle at Kerman

  Hindu physicians

  Ghor province

  3.Infidel Mongols, Rulers of Khurasan in 13th Century and Ibn Batuta’s Early 14th Century Account

  Mongols

  Ibn Batuta’s accounts—1331–32

  4.Timur and Infidels in 14th–16th Century Accounts

  Babur on Kabul and Peshawar—Early 1500s

  Anthony Jenkinson’s account—1558

  5.Hindus in 17th Century Persia and Khurasan

  Fedot Kotov’s account—1624

  Adam Olearius’ account—1635

  Abbe Carre’s account—1672–74

  Jean Baptista Tavernier’s account—1768–70

  Evliya Çelebi’s account

  Jahangir’s account

  6.Guru Nanak (1469–1539) and Sikhs in Afghanistan

  Sikh Gurus and their followers in Kabul

  Early Sikhs of 17th century

  Sikhs and Afghans (1748–1849)

  7.Hindus in 18th Century Persia and Khurasan

  Jonas Hanway’s account

  George Forster’s account

  John Griffiths’ Memorandum, 1794

  8.Afghan Hindus and Sikhs in Early 19th Century

  Mountstuart Elphinstone’s account

  Account of a Hindu spy

  Account of Alexander ‘Bukhara’ Burnes

  9.Afghan Hindus and Sikhs in Mid-19th Century

  Arthur Conolly’s Account

  G.T. Vigne’s account

  Charles Masson’s account

  10.Afghan Sikhs and Hindus in Late 19th and Early 20th Century

  Initiation into Khalsa order

  Sikh Dharamsaals in Uzbekistan & Afghanistan—Late 19th century

  Ghadar Party and Afghanistan

  11.Gurdwaras in Afghanistan

  Hindus and Sikhs in the country

  Gurdwaras built outside Afghanistan

  12.Building the Modern Afghanistan—20th Century

  Habibullah Khan (1901–19)

  Amir Amanullah Khan (1919–29)

  Habibullah Kalakani—1929

  Mohammed Nadir Shah (1929–33)

  Zahir Shah (1933–73)

  Prominent Hindus and Sikhs

  Hindus and Sikhs—1970s26

  The Afghan economy

  13.Sahajdhari Sikhs and Dual Belief Hindus

  Dual Beliefs of Afghan Hindus

  Surnames and Castes

  Future

  14.Mandirs in Afghanistan

  Temples in Kabul

  Jalalabad

  Zabul

  Ghazni

  Kandahar

  Update from Kandahar6

  Other Mandirs

  15.Turbulent Years, Exodus and the Taliban

  Life under the Taliban

  Democratic government

  16.Present Status and the Future

  Mission Afghanistan documentary

  Status of Gurdwaras and temples

  Terror revisits Jalalabad

  Vote-bank politics

  Silver lining

  Divided nation

  17.Kafiristan, the Pagan Province of Afghanistan

  Conquest of Kafiristan

  18.Hindus, Sahajdharis and Sikhs in Baluchistan

  Guru Nanak’s visit to Baluchistan

  Indigenous Hindus

  Present situation

  19.Hindus, Sahajdharis and Sikhs in Frontier Province (Pakistan)

  20.The ‘Pathan Sikhs’ of Pakistan

  Peshawar

  Change in dynamics

  APPENDIX

  List of Gurdwaras in Afghanistan

  About the Author

  FOREWORD

  During my childhood, my father Sardar Teja Singh Khurana Ji used to tell me that we were Afghani Sikhs and have been living in this country for many generations. When I enrolled in the government school, the Muslim students questioned me, ‘What are you, Hindi (Hindustani) Sikhs doing in our country? Why don't you go back to your own country?’

  This gave birth to a number of intriguing questions in my mind. Who are we? Are we ethnic Afghani? What is our background? And, if we are refugees from India, why did our elders decide to settle in an Islamic country to lead a very challenging life?

  In my youth, in addition to my academic education, I tried to find answers to these questions by speaking to elderly Sikhs in Afghanistan. In the midst of many agreements and disagreements, I was able to procure a lot of information about the history of my great nation, Afghanistan. During this period I had the good fortune of meeting the notable historian and writer, Sadhu Singh Saathi Ji and with him, I had the opportunity to contribute to his work, Itihas Khalsa Diwan Afghanistan which revolutionised the study of Afghan Sikhs and also inspired many others to study about them.

  Later, Sardar Khajinder Singh Khurana Ji wrote Kabul de Sangat te Afghanistan da Sankhep Ithas. A little later, I in collaboration with Bhai Jodh Singh Maskeen Ji took up the task to write the modern history of Khalsa Diwan Afghanistan but due to various reasons, this work could not be published.

  In 2012, when Khalsa Diwan Afghanistan was registered as a charity in the UK, I had the privilege to be one of the founding members along with Saathi Ji. After the formation of the charity, I requested Saathi Ji that we should document the history of prominent Sikhs living in different provinces of Afghanistan, their culture and customs, along with the history of the Gurdwaras in those provinces. However, Saathi Ji was at that time working on a book based on the Dasam Granth to clear the misconceptions facing the Panth. He assured me that we would begin the project proposed by me in 2014. But this was not to be. Saathi Ji was taken ill soon after, and joined the eternal light on 15th August 2015.

  Subsequently, I thought that with Dr Raghbir Singh Bir of Afghan Medical Association of America, I will be able to write something meaningful but when I met him I realised that he too, was unwell and recovering from an illness which dashed my hopes.

  In 2015, I met Sardar Harbans Singh Bewas Ji again; we had been introduced back in 2002 for the first time. I asked him if he was still writing and whether he would like to help me in the future. Bewas Ji replied that as long as he lives, he is dedicated to writing for the community and that his zeal to write will never diminish. This encouraging reply from an octogenarian rekindled my hope to finally produce a document about Afghan Sikhs. We got together and in 2017 started working on a book titled Afghanistan de Sarzameen te Chooldey Nishaan aate Sikhi da Parvesh. In addition to it, we have produced small booklets like Saachi Succhi Kamaiye, The Report of Second Conference of Charity Khalsa Diwan Afghanistan, Sanjah Paigham, Dharam aate Bandagi and Das Dahake de Sewadar.

  It was during this period that I received a call from Inderjeet Singh. After saying his Gurfateh the caller introduced himself and said that he has written a number of articles on Punjab and Sikh history on Sikhnet.com, and is currently writing a book on the history of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs. He further said that he would like to meet me regarding this venture. We decided to meet on 7th April 2018 as he lived in Nottingham, about 130 miles north of London. I was very excited about the meeting but unfortunately, my younger sister passed away in the interim and we had to cancel our meeting.

  However, Inderjeet continued with his work and contacted me again in August and we arranged to meet on Sunday, 26th August 2018 with Sardar Harbans Singh Bewas Ji as well. The meeting lasted for two whole hours and we exchanged many interesting thoughts. Inderjeet i
nformed us that his book traces the history of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs from 10th century ce onwards. I was very pleased that someone was writing about us in the English language, for the very first time. I volunteered to write a foreword for the book which was readily and gratefully accepted by him.

  We all know that our Shabad Guru is Siri Guru Granth Sahib Ji which guides us to lead a truthful life but sadly every scholar of our Granth has expressed their deep disappointment that Sikhs have not shared the enlightenment of our great Granth with the rest of the world. We are spending millions of rupees on gold plating the domes of the Gurdwara Sahibs but have been poor in spreading the message of Siri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

  In the same way, the Afghan Sikhs have a beautiful history and are ardent followers of the Sikh religion but have been unable to share and spread the information regarding their background in Afghanistan. Due to this negligence, the Afghan Muslims consider Afghan Sikhs as Indians and the Indians consider us as Afghans. In the post-1992 era we became refugees and faced huge difficulties in explaining our separate identity to the world. When Afghan Sikhs applied for refugee status in the UK and the rest of Europe as our lives were in danger in Afghanistan, the officials told us that they had never heard of Sikhs from Afghanistan. Sadly, we got so involved in our businesses and modern lifestyle that we forgot to explain our separate identity to the rest of the world.

  I had thought that after writing the complete history of Afghan Sikhs in Punjabi, I would translate it in English for readers in the UK, Europe and America so that they became more aware of the Afghan Sikhs. But this is not an easy task as a refugee, like the rest of my community, I too faced a number of issues and problems.

  It is said that God does not go everywhere but sends his Saints instead, and I could see that my very old wish was being fulfilled by one such, Inderjeet Singh. He has painfully collected contemporary material on Afghan Hindus and Sikhs starting from 10th century ce and divided different centuries into separate chapters and brought little-known facts and facets of the life of Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan.

  Inderjeet is an Amritdhari Sikh, a researcher who writes using contemporary sources and puts forward his diverse viewpoint in a way which does not offend anyone. He avoids controversies and creates a rapport with others very quickly. He gave me a summary of the chapters in his book which generated a lot of interest within me. I am eagerly waiting for his book to get published.

  After going through the synopsis of each chapter, I believe that this is a unique work which could be used as a historical reference book on Afghan Hindus and Sikhs. In addition, this will be the first work on the history of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs in English and would be able to explore the separate identity and background of my people. I am sure readers in the UK, Europe, India, America, Canada and Afghanistan will find it equally interesting. I hope this book will be helpful for future works on Afghan Sikhs and Hindus.

  I, Joginder Singh Khurana, Bewas Ji, our charity Khalsa Diwan Afghanistan UK and the Afghan Sikh community appreciate the hard work undertaken by Inderjeet Singh and wish him Chardi Kala, good health and a Gursikhi life so that he continues to share his research on Sikhs with the rest of the world.

  I have full faith that this book will be a huge success and a milestone among Afghan Sikhs and Hindus just like the TV documentaries on our community produced by Bobby Singh Bansal and Pritpal Singh. I hope this work will inspire others to read and research on Afghan Sikhs and Hindus and make the rest of the world wiser about our separate identity.

  As a former member of the Afghan Grand Assembly, I wish Inderjeet Singh all the best for the success of this book and sincerely hope that readers will like this unique work.

  Dr Joginder Singh Tej Khurana

  Former Member of Afghan Grand Assembly

  London

  January 2019

  PREFACE

  North Indian history as a subject always had an affinity with me during school days but after schooling, like most students in the sub-continent, I took the subjects which gave me better career prospects and unfortunately, history did not fit the bill.

  In the next twenty years, I read a few books pertaining to history but never made any great effort beyond scratching the surface. In 2015, however, I discovered a Pakistani guy uploading his short videos and photographs about the little known Sikh heritage in West Punjab. This rekindled my interest in history and I joined Facebook to get in touch with him and his work. Shahid Shabbir, founder of the Pakistan Heritage Club and a celebrity due to his pioneer work, is the reason I rediscovered history. Soon, I started writing short articles for the Sikhnet website and within three years I had written over thirty articles. One of the articles on Zorawar Singh’s campaign in Tibet in 1841 was enlarged and later published in The Tibet Journal. During this journey, our mutual friend Mirza Baig was also with us.

  The next logical progression was to write a book. Like most of my articles, I am rather excited about working on a topic which has not been researched before or presents large gaps in our knowledge about it. The history of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs was one such topic. As a Sikh, I was worried that like the historical Gurdwaras left behind in Pakistan, the ones in Afghanistan may soon be abandoned.

  Pritpal Singh made a huge name by producing, directing and anchoring the famous documentary, Mission Afghanistan and also televised programmes on the history of Afghan Sikhs in 2012. In February 2018, I approached Pritpal to ask him about his intentions on writing the history of Afghanistan considering his wide knowledge on the subject. Pritpal clarified that he was not interested in writing books though he had made another documentary on the Afghan Hindu and Sikh community. I then expressed my desire to write a journal or possibly a book on them and asked for his help and references.

  Taking clues from Pritpal and his productions on the history of Afghan Sikhs, I managed to contact Khajinder Singh Khurana in New Delhi who had written a book on Afghan Sikhs in Punjabi in 2001. He was kind enough to send his book to me. Many months later, Harbans Singh Bewas Ji very kindly loaned his copy of the book written by the late Sadhu Singh Saathi to me.

  I decided to write about the history of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs starting from the Hindu Shahi rulers who ruled Eastern Afghanistan until the end of the 10th century. The person who helped me make a start was Jahandad Khan. He is the scion of the Tanoli rulers of Hazara and a bright young man with a good sense of history. He provided me with references for the Ghazanavi and later periods. This assisted me immensely and I managed to find a number of contemporary sources.

  During the course of the next six months, I studied and read a number of contemporary books which mentioned non-Muslims in Afghanistan from the 11th to the 20th centuries. I spoke to numerous Afghan Hindus and Sikhs across the globe. I am very grateful to Manmohan Singh (UK), Ram Saran Bhasin (Kabul) and Shamsher Singh (New Delhi) who provided details about the recent events in Afghanistan relating to Afghan Hindus and Sikhs.

  I appreciate the support given by Ramnath Talwar (Belgium), Dr Chitra Akkor (USA), Dr Dalvir Pannu (USA) and Gurpreet Singh Anand (India). I am grateful and feel honoured that Dr Joginder Singh Tej Khurana, former Member of the Afghan Grand Assembly, Afghanistan has written the foreword for this book. All people who have contributed towards this book have been duly acknowledged and mentioned in footnotes and references.

  My special thanks to Vikramjeet Singh Roopai who shared his experiences about publishing and referred my name to the publishers. Indrani Ganguly, Dipankar Mukherjee and Rima Kar Ghosh from Readomania Publishing who have done a commendable job in producing this work.

  I am thankful to all my family members who encouraged me especially Sardar Gurbux Singh who almost pestered me to write this book. Lastly, I express my gratitude to the academics, Dr Harbhajan Singh Soch, Former Vice Chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Professor (retired) Himadri Bannerjee, Emeritus Professor Harbans Lal and Professor Akhtar H. Sandhu who encouraged me to keep on writing. Their words gave me confidence and the mo
tivation to write.

  This book is written in a semi-academic style using contemporary sources. I have resisted from providing any analysis and offering new theories as I want readers to form their own interpretations. This work can be used as a reference book and I hope this will prompt others to conduct further research on this little-known subject.

  Inderjeet Singh

  Nottingham (UK)

  April 2019

  1.

  Introduction

  The landlocked country of Afghanistan in south-central Asia was branded in India by the famous movie Kabuliwala. The image of a tall and handsome Punjabi, Balraj Sahni playing the role of a Pathan to perfection, and the haunting melody of Manna Dey’s Ay Mere Pyare Wataan Tuj Pe Dil Kurbaan is etched on our minds. The movie was released in 1961, based on Rabindranath Tagore’s short play by the same name. This represented Afghanistan to most Indians until the early 1970s.

  However, ever since the late 1970s, Afghanistan has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. A relatively stable and peaceful monarchy was toppled by the cousin of the ruler in 1973 who was in turn, murdered in 1978. This was followed by the Soviet invasion in 1979 and to counter them came the Mujahideen (literally, freedom fighters) who were supported by the USA, Pakistan and their allies. The proxy war continued for ten years and by the time the Soviet left in 1989 after failing to crush the Mujahideen, the country was in shambles.

  In 1992, just before the Mujahideen captured the capital, Kabul, the majority of the Afghan Hindus and Sikhs had left the country. Four years later, the Taliban, a new version of the Mujahideen captured most of the country. Their rigid and fundamentalist interpretation of Islam meant that Hindus and Sikhs of Afghanistan had to wear a yellow batch to identify themselves. Although the Taliban has been replaced by a democratic government, the exodus has not stopped.

  The Hindus and Sikhs of Afghanistan, who had been living in the country since time immemorial, left the land of their forefathers. While they numbered well over 60,000 in the early 1990s, only a thousand Sikhs and Hindus remain in the country presently and are limited mainly to the three cities of Kabul, Jalalabad and Ghazni. Outside these cities, their Gurdwaras and Mandirs are now illegally occupied by locals of the majority community. Even within these cities their houses were forcefully occupied during the turmoil of civil war and most of them live in Gurdwaras and Mandirs. They cannot even cremate their dead in Kabul and other provinces without the assistance of the police. Their children are bullied in schools, called kafirs and Sikh boys are mocked as khachalu (potato)1. This happens in front of the teachers and they don't do anything to discourage this behaviour. The worst and most hurtful is that they are continuously asked when they are going back to India. No one believes them when they say that they have always lived in Afghanistan. There has been a steep decline in the fortunes of this once rich and prosperous Afghan Hindu and Sikh community.