Names of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pashto: خېبر پښتونخوا, Urdu: خیبر پختونخوا) has been known by a number of names throughout its history. In addition to North-West Frontier Province, the official name by which it was known from 1901 to 2010, until it was renamed.[1] Other names used or proposed for the province include Gandhara, Afghania, Pashtunistan, Pathanistan, Sarhad, Abaseen, Khyber,[2][3] or a combination of names, such as Hazara-Pakhtunkhwa.[4][5]

Location of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan

North-West Frontier Province
Further information: North-West Frontier Province

For over a hundred years after its founding as a province of British Raj in 1901, it was known as the North-West Frontier Province (abbreviated as NWFP) until 2010 due to its relative location being in the northwest of the nation.[6] Unofficially, it was known as Sarhad (Urdu: سرحد), derived from the province's Urdu name, which means "frontier".

Efforts to change the name

For most of the history of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), there were efforts to change its name. The name Afghania was proposed first by the founding leaders of the Muslim League in 1933 and was at least partly chosen to represent the first "a" in "Pakistan". The need for a change was explained by the man who named Pakistan in his "Now or Never" pamphlet, Choudhary Rahmat Ali Khan, as:

"'North-West Frontier Province' is semantically non-descript and socially wrongful. It is non-descript because it merely indicates their geographical situation as a province of old 'British India' [which no longer exists]. It is wrongful because it suppresses the social entity of these people. In fact, it suppresses that entity so completely that when composing the name 'Pakistan' for our homelands, I had to call the North-West Frontier Province the Afghan Province."[7]

Suggestions for new names came and went. Although some of the names were ethnically neutral, most proposals emphazised the province's Pashtun ethnic identity. The renaming issue was an emotional one which often crossed party lines and not all supporters of a renaming agreed on the name Pakhtunkhwa.

20th-century efforts

By the late 20th century, President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq agreed with Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan to change the name to Pashtunistan but he contended that the term Pashtunistan had become controversial and was being politicized by Afghanistan. Ghaffar Khan suggested Pakhtunkhwa, but Zia-ul-Haq asked Ghaffar Khan to suggest an alternative.[8]

The name Pakhtunkhwa was approved by the democratically elected constitutional assembly of the province in 1997 by majority vote.[9] However, the PML (N) parliamentary party of NWFP rejected the ANP demand but called for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to suggest another "non-controversial" name.[9] PML (N) members noted that Sarhad was a good name for the province but, if a change was needed, then it should be named Khyber or Abasin.[9] The NWFP chief minister, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, called for a referendum on the issue as a way of determining the name.[9] These offers were rejected by the ANP leadership and the ANP withdrew from both the federal and provincial governments.[9]

21st-century efforts

The lack of support for a name change by the PML (N) was defended as opposition to the nationalistic politics being pursued by the ANP.[10]

In May 2008, to accommodate a demand by the people of NWFP who voted for the ANP, the PPP proposed that the name of the North-West Frontier Province be changed to Pakhtunkhwa,[11][12] however the Muslim League Nawaz which had considerable support in the Hindko-speaking Hazara region of the province announced it might oppose the name change because of it "being on ethnic grounds" because of opposition by its provincial leadership, yet the party fails to explain the fact that the names of the other three provinces (Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan) represent the ethnic identity of their majority populace, despite how they camouflage that fact with their version of the history of those provinces.[13]

The name Pakhtunkhwa was mentioned for the first time in the United Nation's General Assembly by Pakistani President Asif Zardari on 26 September 2008.[14]

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
See also: Pashtunistan

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa means the "Khyber side of the land of the Pashtuns,[15]" where the word Pakhtunkhwa means "Land of the Pashtuns",[16] while according to some scholars, it refers to "Pashtun culture and society".[17]

The Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party based in the province demanded that the province name be changed to "Pakhtunkhwa".[18] Their logic behind that demand was that Punjabi people, Sindhi people and Baloch people have their provinces named after their ethnicities but that is not the case for Pashtun people.[19]

Pakistan Muslim League (N), the largest opposition party at the time was ready to change the province's name by supporting the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and ANP, in a constitutional amendment but wanted to name the province something other than which does not carry only the Pashtun identity in it as they argued that there were other minor communities living in the province especially the Hazarewals of the Hazara region who spoke Hindko thus the word Khyber was introduced with the name because it is the name of a major pass which connects Pakistan to Afghanistan.[19]

In early 2010, the process of renaming proceeded and the Pakistani Senate confirmed the name change to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the 18th amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan with a unanimous 90 votes on 15 April 2010.[1]

Renaming controversy

The name change of the province was met with strong opposition from the people of Hazara region and protests erupted in the region with wheel and shutter jam strikes. Abbottabad became the nerve center of the movement. On the 10th of April, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police fired at unarmed protesters, leaving 7 dead and dozens injured.[20] Allegedly, the firing was ordered by the coalition government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, led by the Awami National Party.[21] This is one of the earliest incidents of police brutality in Pakistan in recent years, occurring before the Model Town Lahore incident, whose FIR has not been registered still today.[22]

Arif Nizami, former editor of The Nation, said, "This has actually opened a Pandora's box, because of Pakistan's very tenuous polity. Now, on one side, there are identity issues and ethnic issues and provincial autonomy issues. The other side is religious issues and terrorism. It's a very explosive situation."[23]

Alternative proposed names

Many alternative names were proposed for the province. Many of these alternatives were designed to avoid or balance the ethnic connotations of Pakhtunkhwa.[2][3]

Gandhara
See also: Gandhara

The name Gandhāra was proposed by Pakistan Muslim League (N), as a neutral name for the province.[3][24][25] Gandhara was an ancient Indo-Aryan[26] civilization centered in the present-day province.[27][28][29] The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley and Swat valley, though the cultural influence of "Greater Gandhara" extended across the Indus river to the Taxila region in Potohar Plateau and westwards into the Kabul valley in Afghanistan, and northwards up to the Karakoram range.[30][31][32]

It was attested in the Rigveda,[33][34] and it was one of the 16 Mahajanapadas of the second urbanisation.[27][28][29] The region was a major centre for Greco-Buddhism under the Indo-Greeks and Gandharan Buddhism under later dynasties, including Indo-Scythians, Indo-Parthians and Kushans. Gandhara was also a central location for the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and East Asia.[35]

Gāndhārī, an Indo-Aryan language written in Kharosthi script, acted as lingua franca of the region.[36] Famed for its unique Gandharan style of art which is influenced by the classical Hellenistic styles, Gandhara attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century CE under the Kushan Empire, who had their capital at Peshawar (Puruṣapura).

Hazara-Pakhtunkhwa

Some Hazara residents said that the new name should be Hazara-Pakhtunkhwa (in reference to the Hazara region where Hindko-speakers are dominant as compared to the Pashto-speakers elsewhere in the province),[4][5] and others said the name should not be changed since the people were accustomed to North-West Frontier Province.[23]

Other names

See also

Notes

    References
    1. "NWFP officially renamed as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa". Dawn.com. 15 April 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
    2. "It's KP, not KPK". www.thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 23 April 2023. Initially, a number of names were proposed for the province. These ranged from its ancient names, Gandhara and Afghania, to the controversial Pakhtunistan and Pashtunistan and the absurd Pathanistan, and from Abaseen denoting the River Indus passing through it to the meaningless Sarhad.
    3. "Spat over renaming NWFP". The Hindu. 22 March 2010. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 23 April 2023. Besides Pukhtoonkhwa, five other names are under consideration. The ANP has suggested Pukhtoonistan and Afghania. And, the PML(N) Gandhara, Khyber and Abbasin (Pushto for the river Indus). Senior ANP leader Zahid Khan was hopeful of a compromise on the issue and suggested that the leaderships of the two parties may settle for a hyphenated name that pleases all.
    4. "Divided they stand: K-P Assembly passes two resolutions on Hazara province". The Express Tribune. 22 March 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
    5. "Renaming of NWFP: PML-N suggests 'Hazara Pakhtunkhwa'". DAWN.COM. 13 April 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
    6. Morrison, Cameron (1909). A New Geography of the Indian Empire and Ceylon. T.Nelson and Sons. p. 176.
    7. Choudhary Rahmat Ali, 1947, Pakistan: the fatherland of the Pak nation, Cambridge, OCLC: 12241695
    8. Matter of Identity by Dr. Sher Zaman Taizai
    9. Abdus Sattar Ghazali. "Pakhtoonkhwa: Renaming of the NWFP." Islamic Pakistan: Illusions & Reality.
    10. "ANP asks opponents not to raise Pakhtunkhwa issue." 5 November 2008. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
    11. "Pakistan renames North West Frontier Province to end 'colonial anachronism' - Telegraph". 29 May 2008. Archived from the original on 29 May 2008. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
    12. Wasim, Amir (25 May 2008). "PPP out to tame presidency, empower parliament". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
    13. PML-N may oppose NWFP renaming as Pakhtunkhwa - The News
    14. Riaz Khan. "ANP jubilant as Pakhtunkhwa echoes in UNGA." 27 September 2008. Retrieved 29 September 2008.
    15. U.S. Department of State (2011). Background Notes: South Asia, May, 2011. InfoStrategist.com. ISBN 978-1592431298.
    16. Marwat, Fazal-ur-Rahim Khan (1997). The evolution and growth of communism in Afghanistan, 1917–79: an appraisal. Royal Book Co. p. XXXV.
    17. Barnes, Robert Harrison; Gray, Andrew; Kingsbury, Benedict (1995). Indigenous peoples of Asia. Association for Asian Studies. p. 171. ISBN 0924304146.
    18. Ayers, Alyssa (23 July 2009). Speaking Like a State: Language and Nationalism in Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0521519311.
    19. "NWFP in search of a name". pakhtunkhwa.com. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
    20. "Seven killed in Abbottabad violence". Dawn.com. 13 April 2010. Retrieved 11 April 2010.
    21. Shaheen, Sikander (14 April 2010). "Complete strike observed in Hazara Division". The Nation. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
    22. "Abbottabad firing incident: Tehreek Suba Hazara to request Khattak to order registration of FIR". The Express Tribune. 17 September 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
    23. Karin Brulliard. "Tensions over renamed Pakistan province overshadow government reforms." Washington Post. 17 April 2010. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
    24. "'N', ANP still apart on NWFP renaming". The Nation. 22 March 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2023. He said that PML-N had also suggested the name 'Gandhara but half of the Gandhara population was living in Punjab, therefore, would Punjab agree to include that part in the NWFP, he questioned.
    25. April 14, 2010, Kalsoom Lakhani. "A province by any other name". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 23 April 2023. But the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), a mainstream conservative political party with its stronghold in Punjab province, staunchly opposed this label, (officially calling for a referendum last September), claiming the title marginalized other ethnic and linguistic groups in the province, including Hindko, Seraiki, and Khowar-speakers. A deadlock over the name continued, with an array of alternative names proposed as a compromise. While some reflected more neutral geographical areas (Khyber, Neelab and Abaseen) and historical references (Gandhara, the old Buddhist-era name of the region), other noteworthy runner-ups included Afghania, the clandestine 'A' in "Pakistan," coined by one of the earliest proponents of the Pakistani state, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali in 1933.
    26. Bryant, Edwin Francis (2002). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate. Oxford University Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-19-565361-8.
    27. Kulke, Professor of Asian History Hermann; Kulke, Hermann; Rothermund, Dietmar (2004). A History of India. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-32919-4.
    28. Warikoo, K. (2004). Bamiyan: Challenge to World Heritage. Third Eye. ISBN 978-81-86505-66-3.
    29. Hansen, Mogens Herman (2000). A Comparative Study of Thirty City-state Cultures: An Investigation. Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. ISBN 978-87-7876-177-4.
    30. Neelis, Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks 2010, p. 232.
    31. Eggermont, Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan 1975, pp. 175–177.
    32. Badian, Ernst (1987), "Alexander at Peucelaotis", The Classical Quarterly, 37 (1): 117–128, doi:10.1017/S0009838800031712, JSTOR 639350, S2CID 246878679
    33. "Rigveda 1.126:7, English translation by Ralph TH Griffith".
    34. Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1997). A History of Sanskrit Literature. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 130–. ISBN 978-81-208-0095-3.
    35. "UW Press: Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhara". Retrieved April 2018.
    36. GĀNDHĀRĪ LANGUAGE, Encyclopædia Iranica
    37. Khan, Riaz; Toosi, Nahal; Writers, Associated Press (31 March 2010). "Pakistan moves closer to renaming volatile region". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
    38. Khan, Riaz; Toosi, Nahal (1 April 2010). "Pakistan moves closer to renaming volatile region". Washington Post. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
    • Pashtunkhwa: A Development Framework
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