# Pashtunization

Pashtunization (Pashto: پښتون‌ جوړونه, Dari: پشتون‌سازی), is a process of cultural or linguistic change in which someone or something non-Pashtun becomes acculturated to Pashtun influence. Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and second-largest in Pakistan.

## Dynasties and settlements

People become Pashtunized when they settle in Pashtun-dominated areas and adopt Pashtun culture and language. Pashtunization is a specific form of cultural assimilation and has been taking place in Pashtun-populated regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan for several centuries.
   "In the eighth and ninth centuries, ancestors of many of today's Turkic-speaking Afghans settled in the Hindu Kush area (partly to obtain better grazing land) and began to assimilate much of the culture and language of the Pashtun tribes already present there."
The Khalaj were originally a Turkic tribe which had long domiciled in the Ghazni, Qalati Ghilji (also known as Qalati Khalji), and Zabulistan regions of present-day Afghanistan. They intermarried with the local Pashtuns and gradually adopted the Pashtun culture. Najib Bakran's geography, Jahān Nāma (c. 1200–1220), described the Khalaj as a "tribe of Turks" that had been going through a language shift. Some of them left the area during the Mongol invasion of Central Asia towards the Indian subcontinent, where they built empires such as the Khalji dynasty of Delhi. Because of their language shift and Pashtunization, the Khalji were looked upon as Pashtuns (Afghans) by the Turkic nobles of the Delhi Sultanate.
Many former Pashai speakers have adopted the ethnonym Safi and often refer to themselves by the mountain valleys in which they live, whereas in Swat and Indus Kōhestān many former Dardic speakers now claim to be Pashtuns.
Pashtunization may also refer to the settling of Pashtun tribes onto lands where non-Pashtun tribes live or more broadly the erosion of the customs, traditions and language of non-Pashtun peoples due to the political power and regional influence of the Pashtuns. This occurred in the Peshawar sub-region in the early 16th century, during the period of the Suri dynasty of Delhi. It intensified in the mid-18th century under Pashtun emperor Ahmad Shah Durrani, when he conquered non-Pashtun territories and established the Durrani Empire. During the reign of Abdur Rahman Khan in the late 19th century, some Pashtuns settled in the north of the country, while Tajiks from the north were brought to the south. This was done for political reason, mainly to prevent Russian invasion. In the meantime, thousands of Hazaras left Hazarajat to settle in Quetta (now in Pakistan) and Mashad in what is now Iran, after Abdur Rahman Khan's depredations in the aftermath of 1888–1893 Uprisings of Hazaras.

## Modern influences

Some Pashtunization attempts were later made in the early part of the 20th century by the Musahiban. Many non-Pashtuns living in close proximity with Pashtuns have been Pashtunized. For example, in the central Ghor Province, some southern groups of Aimaqs have adopted Pashto language. In the eastern Laghman Province and Nangarhar Province, many Pashayi are bilingual in Pashto. Following the Saur Revolution, the Khalqists attempted to undermine the status of Dari in a bid to make Pashto the interethnic language of Afghanistan and remove Dari as an official language. Before the overthrow of Mohammad Najibullah in 1992, Pashto made up more than 50% of media in Afghanistan. A Soviet GRU dossier described Najibullah as "A Pashtun nationalist, he is one of the motivating spirits of the policy of “Pashtunization” of Afghan society. Within his closest circle he speaks only in Pashto. He is inclined to select colleagues not for their professional qualities but for their personal devotion to him, predominantly relatives and fellow-villagers". Strand states that Pashtunization continues to occur due to intermarriages between Pashtun women and indigenous Dardic Indo-Aryan and Nuristani men. Strand states that Pashtun wives rarely learn their native husband's language due to the "chauvanistic" attitude of Pashto speakers leading to the children speaking Pashto as their primary language.