CULTURE
tajikistanweb.com
Declassified documents of the US Embassy in Kabul are shedding more light on the language issue in Afghanistan as the world celebrates the International Mother Language Day on February 21.
An airgram, dated May 23, 1964, by the Counsellor of Embassy for political affairs Howard J. Ashford Jr. informs the US Department of State about a new language policy undertaken by the Afghan government. Interestingly, the formerly confidential document’s subject reads: "Farsi-Dahri" to be Official Language".
Referring to events of April 4, 1964, the airgram reveals that Abdul Zaher, the President of the National Assembly and Chairman of the Constitutional Advisory Commission (who later became Afghanistan’s Prime-Minister) had told the American Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) about his plans to introduce 2 official languages: Pashtu and Farsi, "but the latter henceforth would be "Dahri" (misspelt "Dari" inserted in Afghan Constitution by King Zaher Shah – twc).
The paper adds some dodgy information about "two versions of Farsi in use within Afghanistan". Those two versions of the same language are categorically defined by the Counsellor as "Pahlevi-Farsi" and "Dahri-Farsi". "Pahlevi-Farsi" is the Iranian version which has been used increasingly in Afghanistan as the literary language since the 18 th century, he adds, while "dahri", according to its Afghan supporters, developed originally within Afghanistan thousands of years ago.
The word "Pahlevi" most certainly refers to the Pahlevi royal dynasty that was reigning next door at the time, rather than the identical linguistic term used as a synonym for the Middle-Persian language of Sassanids. If it’s supposed to mean the latter, the term is non-sensual as the language does not exist anymore.
"Tajik dynasties based in Herat and Ghazni from the 9 th through the 16 th centuries used this version of Farsi (dahri)," elaborates the secret document. "Differences over language, which are closely correlated to differences between the dominant Pashtuns and the subordinate farsi-speaking ethnic groups, came to a head within the Commission during March when a Pashtun member of the Commission suggested that the draft Constitution employ phraseology which would commit the government to support the purity of Pashtu and emphasize its use as a national language." (
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/pakistan/ashford23may1964.htm )At first sight there seems to be a very feeble logical link between cause and effect of the act. A Pashtun parliamentarian suggests strengthening his mother language and the parliament decides to rename one of the two official languages from Farsi to "Dahri". The hidden bit of information implies that a new identity for the Persian language of Afghanistan would confine it within the country by cutting off its ties with the Persian of Iran. "Purification" and "fortification" have been secured solely for the Pashto language.
Abdul Zaher was a passionate supporter of Pashtuns and "Pashtunistan". In 1972 Abdul Zaher as the Prime Minister of the country "signed an order giving instructions to beef up and provide more money for Department of Pashtunistan Affairs. He had ordered the department to launch a propaganda campaign calling for establishment of Pashtunistan." (
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/pakistan/sober15mar1972.jpg )Another thing that catches the eye in Ashford’s airgram is the misspelling of the word "Dari". One can suggest that the word was too unfamiliar to Americans to spell it correctly. The term doesn’t exist in the Embassy’s previous reports. Herbert B. Leggett, Ashford’s predecessor in July 1963, mentions neither "Dahri" nor "Dari" in his report to the US Department of State.
"The Kabul press on June, 30, 1963, reported that four hospitals, all associated with Kabul University, received Pushtu names in place of their former Farsi and Arabic names", he informs.
Then Shafakhanaye Aliabad and Shafakhanaye Markazi, Dar-ol-majanin, Shafakhanaye Khanom or Naswan were renamed to Nadir Shah Roghtoon, Markazi Katanzay, Sanaye Roghtoon and D’Nirmuno Roghtoon. However, they are better known by their previous names till now.
Siddiqullah Rishteen, the President of the Pushtu Academy in 1963 believed that the name changes were a part of the continuing government policy "of regarding Pushtu as the unique official language of Afghanistan." Rishteen did not agree with the reporting officer that Farsi was the lingua franca of Afghanistan and that large numbers of Afghans in important governmental positions knew no Pashto. "Rishteen said that this was an overstatement and that in any case there is only one true "Afghan" culture and it is Pushtun", reads the report.
Rishteen was right in defining the meaning of ‘Afghan’ which is a self-designation of Pashtuns. Ethnologically, Afgh
ān is the term by which Pashtuns are designated by Persian-speakers. Below is a definition of the term by the Encyclopaedia Iranica:"The term "Afgh
ān" has probably designated the Paštūn since ancient times. Under the form Avag ānā , this ethnic group is first mentioned by the Indian astronomer Var āha Mihira in the beginning of the 6 th century A.D. in his Brahat-samahita. The Sanscrit mention the people of Ashvakan and later it turns into Upa-Gun and Âpa-Gân."It should be mentioned that "Afghanistan" as the name of the country was confirmed in King Amanullah Khan’s constitution only in 1923. The first Constitution does not include the word "Afghan" in its ethno-national sense. In an attempt to weaken Persian cultural influence in the country an ethno-centric Pashtun King Zaher Shah applied the word to every citizen of Afghanistan, woman and man, in his 1964 Constitution. But even now among most of Persian-speakers of Afghanistan the word ‘Afghan’ means ‘Pashtun’ only.
Even Zaher Shah himself, who enforced anti-Persian policies and renamed the language to Dari preferred to speak in Persian. In his report to Washington Counsellor of the American Embassy in Kabul H.B. Leggett writes: "The reporting officer refrained from stating an even more embarrassing fact that the Royal Family (Zaher Shah’s court – twc) contains very few persons who can speak adequate Pushtu, especially among the younger generation."
Leggett underlines another important etymological fact that the word ‘Parsiwan’ in Pushtu applies to "any Afghan whose mother tongue is Farsi. Also spelled Farsiban, the more literary, and hence less common, form". Thus, Pushtuns admit that the native language of Tajiks is Parsi – Persian, rather than Dari. The latter is believed to be merely an attribute or adjective for "Farsi" and is supposed to follow the noun: Parsi (Farsi)-ye Dari (literally: Court Persian).
(to be continued)
Youth
Entertainment