The Pathans an immigrant Community from Afghanistan is an important Muslim community in India. They are now Indian Nationals who are of ethnic ancestry. They came to India as early as in the 15th century as horse dealers during the reign of Shersha. Later they have worked as defenders of forts in the hills during the reign of Maharaja Renjith Singh. They also served as mercenaries in the armies of the Muslim rulers in the Deccan region. With the partition of India in the year 1947, a large number of Pathans left to the newly created nation of Pakisthan. In India they are distributed in seventy four districts covering almost all the major states in India. They have made outstanding contributions in the field of Literature, politics, sports, film industry etc. The original language of Pathan is 'Pashto' Indian Pathans consider Urdu as their Mother Tongue. They are very conversant with Hindi in addition to the regional languages of the state where they live in. The Pathans also comprise of Hindu Pathans. Some Indian Hindus who came from or born in the pashtun predominant regions of British India as well as from the Afghanistan are called Hindu Pathans. At the time of partition they shifted to Independent India leaving behind their homes. In south India they spoke Dhakkini a dialect of Hindustani.
In Kerala they are called Dakkini Muslims or 'Pattanis They were valiant soldiers who served the east while Travancore Royal Dynasty for generations. They together with native soldiers fought for the state as early as during the period of Dharmaraja. In Kerala, within their household they speak Urdu and outside Malayalam, the regional language. Pattani pockets exist in almost all the districts of Kerala. In the city Manacaud and Palayam were two important destinations of Pattani dwelling. At Manacaud they have established a Pattani Jama-at named Anjuman-e-Khaidhul Muslim Dakkini Jama-at as early as 1936 with eminent Pattani personals as their office bearers. The mosque at Manacaud named Manacaud Valia Palli situated 1.5 K.M from the Thirvananthapuram city in the Manacaud-Konjiravila Road, the plot is divided into two sections. One for the Hanafi Madhhab and the other for the Shafi Madhhab. The right side of the road is for Shafi Madhhab and the left side for the Hanafi Madhhab. The Hanafi Madhhab includes the Pattanis, Saits and Rawthers. This plot is called Matiravila. Later the Saits chiefly consisting of Kach Memons established a separate Jama-at at Attakulangara near East Fort.
The present work aims at studying the socio-cultural, historical and linguistic features of the Pattanis residing in Kerala. Though the studies about a prominent immigrant community, the Pattanis are comparatively less and the significant role of Pattanis in the history of India and Kerala Culture is not fully unrolled, this study marked its relevance.
1 am deeply indebted to Gopalakrishnan, Hon. Director for awarding a senior Prof. Naduvattom fellowship and rendering all helps for completing this research project successfully. I am grateful to Prof G. K. Panikkar for his valuable advice throughout this research work. I am also indebted to Mr. Abdula Munavari of Vellayani, Syed Ahmed (Shajahan), Mrs. Suliman Beevi and Mrs. Sherin of Poojapura, Yasin Sherif and Mrs. Jawahar Banu of Kollam, Mrs. Ahmada Beegum of Vattiyoorkavu for rendering all help and informations about the Pattani community residing in Kerala.
'A Socio-cultural, Historical and Linguistic Study of the Pathans of Kerala' by Dr. S. Abdul Samed is the outcome of the project given to him in International School of Dravidian Linguistics. Pathani or Pattanis of Kerala is a migratory groups of Muslims generally referred in History as Dakkini, Dakkani, Dahani or Dakshani. Majority of them came to Kerala from Mysore. Their colonies are seen in almost all districts of Kerala. The Pattanis in Thiruvananthapuram were valiant soldiers who helped the Royal dynasty of Travancore to establish their supermacy over the clergies. According to the Travancore history Pattanis were bought by the erstwhile King Marthanda Varma and settled them at Palayam, Thiruvananthapuram.
From the linguistic point of view, studies on Pattanis life in Kerala is very important. At home they speak Urdu and outside they use Malayalam, the native language of Kerala. They are fluent in Hindi also. The younger generation especially the students community doesn't posses any hesitation to select Malayalam as first language in their curriculum.
Phonemics, Morphology and Phrase structure are the linguistic areas analyzed here. Even though the datas used for this description is collected from one or two migrant areas in Thiruvananthapuram city. The overview on linguistic features is extremely sound.
The present project aims at studying the Socio-cultural, Historical and Linguistic aspects of the Pathans of Kerala.
The data for the study was collected both from primary and secondary sources. In the primary source, the data was collected from informants residing at various places in the State. For this, a sample questionnaire was prepared and on its basis the data was elicited. The informants were selected with care and both male and female informants who were above middle age were selected. Apart from the linguistic data, data regarding their socio-cultural and historical details were also elicited. The collected data from these sources were analysed using contrastive analysis and on its basis a conclusion was asrrived at.
Regarding secondary source materials, the data mainly relating to socio-cultural and linguistic details were collected from many books. Besides, documents available were also collected and studied. The information regarding their migration, settlement in Kerala and their history had been collected from aged and knowledgeable informants and whatever documents available with them were gathered for close scrutiny.
The cultural history and language of the Pathans have never been unrolled fully. People often loosely employed the terms Pathan and Afghans as synonymous, but there is clear distinction between the people who inhabited the plains and plateau and the highlands. The former have been regarded as the senior branch of the race and entitled to the Afghan name. They are of two kinds, the Western and the Eastern Afghans. Of the western Afghans, the most important groups are the Abdalis, now known as the Durranis. Similarly in the eastern Afghans the most important are the Yusufzais. The western Afghans have been influenced by the Persian especially by the Safawi Emperors of Persia. Herat and Kandahar were their cultural centres. The Eastern Afghans had contact with the Mughal Empire. In between the western and the eastern Afghans there are the highlanders which include the famous names of the Northwest frontier; earlier, NWF was a part of the Punjab. On the nineth of November 1901 on the birthday of the King a separate Pathan province was created. In the year 1955 it was merged into a larger unit. The four trans Indus districts of Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan with a fifth Hazare (Cis Indus) were separated from the Punjab to form the province and placed in charge of a chief commissioner. The tribes of the NWF are the Afridi, Khatak, Orakzai, Bangash, Wazirs, Mahsud, Turi etc. The dialects of these tribes show some features in common and are supposed to have descendant from a common ancestor named Karlanri. These are the Pakhtuns or Pashtuns, the tribes who form the back bone of the so called tribal belt. Pathan is the Indian variant of Pakhtanah, the plural of Pakhtun who had close trade contacts with the cities of Indus. Their contacts with the Eastern Afghans of the Peshawar valley have been much closer than those of the Durranis inhabiting the country to the west, known as Khurasan. The Eastern Afghans and the High land Pukhtanah lived east of the Durand line within Pakistan. Shersha, the Pathan emperor of Delhi in the 16th century and the Khatak poet Kushhal in the 17th century spoke of them as the man of Roh (a Multani and Baluch word for a mountrain).
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist