Anti-Persianism in a recent century in Afghanistan

The Persian language, which is called “Farsi” in Iran, “Dari” in Afghanistan, and “Tajiki” in Tajikistan, has been the official and court language of the land that is called Afghanistan today. This language has experienced a painful history since the formation of independent government in Afghanistan and changing the name of Khorasan to Afghanistan (1747 AD) until today. During this period, tribal and ethnic rulers have ruled the country with the approach of Pashtunism and each of them has adopted a specific orientation towards the Persian language. Since the beginning of the 20^th century, they have tried to remove the Persian language from the official and national domain and replace it with other languages, including Pashto. While other common languages in Afghanistan never have had the background and the extent of Persian language in social, historical and cultural terms. The policy of marginalization of the Persian language, which started during the period of Amir Habibullah Khan (r. 1901-1919), has been followed with ups and downs in the following periods and until today - 18 months have passed since the second period of the Taliban rule. As it was removed from the administrative and educational system for a short period of time during the half-century rule of the Al Yahya dynasty (1308-1357), and then, in 1343, the name “Dari” was imposed on this language and it was included as one of the two official languages, along with Pashto, in the constitution of the Zaher Shah era. This position was also maintained during the communist regimes; but after the civil wars and the domination of the Taliban (1375-1380) it was treated more unkindly. With the establishment of democracy and the formation of the Islamic Republic (1380-1400), and in the constitution that was approved in 1382, Pashto and Persian were recognized as the two official languages in Afghanistan, with the difference that preference was given to Pashto and the national anthem of this country was also made in Pashto language. Also, academic, military and administrative terms were assigned to Pashto language only. Finally, with the fall of the republican system and the Taliban regaining control over Afghanistan, this group has tried to remove the Persian language and terms from government offices and signs.
 
Extended abstract

1.Introduction

Persian is the language of the majority of the people of Afghanistan. This language has been the only official and administrative language of Afghanistan since the distant past until 1964, when it found a competitor called “Pashto”. After the establishment of a country called Afghanistan by Ahmad Shah Abdali (1747), the rulers of Afghanistan, who were all from the Pashtun/Afghan people, tried to weaken and even erase other ethnic groups and languages, and by doing this, they made their people more prominent than other ethnic groups and they consider themselves the main owners of Afghanistan. During the mentioned period, these rulers had different orientations towards the Persian language. Some of them have shown prejudice-free behavior and others have shown hostile and militant behavior. Since the beginning of the 20th century, special attention has been paid to the Pashto language in different administrative fields and government documents. This process started from the time of Habibullah Khan and reached its peak during the time of Nader Shah and Zahir Shah, and even made the government and education system monolingual in Pashto for a while. During this period, Pashto language terms were imposed on Dari Persian, especially in the fields of “administrative”, “university and higher education”, “press” and “army”, with the intention of lowering the status of Persian language. This policy was followed a little more calmly in the era of democracy; But after that, especially during the first period of the Taliban government and their current government, it is followed in a harsher and more domineering manner, and everything from administrative letters to city signs is changed to Pashto language.
 

2.Theoretical framework

This research has investigated the policy of the rulers of Afghanistan towards the Persian language in the recent century. In order to facilitate the implementation of the research, the various policies of the rulers and in order to establish the historical position of the Persian language in Afghanistan, first, the history of this language has been briefly discussed since the establishment of an independent country called Afghanistan (1747) until the 20th century. After that, regarding different policies of the rulers of Afghanistan, the following courses have been defined for the Persian language:

Setting the stage for bringing the Pashto language to the stage at the beginning of the 20th century (1929-1901);
Identification with Pashto language and conflict with Persian language (1928-1977);
Reduction of conflict with Persian during the communist period (1978-1992);
Persian language in civil wars and the rule of the first period of Taliban (1992-2001);
Persian language in two decades of democracy and Islamic Republic system (2001-2021);
Persian language in the second period of Taliban rule (2021-...).

 
3.Methodology

The current research was done with analytical-descriptive method and with library method and it investigated the policies of the contemporary rulers of Afghanistan (from 1901 till now) in relation to Persian language in six topics. For this purpose, both historical sources and constitutions and media have been used and in some cases these sources have been compared with each other.
 
4.Results and research findings

The policy of marginalizing the Persian language in Afghanistan started during the period of Amir Habibullah Khan (r. 1901-1919). In this period, according to Mahmoud Tarzi, an attempt was made to raise Pashto as a competitor to Persian, and to lower the status of Persian. The foundation stone for the improvement of Pashto language, which was laid by Mahmoud Tarzi, during the Nader Khan period, was combined with the government's determination to fight and treat the Persian language with hostility. As a person named Mohammad Gul Khan Momand had assumed the unofficial mission of fighting against the Persian language. Momand started agitations in generalizing the Pashto language and rejecting the Persian language not only from government departments, but also from educational institutions and even homes and markets. He forced the Dari-speaking and Turkish-speaking people to write their petitions in Pashto language and did not give any effect to the petitions that reached him in “Dari language”. He burned more than one thousand Persian manuscripts, which contained historical and government letters and documents, from the library of Rawda Sakhi in Mazar-e-Sharif. This hostility of Mohammad Gul Khan with Farsi language was continued by Mohammad Hashem Khan. To the extent that textbooks were printed only in Pashto for a period and Persian language was removed from textbooks and educational institutions, but due to the lack of human resources for teaching and the majority of Persian speakers, this action did not work. Linguistic fanaticism went so far that even learning Pashto was made compulsory.
  This policy has been followed with ups and downs in the following periods and until today. As in 1964, the name “Dari” was imposed on this language, and it was included as one of the two official languages, along with Pashto, in the constitution of the Zahir Shah era. This position was also maintained during the communist regimes; but after the civil wars and the domination of the Taliban (1996-2001), it was treated more unkindly. With the establishment of democracy and the system of the Islamic Republic (2001-2021), Pashto and Persian were recognized as the two official languages of Afghanistan, with the difference that preference was given to Pashto and the national anthem was made in Pashto. Finally, with the fall of the republican system and the Taliban regaining control over Afghanistan, this group has tried to remove the Persian language and terms from government offices and city signs.
 
5.Conclusions

The Persian language was used as the official and common language in Afghanistan since the distant past, but with the Tribalization of power and sovereignty, a number of rulers, using the power of coercion, proposed the Pashto language as a competitor, in order to marginalize the Persian language. This issue caused that during the last hundred years, many Persian terms in Afghanistan, especially in the military and army departments, government offices and scientific-university terms, were replaced by Pashto terms. Mahmoud Tarzi was the one who tried to lower the old and rich Persian language to the level of the language of street and market by falsifying the term “national language”. The linguistic and cultural policies of the government of Amir Amanullah (1919-1928) and the rulers after him were influenced by Mahmoud Tarzi's ideas, and some of them were even removed from the textbooks. On the other hand, despite the lofty status of the Persian language in Afghanistan, there are also dangers threatening this language. The absence of an independent academy and the Afghan government's lack of support for this language have made it easy for the influx of foreign words. Once again, with all the efforts that have been made to weaken the Persian language in the contemporary era of Afghanistan and the Pashto language has been put on the stage as a competitor, it can be seen that the Persian language has still maintained its position and today the majority of the people of Afghanistan speak this language. The mother tongue of half of the people of Afghanistan, including Tajiks, Hazaras, Imaqs, Ghazalbashs, Khalilis, is Persian. At least 90% of non-Persian-speaking residents in Afghanistan have a knowledge in Persian equal to their mother tongue.
 
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