It is common for Pakistanis to look back to their history starting in the 7th century AD when their ancestors were first introduced to Islam during Muhammed Bin Qasim’s temporary presence in Sindh. Instead of looking back even further to their roots -which pre-date Islam- they identify with the invading nations and rulers who were mostly Islamic.

They (Pakistanis) go even further and fall under the delusion to believe these rulers as their “ancestors” (though there was minor race mixing with invading Arabs, Persians, Turko-Mongols and the local population, the majority still remain the same).
According to many Pakistanis, these supposed “ancestors” of theirs “brought civilization” to present-day Pakistan and the rest of Southern Asia. Before that there was no civilization there, at least from what they think.

Some people continue to carry the  slogan that Pakistanis have carried for generations that “we ‘Muslims’ ruled over the Indians for a thousands years and gave them civilization.”
To really know who these ‘Muslims’ were (almost as if the word has a racial or tribal meaning) it is important to look into the history of these ‘Muslims’ who did indeed rule Pakistan and the rest of South Asia and if they really did bring civilization.

The first Muslims who stepped foot into Pakistan were the Arabs led by Muhammed Bin-Qasim, though it is believed they were not able to establish a firm control over the natives and were later driven out. Looking at Arab history, culture, ethnicity, linguistics it should be obvious to most people that Arabs are certainly not the ancestors of present-day Pakistanis. It does not take an anthropologist or a historian to point this out, but common sense. If one is still not convinced, then he/she is free to research Arab history, culture, genetics, linguistics. After all in the modern age of technology there are so many free resources out there to be used anytime whenever desired.

The second Muslim rulers of Pakistan were the Ghaznaviods. The general historic consensus is that they were a Persian-ruled dynasty but with an army consisted of Turko-Mongols. The Persians originate in the Fars province (Persia) of present day Iran while their army of Turko-Mongols were of Altaic origins in present-day Mongolia and Siberia. Like the Arabs, the Ghaznavids’s background can be further researched and from what is known, and they surely do did not share a common origin with present-day Pakistanis.

Next came the Ghurids, another Persian-led force. What is known about their linguistics is that they were an Iranic-speaking people like the Persians (search Iranic languages to fully understand the meaning of the term) just like most of Pakistan’s western populations the Baloch, the Pakhtuns. But, linguistics does not necessary coincide with genetics!
Take the Iranic-speaking Hazaara in Afghanistan. Just by looking at them, their Altaic/Turanoid origins become very obvious. Even recent genetic findings suggests that Pakhtuns and Baloch, though Iranic speaking share common genes with the Dardic speaking Kashmiris.
Coming back to the Ghurids, the theories are that most of them originated along the Afghanistan-Tajikistan areas. These areas are not part of present day Pakistan, nor are their current inhabitants Pakistanis.

After that came the Mughals (a corruption of the word “Mongol”), another empire like the Ghaznavids ruled mainly by Persians, but with a mainly Turko-Mongol army. It is common for Pakistanis to claim to be of Mughal descent. Unless they’re willing to call the present-day Turko-Mongoloid peoples of the former USSR and Mongolia their ‘cousins’ despite their different Mongoloid skull structure -as opposed to the Caucasoid skulls of most Pakistanis – or their Altaic languages -as opposed to the majority Indo-European languages of Pakistanis, then they should stop calling the Mughals or any other foreign Muslim empires their “ancestors.”
Instead Pakistanis should wake up and learn more about the history of their country and their people!

Given the basic insight to these invading empires, they certainly were not the ancestors of Pakistanis. In fact the British who were the last invading empire also shared something in common with Pakistanis as well!
1) They were Caucasoid by skull type like most Pakistanis.
2) They too spoke an Indo-European language (English.)
Based on this should Pakistanis start claiming British ancestry now!?! Or that the British Raj was somehow a ‘Pakistani Empire’?? Also note there have been many intermarriages between Brits and Pakistanis and continuous even today as there is a huge Pakistani community in Britain. This does not make the majority of Pakistanis of British descent, just a small handful. Likewise the same can be said for other invading empires.

Another common trend for Pakistanis is to unquestionably swallow Indian propaganda and and see their pre-history as “Indian” or “South Asian” or “desi.”
Many brainwashed, Indianized Pakistanis, like the Islamists, always like to always associate with the other. Pakistanis who have a Pan-South Asian mindset wish for their pre-Islamic history which spread mostly and were based in Pakistan to be known as “Indian” or “South Asian”. The truth is most ancient civilizations based in Pakistan did NOT spread over South Asia!

“Desi” is a term popular amongst Pan-South Asians. It is used to refer to Dravidian, Dardic, and Indo-Aryan speakers. But strangely enough it does not apply to Iranic speakers (ie. Balochis, Pakhtuns) despite Iranic speakers in Pakistan sharing common linguistics, genetics with Indo-Aryan and Dardic speakers. (Search Indo-Iranic languages).
The word “desi” has no scientific acceptance in modern-day anthropology or linguistics. A Dardic-speaking Kashmiri has no linguistic relation to a Dravidian speaking Tamil. Dravidian languages belong to a completely different and un-related language family than Dardic and Indo-Aryan languages. Dardic and Indo-Aryan along with Iranic are part of the Indo-Iranic family of languages.
What’s more is that genetically the Dravidians lack R1A genetic markers that are least found in Southern India (though some sources state Tamils have a significant R1A contribution than other Dravidian speakers; suggesting genetic contributors in their gene pool coming from more northwards) while Dardic and Iranic-speakers in Pakistan have it the most.
So clearly “Desis” are no more than a people of an imagination based on ignorance, pseudoscience and false political propaganda.

Pakistan’s new generation face an identity tug of war between Islamic Mid-Easternization and Indianization. The problem is that Indian propaganda has reached even western historians; who are often manipulated & used to promote false historic propaganda created for political agendas. But today some are starting to question Indian pseuodo-history. Such as the terms “partition of India” or the “ancientness” of so-called “Hinduism.”
Many are even coming to the realisation that these ideas were merely invented by the British. “India” and “Hinduism” did not exist prior to the 18th century. If they did exist as far back as pre-historic times, some ancient texts whether Buddhist, Greek, Arabic, Sanskrit, Persian or any other would have mentioned this phenomenon.

Contrary to popular myth the history of “India” and “Hinduism” are works of fiction! Before the British occupied the subcontinent by force, there was no such religion as “hinduism” instead there were many distinct and diverse cults in the region that the British grouped into their terminology of “hinduism!”
The republic of “India” was formed in 1947 by joining together various princely states of the Peninsula into one country. The rest that refused to join (mainly Hyderabad, Goa, Junagara and then later on Kashmir, which triggered war with Pakistan) were invaded by military force.

Pakistani people on the other hand were a nation going back at least 3000 BC.
The maps showing the Indus Civilization -one of the oldest in the world- spread all over Pakistan. Most of the IVC’s map coincides with that of Pakistan’s present day map. It’s main cities Harrappa, Mohinjadarro are also situated deep within Pakistan in various provinces.

Many Indian propagandists and Pan-’South Asian’ Pakistanis blindly argue there was no border dividing the two lands. If we apply that logic, then most of the world was “one nation” as strictly defined, modern-day borders are a relatively new concept. Most of the world was not divided by internationally known borders as we know them today.
Indian propagandists also like to parade small sites like Lothal as “proof” of their claims on the IVC and other pre-historic Pakistani civilizations. While the IVC was based in Pakistan, it had colonies in Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, India but you don’t see anyone claiming the IVC or Vedic as “Afghan” or “Iranian” civilizations.

Most Muslim countries/nations are proud of their pre-Islamic history and don’t use their religion as a substitute for their identity. Not even the stateless Palestinians!
Egyptians are proud of their pre-Islamic and pre-Arab civilizations. Even the Catholic Italians are proud of Roman civilization, despite that it was not a Christian civilization till much after. Despite that the modern-day Italian state was established only in the 18th century. It’s time Pakistanis do the same!

Before 1947 Pakistan did not have it’s present-day name. But neither did India before the 1800s or Italy before the 1800s, neither did Afghanistan before 1747. But now that these are the current names of the lands and the people, they use that name to apply to the same land and people in prehistoric times. The same logic can be applied for Pakistan. It is time the new generation of Pakistanis not make the mistake of their forefathers and learn about their roots which predate Islam by thousands of years. It should be passed on forever by each generation instead of being given away for free to history thieves eager to steal it.

Here are some basic facts on Pakistanis:
-They are mostly Caucasoid by skull type.

-They mainly speak Indo-Iranic languages. (up to 99%) . Balochi, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Undri (Urdu) and Pakhtun are Indo-Iranic languages as are all the other languages of Pakistan which descend from a common proto-Indo-Iranic language around the second millennia BC.
Only Brahui (Dravidian), Baltistani (Sino-Tibetian), and Burusho (language isolate) are non-Indo-Iranic, however it’s speakers are not that geneticly distinct form the rest of Pakistanis.

-They are geographically located around the Indus river.

-They formed a single civilization/nation from the days of the Indus Civilization from 3000BC till today.

-They carry common R1A genetic markers clearly indicating obvious common ancestry.
Mostly the north western Iranic speakers and the Dardic speakers are said to be closely related with a higher frequency of R1A genetic markers as opposed to the Indo-Aryan speaking population with slightly lower R1A frequencies (mainly Punjabis and Sindhis), however they are still all connected!

Even the non- Indo-European speaking populations – mainly the Brahuis, Hunzas (also called Burushos) and Baltistanis- do not stand much out genetically.
A brief analysis of a study at an American university on Pakistani genetics:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=447589

Indeed, the Pakistani diaspora is in a difficult place. It cannot actively participate in the discussion about Pakistani identity, but it also cannot progress until this issue is resolved. Guidance must come from Pakistan itself. There are some signs that this has started. Recently a federal minister began rolling out all sorts of incentives for Pakistanis in the diaspora. These include an overseas pension trust, a plan to protect expat properties back home, waivers of service charges and custom duties, special treatment in housing and college admissions, and finally, honorary seats in the various legislative houses. The aim would be, in the words of the minister, to “grant VIP status” to the expats.

This minister’s attempt to include the diaspora is worthwhile, however, the entire scheme is built upon preferential treatment, which only further enhances class differences and hierarchy between Pakistanis. It also assumes, wrongly, that simply because they have money, Pakistanis in the diaspora have a good idea about how to improve Pakistan.

A political or legislative solution is neither sufficient, nor, given rampant cronyism, ideal. It also creates the danger of politicizing the overseas communities and splintering them based on political preferences.

The focus at the moment has to be on culture and identity. The promotion of Pakistani arts, music, literature, cinema, poetry, and fashion is of the essence. And the answer does not lie with the venal fashion shows that are put on at sumptuous diplomatic residences, inviting only a few elite expats. Outreach has to be done within expat communities – Dubai, Bradford, Brooklyn. Scholarships should be given to traveling street-theatre artists. Films should be subsidized. Poetry, especially translations, should be promoted and put on popular websites.

Instead of becoming a censor-state, Pakistan should promote freedom of expression. Engagement with Pakistan’s culture will give adrift Pakistanis around the world a sense of belonging. Effort has to be made to connect Pakistani expats to Pakistan, not via their families, but via the idea of Pakistan itself – via Pakistaniat. It is this sense of confidence that will make Pakistanis want to invest in Pakistan perhaps even return and engage in nation-building.

The few successful diaspora activists that I have met have either been motivated through national emergencies such as the earthquake, or they have emerged from a cultural awareness group that was ready to do more. The first time I met Bilaal Ahmed, the founder of IMPAK USA, a service group that sends volunteers to Pakistan, was at the Philadelphia screening of the Pakistani film Khamosh Pani. Further, as I have previously documented elsewhere, the only meaningful political lobbying group ever formed to lobby the US government, namely Pakistani-American Public Affairs Committee (PakPAC), grew out of a fun-loving social organization for Pakistani doctors, who initially came together to invite poets and singers from Pakistan. There are lessons to be drawn from this.

Most people think ‘diaspora’ only when they run into a Pakistani on foreign soil and want to ask about the nearest place to find chicken tikka. Diaspora is, actually, the barometer by which one can judge the health of a nation. The feeble state of the Pakistani diaspora speaks volumes.

The protocol embodying the final agreement was signed on July 22, 1887 and is known as the Pamir Agreement. The demarcated boundary according to the ‘The Pamir Agreement’ remains unchanged to this day. This border was internationally recognized as the border between Russia (then Soviet Union) and Afghanistan. Today this boundary is the internationally recognized border between the Central Asian countries (former Soviet republics as successor independent states of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan) and Afghanistan.

The Afghan frontier turns west from Pillar XII and follows the northern ridge of the Sarikol Range bordering the Taghdumbash Pamir. It then curves southward over the Wakhjir Pass to join the present Pakistan-Afghan frontier, which is often referred to as the Durand line. While negotiating the Durand Line, Amir Abdul Rahman Khan of Afghanistan had received a British mission in a formal Durbar which was held in November 1893, in the Salam Khana Hall, where the civil and military officers of Kabul and chiefs of various tribes were present.

The Amir in his speech gave an outline to the audience of all the understanding which had been agreed upon and the provisions which had been signed, and urged upon them the necessity for adhering firmly to British alliance. He pointed out that the interests of Afghanistan and England were identical.

The Amir further told the audience that it was for the first time that Afghanistan had a definite frontier which would prevent future misunderstandings and would render Afghanistan strong and powerful after it had been consolidated with the aid in arms and ammunition which would be received from the British.

The demarcation of the Durand Line was carried out in fulfilment of the Anglo-Afghan agreement’ of November 12, 1893 between Amir Abdul Rahman Khan of Afghanistan and Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, Foreign Secretary to the Government of India.

The demarcation of the Indo-Afghan frontier, as defined in the above mentioned agreement, was divided into sections and was carried out for the most part by the joint Anglo-Afghan Commission during the year 1894-1896. In 1947, the Indian sub-continent emerged as two independent dominions of India and Pakistan. West Pakistan by right of its location inherited the former North West Frontier of British India and the Indo-Afghan boundary established vide the agreement of 1893.

There are some circles who continue to spread disinformation that the agreement was signed under duress and has a validity of 100 years. Unfortunately, the propaganda emanates from a country in the neighbourhood of Pakistan. This country also instigates anti Pakistan elements in the Afghan government to issue controversial statements undermining Pak-Afghan relations. A host of websites of this country also disseminate anti Pakistan propaganda. It is therefore necessary to put the facts in the correct perspective as follows:

– The International Border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is based on the map attached with the original Agreement of 1893.

– Clause 6 of the Agreement clearly states that the agreement is regarded by both the parties as a full and satisfactory settlement of all the principal differences of opinion which have arisen between them. The Agreement has been reaffirmed by successive Afghan rulers.

– 1905 Treaty with Amir HabibullahKhan continuing the Agreements which had existed between the British Government and Amir Abdul Rahman Khan. Para 2 states “I also have acted, am acting and will act upon the same agreement and I will not contravene them in any dealing or in any promise.”

– Treaty of peace between the British Government and the Independent Afghan Government concluded at Rawalpindi on 8th August 1919. Article 5 states that “the Afghan Government accepts the Indo-Afghan frontier accepted by the Late Amir.”

– Friendly and Commercial Relations treaty between Great Britain and Afghanistan at Kabul on 22 November 1921. Article 2 of the treaty states that, “The two high contracting parties accept the Indo-Afghan frontier as accepted by the Afghan Government under Article V of the treaty concluded at Rawalpindi on 8th August 1919.”

– Notes were exchanged between His Majesty’s Government and Afghan Minister in London, 1930 (His Highness General Shah Wali Khan to Mr. Arthur Henderson), Afghan Legation 6th May 1930. Both parties ~greed that it was their understanding that the Treaty of Kabul of 22 November 1921 continued to have full force and effect.

– On 13 June 1948, Shah Wali Khan, the Afghan envoy to Pakistan declared, ” Our King has already stated, and I, as the representative of Afghanistan, declare that Afghanistan has no claims on frontier territory and even if there were any, they have been given up in favour of Pakistan. Anything contrary to this which may have appeared in the press in the past or may appear in the future should not be given credence at all and should be considered just a canard.”

The Pak-Afghan International Border has sound technical and legal background. According to international law, treaties of the extinct state concerning boundary lines remain valid and all rights and duties arising from such treaties of the extinct state devolve on the absorbing state. Pakistan is the successor state of British India. The following is worth mentioning:

– A country to country treaty does not need any revision unless both parties desire change.

– International Agreement once finally concluded can be revoked only bilaterally and not unilaterally.

– Unless otherwise provided in the concluded treaty about its duration, the treaty becomes of a permanent nature. This is applicable to the 1893 Treaty Agreement.

– International Law does not lay down the maximum life period of one hundred years for an internationally concluded border agreement between the two states, when fixed border validity has not been mentioned in its text.

It goes beyond doubt to say that the international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is a settled matter and is globalfy accepted. It is supported by International Law and the treaty of 1893 has been ratified several times by successive Afghan governments.

Durand Line / Treaty

As long as Afghanistan refuses to accept the Durand Line as the permanent international boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan, there is no reliable way to combat extremism and terrorism in the region.

Durand Line – the present border between Afghanistan and Pakistan – was agreed to as official boundary line between British India and Afghanistan on 12 November 1893. Sir Henry Mortimer Durand from the British side and Amir Abdul Rahman Khan from the Afghan side signed the historical document.

Pakistan and Afghanistan, as successor states, are bound to honour this agreement.

The present spread of religious intolerance and extremism in the region is, in great part, attributable to the fact that the successive and successor governments of Afghanistan have declined to accept the Durand Line as permanent boundary between the two countries. Uncertainty of the boundary rules and impermanent nature of the physical border are playing in favour of extremist elements on both sides of the dividing line.

Moreover, there was a whisper campaign a while ago that the Durand Line agreement was valid for 100 years and after that the document is legally null and void now. The original text shows that there is no time-expiry clause in the agreement.

Here is the complete text of the agreement:

Agreement
between
His Highness Amir Abdul Rahman Khan, G.C.E.I
Amir of Afghanistan and its Dependencies, on the one part,
and
Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, K.C.I.E., C.S.I.,
Foreign Secretary to the Government of India,
representing the Government of India, on the other part

Whereas certain questions have arisen regarding the frontier of Afghanistan on the side of India, and whereas both His Highness the Amir and the Government of India are desirous of settling these questions by a friendly understanding, and of fixing the limit of their respective spheres of influence, so that for the future there may be no difference of opinion on the subject between the allied Governments, it is hereby agree as follows:

1. The eastern and southern frontier of High Highness’s dominions, from Wakhan to the Persian border, shall follow the line shown in the map attached to this agreement.

2. The British Government of India will at no time exercise interference in the territories lying beyond this line on the side of Afghanistan, and His Highness the Amir will at no time exercise interference in the territories lying beyond this line on the side of India.

3. The British Government thus agrees to His Highness the Amir retaining Asmar and the valley above it, as far as Chanak. His Highness agrees on the other hand that he will at no time exercise interference in Swat, Bajaur or Chitral, including the Arnawai or Bashgal valley. The British Government also agrees to leave to His Highness the Birmal tract as shown in the detailed map already given to High Highness, who relinquishes his claim to the rest of the Waziri country and Dawar. His Highness also relinquishes his claim to Chageh [now, Chagai. Ed.].

4. The frontier line will hereafter be laid down in detail and demarcated, wherever this may be practicable and desirable, by Joint British and Afghan Commissioners, whose object will be to arrive by mutual understanding at a boundary which shall adhere with the greatest possible exactness to the line shown in the map attached to this agreement, having due regard to the existing local rights of villages adjoining the frontier.

5. With reference to the question of Chaman, the Amir withdraws his objection to the new British Cantonment and concedes to the British Government the rights purchased by him in the Sirkai-Tilerai water. At this part of the frontier, the line will be drawn as follows:

From the crest of Khwaja Amran range near the Pasha Kotal, which remains in British territory, the line will run in such a direction as to leave Murgha Chaman and the Sharobo spring to Afghanistan, and to pass half way between the New Chaman Fort and the Afghan outpost known locally as Lashkar Dand. The line will then pass half way between the railway station and the hill known as the Mian Baldak, and, turning southwards, will rejoin the Khwaja Arman range, leaving the Gwasha Post in British territory, and the road to Shorawak to the west and south of Gwasha in Afghanistan. The British Government will not exercise any interference within half a mile of the road.

6. The above articles of agreement are regarded by the government of India and His Highness the Amir of Afghanistan as a full and satisfactory settlement of all the principal differences of opinion which have arisen between them in regard to the frontier; and both the Government of India and His Highness the Amir undertake that any differences of detail, such as those which will have to be considered hereafter by the officers appointed to demarcate the boundary line, shall be settled in a friendly spirit, so as to remove for the future as far as possible all causes of doubt and misunderstanding between the two Governments.

7. Being fully satisfied of His Highness’s good-will to the British Government, and wishing to see Afghanistan independent and strong, the Government of India will raise no objection to the purchase and import by His Highness of munitions of war, and they will themselves grant him some help in this respect. Further, in order to mark their sense of the friendly spirit in which High Highness the Amir has entered into these negotiations, the Government of India undertake to increase by the sum of six lakhs of rupees a year the subsidy of twelve lakhs now granted to His Highness.

(Signed) H. M. Durand

(Signed) Amir Abdul Rahman Khan

Kabu, the 12th November 1893

Note: Original agreement is available in the national archive of Pakistan. This report has been produced from the copy available at the Area Study Centre, Peshawar University.

Published with permission.

One Lakh = 100000

Views on the issue of Pak-Afghan border:

– Following independence, the NWFP voted to join Pakistan in a referendum in 1947. However, Afghanistan’s loya jirga of 1949 declared the Durand Line invalid as they saw it as ex parte on their side since British India ceased to exist in 1947 with the independence of Pakistan. This had no tangible effect as there has never been a move to enforce such a declaration. Additionally, world courts have universally upheld uti possidetis juris, i.e, binding bilateral agreements with or between colonial powers are “passed down” to successor independent states, as with most of Africa. A unilateral declaration by one party has no effect; boundary changes must be made bilaterally. Thus, the Durand Line boundary remains in effect today as the international boundary and is recognized as such by nearly all nations. Despite pervasive internet rumors to the contrary, U.S. Dept. of State and the British Foreign Commonwealth Office documents and spokespersons have recently confirmed that the Durand Line, like virtually all international boundaries, has no expiration date, nor is their any mention of such in any Durand Line documents. (The 1921 treaty expiration refers only to the 1921 agreements.)

– Afghanistan was created in 1747 AD by the Punjab-born (city of Multan in present-day Pakistan) Pashtun named Ahmed Shah Abdali. The fact is Abdali conquered the Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Baluchis, Punjabis, etc. This was a forceful occupation of various lands/peoples subdued to the Abdali monarchy. Per Encyclopedia Britannica, “Ahmad Shah began by capturing Ghazni from the Ghilzai Pashtuns, and then wresting Kabul from the local ruler. In 1749 the Mughal ruler ceded sovereignty over Sindh Province and the areas west of the Indus River to Ahmad Shah in order to save his capital from Afghan attack. Ahmad Shah then set out westward to take possession of Herat, which was ruled by Nadir Shah’s grandson, Shah Rukh. Herat fell to Ahmad after almost a year of siege and bloody conflict, as did Mashhad (in present-day Iran). Ahmad next sent an army to subdue the areas north of the Hindu Kush. In short order, the powerful army brought under its control the Turkmen, Uzbek, Tajik, and Hazara tribes”.

– Now many people can argue that Afghanistan’s creation was illegal because the land belonged to Iran-based Safavids/Sassanians/etc and India-based Mughals/Mauryas/etc until Abdali’s creation in 1747 AD. But the fact of the matter is people and its lands constantly evolve to new geo-political environments changing boundaries and nationhoods. Prior to 1747 AD, the region of Afghanistan was ruled by Persian Achaemenians and Sassanians, Greeks, Scythians, Hepthalites, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and many others (currently by the USA). Mauryas and Mughals ruled a large portion of Afghanistan (almost all of Pashtun areas). By the way, the Muslim rulers of South Asia were “mostly” Turks originating from Central Asia who also ruled the Pashtuns.

– Afghanistan’s creation was legal in the same way Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, etc. were created later on. The boundaries between Iran and Afghanistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan/Uzbekistan/Turkmenistan, etc were created by the British and Russians. So the few Afghans beating the drum of Durand Line (Pak-Afghan boundary) is pointless. By the same token, all boundaries of Afghanistan are questionable. Why should only Pashtun areas of Pakistan be merged to Afghanistan? Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic country like Pakistan. Should Tajikistan lay claim to Tajik lands of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan to Uzbek lands in Afghanistan, Turkmenistan to Turkmen lands in Afghanistan, etc.?

– The ethnicity-based countries like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, & Turkmenistan have much more stronger claims to Tajik, Turkmen, & Uzbek lands of Afghanistan because Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic country like Pakistan, so a multi-ethnic Afghanistan has no right to claim only Pashtun lands of Pakistan. How about Pakistan claiming Pashtun lands of Afghanistan instead since Pashtuns are being oppressed in Afghanistan, Pashtuns in Pakistan are comparatively much more prosperous, and Afghans are desperate to flee to Pakistan. By the way, Pashtuns are not the only ethnic group divided between two countries, e.g. Azeris are divided between Iran and Azerbaijan, Tajiks between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Uzbeks between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, Turkmens between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, Balochs between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, Kurds between Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria, Arabs between many different countries, etc.

– If Durand Line of boundary is artificial, then not only Pashtun lands of Pakistan, but “all” of Pakistan should merge to Afghanistan because the “original” Afghanistan included today’s Pakistan and Afghanistan. And if Durand Line of boundary is artificial then how valid are the boundaries between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, etc…. or all countries of Middle East (Sykes-Picot treaty).. created by former European colonialists such as the British, French, and Russians. Lets not forget the “Great Game” on how the Brits and Ruskies created Afghanistan’s boundaries as a buffer zone between them. We know how the Russians (Soviets) created Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan… “In 1886 a Russian army fresh from its conquest of the Oasis of Merv, in today’s Turkmenistan, occupied the Panjdeh Oasis near Herat. It was also the time of The Great Game. Britain immediately warned Russia that any further advance towards Herat would be considered as inimical to British interests. As a consequence of the May 1879 Treaty of Gandamak after the Second Afghan War, Britain took control of Afghanistan’s foreign affairs. After the Panjdeh incident a joint Anglo-Russian boundary commission, without any Afghan participation, fixed the Afghan border with Turkestan, which was the whole of Russian Central Asia, now Kirghizistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Thus as a consequence of the competition between Britain and Russia, a new country, the Afghanistan we know today, was created to serve as the buffer.” …..Now on the Afghan-Iran boundaries created by the British/Russians, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, “In 1863 Dost Mohammad retook Herat from Iran with British acquiescence…. The boundary with Iran was firmly delineated in 1904, replacing the ambiguous line made by a British commission in 1872″.

– In 1947 and beyond the Congressite followers of Badshah Khan continued to ask the Gandhi question “The Pathans should have had a choice between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India”. The Muslim League had correctly argued that the British had no right to ask that particular question, since they did not ask Nagaland if it wanted to join Burma, nor did they ask Tamil Nadu if it wanted to join Sri Lanka. Thus the Durand Line became the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

– Knowing the bitter enmity between Tajiks/Hazaras and Pashtuns in Afghanistan, Tajiks/Hazaras will never allow Afghanistan to become 75% Pashtun (from 40%) by only integrating Pashtun areas of Pakistan. The current Tajik-dominated Afghan govt has been oppressing Pashtuns in Afghanistan. In fact there are Tajik bigoted nationalists who are fiercely anti-Pashtun/Afghanistan: http://members.tripod.com/~khorasan/Miscellaneous/why.html And when the Afghan Pashtuns ruled Afghanistan under Taliban they massacred thousands of Hazaras in Mazar-e-Sharif, and others.

– The word Afghan in the past might have meant Pashtun, but that meaning evolved to another one. Today, an Afghan is defined as only a citizen of present-day Afghanistan regardless of ethnicity. There are countless other examples on how a word’s meaning evolves to a different one over time.

– NWFP of Pakistan is not all Pashtun, large areas of this land are Hindkowi, Shina, Khowari, Gujjar, etc. most linguistically related to Punjabi. Majority of Baluchistan is Baluch who also have bitter rivalry with the Afghans and do not want to be part of Afghanistan.

– Millions of Pakistani Pashtuns inhabit in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh such as cities of Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad… not to mention millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Since the 1980s the Durand Line has been a porus line for men and material. During the Soviet occupation of Western/Northern Afghanistan, some portions of Eastern/Southern Afghanistan (at least the Pashtun portions) literally became part of free Afghanistan, a satellite of Pakistan. 6 million Afghans came to Pakistan as refugees. More than one million Afghan children were born in Pakistan.

– Pashtuns have much more in common with Pakistanis than with Afghans (plus there are much more Pashtuns in Pakistan than in Afghanistan). Pashtuns are linguistically Indo-Iranian. Pakistanis are 99% Indo-Iranian whereas Afghans are only 84% Indo-Iranian. Punjabi, Sindhi, Baluchi, Kashmiri, Urdu, Pashto, & Dari are Indo-Iranian languages which means they are related to each other and have a common origin. About 16% of Afghans are linguistically Altaic such as the Uzbeks, Turkomens, etc. These Altaic Afghans are linguistically distinct and unrelated to the Indo-Iranians. Additionally, Pashtuns are racially mostly Caucasoid. Pakistanis are also mostly racially Caucasoid (mixed with a little Dravidoid blood). On the other hand, Afghans are only 66% Caucasoids. Hazaras, Turkomens, Uzbeks, etc. are mostly Mongoloid by race.

“The term Hindu was first imposed on south Asian nations by the Afghan dynasty of Ghori in the 12th century; this term was never used in south Asia prior to the Muslim era and is not even found in early (pre-12th century AD) Brahmanical or Buddhist texts. Such a term and concept has no historical depth in any social, religious, ethnic or national sense past the 12th century when Mohammed Ghori for the first time named his conquered subjects Hindus.” [G. Singh, Sakasthan and India, Toronto, 1999, p. 20]

“Hinduism, as a faith, is vague, amorphous, many-sided, all things to all men. It is hardly possible to define it, or indeed to say definitely whether it is a religion or not, in the usual sense of the word.” [Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India, New Delhi, 1983, p.75]

“Frankly speaking, it is not possible to say definitely who is a Hindu and what Hinduism is. These questions have been considered again and again by eminent scholars, and so far no satisfactory answer has been given.” [Swami Dharma Theertha, History of Hindu Imperialism, Madras, 1992, p. 178]

“Hinduism defies definition… It has no specific creed.” [Khushwant Singh, India: An Introduction, New Delhi, 1990, p. 19]

“The more Hinduism is considered, the more difficult it becomes to define it in a single phrase… A Hindu may have any religious belief or none.” [Percival Spear, India: A Modern History, Michigan, 1961, p.40]

This morning, an unusual delegation from the Himalayan foothills bids a quiet farewell to the Republic of Macedonia.

Prince Ghazanfar Ali Khan, his wife Princess Rani Atiqa and their entourage claim descent from Alexander the Great’s conquering army, which reached their Hunza tribal homeland in northern Pakistan 23 centuries ago.

The fair-skinned, blue-eyed Hunza people, whose own accounts trace their descent to Alexander’s march-weary troops, are renowned for their longevity and their high literacy rate.

Officials initially rolled out the red carpet for the septuagenarian prince and his entourage, who have toured cultural and historical sites since arriving at Skopje’s Alexander the Great airport on July 11. Nikola Gruevski, prime minister, met the delegation, while a Macedonian Orthodox archbishop blessed it.

Hunza folklore gave a shot in the arm to the ex-Yugoslav country of 2m – still embroiled, 18 years after independence, in a frustrating “name dispute” with Greece, whose northern province is also called Macedonia.

Greece has made sure Macedonia cannot join Nato without a compromise name change. The latest round of United Nations-led talks in New York produced no breakthrough.

Mr Gruevski, who won a landslide re-election victory in June, has raised the ante by this week demanding recognition for a Macedonian (Slav) ethnic minority in officially homogeneous Greece.

But Mr Gruevski’s critics have dismissed the Hunza visit as shallow populism and after ridicule in local newspapers, the youth and sport agency cancelled the princely couple’s planned appearance in Skopje’s main square last night.

The visit’s main organiser was Marina Dojcinovska, a Skopje-based travel journalist who made a film about the far-flung tribe of “Macedonians” in 2005.

“This is a very special occasion for all Macedonians,” Ms Dojcinovska said.

In fact, citizens proved divided about how literally to take their ancient origins. Their Macedonian language is closest to Bulgarian and other South Slavic tongues – pointing to roots in the tribal migrations about a millennium after Alexander.

Ana Petruseva, country director for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, said of the Hunza visit: “Everyone who’s a bit more educated is laughing at this.”

The Hunza of today, who are mostly Muslim, had not heard of modern Macedonia until 12 years ago, when an expatriate Macedonian linguistics professor drew their attention to it.

Ilija Casule, an associate professor at Australia’s Macquarie University, said he recognised common grammar and terms for body parts between the Hunza people’s Burushaski and Indo-European languages.

But there are plenty who question just how robust the links are. Most linguists classify Burushaski as an “isolate” unrelated to other languages. DNA research has also debunked claims of genetic links between Macedonians and the Hunza.

“Macedonia’s doing what other European countries did in the 19th century … elevating folk tales to official history,” said Sam Vaknin, an Israeli economic adviser in Skopje. “This belated adolescence has been exacerbated by Greek insecurities bordering on sadism.”

Greece plays the same game, funding cultural centres and schools for the Kalash, another set of Alexander claimants in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the 1930s, scientists in Nazi Germany also combed the Himalayas in search of lost Aryan cousins.

Athens accuses Josip Broz Tito, the Yugoslav communist leader after the second world war, of “inventing” Macedonian ethnicity in the hopes of grabbing a piece of the Aegean coast.

Yet Skopje’s popular identification with Alexander did not blossom until after the 1990s Yugoslav break-up, Macedonians argue.

Sensing threats on all sides, Macedonian patriots have become more stubborn on identity, calling themselves “Alexander’s descendants” even though the ancient conqueror personally had no known children.

Aleksandar Dimiskovski, a business consultant in Skopje, says: “The [Hunza] visit provides affirmation of our ties to the former Macedonia of Alexander the Great. Approval from these people confirms that the legacy of ancient Macedonia belongs to the Republic of Macedonia, not just to Greece.”

That is a view that remains very much in contention. Bulgaria refuses to recognise a separate Macedonian language. Serbia’s church keeps Macedonians out of the worldwide Orthodox communion. And an ethnic Albanian minority of roughly 25 per cent challenges the young state’s internal stability.

First of all, in its present form, the state of India has no right to exist. Prior to 1947, there was no India. Prior to British colonialism, there was no India. There was really no Hinduism either.

It was British colonizers who made note of the varying Indian forms of religions and collated them into a supposedly univariate object called “Hinduism”. It was British anthropologists, colonizers and cartographers who invented this thing called “India”.

The whole blasted Hindutva lie is based on the ludicrous notion of a “Bharat India”. This Bharat India is a fake nation that has supposedly existed for at least hundreds and usually thousands of years. Its borders vary, but always include all of Pakistan and Bangladesh, not to mention the entirely to the failed state of India.

Yes, you have it right, Hindutvas and Indian nationalism in general rejects the right of either Bangladesh or Pakistan to self-determination. Both are “organic” parts of the Indian nation torn loose from the bosom of the bloody soil of Bharat, in need of a fascist irredentist war of national consolidation to bring them back into the fold.

Surely they claim Sri Lanka too.

There are many other places that lack an independent history. Hindutvas claim Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia and sometimes the Philippines. Bharat India extends past Pakistan, through Afghanistan to Iran and all the way to Azerbaijan. Why Iran and Azerbaijan, you ask sensibly? Because “Hindu” fire temples have been found there, that’s why. Everyone else seems to think that these are Zoroastrian fire temples, but whatever.

One theory of the name of Azerbaijan is that jan is a word in Urdu, Farsi and Turkic meaning “fire”. In many Middle Eastern cultures (except Semitic), fire symbolized life. A burning fire meant a full, living life, and a dead fire meant death.

Azerbaijan had abundant oil and gas deposits even back before drilling was known. Apparently, the oil and gas bubbled to the surface and caught fire in places. Azerbaijan was “land of the fires”. This is also the area where Zoroastrianism was said to have originated.

None of these lands have a history of their own. Hindutvas, thieves of historical dreams, claim their histories for them.

In fact, it incredibly extends even further. Hindutvas actually claim to have built Greek and Roman civilization! Yet somehow these brilliant Indians were unable to transport this great knowledge back to India where it could have done some good.

Hindutva lies and propaganda are nasty things. There are over 1 billion people in India, and if the most brilliant of them fall for the Hindutva crap (And they do!) you can imagine what fertile soil the minds of average ignorant Indian is for this garbage.

Pakistan was created by Britain, the evil colonist, they scream. It must be returned to the bosom of Bharat! But no, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali coined the name and the idea, and Ali Jinnah pushed for it. But these two were Islamic fundamentalists, the Hindutvas screech, ready to put 50 million more Hindus to the flames and finish the job the Moguls started.

But no again. Jinnah, the whiskey-loving Muslim, and Iqbal, were secular men. Jinnah was committed to equal rights for all, especially the Hindus of Pakistan. That his successors spat on his dreams is no fault of the great man. Instead of being an evil British plot to tear the heart of Bharat from its bloody chest, the notion of Pakistan was opposed by the sober and worried British.

Yes, Pakistan is a new state, but it is an old civilization. Italy was formed in the 1800’s, but it is the inheritor of Roman civilization. The Greeks were not freed from the Ottoman yoke until the same century, yet they are children of Socrates and Plato. Iran did not become a state until 1935, yet it is properly recognized as the descendant of ancient Persian civilization.

Pakistan had a history before 1947 and even before Islam, and it was not necessarily entirely cognate with India’s history (however defined!) at all.

Let us keep in mind that in 1947, the colony of India was freed from the British. As a fake new country with no history at all, the parts of that country had a right to self-determination.

At that time, India was composed of about 3,000 princely states. This was the nature of the Indian region before British colonialism, and the British never entirely dismantled it. 3,000 princely states were never incorporated into any kind of non-colonial entity remotely called “India” at any time.

A number of these states refused to join India, and India immediately dragooned an army together and attacked every one of these states full force, causing many deaths and injuries. All recalcitrant states were dragged into the fake new state kicking and screaming.

Kashmir, 90% Muslim, wanted to go to the new state of Pakistan, but it’s governor was a Hindu who told the people to go to Hell and ordered Kashmir to stay in India. Kashmir had never been an integral part of any non-colonial entity called “India”.

In 1947, the UN ordered India to hold a plebiscite on Kashmir so the people could have the right to self-determination. To this day, India has refused to implement this resolution. India must be placed, alongside Turkey, Israel, Indonesia and Morocco, as a colonial international scofflaw.

The entire Northeast of India is made up for the most part of Asians or Mongoloids. Many are Buddhists and same are animists. In neither race, nor culture, nor history, nor religion do they resemble most Indians. The no-man’s land of the Northeast was forcibly incorporated into India by British colonialists in the late 1800’s, long after they first colonized India. The area is not even an original colony.

From the start, the entire northeast has refused to join India, and most of the region has been up in arms ever since. It’s clear that India has no right whatsoever to this entire region. I include the states of Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and even parts of Assam.

As the fascist Jewish nationalists run amok, turning their corner of Wikipedia into Judeopedia, so their fascist Hindutva allies run amok in their corner of Wikipedia, transforming it into Hindupedia. See this article on the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh for example. Who knew that the tracts, not to mention all of Bangladesh, are really part of India?

As Pakistani nationalists seek to assert their right to construct their own national identity free from fascist Hindutvas, so too to Bengalis from Bangladesh seek to assert their own history. Pakhub is a good spot for young Bangladeshi and Pakistani patriots, mostly secular, seek to ownership of their national narratives from Hindutva hegemony.

The liars of the Right are so wrong to marry fascism and Communism. The Left has always been about national sovereignty, cultural and linguistic freedom and even at the extreme, the right of self-determination.

The Bolsheviks were the originators of these themes, which now play out across our world, especially in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Colombia, where indigenous peoples and linguistic minorities are granted freedom ranging from cultural and linguistic freedom all the way to tracts of land where they have significant political rights of governance.

On the other side is the Right and fascism and imperialism. All nation-building and wars of national consolidation are objectively imperialist or fascist. Where the Left seeks autonomy of nations, the fascists and imperialists wish to consolidate them all into a single land, crush everyone but the most numerous, and force everyone into one organic nation-state, eradicating centuries of linguistic and cultural history.

Where the Left fights colonialism and imperialism, the Right wages endless rhetorical and actual irredentist and revanchist wars to reclaim the lost lands of yore and subjugate or toss out the new owners.

Where Stalin and Mao crushed nations and imposed Russian and Han hegemony on languages and cultures, they were veering into fascist territory. There can be no progressive claim to such things.

As in many other countries of the world, man in Pakistan began with the technology of working on old stone by using quartzite and flint found in Rohri hills and stone pebbles found in the Soan Valley. The oldest stone tool in the world, going back to 2.2 million years old, has been found at Rabat, about fifteen miles away from Rawalpindi, thus breaking the African record. The largest hand Axe has also been found in the Soan Valley. Although man is still hiding in some corner, the Soan pebble stone age culture show a link with the Hissar Culture in Central Asia. Later about fifty thousand B.C. at Sangho Cave in Mardan District man improved his technology for working on Quartz in order to chase the animal in closed valleys. Still later he worked on micro quartz and chert or flint and produced arrows, knives, scrapers and blades and hunted the feeling deer and ibexes with bow and arrow. Such an hunting scene is well illustrated on several rock carvings, particularly near Chilas in the Northern Areas of Pakistan along the Karakorum Highway – a style of rock art so well known in the trans- Pamir region of Tajikistan and Kirghizstan. However, the first settled life began in the eight millennium B.C. when the first village was found at Mehergarh in the Sibi districts of Balochistan comparable with the earliest villages of Jericho in Palestine and Jarmo in Iraq. Here their mud houses have been excavated and agricultural land known for the cultivation of maize and wheat. Man began to live together in settled social life and used polished stone tools, made pots and pans, beads and other ornaments. His taste for decoration developed and he began to paint his vessels, jars, bowls, drinking glasses, dishes and plates. It was now that he discovered the advantage of using metals for his tools and other objects of daily use. For the first time in seventh millennium B.C. he learnt to use bronze. From the first revolution in his social, cultural and economic life. He established trade relation with the people of Turkamenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and other Arab world.

He not only specialized in painting different designs on pottery, made varieties of pots and used cotton and wool but also made terracotta figurines and imported precious stones from Afghanistan and Central Asia. This early bronze age culture spread out in the country side of Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and North West Frontier Province.

And this early beginning led to the concentration of population into small towns. Such as Kot-Diji in Sindh and Rehman Dheri in Dera Ismail Khan District. It is this social and Cultural change that led to the rise of the famous cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappra, the largest concentration of population including artisans, craftsman, businessmen and rulers. This culminated in the peak of the Indus Civilization, which was primarily based on intensive irrigated land agriculture and overseas trade and contact with Iran, Gulf States, Mesopotamia and Egypt. Dams were built for storing river water, land was Cultivated by means of bullock- harnessed plough – a system that still prevails in Pakistan, granaries for food storage were built, furnace were used for controlling temperature for making red pottery and various kinds of ornaments, beads of carnelian, agate and terracotta were pierced through, and above all they traded their finished goods with Central Asia and Arab world. It is these trade divided that enriched the urban populace who developed a new sense of moral honesty, discipline and cleanliness, and above all a social stratification in which the priests and the mercantile class dominated the society. The picture of high civilization can be gathered only by looking at the city of Mohenjodaro, the first planned city in the world, in which streets are aligned straight, parallels to each other, with a cross streets cutting at right angles. It is through these wide streets that wheeled carriages, drawn by bulls or *****, moved about, carrying well-adorned persons seated on them, appreciating the closely aligned houses, made of pucca bricks, all running straight along the streets. And then through the middle of the streets ran stone dressed drains covered with stone slabs – a practice of keeping the streets clean from polluted water, for the first time seen in the world.

The Indus Civilization is the first literate Civilization of the subcontinent. The cities were centres of art and craft. Where the artisan produced several kinds of goods that were exported to other countries. Sailing boats sailed out from Mohenjodaro and anchored in the port of the Gulf, which region was perhaps known as Dilmin. However, it was the city administration that managed the urban life in strict discipline and controlled the trade in their hands. The discipline is derived from the strict practice of meditation (yoga) that was practiced by the elite of the city, who appear to have trimmed their beard and hair combed and tied with golden fillets. The body was covered with a shawl bearing trefoil designs on them. Such a noble man with a sharp nose and long wish eyes shows a contrast with a bronze figurine of a dancing and singing girl, plying music with her fully bang led hand, as we find today with the Cholistan ladies having bangled hands. Obviously there were distinctive ethnic groups of people in Mohenjodaro but the dominant class of rulers and merchants appear to be distinctive from the rest of the population. It is these literate people who inter- acted with the Arabian people and continued to maintain strict discipline in the society. It is they who developed astronomy, mathematics, and science in the country along with numerical symbols, weights and measures but they thoroughly intermixed in the society and also believed in the local cult of tree and tree deities and animal totems. The most prominent animals as attested in the seals are bull, buffalo, elephant, tiger, rhinoceros, alligator and deer and ibexes. However, Mesopotamian influences are seen in the figures of Gilgamash, Enkidu, joint statue of the bull and man and other animals with several heads and bodies. However, the unique local concept is that of highly meditative man, seated in his heels, with three or four heads, and combining in himself the power to control the animals probably with a crown of horns or some times a tree overhead. It is this supreme deity, depicted on Seals, that draws the serpent worshippers and overpowers the animals. A part from these there was no concept of nature worship as we find in the Vedas of the Aryans. The ritual consisted of offerings through the intermediary of mythological composite animals to the tree deity. These dose not appear to have been any concept of animals sacrifice nor worship of any idol or idols. The Indus civilization lasted for nearly five hundred years and flourished up to 1750 B.C. when we notice the movements of nomadic tribes in Central Asia. As a result the Asian trade system was greatly disturbed. Consequently the trade and industry of the Indus people greatly suffered with the result that led to the end of the Civilization. The cities vanished, the noble lost their position. The writing finished. The common people met with the influx of new horse-riding pastoralists who hardly understood the system of irrigated agriculture and hence the value of dams. Such nomadic tribes are known from the large number of graves and their village settlements all over Swat, Dir and Bajaur right up to Taxila. In the Northern Areas of Pakistan different group of such tribes, known as Dardic people are known from their graves. The tribes of the plains are recognized as different groups of the Aryans from the hilly tribes of the North- the ancestors of the Kalash people and those who now speak Shina, Burushaski and other Kohistani languages. They had nothing to do with the cities as we find them building small villages nor did they know irrigation. Infect they believed in nature gods, one of them Indra destroyed the dams and spelled disaster on the local Dasyus who differed from them in colour, creed and language. These Aryans conquerors developed there own religion of the Vedas, practiced animal sacrifice and gradually built up tribal kingdoms all over the Indus Valley. The most prominent being that of Gandhara with capitals at Pushkalavati (modern Charsadda) and Taxila, the last having been the older capital of Takshaka, the king of serpent worshippers. Taksha-sila (a Sanskrit word, literally translated in to Persian Mari-Qila) survive in modern Margala. It become the strong hold of the Aryans, whose great epic book Mahabharata was for the first time recited here. Since that time Takshka-sila or Taxila lying on the western side of Margala remained the capital of the Indus land, which was called Sapta- Sindhu (the land of seven rivers) by the Aryans. It because of this central location, en routs from Central to South Asia that the new capital of Pakistan has been established at Islamabad on the eastern side of Margala hill , thus giving a historical link from the most ancient to modern time and new significance to Pakistan as a link between Central and South Asia.

The city of Taxila began to grow from 6th century B.C. onward when Achaemenian kings by name Cyrus and Darius joined this city by road and postal services with their own capital at Persepolis in Iran. Here one can see the Aryan village at Hatial mound lying above the pre-Aryan bronze age capital of Takshakas (Serpent worshippers). One can also visit the Achaemenian city at Bhir mound, where old bazaars and royal palace, with long covered drain, have been discovered. Land rout trade with Iran and the west once again started with the issue of coin currency for the first time in the Indus land. But the most important was the great use of iron technology, which produced several kind of iron tools, weapons and other objects of daily use as known as from the excavations at Taxila. Above all a new writing known as Kharoshti was developed here. At the same time the oldest University of the world was founded at Taxila, where taught the great grammarian Panini, born at the modern village of Lahur in Sawabi district of the Frontier Province. It is the basis of this grammar that modern linguistics has been developed. It is in this University that Chandra Gupta Maurya got his education, who later founded the first sub continental empire in South Asia. He developed the Mauryan city at Bhir mound in Taxila, where ruled his grandson, Ashoka, twice as governor. He introduced Buddhism in Gandhara and built the first Buddhist monastery, called Dharmarajika Vihara, at Taxila. Ashoka has left behind his Rock Edicts at two palaces, one at Mansehra and another at Shahbazgari, written in Kharoshti.

Long before the rise of Chandra Gupta Maurya the Achaemenian empire, that had extended from Pakistan to Greece and Egypt, had collapsed under the onslaught of Alexander of Macedonia. He first finished with the Greek city states, united the Greeks, and dashed forward to annex the Achaemenian empire and hence proceeded to all those places where the Achaemenian had ruled. In this march they come to Taxila in 326 B.C. where he was welcomed by the local king Ambhi in his palace at Bhir mound. It is here as well as at Bhira in Jhelum district that Alexander’s remains can be seen. However, he fought the greatest battale on the bank of the Jhelum river opposite the present village of Jalalpur Sharif against Porus, the head of the heroic Puru tribe, whose descendents still supply military personal to the Pakistan army. Alexander’s battle place was at Mong, where he founded a new city, called Nikea, the city of victory. The other city which he founded was called Bucaphela after the name of his horse that died here. However, the most captivating site is at Jalalpur Shaif, laying on the bank of rivulet Gandaria, perhaps Sikanaria, where Alexander’s monument has now been built on the spot where he stopped for about two months before launching his attack on Porus.

The Achaemenian and Alexander’s contacts with Pakistan are very important from the point of view of educational and Cultural history. The Achaemenian brought the learning and science of Mesopotamia Civilization that enriched the University of Taxila. They also introduced their administrative system here, on the basis of which the famous book on political science, called Arthasastra was written in Sanskrit language in Taxila by Kautilya, known as Chanakya, the teacher of Chandra Gupta Maurya. It is this book that was adapted for the administrative of the Mauryan empire. On the basis of Achaemenian currency the Mauryan punch marked coins. So well known in Taxila, were produced. It is their Aramaic writing, used by Achaemenian clerks, that led to the development of Kharoshti in Pakistan and trade with the Semitic world that created the Brahmi writing in India. On the other hand Alexander brought Greek knowledge and science to Taxila and introduced Greek type of coin currency. It is Taxila that philosophers and men of learning of the two countries met and developed science, mathematics and astronomy. Above all Alexander left behind large number of Greeks in Central Asia, who founded the Bactrian Greek kingdom in mid-third century B.C. it is the descendants of these Bactrian Greeks who later advanced in to Pakistan and built up the Greek kingdom here and built up their own city at Sirkap in Taxila. This is the second well planned city in Pakistan. The Greeks introduced their language, art and religion in the country of Gandhara, where ruled thirteen Greek kings and queens. Their language lasted more than five hundred years and their art and religion and considerable influence on the flourish of Gandhara Civilization.

This civilization was the result of interaction of several peoples who followed the Greeks, the Scythians, the Parthians and Kushans who came one the other from Central Asia along the Silk Road and integrated them selves into the local society. It is under their patronage that Buddhism evolved here into its new Mahayana form and this become the religion of the contemporary people in Pakistan. Under their encouragement the Buddhist monks moved along the Silk Road freely and carried this religion to central Asia, China, Korea and Japan. It is again the trade along the silk road that was particularly controlled by the Kushana emperors, who built a mighty empire with Peshawar as their Capital, the boundaries of which extended from the Aral Sea to the Arabian Sea and from Afghanistan to the Bay of Bengal. It is the dividends of trade that enriched Pakistan and led to the development of Gandhara Art, which mirrors the social, religious and common man’s life of the time. It is an art that was blend of the Greek classical and local arts, which created the finest statues of Buddha and Buddhisatttvas that today decorate the museums all over the world. At the same time the sculpture depict the whole life of the Buddha in a manner that is unsurpassed. Many Greek themes, their gods, typical toilet trays, Greek life scenes showing musicians, drinking bouts and love making are presented in there natural fashion. The Kushanas period was the golden age of Pakistan as the Silk Road trade brought unparalleled prosperity to the people of the country.

The luxury items produced in the country enrich the museum at Taxila at that show the Cultural and trends of life of the time. Gandhara art is the high water achievement of the people of Pakistan. Mahayana Buddhism was the inspiring ideal of the time and the Buddhist stupas and monasteries survive in every nook and corner of the hills. It was this time that the country was known as Kushana-shahar, the land of the Kushanas, to which came the Romanships to carry the luxury goods in exchange for Roman Siler and Gold, that were used by the Kushana emperors and as a result their gold currency flooded the country and all along the Silk road. It is these Kushana kings who have gifted the national dress of shalwar and kamiz and sherwani to Pakistan. Their dress and decorations are deeply imprinted on the Indus land, that is now Pakistan.

Then came from Central Asia the Huns and the Turks who gave to Pakistan the present ethnic, their Culture, Food and Adab. The Jats, Gakkhars, Janjuas (Jouanjouan of the Chinese) and Gujars all trekked into Pakistan and made their home here. The Rajput rose and founded the feudal system in Punjab and Sindh in the same way the Pashtuns, who borrowed the surname of Gul and later the title of Khan from the Mongols, their Sardari system in Balochistan, and slowly developed the Wadera practice in the Indus delta region of Sindh. This feudal arrangements, which was the result of confederated tribes of the Huns, led to new administrative system in the country and created a new form of land management that has lasted until today. The tribes have fused into the agricultural society but their brotherhoods have survived and they have given a permanent character to Pakistan.

In the early eight Century A.D. the Arabs brought Islam in Sindh and Multan built up the kingdom of Al-Mansurah in Sindh. At the same time their east ward Sea trade introduced porcelain and called on were from China and popularized glass were from Iran Syria- new materials that can be seen in the excavations at Bambhore in Sindh. With the Muslims Turks came the Sufis and Dervishes from Central Asia. Iran and Afghanistan and they spread Islam all over the country. It is Sultan Mahamud of Ghazni who made Lahore- the city of Data Sahib as his second capital. However, the city of Multan become famous as the city of Saints although it lay en route the camel caravan that carried on trade between Pakistan and Central Asia right up to Baku in Azerbaijan. It is these cities that the famous Muslims monuments of old are to be seen. As a result of the Saintly activity Pakistan become a land of Islamic Civilization. In several villages and cities we now find the Dargah of these Muslims Saints. While Shahbaz Kalandar is a well known in Sindh, Baba Farid Shakarganj resided over Pak Pattan in Punjab, Buner Baba rules over the Frontier region, and Syed Ali Hamdani is the real Sufi Saint in Kashmir. The capital city of Islamabad enshrines the well known Golra Sharif and Barri Imam. It is in these Saints who influenced the development of Sufi literature in all the languages of Pakistan and their monumental tombs that attract the people from all the country. In the old city of Thatta at Makli hill several tombs and Mausoleums are spread over the place that surpass in the beauty of stone carving but much more than this they evidence the historical evolution of architecture from 12th century A.D. to the Mughal time.

This was a period of great change in the historical integration of the people in Pakistan when the country was brought closer to Central Asia and the Arab world. The mixing of several tribes from both these regions transformed the ethnic complex of the country. Just as in the period of Kushanas of Mahayana type rose here and the Buddhist monks out from this land along the Silk road to carry the massage of the Buddha, now it was the Arabs and the Muslims Saints from Central Asia who came in the reverse direction and flocked in the prosperous land of Pakistan. New trade route were opened in the reverse direction from those countries into the Indus land. From the Huns to the Turks the age of cavalry dominated the life scene. Many Rock carvings in Central Punjab show men riding, even standing on horse back and brandishing their swords and shooting arrows. Hence forward Polo game become common and sword dance was common, as seen in the Rock carving near Chilas. The foundation of Muslims state was firmly laid, in which the dominate position first occupied by the Arabs in Sindh and Multan and later by the Gaznavid and Ghorid Sultans who made the Indus country as their spring board from the onward conquest of India. A beautiful monument in memory of sultan Ghori can be seen at Suhawa on the National Highway. It was therefore in the fitness of things that the first missile made in Pakistan was named after Ghori. Several Muslims kingdoms grew up in this country. Beginning from north we find the Tarkhan ruling dynasty, who came from trans-pamir region here and become supreme in the Gilgit area. The descendent of Shah Mir founded the Muslims Sultanate in Kashmir maintained its independents until the time of the Mughal emperor Akbar. The Pushtun tribes made their movements and asserted their independence in the land watered by the western branch of the Indus River. The Langhas and later the Arghuns become the Master of Multan. The Sama ruling dynasty started a new era of Cultural development and prosperity in Sindh. The Baluchis in concert with Brahuis leapt forward not only to build their kingdom in Balochistan but also migrated eastward and northward. Apart from these political shape of the country, there was an unparalleled development in art and architecture, literature and music, and particularly new social integration took place on the basis of the patronage of local languages, such as Baluchi, Sindhi, Panjabi, Pashto, Kashmiri, Shina and Burushaski. All these languages received literary form with the support of the Muslims rulers and the first time their literatures began to take shape. They received influence from Arabic and Persian and added many themes from the Folklores as well as from those of Central Asia. Such an unusual developments transformed the society with the stories from Shahnama and Hazar Dastan and with the Folk-tales from Lila-Majnun, Sassi-Punnu and Hir-Ranjha. The stringed instruments, the dholak and the dhap and also flute and trinklets gave a new tone to the life of the people of Multan, Thatta, Marha Shrif in D.I. Khan, Swat and Kashmir, and finally Gilgit, Hunza and Baltistan created the finest architecture of the time. That was the period of new religious activity in the country side when Islam become the dominant religion of the people who were directly linked in religious ties with the people of Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and Arab world.

The migrant people had brought the new technology of straining the horse from Central Asia and Iran. Were ever the horse galloped right up the corner of Bengal and Orissa, the Turks and Afghans advanced from Pakistan and established new empires. Here the artisans and craftsman gathered in new centre, cities began to grow with new craft mohallas, and they began to specialise in the products of Shawl and carpets in Kashmir, chapkan, chadar and dopatta in Punjab and Chitral and Northern Areas, tile work in Multan, Hala and Hyderabad, block printing in Sindh and fine carpentry in Chiniot, Bhira and Dera Ismail Khan. As a result several families occupied themselves in traditional crafts and passed them on to their own children.

Then came the Mughal emperors, descendent of Amir Timur, who, following the Mongol ruler Changiz Khan, had embarked on building a new world empire on the basis of organizing a new type of cavalry and making a new disciplined army in the unites of hundred and thousand. The later still survive in the name of Hazara both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The first Mughal emperor, Zahiruddin Muhammad Baber, who had to come out from Farghana, brought a new taste of poetry, baghicha and architectural forms from the natural environment and landscape from Farghana and Samarqand, latter city reflecting the delicious water of Zarafshan (golden) river. Baber built his first terraced garden in Kabul and then choose the beautiful spot at Kalda or Kallar Kahar in Chakwal district and built here Bagh-i-Safa on the very spot marked by this throne seat. It was again terraced garden watered by a near by spring. At the old Bhira on the bank of Jhelum he built a fort and then proceeded to Shah Dara (the Royal pass Gate) that opened his route the city of Lahore. At Shah Dara several garden were laid by by the Mughal noblemen but only one is preserved inside Jahangir tomb that was built by his queen Nur Jehan who lies buried in another mausoleums. The tomb along with the garden is now desolate. There is also Kamran’s baradari, without the garden, that still defies the flood of the Ravi river. When the Mughal emperors followed Baber one after the other, they choose the old Lahore on the bank of Ravi to their main Urban centres in Punjab. It was developed as a city of gardens with numerous gardens around but the main Mughal fortress was built in an Island, surrounded by the Ravi on the three sides and only on the east it was joined to the city proper. Here third Mughal emperor Akbar transferred his capital from Agra to meet the challenge of cousin Mirza Hakim. Here he laid the foundation of a typical Mughal citadel with royal residences, called Akbari Mahal and Jahangiri Mahal, with a prominent Diwan-i-Aam built in the traditional Iranian style, all constructed in red sand stone imported from Rajistan. Later Akbar’s grandson Shah Jehan, the King of architecture, transformed many buildings and renewed to his taste with white marble. He added Diwan-i-Khas that overlooked Ravi, his palace and Turkish Bath and still more important the Moti Masjid, the gem of monuments, with beautiful decorative designs in precious stones set in marble.

However, his choicest building is the Shish Mahal, the Mirror Palace that was the constructed by the side of a Char-bagh style garden with running water channel and fountains, but later destroyed by the Sikhs, and quadrangles remodelled. Such garden, called Mehtab, can be seen in other quadrangles in the Fort. The Shish Mahal is the luxurious place of resort particularly during summer months with rest rooms of a long hall at its either end, opening on to the brilliantly dazzling Veranda that looks at the marble paved quadrangle with a fountain in the middle side. The mirror reflects the stars and the bedrooms presents, in its ceiling, the panorama of a star lit Sky. On the western side there is a unique building of Bengali style, called Naulakha, whose brilliance of precious stone outshone the natural setting of flowers and tree leaves that decorate the walls. Alas ‘ the Sikh and British soldiers have robbed many of the precious stones. Even then the Shish Mahal, even in its changed character by the Sikhs, presents a dazzling brilliance in its perfect creation by the Mughal emperor Shah Jehan. It is the climax of Mughal luxury surpassed nowhere in the world.

The exterior wall of the Shish Mahal one can see the beautiful mosaic paintings that depict everyday sport of the Mughal princes for the enjoyment of the people who used to gather below the fort not only to have a view of the emperor sitting in the Jharokha but also to admire the brilliance of colour on the wall. Here one can observe galloping horses, humped camels, elephant ride, hunting scene, animal fights, horse man plying polo or chaughan, camel fights, figures of angels, demon head sand moving clouds, horse and elephant riders crossing Swords and verities of floral and geometrical designs. There are three gates to enter the fort, all three of them showing different tastes. The Masti (or correctly Masjid) Gate on the east shows Akbar’s taste of red sand stone. The Shahburj gate on the west presents the fine mosaic decorations of the time of Janhangir. The last is the Alamgiri gate built by Emperor Aurangzeb, showing tasteful simple entrance with multiple facetted Tower at either end, crowned by Kiosks.

From Shish Mahal one can have a magnificent view of the Badashahi Masjid built by Aurangzeb on a spot regained after the river Ravi shifted further away. Its magnificent Stair way leading to the elegant red sand stone gate way on the east is highly impressive. It is on the left side that later the tomb of Allama Iqbal was built. The gate way, which is preserved the relic of the Prophet and also in one of the copy of the Holy Qur’an with brilliant calligraphy, leads into a wide open courtyard, having a washing pond in its middle, and rows of cells on its sides. On its west is the main prayer chamber of oblong shape marked by four tall corner towers. On its roof are three marble dooms of bulbous shape that attract the eye from a long distance. The interior of the mosque has chaste decoration in the mehrab chamber that opened in to equally well decorated side aisles. It has a Verandah on the front that is again tastefully decorated. But the most elegant are the tall towers at four corners of the quadrangle, from the top of which one can have an unforgettable view of the city of Lahore.

There are two other beauties in the city of which the greatest monumental gems of Lahore. The first is the most chaste fully painted mosque of Wazir Khan, which was once the centre of religious and educational activities during the Mughals period. In its original design the mosque was fronted by an open maidan that presented from a distance a marvellous view of the mosque. It was built by Ilmuddin Ansari, hailing from the old trading city of Chiniot, but later he gave rise to the city of Wazirabad. He was raised to the high post of governor by Shah Jehan for his devoted service and great skill of Hikmat. But of greater importance in his taste of decorative architecture which he has translated into this mosque. The mosque plan, which is typical Mughals style but for its squat domes has tall minarets crowned by tasteful Chhatris. The most attractive is the mosaic ornamentation of the facade, the minars, and particularly the mihrab, which remains unsurpassed in its setting and choice of decorations and calligraphic work. In its charging decoration the mosque symbolises high sense of taste and marks a magnificent attraction in Lahore, to which both Shah Jehan as well as his officials gave a new face of colour and charm.

And yet the greatest jewel of the city of Lahore is the Shalimar Bagh, the unique pleasure resort that has been gifted to the world by the Mughal emperors. With paying a visit to this garden one can hardly understand the Mughal love for pleasances. In its creation what a real pleasure they have bestowed to the people of Lahore. The garden sumbolises the elixir of life that the Mughals alone could imagine. They had long left Farghana but the beauteous charm of its terraced fields lingered behind that has been recaptured in the Char bagh style of the garden in Shalimar, as Taj Mahal in Agra is the symbol of unforgettable love of emperor Shah Jehan, in the form of unique architectural creation, for the beloved queen Mumtaz Mahal, so is the Shalimar, the epitome, of Shala (fire of love), the embodiment of the highest playful joy in life that the emperor and empress could have in this world. The garden is a combination of Char baghs, water channels, fountains, Cascades, water falls and bathing hall in three different terraces, each terrace headed by beautiful pavilions for a pause of pleasurable enjoyment and then to pass on the other ponds of joy, inset with showering fountains, each terrace presenting varieties in scenic complex. Starting from a elaborate gate way in the south , with a water fountain in its middle chamber, we enter the open space, surrounded on right and left, by residential quarters, having long walkways, in the middle of either side of a channel marked by fountain, that join together on the four sides on a watery platform. And then we pass to the first pavilion that looks at a square pond remarkable sitting a cascade of a water falling down below the pavilion, series of fountains around a central seat for musicians and dancers and smaller pavilions at the four corners. From the top pavilion the elite royalties draw their pleasure from the scenic panorama in front and from the corner pavilions guests could roll in pleasance and enjoy the music of the running fountains coupled with the music of the singers and dancers. The next lower terrace begin with a rare bathing hall in the middle with water fountains lower down and lighted lamps in the arched niches of the walls. Here one could cool the legs during summer months- a novel way of cooling the atmosphere in the days when there were no electricity and air conditioners. And thus we find here a thrilling atmosphere where natural art has been channelised in the service of man. What a creation of charming loveliness that is combined with cooling water in various forms to soothe the evening of warm Lahore.

That is not all of Mughal architecture. If one likes to see the Mughal fondness for hunting, one can go to Sheikhupura, not far from Lahore , and admire the construction of Hiran Minar by Emperor Jahangir on the spot where his dearly loved deer died. That minar stands by the side of a tank which has in its middle a three storied pavilion for a general view around. If one is interested to see the defence arrangements of the Mughals, one can go to Attock on the bank of the Indus River, where Akbar built a magnificent fort, made arrangements for crossing the river by boat-bridge and laid a new road south of the Kabul river leading to Peshawar through the Khyber pass to Kabul. And then come to Attock the empress Nur Jahan, who constructed here a caravan serai, known as Begum Ki Serai, with a platform at its four corners and living rooms cooled by the Indus breeze. It is from one of the top platform that one could look at the magnificent expanse of the Indus River, full of flowing life and natural beauty, that perhaps will remain as the lasting memory of the Indus land, that is Pakistan.

“An Ancient Connection”: The Indus River, the Silk Route, the Grand Trunk Road, and the Makran Coast.

Sonia Salim

The need to conduct a research on the Pakistani identity is important because it is necessary, and it compels continuity. It is necessary because as a relatively new nation-state in this world, Pakistani’s are in a constant struggle with how they see themselves; more succinctly put, what does it mean to be Pakistani post 1947?

What is the Pakistani identity? With a 5000-year-old history, the Pakistani identity is historically constituted, not just a product of the last century [Ahsan, 1996]. This identity is indeed rich with an indigenous culture, traditions, and language, separate and distinct from a specific Indian, or Arab, or Turk, or Afghan identity. The problem at hand is that most Pakistani’s at present do not appeal to their ancient history when confronted with this identity crisis. Most nationalist campaigns only appeal to the recent events that lead up to 14 August 1947. Thus a research conducted on the Pakistan Identity needs to reveal the historical stories and events, which made us who we were yesterday, who we are today, and will continue making us tomorrow. There is a need to inculcate a feeling of surety and confidence by imparting knowledge on being “Pakistani” which appeals to all prehistoric, pre-Islamic elements and entities too. These elements form a large part of being Pakistani, which is often forgotten. Knowledge is power, and such power can dissipate any confusion amounting to how Pakistanis behave, or think, and not be told how they should be doing so. Of course, an historical account is a story of evolution, slow change; of change that has roots imbedded in Pakistan’s present area.

“History reveals the truth above politics and diplomacy” [Dani]. This area is known as the Indus valley pre-historically, and at present too. The Indus valley owes its being to the River Indus, which has its source in Tibet. This river cuts through the Himalayas and the Karakoram mountain ranges in the north, and runs through all four plains, south, i.e. N.W.F.P., Punjab, Balochistan, and Sindh. This river is the heart of Pakistan since time immemorial, binding and connecting the whole of the area, the Indus valley historically, or Pakistan, presently. These names can be used interchangeably. The River’s veins or tributaries run through all the four provinces, providing at once life, and subsistence, and hence a common civilization. This important fact predetermines the formation of Pakistan. It immediately distinguishes this land mass from the rest of India, pre-partition, and before any other invading foreign influence that the centuries have brought this way. This fact cannot be reiterated enough, and is often forgotten in light of Pakistan’s political instability, and hostile relations with India [Fairley, 1993]. This fact must be instilled in every Pakistani head and heart, and must precede any other notion on being Pakistani.

“In pre-history, Pakistan was one of the lands where civilization was born” Rahmat Ali. The River Indus, the Ancient Silk Route, the Grand Trunk Road and, the Makran Coast, will form the skeleton of this project. Infrastructure is one of the significant causes of development, which is why I wish to study the formation of the “Pakistani Identity” using the latter two historical routes, and the coast, in addition to the River. So far, having gone through a period of texts on Pakistani history has revealed repeatedly that the Archimedean point of our history for nationalists and textbook writers starts with the advent of Islam in 711 C.E. This is because Pakistan at present is an Islamic Republic, and for present day nationalists, this fact is what wholly, and solely makes us “Pakistani.” The pre-Islamic era is ignored and not considered as intrinsic, or is some how “Indian” or “Other”. This project seeks to inform the readers that the Indus region was a prosperous and organized, more than what it is today perhaps. And this fact is just as much a part of being “Pakistani”. Our history is multilateral, not unilateral. Professor Dani says, “A country like Pakistan has deep roots in history, going much further back than the time when the new name “Pakistan” was applied in 1947” [Dani, Ancient Pakistan vol 1].

This fact makes it significant to include all the four possible trade routes during the ancient period as far back as the third millennium B.C.E. The Indus civilization is thus as important as the Egyptian civilization as a landmark of history in terms of organized, systematic living. The Indus civilization had clean and functional cities where a metropolitan culture evolved, and hence a modern lifestyle which bared no equivalence in any other civilization. One could deduce that this civilization was one of the harbingers of urbanization [Samad, 2000].

Briefly, the kind of modern urban lifestyle that the Indus civilization enjoyed was that of 10 m wide streets and lanes, public drainage and sewerage systems in houses, sectors dividing residential areas from the craft industrial sites, the agricultural farms, and public buildings. There is no evidence of palaces or castles, hence no monarchy, rendering it an absolute republic governed by the people. Each city was a city-state. The language they used was Indo-European based, probably belonging to the Brahui group spoken in West Baluchistan, Iran and Southern Afghanistan [Samad, 2000]. In retrospect, it is hard to believe that an ancient civilization is being discussed. It seems more modern and civil than what we are at present.

The Indus River being the Archimedean point of our civilization, will thus form the foundation of this project. Primarily, this river distinguishes us from India, Central Asia, and China as an entity. Therefore, it repels, and renders this area sovereign. Secondly, however, it is also this river that attracted many invaders, religions and international traders, to seek the riches of this region, and to flourish. Alexander the Great, Changez Khan, and Muhammad Bin Qasim are but a few of the prominent invaders who fought many Indus heroes to resist their invasion. The spread of Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and Sufism mark the varying influences on this region, and demonstrates how significant a region it is on the world map. The project will start with an in depth discussion of the Indus River, and its civilization. There is a vast collection of literature available on this region, highlighting its significance in history. The two capital cities of the Indus Empire, are known as Moenjodaro and Harrapa. The first is located in the province of Sindh, the second in Punjab. These were both pre-Buddhist civilizations and extremely sophisticated to say the least. The rest of the Indus civilization was / is present day Pakistan, and extended to the Indian cities of Rajasthan, Haryana, Cutch, and Kathiawar. This civilization was thus spread over vast and varying landscapes, from mountains, plains and deserts [Ahsan 1996, Samad 2000]. There are thousands of sites all over Pakistan bearing evidence, and affirming that we are primarily the Indus Civilization, over and above anything else. “We are not an imported civilization, or culture” [Samad 2000]. This point cannot be reiterated enough, and is the whole raison d’etre of this project.

An in depth and thorough study on how we lived 5000 years ago can reveal how our habits, behavior, likes and dislikes, and basic nature, began and have evolved. Such as, were we nomadic or stationary? Liberal or chauvinistic? Feudal or capitalist? Or an amalgamation of all of the above? What was the economic, social and political system of that time, and what have we at present acquired from it? How we were socially organized? What language did we speak? What were the causes of change, evolution and, adaptation? How does an Islamic republic at present supersede our pagan past? These are the main questions that the project will seek to answer.

Similarities can be drawn, to demonstrate that “Pakistani” is synonymous with the “Indus citizen”.

The Ancient Silk Route is the second focus of this project. This route is one of the oldest paths and means of international trade, and probably the first form of globalization. A study of which is an essential aid to answering the above questions. It will help in seeing how this magnificent trade route influenced the culture of the Indus citizen, once it has been established what the Indus citizen was like in the beginning. The Indus region was part of the silk trade route. Hence what knowledge did this route impart and how did it change, and evolve the Indus citizen; its economic, political and social system? Did the Indus region flourish because of this route? Did the Indus citizen benefit from this route?

The Ancient Silk Route began in Xian in China and ended in Venice Italy. This famous route connected East Asia, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean for trade in silk from China to glass from Venice. Along this extensive path, other goods were exchanged according to what each region had to offer, and international migration began. The Silk Route thus, definitely influenced culture and helped in the development of the Indus civilization, as well as many others along the way. Perhaps it is because of this route that we harnessed a tradition of looking to other traditions, such as that of Central Asian, Indian, or Chinese, to confirm our own? Thus it will be important to look at what all was transmitted because of the trade route, such as knowledge, ideas, religion, people, as well as goods [Grotenhuis, 2001].

The Grand Trunk Road connects Kabul in Afghanistan to Calcutta in India. Its purpose in ancient times was as a channel for the import and export of trade between India, Central Asia and the West too, just like the Ancient Silk Route, but the goods were not specific, like silk for glass. Nor was it as vast as the silk route. It stretches across the Indus region 2000Km’s to the west coast of India. The Grand Trunk road was also a road intended for travel regardless of trade, and it still exists and is used today. The Grand Trunk road was given its name by the British, however it was primarily called “The Royal Road”. Contrary to popular belief, this road was first constructed by Chandra Gupta during the Mauryan era 300 B.C.E, not Sher Shah Suri. The latter helped reconstruct it in the 16th century, as he recognized its fundamental importance to the flourishing of the region. The British also recognized this road’s importance, and had it completely metalled to make it suitable for wheeled traffic. Up until then, this road only ran from Kabul to Delhi. The British extended it from Delhi to Calcutta.

The Grand Trunk Road has a rich history in itself, and deserves to be studied just because of that. It has obviously played a key role in the development of the Indus region, and beyond. It is where cultures have met and created that unique Pakistani Identity. A study of it will reveal how [Sarkar, 1998].

The Makran Coast located along the provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan, made them maritime coastal states open for trade and invasion. This project will only focus on the Makran coast as a sea gateway to trade for the Indus civilization, before the advent of Islam, formally, and hence before the invasion of the Arab Muslim General Mohammed Bin Qasim in the 8th Century. Both these provinces were intrinsic to the Indus civilization, as Moenjodaro, one of the capitals was situated here, in between these two provinces. Baluchistan at the time was known as Gedrosia, which is a Persian word. Thus, its location was either described as West Baluchistan, or in Sindh. Presently though Moenjodaro is formally placed in Sindh. Thus, the Makran coast served as a trading post for one of the most important capitals, as well as the rest of the region. There were five main trading coastal cities spanning the length of the entire coast. These cities were crucial for trade to the inland cities of the civilization, as well as development all around. They served the purpose of being trading stations or post, supplying goods to the entire Indus river valley. The flow of goods went back and forth; imports were sent north, and exports were sent south to the coast. With the increase in trade, the importance of the coastal cities grew, which led to their expansion in size, and complete urbanization. More land was cultivated in the vicinity which led to industrialization. The coastal cities supplied fish and seafood and shells inland.

The ancient coastline of the Indus civilization stretched much farther east than it does at present. Of course, the passage of time and history has redrawn the borders of civilization. At present the Pakistani Makran coast stretches 600 Km. It also has a visually distinct race from the rest of Pakistan that boasts of Arab/African features, rather than Indo-European. Were people transmitted along the sea trade route from Oman and Persia, and Africa? If they were, did they come as slaves, or as traders? Alexander also traversed this region. Did he leave behind any racial legacy, as is attributed to the north of Pakistan? Or are the Makranis a natural part of the Indus civilization? The Makran coast thus deserves special scrutiny on this point [Kenoyer 1998].

There are many aspects to the Pakistani identity. But once it has been determined prehistorically, it could be interesting to see how it is portrayed and perceived at present. Therefore I think a prologue would be essential to see how we have evolved, and reinforce that we are not an imported culture. What is Pakistani at present, or who is the contemporary Indus person? One such way to view the contemporary Indus person would be to look through the lens of contemporary Art, such as the Pakistani film Industry from 1947 till present. But that of course will require a whole separate proposal, once this project is complete.

Real name “Hindustan”…too hard for British to pronounce

The origins of the word Anglacized “India” Come from Hind

Sindhu…Hindhu…

Sindh….Hindh…

Sindh…Sindhi..

Hindhi …Indus…India..

The monkier “Sindhi” or “Hindi” categorized those living on the banks of the Indus….not those who live on the Ganges

Pakistanis live on the banks of the Indus. Indians don’t..they live on the banks of the Ganges..

Ganghia residents should be called “Ganghans”

How many states can you count?

(answer is not “1″, it is more than 570)

This article lists the more than 570 states that comprise the Subcontinent. Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh are only the major players. A discussion of the more than 570 states explains the Subcontinent.

Pakistan existed 5000 years ago as the “Indus Valley Civilization.” A historical and tectonic divide existed thousands of years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization was on the banks of the Indus. The Genetic Valley Civilization is on the banks of the Ganges.

The people up the river Indus lived with the people down the river Indus lived together in 3500 BC just as they live togehter now.The word “India” comes from “Hind” or “Sind”. It was called that because of the river Sindh. The Arabs used to call all those who lived on the river and byond Sindu or Hindu. The constitutional name of the country is “Bharat”.

The Persian Empire included Pakistan The empire of Taimur in the 15th century included Pakistan but not todays “Bharat”.The Malay peninsula has been defiend in many way and included many states and included parts of the Subcontinent and even Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan. British Indian Empire included many countries of Asia, Afghanistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Aden ane even Iraq. The French Indian Empire included the Southern part of the Subcontinent, plus Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos. The Dutch Indian Empire included southern part of the Subcontinent and even Indonesia.

The Danish Indian Empire included parts of Southern Subcontinent

The religious divide in the Subcontinent. The religious divide was real. This map shows the Muslim and non-Muslim population in the Subcontinent.The British Empire was a diverse land.

Notice hundreds of states in the Subcontinent

The British Indian Empire showing parts of Burma, but Baluchistan, and Pashtun areas are not included.

The Britsh Indian Empire map showing Afghanistan and parts of Iran and Thaliand as part of the empire.

Many maps different parts of of Asia showing various part of the “Indian” empire.

Many states existed. Some parts of the Subcontinent were under direct British control also.

The boundaries kept on changing. Sometimes it included Aden, Somalia, Iraq, Burma, Nepal, Sri Lanka. At other times it included other parts of Asia. Sometimes it included Afghanistan, at other times it did not. Sri Lanka was part of the British Indian Empire at times.

“Bharat” is the official and constitutional name of the country. “India” was never a country. It was a conglomeration of languages, tribes, states, provinces, East India Company (Company Bahadur) owned poppy fields and British owned lands. The more than 500 states and many countries including Iraq, Somalia, Aden, Burma and others formed the British “Indian” Empire. After 1947 when the British were leaving the states on the West banded together to form Pakistan and the ones in the Gangetic Civilization banded together to form “Bharat” (Constitutional name of “India.”)

The British Indian Empire, informally, the British Raj (raj, lit. “rule” in Hindi) or simply British India, internationally and contemporaneously, India, was the term used synonymously for the region, the rule, and the period, from 1858 to 1947, of the British Empire on the Indian subcontinent. The region included areas of British India directly administered by the United Kingdom (contemporaneously, “British India”) as well as the princely states ruled by individual rulers under the paramountcy of the British Crown.

The princely states, which had all entered into treaty arrangements with the British Crown, were allowed a degree of local autonomy in exchange for protection and representation in international affairs by Great Britain.The British Indian Empire included the regions of present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and, in addition, at various times, Aden (from 1839 to 1937), Lower Burma (from 1852) and Upper Burma (from 1886) until 1937, British Somaliland (briefly from 1884 to 1898), and the Straits Settlements (briefly from 1819 to 1867). The British Indian Empire had some ties with British possessions in the Middle East; the Indian rupee served as the currency in many parts of that region. What is now Iraq was, immediately after World War I, administered by the India Office of the British government.The first 100 years were the East India Company years.

The British Indian Empire is said to have begun in May 1858 when the British exiled Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II to Rangoon in then independent Konbaung Burma after executing most of his family, thus formally liquidating the Mughal Empire. At the same time, the British abolished the British East India Company and replaced it with direct rule under the British Crown. In proclaiming the new direct-rule policy to “the Princes, Chiefs, and Peoples of India”.. The Viceroy of India announced in 1858 that the government would honour former treaties with princely states and renounced the “Doctrine of Lapse”, whereby the East India Company had annexed territories of rulers who died without male heirs. About 40 percent of Indian territory and 20-25 percent of the population remained under the control of 562 princes In August 1858 the British Parliament abolished the English East India Company and transferred the company’s responsibilities to the British crown. This launched a period of direct rule in India, ending the fiction of company rule as an agent of the Mughal emperor (who was tried for treason and exiled to Burma). In November 1858, in her proclamation to the “Princes, Chiefs, and Peoples of India,” Queen Victoria pledged to preserve the rule of Indian princes in return for loyalty to the crown. More than 560 such enclaves, taking in one-fourth of India’s area and one-fifth of its people, were preserved until Indian independence in 1947.

The Pakistan that was proposed in 1940

A discussion of the sovereign and independent Princely States at the time of independence on August 15, 1947 is very pertinent to understand why “India” is a very ephemeral word.

There have been various differences in organisation before, repeatedly quite significant, during the British Raj.

Sri Lanka is now an independent state.

Pakistan is independent.

Bharat as it exists today:

Bharat is riddeen with the same strife as it has always been. Today the Government of Bharat control about 40% of the area. The Naxalites control hundreds of disctricts as shown in this map.

The 250 million Untouchable Dalits are in revolt

The 50 million White widows (who are Hindu widows) are incarcerated in Hindu temples and then sold as prostitutes to earn a living. Source: Indian movied Water.

Afghanistan: Part of the the Indian Empire, it is now an independent country.

Afghanistan today is split by the part controlled by NATO and the other part controlled by the Pashtuns.

There are strong tendencies in the Pashtuns to join Pakistan.

Individual residencies

Nepal and Bhutan are now independent kingdoms.

The Subcontinent on the eve of independence in 1947

Princely State Now part of Last (or present) Ruler

Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra & Karnataka, India H.E.H.Nawab Mir Barakat ‘Ali Khan Bahadur. The areas marked are under the control of the Naxalites

Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir, India H.H. Dr Karan Singhji

The Muslims of the state of Jammu and Kashmir want to join Pakistan. Kashmir and Ladakh are Muslims majority areas. As per UN resolutions, the Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir want to vote in a referendum to join Pakistan.

Azad Kashmir (Poonch District etc.). PakistanMysore Karnataka, India H.H. Maharaja Sri Kantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar Bahadur,

Nepal: Nepal H.M. King Gyanendra of Nepal

Sikkim: Sikkim, India H.H. Muwong Chogyal Sri Sri Sri Sri Sri Tobgyal Wangchuk Tenzing Namgyal Tehri Garhwal Uttarakhand, India H.H. Maharaja Manujendra Shah Sahib Bahadur

BhutanH.M. Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck

Kumaon Uttarakhand, India

Baluchistan Agency

Princely States of the Baluchistan Agency. Ruler Kalat Balochistan, Pakistan Ahmad Yar Khan

Kharan Balochistan, Pakistan Habibullah Khan

Las Bela Balochistan, Pakistan Ghulam Qadir Khan

Makran Balochistan, Pakistan Bai Khan Baloch Gikchi

Deccan: States Agency and Kolhapur Residency

Princely States of Deccan States Agency and Kolhapur Residency.

Princely State Now part of Last (or Present) Ruler Akalkot Maharashtra, India Shrimant Rani Sumitra Bai Raje Bhonsle, Rani Saheb of Akalkot

Aundh Maharashtra, India HH Meherban Shrimant Bhagwant Rao Shripat Rao, Pant Pratinidhi Of Aundh

Bhor Maharashtra, India Raja Shrimant Sir Raghunathrao Shankarrao Babasaheb Pandit Pant Sachiv

Janjira Maharashtra, India HH Nawab Sidi Muhammed Khan II Sidi Ahmad Khan, Nawab of Janjira

Jath Maharashtra, India Lt. Shrimant Raja Vijaysinghrao Ramrao Babasaheb Dafle

Kolhapur Maharashtra, India HH Shrimant Rajashri Shahu II Chhatrapati Maharaj Sahib

Bahadur, Maharaja of Kolhapur

Kurundwad Maharashtra, India Meherban Raja Hariharrao Raghunathrao [Bapusaheb] Patwardhan, co-Raja of Kurundwad Jnr

Mudhol Karnataka, India HH Shrimant Raja Bhairavsinhrao Malojirao Ghorpade II

Phaltan Maharashtra, India Major HH Raja Bahadur Shrimant Malojirao Mudhojirao Nanasaheb Naik Nimbalkar IV

Sangli Maharashtra, India Capt. HH Shrimant Raja Saheb Sir Chintamanrao II Dhundirajrao Appasaheb Patwardhan

Sawantvadi Maharashtra, India Bhonsale clan

Savanur Karnataka, India Nawab of Savanur, Abdul Majid Khan II

Gwalior Residency

Princely States of the Gwalior Residency.

Princely State Now part of Last (or Present) Ruler

Gwalior Madhya Pradesh, India H.H. Maharajadhiraj Maharaja Shrimant Jyotiraditya Rao Scindia, Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior

Varanasi Uttar Pradesh, India

Bhadaura Madhya Pradesh, India

Garha Madhya Pradesh, India

Khaniyadhana Madhya Pradesh, India

Paron Madhya Pradesh, India

Raghugarh Madhya Pradesh, India

Rampur Uttar Pradesh, India H.H. Nawab Syed Muhammad Kazim ‘Ali Khan Bahadur, Nawab of Rampur

Umri Madhya Pradesh, India

Madras Presidency

Princely States of the Madras Presidency.

Princely State Now part of Last (or Present) Ruler

Cochin Kerala, India Kerala Varma

Banganapalle Andhra Pradesh, India H.H. Nawab Sayyid Fazl-i-’Ali Khan IV Bahadur, Nawab of Banganapalle

Pudukkottai Tamil Nadu, India H.H. Raja Sri Brahadamba Das Raja Sri Rajagopala Tondiman Bahadur, Raja of Pudukkottai

Sandur Karnataka, India Shrimant Maharaj Shri Murarrao Yeshwantrao Ghorpade, Hindurao, Mamlukatmadar Senapati, Raja of Sandur

Travancore Kerala, India Colonel H.H. Maharaja Raja Ramaraja Sri Patmanabha Dasa Vanchipala Martanda Varma III [Uthradom Tirunal], Maharaja of Travancore

North-West Frontier

Princely States of the North-West Frontier.

Princely State Now part of Last( or Present) Ruler

Amb North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan (Nawab) Salahuddin Saeed Khan

Chitral North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan HH Mehtar MUHAMMED MUZAFFAR al-MULK

Dir North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan Muhammad Shah Khosru Khan

Phulra North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan Ata Muhammed Khan

Swat North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan Miangul Abdul-Haqq Jahanzib

States of the Punjab

States of the Punjab.

Princely State Now part of Last ( or Present) Ruler

Bahawalpur Punjab, Pakistan Sadeq Mohammad Khan V

Bilaspur Punjab, India H.H. Raja Kirti Chand, Raja of Bilaspur

Faridkot Punjab, India Lt. H.H. Farzand-i-Sadaat Nishan Hazrat-i-Kaisar-i-Hind Raja Bharat Indar Singh Brar Bans Bahadur, Raja of Faridkot

Jind Haryana, India H.H. Maharaja Satbir Singh [”Prince Sunny”], Maharaja of Jind

Kalsia Punjab, India Raja HIMMAT SHER SINGH Sahib Bahadur

Kapurthala Punjab, India Brig. H.H. Maharaja Sri Sukhjit Singh Sahib Bahadur, Maharaja of Kapurthala

Khairpur Sindh, Pakistan George Ali Murad Khan

Loharu Haryana, India [[H.H. Nawab Mirza Alauddin Ahmad Khan II [alias Parvez Mirza], Nawab of Loharu]]

Malerkotla Punjab, India

Mandi Himachal Pradesh, India H.H. Raja Sri Ashokpal Sen, Raja of Mandi

Nabha Punjab, India H.H. Maharaja Hanuwant Singh Malvinder Bahadur, Maharaja of Nabha

Patiala Punjab, India Capt. H.H. Maharajadhiraj Shri Amarinder Singh, Maharaja of Patiala

Siba Himachal Pradesh, India H.H. Raja Dr.Ashok K.Thakur

Sirmur Himachal Pradesh, India Lt. H.H. Maharaja RAJENDRA PRAKASH Bahadur

Suket / Surendernagar Himachal Pradesh, India H.H. Raja Hari Sen, Raja of Suket”

The states of East Punjab in India want to be indpendent

States of the Rajputana Agency

States of the Rajputana Agency.

Princely State Now part of Last ( or Present) Ruler

Alwar Rajasthan, India HH Maharaja Tej Singh

Banswara Rajasthan, India .H. Rai Rayan Mahimahendra Maharajadhiraj Maharawalji Sahib Shri Jagmalji II Sahib Bahadur, Naresh Rajya, Maharawal of Banswara.

Bikaner Rajasthan, India H.H. Sri Raj Rajeshwar Maharajadhiraj Narendra Sawai Maharaja Shiromani Ravi Raj Singhji Bahadur, Maharaja of Bikaner and Head of the Royal House of Bikaner.

Bundi Rajasthan, India Col. HH Maharao Raja Shri BAHADUR SINGHJI Bahadur

Dholpur Rajasthan, India H.H. Rais ud-Daula, Sipahdar ul-Mulk, Saramad Rajha-i-Hind, Maharajadhiraja Shri Sawai Maharaj Rana Shri Hemant Singh, Lokendra Bahadur, Diler Jang Jai Deo, Maharaj Rana of Dholpur.

Dungarpur Rajasthan, India H.H. Rai-i-Rayan, Mahimahendra, Maharajadhiraj Maharawal Shri Mahipal Singhji II Sahib Bahadur, Maharawal of Dungarpur.

Jaipur Rajasthan, India Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II

Jaisalmer Rajasthan, India HH Maharajadhiraj Maharawal Sir JAWAHIR SINGH Bahadur

Jhalawar Rajasthan, India .H. Maharajadhiraj Maharaj Rana Shri Chandrajit Singh Dev Bahadur, Maharaj Rana of Jhalawar.

Jodhpur Rajasthan, India H.H. Raj Rajeshwar Saramad-i-Rajha-i-Hindustan Maharajadhiraja Maharaja Shri Gaj Singhji II Sahib Bahadur, Maharaja of Jodhpur.

Image:Karauli.svg Karauli Rajasthan, India HH Maharaja Shri GANESH PAL Deo Bahadur Yadakul Chandra Bhal

Kishangarh Rajasthan, India HH Umdae Rajhae Buland Makan Maharajadhiraja Maharaja SUMER SINGHJI Bahadur

Kotah Rajasthan, India HH Maharao Shri BHIM SINGH II Bahadur

Kushalgarh Rajasthan, India Rao HARENDRA SINGH

Palanpur Gujarat, India Maharajkumar Edward Man Sing

Pratabgarh Rajasthan, India Raja AJIT PRATAP SINGH

Shahpura Rajasthan, India HH Rajadhiraj SUDERSHAN SINGH

Sirohi Rajasthan, India HH Maharani Gulab Kanwar Bai

Tonk Rajasthan, India Nawab Muhammad Faruq Ali Khan

Mewar Rajasthan, India Maharana Sir Bhupal Singh

Lawa Rajasthan, India

Gujarat States Agency and Baroda Residency

Districts of Gujarat

Laxmi Vilas Palace, BarodaBalasinor

Bansda

Bajana

Devgadh Baria

Baroda

Bhavnagar

Cambay

Chhota Udaipur

Dangs

Dhrangadhra

Gondal

Idar

Jawhar

Kutch

Lunavada

Morvi

Navanagar

Porbandar

Radhanpur

Rajpipla

Sachin

Sanjeda Mehvassi

Sant

Sanjeli

Surgana

Tharad

Vijaynagar

Wankaner

Vanod

Junagarh and Manvadar acceeded to Pakistan but were captured by India

States of Central India Agency

Subhash Marg, Indore

Bhil tribe girls in JhabuaAjaigarh

Ali Rajpur

Alipura

Baoni

Barannda

Barwani

Beri

Bhopal

Bijawar

Charkhari

Chhatarpur

Datia

Dewas

Dhar

Garrauli

Gaurihar

Indore

Jabua

Jaora

Jaso

Jigni

Kamta-Rajaula

Khaniadhana

Khilchipur

Kothi Baghelan

Kurwai

Lugasi

Maihar

Makrai

Mathwar

Muhammadgarh

Nagod (Unchhera)

Narsingarh

Orchha

Panna

Pathari

Piploda

Rajgarh

Ratlam

Rewah

Samthar

Sarila

Sitamau

States of the Eastern States Agency

Aranchul Pradesh is claimed by China

Ujjayanta Palace in Tripura

Palace in Cooch BeharAthmallik

Bastar

Baudh

Changbhakar

Chhuikhadan

Cooch Behar

Darbhanga

Daspalla

Dhenkanal

Jashpur

Kalahandi

Kanker

Kawardha

Khairagarh

Kharsawan

Khondmals

Koriya (Koriya)

Mayurbhanj

Nandgaon

Nayagarh

Pal Lahara

Patna

Raigarh

Ramgarh

Sakti

Saraikela

Sarangarh

Sonpur

Surguja

Talcher

Tripura

Udaipur

For decades, Indian historians have written the history books according to their own liking. And because of Pakistanis being ashamed of their non-Islamic past, their jobs had been made so much easier. Everything written here is backed up with facts and logic.

Before India became an English colony sometime in the 1850’s, there was no such thing as “India” that we see today. The subcontinent was scattered with provinces which were in no way united. After independence in 1947, many of the states in the subcontinent were united into a single country. The Republic of India and Pakistan.

India, just like Pakistan was born in 1947. Prior to this, the regions which are now India, Pakistan, Burma and Bangladesh, were known as British India. When British India was partitioned, Republic of India claimed the title of “parent state” of British India, as they received the larger land mass for their country. Along with this title they also claimed the History of the region which was British India in ancient times. This region was only ever united when Britain invaded. Prior to that, the region was scattered with rivalling provinces. Logically, it doesn’t make sense that the new state of India can claim the history of people and land which never belonged to them.

The old argument of “Pakistan not existing prior to 1947, therefore there is no such thing as Ancient Pakistan” is flawed. The same logic can be applied to India. There was no such thing as a country India prior to 1947, and prior to the 1850s; the South Asian subcontinent was never united in anyway and the term “India” didn’t exist. So the current definition of Ancient India is flawed. Ancient Indian history is the history of Republic of India in Ancient times. This doesn’t include any region outside of their own borders. So called Ancient maps of India are fake. The region was referred to as Hindoostan (the land of Hindus) because South Asians were mostly Hindus prior to the Arab invasions, and it was considered to be a continent, not a country.

Therefore, grouping the history of the entire South Asian subcontinent, which has never been united prior to the 1850s and passing it on to a country which came into existence in 1947, doesn’t make sense. Indian Historians have ignored these arguments and passed on the idea that India has existed for 1000s of years, for their own nationalist purposes

Indus valley was a civilisation which existed almost enitrely in modern Pakistan. The people of the region have always been living there. However the history of the region is claimed by India, which is in absolutely no way related to the Pakistani people, neither have they ever had claim over the land which is now Pakistan. Indus Valley settlements are located all over Southern Asia. These include, Iran, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, northwest India, and of course Pakistan. However, the Main IVC cities, aswell as the majority are in Pakistan. The main ones being, Harappa and Mohenjodaro. The Indus Valley history should be referred to as Ancient Pakistani. Any history which took place in what is now Pakistan should be known as Ancient Pakistani history, since it belongs to the people of Pakistan.

The Pakistani identity is being stolen because Historians hide the fact that South Asia has never been united prior to 1850s.

It is incorrect to even label IVC as Ancient South Asian history. South Asia is home to 1.6 billion people, which is way too broad to describe the people of Indus valley, which is now Pakistan. Sure this is no harm in mentioning the settlements outside of Pakistan (India, Iran, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Kashmir), however one has to remember that Pakistan is the home of it.

In this book it is proposed to deal with only a small segment of this vast and varied world — with the land and people of the region called Pakistan. The purpose is not to discuss each and every aspect of their history nor to give a comprehensive account of their activities. It is intended to bring out only certain salient aspects which have either escaped the notice of historians or failed to receive sufficient emphasis from them. This book will substantiate the historical truth that the creation of an independent State of Pakistan in the sub-continent in the middle of the 20th century was not an oddity or a strange phenomena, nor have the people inhabiting this new political entity asserted their separate status from India for the first time.

Pakistan in different forms and in different backgrounds has appeared many a time in these very regions and endured longer than other independent states of this sub-continent, making enormous contribution to civilization. The history of its people is full of colour, thrill and excitement; of gallant deeds and sublime performance. It has, perhaps, witnessed more invasions than any other part of the world, absorbed more racial strains than any other region and more ideas have taken birth in the bosom of this land than elsewhere.

It was in these lands that the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the most brilliant in the annals of human history, flourished with its main centres at Moenjo Daro in Sind, Harappa in the Punjab, Kej in the Baluch territory and Judeiro Daro in the Pathan region. It was here that Buddhist culture blossomed and reached its zenith under the Kushans in the form of Gandhara civilization at the twin cities of Peshawar and Taxila. It was on this very soil that the Graeco-Bactrian civilization had its best flowering and left the indelible marks of finest Greek art in the potwar plateau around Rawalpindi. The entire Baluchistan is strewn with the remains of the earliest products of man’s activities. “Western Pakistan is a region which has been conspicuously important in the development of civilization.” (Pakistan and Western Asia, By Prof. Norman Brown. Pakistan Miscellany).

“In our present state of knowledge, we may regard the period of the Indus Valley culture as the first epoch in the history of civilization in the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent. The second epoch is again one in which the north-west figures basically. This is the period when the Aryan entered through the passes of the north-west at a time assumed to be about 1500- 1200 B.C. and possessed the culture of the Rig Veda, which is the first and most important book of the early Indo-Aryans and was probably compiled by 1000 B.C.” (Ibid)

“Of the two river systems that of the Indus, now mainly in Pakistan, had the earliest civilization and gave its name to India. The fertile plains of the Punjab watered by the five great tributaries of the Indus had a high culture over two thousand years before Christ, which spread down the lower course of the Indus as far as the sea.” (The Wonder that was India, By A.L. Bhasham.)

In valour and patriotism the people of these lands have been second to none. It was the people of the Indus Valley that held back the Aryans for decades; it was in the Punjab that the advance of ferocious Mongols was halted for more than a century. But for this defence the tender sapling of Muslim state planted at Delhi in the early 13th century A.D. would have been trampled upon and smothered out. Among more recent events the stiff resistance that Napier encountered from the Sindis and Baluchis is still fresh in our minds. The revolt of the ‘hurs’ of Sind against British rule in the 20th century is another glorious mark in this series. Pathans’ defiance of the British rule and their perpetual struggle in the cause of freedom is a story of only the other day. Kashmiris have suffered silently but never ceased their fight for freedom. The lands of Pakistan are indeed drenched with the blood of many a hero and saturated with the wisdom of many a sage. And what is more exhilarating, it was from these lands that Islam commenced its journey in the sub-continent.

“At the close of Samudragupta’s triumphal career (4th century AD) his empire — the greatest in India since the days of Asoka — extended on the north to the base of the mountains, but did not include Kashmir…. Samudragupta did not attempt to carry his arms across the Sutlej or to dispute the authority of the Kushan Kings who continued to rule in and beyond the Indus basin.” (Oxford History of India, By VA Smith).

“Harsha’s subjugation of upper India, excluding the punjab, but including Bihar and at least the greater part of Bengal, was completed in 612 AD.” (Ibid)

“The Gurjara empire of Bhoja may be defined as, on the north, the foot of the mountains; on the northwest, the Sutlej; on the west the Hakra or the ‘lost-river’ forming the boundary of Sind.” (Ibid).

“The rule of the Pratiharas had never extended across the Sutlej, and the history of the Punjab between the 7th and 10th centuries AD is extremely obscure. At some time, not recorded, a powerful kingdom had been formed, which extended from the mountains beyond the Indus, eastwards as far as the Hakra of lost-river, so that it comprised a large part of the Punjab, as well as probably northern Sind.” (Ibid)

“Politically during the time when Hellenism in the south Asian sub-continent was decaying and the centuries afterward, the north-west remained separate from northern and central India. The Gupta empire, which at its height in the middle of the 4th century AD, and the empire of Harsha in the middle of the 7th century AD barely reached into the Punjab and included none of Sind.” (Pakistan and Western Asia, by Norman Brown)

The above quotations amply prove that none of the periods of its greatest expansion did India succeed in occupying Pakistan. The only exception is the Maurya period in the 3rd century BC when Asoka’s empire is said to have extended up to the Hindu Kush, north of Kabul. Even in this isolated case of the Mauryas, historians are aware that Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya dynasty who hailed from Pakistan (Punjab), did not get Pakistan by conquest but by diplomacy from the Greek rulers who had succeeded Alexander.

As pointed out by more than one writer, the five thousand year history of Pakistan reveals that its independence had been a rule while its subservience to or attachment with India an exception. “Throughout most of the recorded history the north-west (i.e. Pakistan) has normally been either independent or incorporated in an empire whose centre lay further in the west. The occasions when it has been governed from a centre further east (India) have been the exception rather than the rule; and the creation of Pakistan which has been described as a geographer’s nightmare is historically a reversion to normal as Pakistan is concerned.” (A Study of History, by AJ Toynbee)

During its five thousand-year known history, Pakistan has been subservient to Central Indian governments only during the Maurya, the Turko-Afghan and British periods who were Buddhist, Muslim and Christian respectively. While the Mauryan (300-200 BC) and British (1848-1947) periods lasted barely a hundred years each, the turko-Afghan period was the longest covering a span of 500 years.

Here we come across an important ideological point. All the three religions i.e. Buddhism, Islam and Christianity which succeeded in uniting the sub-continent under the Maurya, Turko-Afghan and British rulers stood for universal brotherhood and were spread all over the world. In the context of ideology, the implications are obvious i.e., only people believing in universal brotherhood could unite and hold this sub-continent together. Otherwise Pakistan’s independence could never be challenged nor its people subdued by India’s Hindu Governments.

It is of these celebrated lands and of their intrepid people that we shall narrate the story here. In this article we shall give a brief historical background and the contribution made by each of the groups that inhabit it: We shall begin with a general account of the entire country first and then take up the history of each group.

Another unique aspect of Indus Valley Civilization was that it embraced within its fold almost the entire country now known as Pakistan, with two important centres of culture and administration-one at Harappa on the bank of Ravi in Sahiwal District of the Punjab and another at Moenjo Daro on River Indus in the Larkana District of Sind. According to more recent discoveries other important centres and sizeable towns of Indus Valley Civilization were situated at Chanhu Daro in Nawabshah District, Judeiro-daro near Quetta and Shahi Tump in the Valley of the Kej (Mekran). Modern archaeological research has brought to light a large number of smaller centres spread over Baluchistan, Frontier and Kashmir. And at it’s peak this Pakistani civilization stretched from parts of northwest India to southern Afghanistan. It’s colonies have been found as far away as Turkmenistan in the north, Bahrain and southeast Iran in the west, near Bombay (India) in the south, and in western U.P.(India) in the east.

Thus, the very first pre-historic picture of Pakistan emerging before our eyes presents the twin aspects of (a) separate independent country, and (b) a common culture with a common government. I shall dilate a bit here on the uniformity in various fields of life that prevailed in Pakistan during the Indus Valley Civilization.

From time immemorial the world has known two different countries and cultures in the sub-continent; one based on the Indus and its five tributaries known as Sindhu and the other on the Ganges Valley known as Bharatvarta. “Herodotus did not reckon among the ‘Indoi’ any of the people then in occupation of the Indus basin…. In thus excluding from the limits of India proper the Punjab as well as Gadara, Herodotus was in agreement with the Sanskrit scriptures; and there is a piece of evidence which suggests that, without knowing it, he may have been following Vedic authority through a chain of intermediate informants.” (A Study of History, Vol. III, By A.J. Toynbee). The Sindhu country with its Indus Valley Civilization – also known as Harappa culture – had its sway from Rupar on upper Sutlej to the lower reaches of the Indus on the Arabian Sea, a distance of about a thousand miles – almost the same territory now covered by Pakistan.

“About 2000 B.C. it would have been possible to travel from Sutkagen-dot near the shores of the Arabian Sea over 300 miles west of Karachi (in Baluchistan) to the village of Rupar near the foot of the Simla hills – a distance of 1000 miles and to see on all sides men living in various degrees the same mode of life, making the same kind of pots and tools and ornaments and possibly administered by the same government.

“It will be observed that this great stretch of country coincides very nearly with the present Pakistan, and for a significant reason: Pakistan, like the Indus Civilization, belongs essentially to the vast fertile valley of the Indus and its tributaries, sheltered by hills, sea and desert from its less favoured neighbours save where in the Punjab, the northern plains continuously fringe the foot-hills of the Himalayas. The Indus Civilization can thus be claimed in a real sense as a pre-historic prototype of Pakistan.

“Within this immense territory, archaeologists have found no fewer than thirty-seven town or village sites (tells) representing this civilization, and many more un-doubtedly await discovery.” (Pakistan before the Aryans, By Sir Mortimer Wheeler).

The pattern of civilization in this country was so uniform that even the bricks were usually of the same size and shape from one end to the other. A very large number of weights all belonging to a uniform system have been found in the two capital cities as well as at Chanhu-daro and other smaller cities in Sind, at Mehi in Baluchistan and at Sutkagen-Dot in Makran. “The regular planning of the streets, the layout of cities and the common weights and measures suggest a single state covering the entire area.” (The Wonder that was India, By A.L. Bhasham)

“At a certain period, diversity is replaced by uniformity over an area incomparably vaster than anything we have yet seen in pre-historic south Asia. A complete agreement in details of material culture is found over an area stretching from the Makran coast to Kathiawar and northwards to the Himalyan foothills, a huge irregular triangle with the sizes measuring 950 by 700 by 550 miles. From end to end of this territory, from some forty settlement-sites come pottery vessels of identical mass-produced types; houses are built of baked bricks of standard dimensions, stamp-seals are engraved with similar scenes, a uniform script which is yet unread prevails and a standard system of weights is recognizable. While some sites are villages, others are towns and 350 miles apart stand two cities (Harappa and Moenjo Daro) twin capitals of an empire. Under the jejune archaeological nomenclature of Harappa culture there lies concealed one of the greatest nameless kingdoms of Asia”.(Pre-historic India, By Stuart Piggot)

“The overriding fact remains that they (Harappa in the Punjab and Moenjo Daro in Sind) are situated upon the same river system and are culturally identical. That identity extends throughout the immense territory of the Indus civilization from Kashmir to Karachi…. The Indus Civilization exemplifies the vastest political experiment before the advent of the Roman Empire……. Whatever the political implications, the cultural unity of the civilization is itself a sufficiently imposing phenomenon……” (Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka, By Sir Mortimer Wheeler)

One of the most interesting crops grown by the people of the Harappa culture was cotton, of which a fortunate single find at Moenjo Daro has given conclusive evidence. Extensive trade in cotton and cotton cloth is a strong possibility particularly with Mesopotamia where cotton was known as Sindhu and this word later passed into Greek as ’sindon’.

“As to the peculiar products of India it is interesting that Herodotus told the Greek world, perhaps for the first time, of the trees that bore wool, surpassing in beauty and in quality the wool of sheep; and the Indians wear clothing from these trees.” (The Cambridge history of India, Vol. I, By E.J. Rapson)

The climate of major portion of Pakistan during the long period of this civilization was different from what it is today. The whole of Indus region was well-forested providing fuel to burn bricks; and Baluchistan, now almost a waterless desert, was rich in rivers. This region supported a sizeable agricultural population which lived in a large number of villages.

The archaeological evidence of continuous occupation of the city sites over centuries shows that continuity of government was somehow assured throughout the long period that its civilization lasted from say 3,000 B.C. to 1,500 B.C.- for over fifteen hundred years. There are strong indications of this culture being deeply religious where tradition was transmitted unimpaired for centuries. The remarkable conservatism and scrupulous preservation of even the details of every-day life for long periods proves that the civilization was theocratic based on religion and ideology. It would not be far wrong to call it an ideological state. That was Pakistan 5,000 years ago.

“In the hymns of the Rigveda, the invasion constantly assumes the form of an onslaught upon the walled cities of the ‘aborigines’…… It is not indeed impossible that the name of Harappa itself is concealed in the Hari-Yupia which is mentioned in the Rigveda as the scene of a battle.” (Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka, By Sir Mortimer Wheeler)

However, the Aryans during their stay in Pakistan picked up much from the Indus Civilization which stood them in good stead during their settled life in India. “Aryans entered and Aryanized the middle country of the Ganges Doab after picking up ideas of craftsmen in the Indus Valley and the Baluch borderland.” (Ibid)

According to some authors Chandragupta Maurya and his dynasty were the ghosts of the Harappa Empire. “To the complex pattern of the Indian Middle Ages the ancient urban civilization of the Punjab and the Indus surely contributed not a little. And this was a contribution not only in the sphere of religious speculation or in traditions of ritual and ceremonial observances: The whole character of medieval Hindu society and the structure of its polity and government seem inevitably a reflection of the civilization of Sind and the Punjab. (Ibid)

Some modern historians even link the great Ajanta art to the Indus Valley Civilization because “the Vedic Hindu culture which prevailed before the Buddhistic culture in north India is not known to have had any painting worth the name.” (Indian Culture, By S. Abid Hussain)

The Aryan tribes which occupied Pakistan have been identified as Sivas, Parsas, Kayayas, Vrichivants, Yadus, Anus, Turvasas, Dratyus and Nichyas. The Sivas Aryans had their capital at Sivistan which is supposed to be modern Sehwan.

It may be of interest to mention here that so long as the Aryans stayed in Pakistan, they did not evolve that particular religion called ‘Hinduism’ with its caste system and other taboos. It was only when they crossed the Sutlej and settled in the Gangetic Valley that this abomninable system was evolved. “While settled in the Punjab the Aryans had not yet become Hindu…. The distinctive Brahmanical System appears to have been evolved after the Sutlej had been passed. To the east of Sutlej the Indo-Aryans were usually safe from foreign invasions and free to work out their own rule of life undisturbed. This also explains the absence of Hindu holy cities and temples in Pakistan.” (Oxford history of India, By V.A. Smith, 3rd edition)

“The castes were hardened by the time the Aryans occupied the middle land i.e., the Gangetic Valley and distinguished themselves from their brethern in Sind and the Punjab who were despised by them for not observing the rules of caste …. and for their non-Brahmanical character.” (Sindhi Culture, By U.T. Thakur)

“While the Aryans had by now expanded far into India, their old home in the Punjab, Sind and the north-west was practically forgotten. Later Vedic literature mentions it rarely, and then usually with disparagement and contempt, as an impure land where the Vedic sacrifices are not performed.” (The Wonder that was India, By A.L. Bhasham)

However, the one redeeming point that emerges from the Aryan occupation of Pakistan for over five hundred years from 1,500 B.C. to 1,000 B.C. is that during this entire period this countly again led a separate existence. It had hardly anything to do yet with the rest of the sub-continent and continued the traditions of cultural and political independence inherited from the Indus Valley Civilization. As such, even under Aryan occupation, Pakistan was an independent country separate from India.

“The evidence of the Rig Veda shows that during the centuries when the Aryans were occupying the Punjab and composing the hymns of the Rig Veda, the north-west part of the subcontinent was culturally separate from the rest of India. The closest cultural relations of the Indo-Aryans at that period were with the Iranians, whose language and sacred texts are preserved in the various works known as the Avesta, in inscriptions in Old Persian, and in some other scattered documents. So great is the amount of material common to the Rig Veda Aryans and the Iranians that the books of the two peoples show common geographic names as well as deities and ideas”. (Pakistan and Western Asia, By Prof. Norman Brown)

When the Aryans conquered India and migrated from Pakistan in about 1,000 B.C., the latter country again became independent and did not conform to the system that began to be evolved in the Gangetic Valley by its conquerers. Except for the Rigveda, the remaining three Vedas and other religious books of the Hindus such as Upanishads, Shastras, Aranyakas, Brahmanas, the two epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata etc., on which their social and cultural system rests, were written outside Pakistan.

For the next about five hundred years from 1,000 B.C. to 500 B.C. little is known about Pakistan. Many of the Aryans had left this country (and many remained) and the only point clear is that these areas had again become independent, were averse to the religious system evolved by the Aryans in India, leading to a rift between the two. The Aryans were extremely unhappy at this revolt by the people of Pakistan and had begun to despise and abhor them placing them outside their fold.

Vincent Smith says: “although the exact limits of the Indian satrapy under Darius cannot be determined.. it must have comprised the course of the Indus from Kalabagh to the sea, including the whole of Sind, and perhaps included a considerable portion of the Punjab east of Indus.”

“We know nothing certain about the fate of this region until the latter half of the 6th century B.C. when Gandhara (Peshawar in the NWFP and Rawalpindi region in the Punjab) together with the province of Indus were included in the Persian Empire of the Achaemenids.” (the Cambridge History of India, Vol.I, Edited by E.J. Rapson)

“It seems that Darius I held the entire course of the Indus from the Upper Punjab to the Arabian Sea and some land to the east of the river how far east is not known, but most authorities seem to think that he had the sections of Sind west of the Rajputana Desert and had penetrated into the Punjab beyond the Indus.

“The one generalization we can make is that politically the north-west was again separate from central, northern, and eastern India. The fact seems clearly to have facilitated the invasion of Alexander and to have contributed to the cultural divergence between the north-west and the rest of the subcontinent in the centuries after his time.” (Pakistan and Western Asia, By Prof. Norman Brown).

A Pakistani contingent fought in Xerxes’ army on his expedition to Greece. Herodotus mentions that the Indus satrapy supplied cavalry and chariots to the Persian army. He also mentions that the Indus people were clad in armaments made of cotton, carried bows and arrows of cane covered with iron. Herodotus states that in 517 B.C. Darius sent an expedition under Scylax to explore the Indus.

As part of the Persian Empire, Pakistan had a flourishing economy; inter-regional trade developed considerably and several caravan cities sprang up. Charsadda on the Peshawar road and Taxila near Rawalpindi were supposed to have been two of the many centres of trade and intellectual activity during the pax-Persica of the latter half of the 6th century B.C.

“The materials available to the scholar today indicate that the northwestern part of the sub-continent was an economically advanced province in the last centuries of the first millennium B.C. to the early first millennium of our era. Herodotus describes the Indians inhabiting the part of the sub-continent under the Achaemenids as the most numerous of all peoples known to him, a people who “paid (to the Achaemenids) a tribute which was great in Comparison to the others.” (The Peoples of Pakistan, By Yu. V. Gankovsky)

As such, as part of the Achaemenian Empire she became involved in Middle East politics. Since Darius had defeated the Greeks extending the western frontiers of his Empire up to River Danube, and since Pakistani troops had participated in this campaign and in another war against Greece under Xerxes (486-465 B.C.), when Alexander came out to take revenge for his country’s previous defeats he made it a point to attack and annex Pakistan. The fact that Pakistan was part of the Persian Empire till Alexander’s time is proved by the call which Darius III, the last of the Achaemenian dynasty was able to issue to troops of the md us satrapy when making his final stand at Arbela to resist the Greek invasion of Persia by Alexander. According to the historian, Arrian, some of the forces of Indus people were grouped with their neighbours, the Bactrians and the Sogdians, under the command of the satrap of Bactria at Arbela against Alexander.

An important point to be noted here is that even during the period Pakistan was under the Achaemenian Empire from the time of Darius, about 500 B.C. to the arrival of Alexander in 327 B.C., i.e., a span of almost two hundred years, it enjoyed complete autonomy. Its administration was under several local rulers (rajas) who merely acknowledged the suzerainty of the Persians. During the last days of the Achaemenians when the monarchy had become decadent autonomy was asserted to a still greater extent.

“Alexander’s invasion of the Punjab (326/27-325) is sometimes mentioned as marking the beginning of Greek influence upon the sub-continent. Though this statement is in a sense true, it is probably more accurate to say that because the Achaemenian empire included the north-west and Alexander took it over in conquering that empire, it was natural that Hellenism, on developing in that Empire after Alexander’s time, should enter the North-West. (Pakistan and Western Asia, By Prof. Norman Brown)

Since Alexander was determined to reach the eastern-most limits of the Persian Empire he could not resist the temptation to conquer Pakistan, which at this time was parcelled out into small chieftain- ships, who were feudatories of the Persian Empire. Alexander entered Pakistan from the northern route at Swat but was given a tough fight by the local forces in which he himself is said to have been injured. Next, he reached Indus which was crossed at a place called Ohind, fifteen miles above Attock. The first local ruler he encountered was that of Taxila, Raja Ambhi, with his territories lying between Indus and Jhelum. This raja, because of the geographical position ofhis kingdom, kept himself well informed of developments across Indus and beyond, and was shrewd and pragmatic in his approach. Having received the information that the Achaemenian Emperor Darius III was ignominously defeated by Alexander and that entire Iran had been over-run and devastated by his armies, Ambhi considered it prudent to conclude peace with the Greek dictator. Alexander was extended a glorious welcome at Taxila where he stayed for some time and held discussions with the learned people of the city. He was so pleased with the raja that he confirmed the latter as ruler of the area and gave him costly presents.

Further east, however, Alexander’s advance was halted by the famous Raja Porus who inflicted considerable losses on the Greek forces. Porus was the ruler of territories east of Jhelum. The local armies fought valiantly and but for some tactical mistakes might have won the war. In spite of the defeat, Porus was confirmed as ruler in his principality in recognition of his prowess and patriotism. Moreover, Alexander did not want to antagonise the local people and rulers in view of their potentialities and also in view of his own limited resources. “It is clear from classical accounts of Alexander’s campaign that the Greeks were not unimpressed by what they saw in India (i.e. Sindhu or Indus Valley or Pakistan — ancient India was in Pakistan region, not present day India). They much admired the courage of the Indian (Pakistani) troops, the austerity of the ascetics whom they met at Taxila and the purity and simplicity of the tribes of the Punjab and Sind The Greeks were impressed by the ferocity with which the women of some of the Punjab tribes aided their menfolk in resisting Alexander.” (The Wonder that was India, By A.L. Bhasham)

“The Greeks who were much impressed by the high stature of the men in the Punjab acknowledged that in the art of war they were far superior to the other nations by which Asia was at that time inhabited. The resolute opposition of Porus consequently was not to be despise.” (The Oxford History of India, By V.A. Smith)

Alexander went up to the bank of the Beas somewhere near Gurdaspur where his army, according to historians, refused to move further. What- ever the immediate cause, by reaching Beas Alexander had almost touched the eastern-most frontier of the traditional boundaries of Pakistan and accomplished his mission. It was but logical that he should return. He came down through the entire length of Pakistan, crossed the Hub River near Karachi and departed for home dying on the way. It should not be overlooked that during his 10-month stay in Pakistan and during his movements from one end to the other he did not have smooth sailing. He had to fight small rulers almost everywhere in the N.W.F.P., Punjab and Sind. The Mallois of Mullistan (Multan) inflicted considerable losses on his forces.

Alexander’s invasion of this area and the extent of his journey again boldly highlight the fact that Pakistan’s present boundaries were almost the same in those days. From Hindu Kush, Dir and Swat to the banks of the Beas and down to Karachi – this entire area was one single geographical, political and cultural bloc under the suzerainty of the Persians. It will also be recalled that this was the same area as covered by the Indus Valley Civilization which continued to remain separate from India through the ages. Alexander’s halt and return from the bank of the Beas is not without significance in this context. “The sphere of Persian influence in these early times can hardly have reached beyond the realm of the Indus and its affluents. We may assume, accordingly, that when Alexander reached the river Hyphasis, the ancient vipac, and modern Beas, and was then forced by his generals and soldiers to start upon his retreat, he had touched the extreme limits of the Persian dominion over which he had triumphed throughout.” (The Cambridge History of India, Vol.1, Edited by E.J. Rapson)

The redeeming feature of this period that stands out distinctly is that Pakistan, again, was NOT a part of India and was affiliated to a western power. We have seen that whether during (a) the Indus Valley Civilization 3000 B.C. – 1500 B.C. or (b) during the period of Aryan settlement 1500 B.C. – 1000 B.C. or (c) during the half a millennium period after further Aryan migrations eastward 1000 B.C. – 500 B.C. or (d) during its affiliation with the Achaemenian Empire 500 – 325 B.C., Pakistan was all along a separate entity having nothing to do with India. The period covered by these four chapters of its history is from 3000 B.C. to 325 B.C., i.e., about two thousand seven hundred years.

The immediate impact of Alexander’s invasion on Pakistan was faint and inconsequential. The long-term and indirect effects, however, were of considerable importance which shall be discussed at a later stage. Here we shall pick up the thread of political history and follow the destiny of this area immediately after Alexander’s departure.

Mauryan rule, however, did not last long. Pakistan’s ties with India were severed barely a hundred years later in about 200 BC when the Greek King Demetrius, already in control of the areas beyond Hindu Kush with his capital at Bactria (Balkh in northern Afghanistan), pounced upon Pakistan at the very first opportunity. Within a few years (190-180 BC) Demetrius took over a considerable portion of the Indus basin. This ushered in the golden period of Graeco-Bactrians who had their capital in Taxila. This new state also embraced almost the whole of present day Pakistan within its eastern boundary extending up to Sutlej; had an independent existance and again looked westward having hardly anything to do with India. The greatest Graeco-Bactrian king was Menander who was a Buddhist and ruled from 160-140 BC.

“The expansive policy of Bactria’s Hellenistic rulers, who had conquered more peoples than Alexander himself, resulted in the establishment in the north-western part of the sub-continent, of the so-called Indo-Greek Kingdom stretching from Kashmir to the coast of the Arabian Sea. According to Strabon’s testimony, the Indo-Greek kings in the south possessed the lower reaches of the Indus and the Saurashtra. The most powerful of them was Menander (mid-second century B.C.) a master of sea ports, mines, cities and custom-houses” (The Peoples of Pakistan, By Yu. V. Gankovsky).

“It is Hellenism that became the ideological form and justification of this process under the concrete historical conditions existing in the northwestern part of the subcontinent in the middle of the later half of the first millennium B.C. This was largely due to the age-old political as well as economic ties between the territories of the Indus Basin and the countries of Western Asia. These ties became especially strong after Alexander the Great’s campaign and reached their climax (in the antiquity) at the turn of our era. The local aristocracy, as G.F. Ilian points out, “seems to have been gravitating more to the countries west and north west of Taxila than to the countries to the south of it, both economically and, by tradition, politically. This is attested, among other things by the numerous rebellion raised here against Mauryan rule.

“At the same time the Milindapanha (1,2) describes the West Punjab as “the country of the Yonana,” because in the time of Menander the Hellenized members of the local aristocracy and the descendants of the Graeco-Macedonian invaders constituted here the ruling substratum of slave owning society.

“The top of society harboured the Greek language: by the testimony of Philostratus Fraotes, King of Taxila (the latter half of the first century A.D.) spoke Greek fluently. It is in Greek, as Strabon states, that the message of the Indus (Pakistan) King Por to the Roman Emperor Augustus (27 B.C. to A.D. 14) was composed. Some scholars hold that Greek was fostered as a living tongue at the court of the Saka rulers in North-West sub-continent (i.e. Pakistan).

“The northern Southasian contingents supplied by Alexander the Great and his successors into their armies seem to have become hellenized much earlier than other sections of the population. Indigenous troops were armed with Macedonian weapons and trained by Macedonian methods. Hellenization worked on the offspring of intermarriages between Macedonian soldiers and Asiatic women, as well as on the population of numerous cities founded or re-built by the Graeco-Macedonian invaders. These cities were populated with Graeco-Macedonian soldiers unable for further service and with local dwellers. Thus according to Diodorus, Alexander recruited 10,000 peoples to inhabit a city he had founded in the Lower Indus. Seleucus Nicator carried on town construction too; he built many towns all over his vast kingdom, including “Alexandropolis in the land of the Indus” (The Peoples of Pakistan, By Yu. V. Gankovsky).

Pakistan began to receive many waves of Sakas and Parthians. In the next stage beginning from 1st century B.C. wave after wave of the people such as the Kushans, the White Huns and the Gujjars also began to settle in Pakistan. In the course of time, all of these groups constituted an overwhelmingly predominant element of its population. This composition continues to this day. These waves were so large and cataclysmic that everything was sub-merged in it or absorbed by it. The waves of Sakas were so enormous and their settlements so vast that Pakistan came to be known to Greek geographers as Scythia and in Indian literature as Saka-dipa.

The first three Saka kings of Pakistan were Maues, Azes I and Azilises. Their numerous coinages are, almost without exception, copied from those of their Yavana (Greek) predecessors. As regards language and culture, the Sakas mostly adopted those of the Pahlavas or Parthians of Iran. In fact at a later stage Saka-dipa (Pakistan) was ruled by Pahlava princes. The most well-known of them was Gondopharnes whose capital was Taxila. During his reign (20-48 A.D.) St. Thomas, according to early ecclesiastical legends, preached Christianity in his dominions.

“Of the political history of this period a great deal is still in suspense. The leaders of the Sakas in the Indus basin seem to have first acknowledged the power of the local Greek Indian rulers. It is not until a few decades later that they felt themselves strong enough to lay claim to supreme suzerainship. Ghandara became the centre of the Saka domains, and the eastern Capital city of Taxila was chosen by the Saka king Mavak (Maues or Mauakes in the ancient authors, and Moga in early Indian sources) in the middle of the first century B.C. as its residence. Mavak’s successors propagated their power over a considerable part of the Punjab.

“In the north-west in the Punjab, however, the Saka leaders’ hold was shortlived. The dynasty founded by Mavak was overthrown by the Parthians as early as the beginning of the first century of our era.

“In the Western Punjab, Upper Sind and Derajat, a number of warring rulers related to the Surens, a Parthian clan controlling the eastern areas of Iran, held sway. The Parthian Kings, who keep ousting one another, rule over this country” (The Peoples of Pakistan, By Yu.V.Gankovsky).

The Kushans overthrew the Saka-Parthian princes and established an empire which became one of the world’s greatest and most distinguished both from the point of view of territory as well as cultural and religious achievements. The Kushan ruler who Conquered Pakistan was Vima Kadphises who was succeeded in about 78 A.D. by Kanishka. The Kushan rule, however, did not completely eliminate the Sakas from Pakistan. They had permanently settled down in these areas in large numbers and continued to be governed by their princes who merely extended allegiance to the Kushan kings.This is proved by the Sue Vihara inscription in the Bahawalpur Division which is dated in the regnal year of Kanishka 11(89 A.D.). Even the era said to have been founded by Kanishka in 78 A.D. was known as Saka Era. “There is evidence to show that they (Sakas) still governed their own states, no doubt as feudatories more or less nominal of the Kushans” (Cambridge History of India, Vol.1, edited by E.J. Rapson).

The Kushans, with their capital at Purushapura (Peshawar) had their dominions on both sides of the Hindu Kush i.e., extending up to and including parts of Turkistan in the north-west, embracing the whole of modern Afghanistan, and in the east the entire Pakistan and major portion of northern India. The greatest ruler of the dynasty, Kanishka, had adopted Buddhism and it was during his period that both Buddhist religion and Greek art reached their zenith which is known under the nomenclature of Gandhara Civilization. It was again during his regime and because of his efforts that Buddhism spread in Central Asia and China. This period is regarded as the most important in the history of Buddhism.

The budding and blossoming of Gandhara art was not a new phenomena in Pakistan’s history as this land had given birth to several such brilliant civilizations since pre-historic times beginning with Indus Valley Civilizadon. Judeiro Daro and Shahi Tump in Baluchistan; Moenjo Daro, Kot Diji, Amri, Chanhu Daro, and Sehwan in Sind; Harappa, Sari Kola and Taxila in the Punjab, Takht-i-Bahi and Mingora in NWFP have been seats of learning and art, centres of great religious activity and pivots of political power. It may be pointed out that Sari Kola in Pindi Division (3000 B.C.), Kot Diji in Khairpur Division (2800 B.C.) and Amri in Dadu District (3000 B.C.) are all pre-Indus Valley civilizations.

“When the great monarch Kanishka actively espoused the cause of Buddhism and essayed to play the part of a second Ashoka, the devotion of the adherents of the favoured creed received an impulse which speedily resulted in the copious production of artistic creations of no small merit.

“In literature the memory of Kanishka is associated with the names of the eminent Buddhist writers Nagarjuna, Asvaghosha and Vasumitra. Asvaghosha is described as having been a poet, musician, scholar, religious controversialist and zealous Buddhist monk. Charaka, the most celebrated of the early Indian authors treating of medical science, is reputed to have been the court physician of Kanishka.

“Architecture, with its subsidiary art of sculpture, enjoyed the liberal patronage of Kanishka, who was like Ashoka a great builder. The tower at Peshawar built over the relics of Buddha and chiefly constructed of timber stood 400 feet high. The Sirsukh section of Taxila hides the ruins of the city built by Kanishka. A town in Kashmir, still represented by a village bore the King’s name” (Oxford History of India, by V.A. Smith).

A unique feature of Kanishka’s empire was that with the capital at Peshawar its frontiers touched the borders of all the great civilizations of the time, while its Central Asian provinces lay astride the Roman Middle East-Chinese trade routes. Roman Empire during the days of Trajan and Hadrian (98-138 A.D.) had expanded furthest East almost touching Pakistan’s Kushan Empire. Similarly, Kanishka’s conquests had brought Khotan,Yarkand and Kashgar within Pakistan’s jurisdiction effecting direct contact with China. This was one of the most important factors in providing impetus to art and architecture, science and learning in Pakistan. The best specimen of Graeco-Roman art discovered in and around Peshawar, Swat and Taxila belong to this period, mostly executed during the 2nd century A.D. in the reigns of Kanishka and his son Huvishka. The Kushans exchanged embassies with the Chinese as well as the Romans. Mark Antony had sent ambassadors, and the Kushans sent a return embassy to the court of Augustus “In the middle of the first century of our era, one of the Tokhari princes belonging to the Kushans, Kujula Kadphises, unified the dispersed Tokhari principalities. As he grew stronger, the leader of the Kushans extended his suzerainship to the lands south of the Hindu Kush, in the Kabul Basin and on the Upper Indus. Kujula Kadphises’s successors, the most prominent of whom was Kanishka (circa A.D. 78-120) kept on the expansive policy of his subcontinent (Kashmir, the Punjab and Sind). The rulers of Gujrat, Rajasthan and the states lying in the Ganges-Jumna doab were the vassals of the Kushan kings. The Kushan kings also held control of the territory of the present day Afghanistan, Kashgar, Khotan, Yarkand and the southern areas of Middle Asia. Gandhara i.e., the territory lying in the valleys of the Kabul and the Middle Indus, became the centre of a vast empire. The city of Purushapura (the present-day Peshawar) is known to have been the capital of Kanishka.

“The Kushan empire dissolved in the third century of our era. The Iranian shahs of the Sassanid dynasty took in the western territories. Various dynasties of Middle Asia took hold of the lands north of the Hindu Kush” (The Peoples of Pakistan, By Yu.V.Gankovsky).

After ruling for over two hundred years from the middle of the 1st century A.D. to the middle of the 3rd century A.D. the Kushan Empire collapsed. Already, a few decades earlier, its frontiers had shrinked to those of Pakistan having shed the territories beyond Hindu Kush in Central Asia and eastward of Sutlej in India. The final blow was administered by Shahpur I, the head of a new dynasty of Sassanians that had emerged in Iran in 226 A.D. after a long period of anarchy prevailing for over 500 years since Alexander had eliminated the Achaemenians. “Shahpur I clearly includes in his Empire the greater part of Pakistan. Shahpur’s son Narses had been made Shah of Seistan, Baluchistan and Sind and the seashore i.e., Pakistan and a bit more” (Pakistan in early Sassanian times, By M. Sprengling).

But this time Iran could not keep its sway over Pakistan for long. Though defeated, Kushans continued to rule over Pakistan for a considerably long period with the smaller kingdoms still retained by the redoubtable Sakas—both being Central Asian tribes. It seemed that ethnically and politically the Central Asian elements had become a permanent feature of Pakistan. Strong Kushan-Saka dynasties continued to exist in Kabul and Pakistan until another great event in the history of this area i.e., the Hun invasions in the 5th century A.D.—–some principalities survived even till the Arab conquest.

An important development had taken place in the neighbouring Country of India a little earlier which deserves our attention. Buddhism, which was on the decline from the 3rd century A.D. onward was overthrown by Hinduism reasserting its lost hegemony. This process culminated with the coming into power of the Guptas by the end of the 4th century A.D. A point of considerable significance to be noted here is that though the Gupta Empire is considered one of the most glorious in the annals of Hindu history covering a vast area of this sub-continent, yet it could not bring Pakistan under its tutelage. During the Gupta period, Pakistan was in the hands of Kushan Shahis and Sassanians. Even during Samudragupta’s triumphal career this region remained independent of India. “Samudragupta did not attempt to carry his arms across the Sutlej or to dispute the authority ofthe Kushan kings who continued to rule in and beyond the Indus basin…… Gupta Empire—the greatest in India since the days of Ashoka-extended in the north to the base of the mountains, but did not include Kashmir” (Oxford History of India).

The mass immigration of Huns and Gurjaras extending over the 5th and the 6th centuries constitutes a turning point in the history of Pakistan and of northern India both politically and socially. Politically because henceforth, till the arrival of Muslims, they were the ruling class in Pakistan and in most of northern India. Socially because the origin of majority of the tribes of Pakistan and those of Rajputana is traceable to them. “No authentic family or class traditions go back beyond the Hun invasion. All genuine tradition of the earlier dynasties has been absolutely lost. The history of the Mauryas, Kushans and Guptas, so far as it is known has been recovered labourously by the researches of scholars, without material help from living tradition.” (Ibid). Many of Afghan-Pathan tribes and most of the Rajput and Jat clans of the Punjab and Sind are, according to modern scholars, descended from the Epthalites i.e., White Huns.

There was a period of confusion forming the transition from one age to another. Pakistan and north India had left the Early Period of history and entered what is generally termed as the Medieval Period. During the transition the hordes of foreign invaders were gradually absorbed into the Hindu body politic and new grouping of states began to evolve. This period was marked by the development of the Rajput clans never heard of in earlier times. They began to play highly prominent role after the death of Harsha so much so that the 500-year period from the 7th century A.D. to the 12th century A.D. (i.e., till the arrival of Muslim Turks) may be called the Rajput period.

The Hun invasions and their consequences broke the chain of historical tradition. Living clan traditions rarely if ever go back beyond the 8th century and few go as far. The existing clan-castes only began to be formed in the 6th century. The Brahmans found their advantage in treating new aristocracy, whatever its social origin, as representing the ancient Kshatriya class of the scriptures, and the novel term Raja-putra or Rajput, meaning king’s son, or member of a ruling family or clan came in use as an equivalent of Kshatriya.” (Oxford History of India).

During this 500-year period, again, Pakistan was under quite independent Rajput kingdoms separate from those of India. Even the Gurjara-Pratihara Empire of northern India which was one of the most important formed during this period did not include Pakistan, not even during the days of its greatest and most powerful king Raja Bhoja. “The rule of the Pratiharas had never extended across the Sutlej, and the history of the Punjab between the 7th and 10th centuries A.D. is extremely obscure.” (Ibid). At some time during this period, a powerful kingdom had been formed in Pakistan which extended from the mountains beyond the Indus, eastwards as far as the Hakra or ‘lost river’ in East Punjab so that it comprised a large part of the NWFP and the Punjab. At the time Mahmud Ghaznavi came into power at the end of the 10th century A.D. this kingdom was still in existence and it was with its ruler Raja Jaipal that he came into clash.

But Mohammad Bin Qasim’s conquests up to Kashmir could not be sustained by Muslims for long. The Umayyad rule had stretched too far straining its nerves and exhausting its resources to the breaking point. From Lisbon in Portugal to Lahore in the Punjab was too long a distance to bear the strains and stresses of communication and administrative control. After Mohammad Bin Qasim’s departure, therefore, Muslim rule shrinked to Sind and southern Punjab. Even in these areas several small non-Muslim kingdoms still held sway. However, from this period (8th century A.D.) onward Pakistan was divided into two parts for a long time; the northern one comprising of the Punjab and NWFP under a non-Muslim Raja and the southern one comprising of Multan, Sind and Baluchistan under various Muslim rulers. This state of affairs continued till 1000 A.D. when Mahmud Ghaznavi appeared on the scene. During this 300-year period also (712 A.D.-1000 A.D.) as can be observed from the above facts, Pakistan had hardly anything to do with India. Both the northern and southern parts were having their own independent governments — the latter owing nominal allegiance te the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphs, again looking westward. We shall discuss the 300 year Arab rule in Pakistan in some detail later on!

The Ghaznavid rule in Pakistan lasted for over hundred and seventy five years from say 1010 A.D. to 1187 A.D. It was during this period that Lahore assumed considerable importance as the eastern-most bastion Muslim power and as an outpost for further advance in the East. It was city of ghazis, saints and intellectuals. Apart from being the second capital and later on the only capital of Ghaznavid kingdom of Pakistan it had a great military and strategic significance. Whoever controlled this city could look forward to and be in a position to sweep the whole of East Punjab to Panipat and Delhi.

Contrary to the general belief that Mahmud Ghaznavi was a Hindu-killer or destroyer of Hindu religious places, he was extremely liberal towards them. His army consisted of a large number of Hindus and some of the commanders of his army were Hindus. Sonday Rai was the Commander of Mahmud’s crack regiment and took part in several important campaigns with him. The coins struck during Mahmud’s reign bore his on the one side and the figure of a Hindu god on the other.

Not only Mahmud Ghaznavi but his successors also were great patrons of Hindus. In fact some of the historians of the early period feel that the main cause of the fall of the Ghaznavid Empire was their excessive reliance on Hindus and the appointment of Hindus to positions of great responsibility. When in 1034 A.D. – 426 A.H., the Governor of Lahore, Ahmed Nial Tagin was suspected of rebellion, Sultan Masud Ghaznavi sent General Nath, a Hindu, to crush him. When Nath was killed in the fighting, Masud sent another of his Hindu generals, Tilak, who succeeded in killing Nial Tagin by treachery. This is the story of the Ghaznavids who are generally considered Hindu-killers.

It may be of interest to note here that Mahmud Ghaznavi’s exploits of Somnath and the destruction of the temple are mentioned only by Muslim historians. No Hindu record, either contemporary or of a later date, makes any mention of it. Unfortunately some Muslim historians had the habit of painting an exaggerated picture of the campaigns of their rulers which was exploited by English and Hindu historians of our own times to present Muslim rulers as destroyers of temples.

So far one of our objects has been to underline the fact that right from the days of the Indus Valley Civilization down to the end of the Ghaznavid rule at the fall of the 12th century A.D. over a period of more than four thousand years, Pakistan has been invariably a single, compact, separate entity either independent or part of powers located to her west; its dependence on or forming part of India was merely an exception and that too for an extremely short period. It was only when the Muslims established themselves at Delhi early in the 13 century A.D. that Pakistan was made a part of India, but not in the pre-Muslim period. And once Muslims’ successors in the sub-continent, the British, relinquished power in the middle of the 20th century, Pakistan reverted to its normal position of an independent country. Indian propaganda that the division of this sub-continent was unnatural and unrealistic is fake and fraudulent. Muslims had joined this region of Pakistan with India in the early 13th century A.D. when the Delhi Sultanate was formed; again Muslims have disconnected it from India giving it the normal and natural form which its geographical, ethnical, cultural and religious identity demanded.

“Barred from the east by desert and jungle, Pakistan in ancient time looked westward by land and sea. Only when, in the middle ages, powerful Islamic armies thrust through into the North Indian plains, was the traditional bias towards the west seriously modified; and even then the Indus region retained close and special cultural links with the lands which we know as Iran and Iraq.” (Ancient trade in Pakistan, By Sir Mortimer Wheeler).

“Periods during 2500 years of history when the Punjab, which is the most important section of the north-west, has been culturally assimilated to the rest of the sub-continent, or even to North India, are few if any at all. The centuries in which the Punjab and any substantial part of North India have been politically united are also few. It is then no surprise in our time to find Pakistan looking to the West rather than to the East. For that area the strongest ties of international life are the cultural. This is a current manifestation of an ancient tradition.” (Pakistan and Western Asia, By Norman Brown).

During this period of four thousand one hundred and fifty years, Pakistan was ruled by India only during the short 95-year period of Mauryan Empire which, for the greater part, was a Buddhist regime.

In 1739 Nadir Shah attacked India and after defeating the Mughal Emperor Mohammed Shah (Rangeela) claimed Punjab (from Lahore westward), N .W.F.P., Baluchistan and Sind as provinces of his Empire. On the death of Nader Shah one of his generals, Ahmed Shah Abdali estabished the kingdom of Afghanistan in 1747 and made Pakistan part of his newly created state, not only de jure but de facto. He claimed Kashmir, Peshawar, Daman, Multan, Sind and Punjab upto Sutlej. Thus it will be noticed that only a few years after Aurangzeb’s death in 1707 A.D. Pakistan’s westward attachements again revived.

When the Abdali kingdom weakened early in the 19th century due to internecine warfare, Pakistan did not revert to Indian control but instead an independent kingdom arose in Punjab headed by the Sikh leader Ranjit Singh. What is most interesting is that the eastern frontiers of Ranjit Singh’s kingdom, again, did not go beyond Sutlej, the traditional frontier of Pakistan. The British who had established their control over Delhi in 803 warned Ranjit Singh not to try to impose his authority on the Sikh Sardars of East Punjab i.e., beyond Sutlej. As for Sind, from as early as the last days of Aurangzeb, it had begun to assert its independence and a succession of semi-independent dynasties under the Daudpotas, Kalhoras and Talpurs continued to rule over this province till British conquest in 1843 A.D. All these dynasties looked more towards Iran, Kabul and Qandhar than towards Delhi. Same was the case with Baluchistan which was now under the sway of the Khanate of Kalat.

Sikh rule (Sikhism?) lasted for almost half a century and when it collapsed, Pakistan as again brought under India, not by the Hindus but by an alien power, the British. After ruling over Pakistan for about a century (1848-1947) when the British relinquished control, these lands reverted back to their normal position of an independent country— this time the task was accomplished in the name of Islamic ideology since the region had acquired Muslim majority by now.

It must have become quite clear to the readers that except for the Maurya, Turko-Mughal and British periods—- one Buddhist, one Islamic and one Christian—- Pakistan invariably remained independent or part of powers located on her west. In fact there have been more occasions when northern India was ruled by Pakistan based kingdoms than Pakistan being ruled by northern Indian kingdoms. The Graeco Bactrians with their capital at Taxila ruled over a large part of northern India for quite some time; the Kushans with their seat of power at Peshawar held sway over most of the Gangetic Valley. The Sakas and Huns ruling from various cities of Pakistan brought major portion of northern India under their control.

2. Aryan period: 1500-522 B.C. i.e. about 978 yrs. Independent, separate from India.

3. Small semi-independent states: 522-326 B.C. i.e. about 196 yrs. Under the suzerainty of Iran’s Kayani (Achaemenian) Empire.

4. Conquered by Alexander and remained under his successor: 326-300 B.C. i.e. about 26 yrs. Under Greek rulers, not part of India.

5. Province of Mauryan Empire which included Afghanistan: 300-200 B.C. i.e. about 100 yrs. Part of India, mostly Buddhist rule.

6. Graeco-Bactrian period: 200-100 B.C. i.e. about 100 yrs. Independent, not part of India.

7. Saka-Parthian period: 100 B.C.- 70 A.D. i.e. about 170 yrs. Independent, separate from India.

8. Kushan rule (1st phase): 70-250 A.D. i.e. about 180 yrs. Pakistan-based kingdom ruled over major portion of north India.

9. Kushan rule (2nd phase): 250-450 A.D. i.e. about 200 yrs. Independent, separate from India.

10. White Huns and allied tribes (1st phase): 450-650 A.D. i.e. about 200 yrs. Pakistan-based kingdoms ruled over parts of north India.

11. White Huns (2nd phase— mixed with other races): 650-1010 A.D. i.e. about 360 yrs. Independent Rajput-Brahmin Kingdoms, not part of India.

12. Ghaznavids: 1010-1187 A.D. i.e. 177 yrs. Part of Ghaznavid empire, separate from India.

13. Ghorid and Qubacha periods: 1187-1227 A.D. i.e. about 40 yrs. Independent, not part of India.

14. Muslim period (Slave dynasty, Khiljis, Tughlaqs, Syeds, Lodhis, Suris and Mughals): 1227-1739 A.D. i.e. about 512 yrs. Under north India based MUSLIM govts.

15. Nadir Shah and Abdali periods: 1739-1800 A.D. i.e. about 61 yrs. Iranian and Afghan suzerainty, not part of India.

16. Sikh rule (in Punjab, NWFP and Kashmir), Talpur rule in Sind, Khanate of Kalat in Baluchistan: 1800-1848 A.D. i.e. about 48 yrs. Independent states, not part of India.

17. British rule: 1848-1947 A.D. i.e. about 99 yrs (1843-1947 in Sind). Part of India under FOREIGN rule.

18. Muslim rule under the nomenclature of Pakistan: 1947-present. Independent, not part of India.

The above table reveals that during the 5000 years of Pakistan’s known history, this country was part of India for a total period of 711 yrs of which 512 yrs were covered by the MUSLIM period and about 100 years each by the Mauryan (mostly BUDDHIST) and British (CHRISTIAN) periods. Can anybody agree with the Indian ‘claim’ that Pakistan was part of India and that partition was unnatural? It hardly needs much intelligence to understand that Pakistan always had her back towards India and face towards the countries on her west. This is true both commercially and culturally.