Quotes about Pashtuns

[Marwat Khan Lodhi]

Edward E. Oliver's says "The Pathan is undoubtedly brave to rashness, sets no value upon life, either his own or anyone else's. Trained from youth to feats of strength, endowed with wonderful power of endurance, he commands the most Englishmen".


the Hon Mount Stuart Elphinstone wrote, "The Pathans are fond of liberty, faithful to their friends, kind to their dependents, hospitable, brave, hardy, frugal, laborious and prudent".

 

[Sinnerman108]

Please post more quotes.

 

[Alpha1]

“Pukhtoon with love will
accompany you to the hell but
with force not even to the
heaven”--Bacha Khan
................
"The only thing we'll every
agree on is that we will never
agree on anything."--Bacha
Khan
..............
"The Pashtun tribes are always
engaged in private or public
war. Every man is a warrior, a
politician and a theologian Every
large house is a real feudal
fortress....Every family cultivates
its vendetta; every clan, its
feud.... Nothing is ever forgotten
and very few debts are left
unpaid." --Winston Churchill
.................
"Pashtun is not merely a race
but, in fact, a state of mind;
there is a Pashtun lying inside
every man, who at times wakes
up and overpowers him."--
Ghani Khan
...............
"The Pashtuns are a rain-sown
wheat: they all came up on the
same day; they are all the same.
But the chief reason why I love
a Pashtuns is that he will wash
his face and oil his beard and
perfume his locks and put on
his best pair of clothes when he
goes out to fight and die."--
Ghani Khan
..................
H.W. Bellew says "The pride of
the Pashtun is a marked feature
of their national character. They
eternally boast of their descent,
their prowess in arms and their
independence and cap it all by
"am I not a Pashtun."
.................
Colonel 'Buster' Goodwin
stationed for twenty years on
the Frontier expresses his
feelings about Pashtuns this
way:
"Our dealing with Pashtuns was
a gentleman's game. No matter
how poor a Pashtun was, he
might meet the King of England
or the Viceroy of India but he'd
look him in the eye and shake
hands with him as if to say, I'm
as good a man as you are."
.......................
A Pakhtun leader once told
Elphinstone "We are content
with discord; we are content
with alarms; we are content
with blood; but we never will be
content with a master".
..........................
Elphinstone wrote, "The Pathans
are fond of liberty, faithful to
their friends, kind to their
dependents, hospitable, brave,
hardy, frugal, laborious and
prudent".

 

[Marwat Khan Lodhi]

George W. Gilbertson in the preface to 'First Pukkhtoo Book' (1901) says:
"He (a Pathan) is withal a proud man, prone to meet scorn with scorn, and ever ready to return blow for blow.”


...............................


Pride of race, consciousness of natural rights and intolerance of injustice are the remarkable traits of the Pakhtun character.

H.W. Bellew says "The pride of the Pathan is a marked feature of their national character. They eternally boast of their descent, their prowess in arms and their independence and cap it all by "am I not a Pakhtun."
......................................................................




Colonel 'Buster' Goodwin stationed for twenty years on the Frontier expresses his feelings about Pathans this way:

"Our dealing with Pathans was a gentleman's game. No matter how poor a Pathan was, he might meet the King of England or the Viceroy of India but he'd look him in the eye and shake hands with him as if to say, I'm as good a man as you are."

...............................


Weighing a Pathan against an Englishman for their valor in 'The Ballad of East and West', Kipling exclaims:
"Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face,
Though they come from the ends of the earth!'"

 

[Marwat Khan Lodhi]

...............................


"He is not a Pathan who does not give a blow for a pinch."

.................................

"The warlike Pathans [or Pathan, Pukhtun or Pushtun] form one of the world's largest tribal societies (about 16 million) and are divided into numerous sub-tribes and clans.... The Pathan hill tribes all have a passion for freedom and independence, and defend their territory and honor against all invaders. They are fearless guerilla fighters who know the hills and valleys intimately, are crack shots and wear clothes that blend with their surroundings (khaki is a local word meaning 'dusty, and it was as a result of the wars in this region that the British army abandoned its bright red uniforms for the inconspicuous dust-colored khaki). No one has ever managed to subdue or unite them: the Mughals, Sikhs, British and Russians have all suffered defeat at their hands."

..........................


"The Pukhtunwali (the Way of the Pukhtuns) is an inflexible ethical code by which all true Pathans traditionally abide. Pukhtunwali requires that every insult be revenged and, conversely, every guest protected. To safeguard his honor, o the honor of his family or clan, a Pathan will sacrifice everything, including his money and his life. He will return even t he slightest insult with interest

......................................

"Tales of the dangers of the Khyber Pass and the legendary ferocity of the Pathans stirred the English imagination and evoked scenes of gallant soldier defending the might of the Raj against the equally gallant but merciless Pahatns.... Nonetheless, if the British exacted revenge by razing whole villages to the ground, the Pathans retaliated with ambushes and slaughter, and even mutilated wounded enemies."

 

[Marwat Khan Lodhi]

.........................................

Alexander wrote a letter to his mother,

while in fight with pakhtuns in arachosia (now kandahar) and said,
” I am involved in the land of leonine (lion-like) and brave people,
where every foot of the ground is like a well of steel,
confronting my soldiers.
You have brought only one son into the world ,
but every one in this land can be called an Alexander.

..............................

For generations, the Hindus of India prayed for deliverance from "the venom of the cobra, the teeth of the tiger and the vengeance of the Afghan."

 

[Marwat Khan Lodhi]

........................

"Some people spend all their lives trying to be perfect... others are just born pashtun" - Sara Afridi“

 

[Marwat Khan Lodhi]

........................

Former Russian commander Gen Ruslan Aushev said to NATO in 2006,

"You will flee from there. Many have fought in Afghanistan; first and foremost, the British fought there in the 19th century. The astonishing thing today is that Nato and the coalition seem to have learnt nothing, neither from their own experience nor from our experience.The Afghan resistance is, in my opinion, growing. Such behaviour on the part of the intractable Afghans is to my mind understandable. It is conditioned by centuries of tradition… geography, climate and religion. We saw over a period of many years how the country was torn apart by civil war… But in the face of outside aggression, Afghans have always put aside their differences and united. Evidently, the coalition forces have also been seen as a threat to the nation"

 

[Marwat Khan Lodhi]

...........................................

The Pashtun tribes are always engaged in private or public war. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian. Every large house is a real feudal fortress....Every family cultivates its vendetta; every clan, its feud.... Nothing is ever forgotten and very few debts are left unpaid." --Winston Churchill

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]

A Pathan is a Muslim 1st and Muslim last ............. Maulana Abdul Star Khan

 

[cleverrider]

“A Pashtun’s violent nature, strong body and tender heart make a very unstable combination for living, but an ideal one for poetry, love and color.”

Ghani Khan

Edward E. Oliver's evidence of Pakhtun character is worth quoting.

Edward E. Oliver's says "The Pathan is undoubtedly brave to rashness, sets no value upon life, either his own or anyone else's. Trained from youth to feats of strength, endowed with wonderful power of endurance, he commands the most Englishmen".

 

[cleverrider]

Pukhtons regard hospitality as a "sacred duty and safety of the guest as inviolable"

In 'Memoirs of a Junior Officer' (1951) M.C.A. Henniker, whose company was engaged in building a blockhouse or a miniature fort on a hill-top overlooking the Khyber Pass, writes:
"A curious thing was the water supply for the Block Houses. This came by a pipe-line laid over the hills from the pumping station below. The pipe could have been easily cut by the Pathans, but this was never done. They considered rules as necessary in warfare as we did. Cutting the water pipes of the Raj would be as immoral as the use by us of poison gas."


In the book “Lost Tribes from Assyria” by A Avihail
“The Pathans are known for their physical strength. They are tall, light-coloured and handsome, good soldiers and for the most part bear arms from a young age. They are diligent and intelligent, faithful to an exemplary degree and are known in the world as outstanding hosts.”

 

[Marwat Khan Lodhi]

" Women in Pashtun society enjoy more security in every respect than their sisters in other South Asian societies. The lady of the house is virtual queen in her domain and many fire-breathing male members of the family are at their best behavior in front of the older females especially grandmothers and aunts. the Pashtun women are formidable characters, which they have to be for survival in an unforgiving environment" - S.Iftikhar hussain

 

[Safriz]

Edward E. Oliver's says "The Pathan is undoubtedly brave to rashness, sets no value upon life, either his own or anyone else's. Trained from youth to feats of strength, endowed with wonderful power of endurance, he commands the most Englishmen".

TOTALLY AGREED

 

[Marwat Khan Lodhi]

NWFP governor Sir Olaf Careo said "Wazir is like a leopard while Mehsud is a wolf"