Hazaras
A Hazara boy in Mazar-e Sharif
Total population
ca. 3.5 to 4 million
Regions with significant populations
Afghanistan 2,870,000 (est. 9% of total) 1  Iran 283,000 (not including post 1979 war refugees) 2  Pakistan 197,000 23  Canada 4,330 4
Languages
Persian (Hazaragi and Dari dialects)
Religion
Islam (predominantly Shi'a)
Related ethnic groups
Iranian peoples, Aimak, Mongols, Oirats, and Uyghurs

The Hazāra (Persian: هزاره) are a Persian-speaking people residing in the central region of Afghanistan (referred to as Hazarajat) and northwestern Pakistan. The Hazara are predominantly Shia Muslims and are the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, comprising 9% of the population. Hazaras can also be found in large numbers in neighboring Iran and Pakistan, primarily as refugees, and as diaspora around the world.

Origins

Etymology

The name of the Hazara people derives from the Persian word hazār, which means "thousand". The term originally was used to refer to the Mongol military unit of 1,000 but was later applied to a distinct group of people.⁵

Origin theories

One theory of the origins of the Hazaras is that they are descended from Mongolians. Other theories are that they are native to the region or are of mixed origin.⁶

At least partial Mongol descent is difficult to reject, because the Hazaras' physical attributes and parts of their culture and language resemble that of the Mongolians. Thus, it is widely accepted that Hazaras do have Mongolian ancestry, if not being direct male-line descendants of Genghis Khan, as some Hazaras consider themselves to be.⁷ A Mongol element in the ancestry of the Hazara is supported by studies in genetic genealogy, which have identified a particular lineage of the Y-chromosome characteristic of people of Mongolian descent ("the Y-chromosome of Genghis Khan"). This chromosome is virtually absent outside the limits of the Mongol Empire except among the Hazara people, where it reaches its highest frequency anywhere. About two thirds of the sample Hazara males carry a Y chromosome from this lineage.⁸⁹ Additionally, some Hazara tribes are named after notable Mongol generals, including the Tulai Khan Hazara named after Tolui, the youngest son of Genghis Khan. The theories of Mongol descent or partial Mongol descent, are further strengthened given that the Il-Khanate Mongol rulers, beginning with Oljeitu, embraced Shia Islam. Today, almost all Hazaras adhere to Shiism, whereas Afghanistan's other ethnic groups are mostly Sunni.

Another theory proposes that Hazaras are descendants of the Kushans¹⁰, the ancient dwellers of Afghanistan famous for constructing the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Proponents of this view find the location of Hazara homeland and the similarity in the facial features of the Hazaras and those on the frescoes and Buddha's statues in Bamiyan suggestive. However, this belief is vitiated not only by the fact that the Kushans were Indo-European Tocharians, but also by historical records which mention that in a particularly bloody battle around Bamiyan, Genghis Khan's grandson, Mutugen, was killed, and he ordered Bamiyan burnt to the ground in retribution,¹¹ renaming it Ma-Obaliq ("Uninhabitable Abode") while replacing the local population with his armies and settlers.

The third theory maintains that Hazaras are a much more mixed race. The mixed race theory is not entirely inconsistent with descent from Mongol military forces since many of the Mongol allies were from Turkic tribes. According to one version of the mixed origins theory, Nikudari Mongols settled in eastern Persia and mixed with the native populations that spoke various Iranian languages.⁶ Another version suggests that Chaghatai Mongols first came from Central Asia and were followed by other Mongols, Turko-Mongols, Ilkhanates (that were driven out of Persia), and Timurids all of whom settled in Hazarajat and mixed with the local Persian population forming a distinct group.⁶

Genetics

Genetically, the Hazara are primarily a mixture of eastern Eurasian^12131415 and western Eurasian^1213141516 peoples. The genetic research suggests that they are closely related to the Mongols¹⁷ and the Uygurs.¹⁸

History

Emergence of the Hazara

In the late 1500s, the first mention of Hazaras are made by the court historians of Shah Abbas of the Safavid dynasty and by Babur (Emperor of the Mughal Empire) in his Baburnama, referring to the people living from west of Kabul to Ghor, and south to Ghazni.⁶

18th century

In their modern history, Hazaras have faced several wars and forced displacements. Since the beginnings of modern Afghanistan in the mid 18th century, Hazaras have faced persecution from the Pashtuns and have been forced to flee from many parts of today's Afghanistan to Hazarajat.⁶ In the mid 18th century they were forced out of Helmand and the Arghandab basin of Kandahar.⁶ During Dost Mohammad Khan's rule, Hazaras in Bamiyan and the Hazarajat area were heavily taxed. However, for the most part they still managed to keep their regional autonomy in Hazarajat.⁶ This would soon change as the new Emir, Abdur Rahman Khan, was brought to power.

Subjugation by Abdur Rahman Khan

As the new Emir, Abdur Rahman set out a goal to bring Hazarajat under his control. After facing resistance from the Hazaras, he launched several campaigns in Hazarajat with many atrocities and ethnic polarization.⁶ The southern part of Hazarajat was spared as they accepted Abdur Rahman's rule while the other parts of Hazarajat rejected Abdur Rahman and were supporting his uncle Sher Ali Khan and as a result had a war waged against them.⁶

The first Hazara uprising was in 1888. Abur Rahman's cousin, Mohammad Eshaq, revolted against him and the Hazaras joined the revolt. The revolt was short lived and crushed as the Emir extended his control over large parts of Hazarajat. Heavy taxes were imposed and Pashtun administrators were sent to Hazarajat where they subjugated the people with many abuses.⁶ The people were disarmed, villages were looted, local tribal chiefs were imprisoned or executed, and the best lands were confiscated and given to Pashtun nomads (Kuchis).⁶

Another uprising occurred in 1892. The cause of the uprising was the rape of the wife of a Hazara chief by 33 Afghan soldiers. The soldiers had entered their house under the pretext of searching for weapons and raped the chief's wife in front of him.¹⁹ The families of the Hazara chief and his wife retaliated against the humiliation and killed the soldiers and attacked the local garrison where they took back their weapons. Several other tribal chiefs who supported Abdur Rahman now turned against him and joined the rebellion which rapidly spread through the entire Hazarajat. In response to the rebellion, the Emir declared a "Jihad" against the Shiites and raised an army of 40,000 soldiers, 10,000 mounted troops, and 100,000 armed civilians (most of which where Pashtun nomads).¹⁹ He also brought in British military advisers to assist his army.¹⁹

The large army defeated the rebellion at its center, in Oruzgan, by 1892 and the local population was severely massacred. According to S. A. Mousavi,

An enslaved Hazara man in Abdur Rahman's court, pleading for mercy.

In response to the harsh repression, the Hazaras revolted again by early 1893. This revolt had taken the government forces by surprise and the Hazaras managed to take most of Hazarajat back. However even after months of fighting, they were eventually defeated due to a shortage of food. Small pockets of resistance continued to the end of the year as government troops committed atrocities against civilians and deported entire villages.¹⁹

Abdur Rahman's subjugation of the Hazaras during this period gave birth to strong hatred between the Pashtuns and Hazaras for years to come.¹⁹ Massive forced displacements, especially in Oruzgan and Daychopan, continued as lands were confiscated and populations were expelled or fled.¹⁹ Some 35,000 families fled to northern Afghanistan, Mashhad (Iran), Quetta (Pakistan), and even as far as Central Asia. It is estimated that over half the Hazara population was massacred or displaced during Abdur Rahman's campaign against them. Hazara farmers were often forced to give up their property to Pashtuns and as a result many Hazara families had to leave seasonally to the major cities in Afghanistan, Iran, or Pakistan in order to find jobs and a source of income. Pakistan is now home to one of the largest settlements of Hazara particularly in and around the city of Quetta.¹⁹

Hazaras in the 20th century

In 1901, Habibullah Khan, Abdur Rahman's successor, granted amnesty to all people who were exiled by his predecessor. However, the division between the Afghan government and the Hazara people was already made too deep under Abdur Rahman and as a result Hazaras continued to face severe social, economic and political discrimination through most of the 20th century.⁶

Mistrust of the central government continued by the Hazaras and local uprisings also continued. In particular, in the 1940s, during Zahir Shah's rule, a revolt took place against new taxes that were exclusively imposed on the Hazaras.⁶ The Pashtun nomads meanwhile not only were exempted from taxes, but also received allowances from the Afghan government.⁶ The angry rebels began capturing and killing government officials. In response, the central government sent a force to subdue the region and later removed the taxes.

Soviet invasion to the Taliban era

During the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Hazarajat region did not see as much heavy fighting like other regions of Afghanistan. However, rival Hazara political factions had internal conflicts during this period. The division was across the Tanzáim-e nasl-e naw-e Hazara, a party based in Quetta of Hazara nationalists and secular intellectuals, and the pro-Khomeini Islamist parties backed by the new Islamic Republic of Iran.⁶ By 1979, the Iran backed Islamist groups liberated Hazarajat from the central Soviet-backed Afghan government and later these Islamist groups took entire control of Hazarajat away from the secularist groups. By 1984, after severe fighting, the secularist groups lost all their power to the Islamist groups. Later as the Soviets withdrew in 1989, the Islamist groups felt the need to broaden their political appeal and turned their focus to Hazara ethnic nationalism.⁶ This led to establishment of the Hezb-e Wahdat, an alliance of all the Hazara resistance groups (except the Harakat-e Islami). In 1992, with the fall of Kabul, the Harakat-e Islami took sides with Burhanuddin Rabbani's government while the Hezb-e Wahdat took sides with the opposition. The Hezb-e Wahdat was eventually forced out of Kabul by 1995 as the Pashtun Taliban movement treacherously captured and killed their leader Abdul Ali Mazari.

With the Taliban's capture of Kabul in 1996, all the Hazara groups united with the new Northern Alliance against the common new enemy. However, it was too late and despite the fierce resistance Hazarajat fell to the Taliban by 1998. The Taliban had Hazarajat totally isolated from the rest of the world going as far as not allowing the United Nations to deliver food to the provinces of Bamiyan, Ghor, Wardak, and Ghazni.²⁰ During the years that followed, Hazaras suffered severe oppression and many large ethnic massacres were carried out by the predominately ethnic Pashtun Taliban and are documented by such groups as the Human Rights Watch.²¹ These human rights abuses not only occurred in Hazarajat, but across all areas controlled by the Taliban. Particularly after their capture of Mazar-e Sharif in 1998, where after a massive killing of some 8000 civilians, the Taliban openly declared that the Hazaras would be targeted. Mullah Niazi, the commander of the attack and governor of Mazar after the attack, similar to Abdur Rahman Khan over 100 years ago, declared the Shia Hazara as infidels:

Hazaras in post-Taliban Afghanistan

Dr. Sima Samar, an ethnic Hazara, Chairperson of Independent Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, British and American forces attacked Afghanistan and removed the Taliban from power and effectively saved the Hazaras from ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Taliban. Since then, the situation for Hazaras in Afghanistan has changed drastically and has much improved in a very short time. Today, due to the NATO involvement, Hazaras enjoy much more freedom and equality than ever before. Hazaras can now pursue higher education, enroll in the army, and have top government positions.²³ For example, Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, a Hazara from the Hezb-e Wahdat party, was able to run in the 2004 presidential election in Afghanistan. However, discrimination still lingers.²³ A clear indication of such discrimination is the current trend of allocating international help by the Afghan government. Hazarajat historically has been kept from any improvement by past governments. Since ousting the Taliban, there have been several billions of dollars poured into Afghanistan for reconstruction and numerous mega scale reconstruction projects took place in Afghanistan. But effectively a very small portion of international aid was allocated in central regions of Afghanistan Hazarajat.

For example, there have been more than 5000 kilometers of road pavement and construction in Afghanistan, of which almost none happened in central Afghanistan Hazarajat. Another indication of such discrimination is that Kochis (Afghan nomads from western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan) are allowed now to use Hazarajat pastures in summer time. This practice started during the rule of Amir Abdurahman Khan for punishing Hazaras.

Living in mountainous Hazarajat where little farm land exists, Hazara people rely on these pasture lands for their livelihood and survival during long and harsh winters. In 2007 heavily armed Kochis moved into Hazarajat for grazing their livestock, and when the local people resisted, it is reported that they killed several Hazara people, mostly women and kids, looted and burned several villages.^{citation needed} Such a practice happened in 2008, and the government appears to approve this practice by disarming local Hazaras and allowing Kochis to remain heavily armed.^{citation needed} It is also reported that Kochis acted for the Taliban army when they defeated Hazara resistance against Taliban in Hazarajat and massacred the local Hazaras.^{citation needed} Hazaras suspect that Kochis have ties with the Taliban. Kochis like Taliban belong to the Pashtun ethnicity. Traveling with heavy armor and automatic weapons, and using military tactics like Taliban, support this theory.^{citation needed}

Geographic distribution

Diaspora

Alessandro Monsutti argues, in his recent anthropological book²⁴, that migration is in fact the traditional way of life of the Hazara people, referring to the seasonal and historical migrations which have never ceased and do not seem to be dictated only by emergency situations such as war.²⁵

Besides the major populations of Hazaras in Quetta (Pakistan) where many have achieved considerably high positions within the government and police force and Iran, there are significant communities in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and particularly the Northern European countries such as Sweden and Denmark. Many young Hazara are studying in developed countries such as Australia, legally through education or work visas. There are many Afghan Hazara who have migrated to developed countries especially in Australia as refugees. The famous case was the MV Tampa incident in which a shipload of refugees, mostly Hazaras, was rescued by the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa and subsequently sent to Nauru.²⁶ Many refugee claims were rejected by Australia and forwarded to New Zealand, where all claims but one were approved.

Hazaras in Pakistan

Hazara refugees from Afghanistan in Quetta and Peshawar Pakistan, along with their Pakistani Hazara(native, 3rd and 4th generation) brethren, have set up a remittance economy which has led to the opening of foreign money exchange places to handle the currency coming in. In Pakistan most of the Hazaras live in and around the city of Quetta and hold high positions in the government of Balochistan, the federal government, and the Police force. In Pakistan, Hazaras are mostly in business and have high education levels. They are integrated into the local social dynamics of the respective areas they have setled into and operated several successful trades and business. Hazaras are also politically active in Quetta and have a political party known as the Hazara Democratic Party. Other notable Hazara settlements can be found in Karachi, Lahore and more recently in Multan.²⁷ The current Minister of Sports in Balochistan is a Hazara. The most famous Hazara in Pakistan was General Musa Khan, who served as Commander in Chief of the Pakistani Army between 1958 to 1966.

Culture

The Hazara, outside of Hazarajat, have adopted the cultures of the cities where they dwell, and in many cases are quite Persianized. Traditionally the Hazara are highland farmers and although sedentary like the Tajiks, in the Hazarajat, they have retained many of their own customs and traditions, some of which are more closely related to those of Central Asia than to Iran.²⁸²⁹¹⁵ For instance, many Hazara musicians are widely hailed as being skilled in playing the dambura, a lute instrument similarly found in other Central Asian nations such as Uzbekistan and Mongolia. Interestingly, a skilled Hazara dambura musician, Dawood Sarkhosh sang a notably traditional Hazara folk song entitled, "Moghul Dokhtar," Persian for "Mongol Girl."³⁰

Language

Main article: Hazaragi

Hazaras often speak Hazaragi which is a distinctive variety of the Persian language. It is closer to the Persian spoken in Afghanistan than to that spoken in Iran.³¹ The differences include a distinctive accent³² and a significant number of words of Mongolian and Turkic origin.³³³¹ In particular, Hazaragi in the DaiKundi and Dhaizangi (also spelled as Daizangi) regions has a significant admixture of Mongolian influence in the language. Many of the urban Hazaras in the larger cities such as Kabul and Mazari Sharif no longer speak Hazaragi but speak Kaboli or regional varieties of Dari Persian, and in western region of Herat speak in the Khorasani dialect. Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan often include Urdu and English words as part of their language, which they adopted since 1890 when they served in the British Indian Army in regiments such as the 106th Hazara Pioneers.³⁴³⁵

Religion

Hazaras are predominantly Shi'a Muslims, mostly of the Twelver sect.³⁴ Most of Afghanistan are not of the Twelver Shi'a denomination and this fact has probably contributed to the discrimination against the Hazaras.⁵ Some Hazaras are also Shi'as of the Ismaili denomination. Hazaras probably converted from Sunnism to Shi'aism during the reign of the Il-Khanate ruler Oljeitu. Nonetheless, a small number of Hazaras are Sunni,⁵ primarily among the Taimani Hazara and the Hazara Aimaq.³⁶

Hazara tribes

Main article: List of Hazara tribes

The Hazara people have been organized by various tribes. However more recently and since the inclusion of the Hazaras into the "Afghan state", the tribal affiliations have been disappearing and former tribal names (e.g. Besudh, Daykundi, or Jaghori) today more commonly refer to territorial designations.³⁷

Sports

Rohullah Nikpai The 21-year-old Nikpai won a bronze medal in taekwondo in the Beijing Olympics, beating world champion Juan Antonio Ramos of Spain 4-1 in a play-off final. It was Afghanistan's first-ever Olympics medal.

Notes and references

Further reading

• Monsutti, Alessandro (2005). War and migration: Social networks and economic strategies of the Hazaras of Afghanistan. Routledge, New York. ISBN 0-415-97508-5. 
• Mousavi, Sayed Askar (1998). The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study. Richmond, New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-17386-5. 
• Frederiksen, Birthe; Nicolaisen, Ida (1996). Caravans and trade in Afghanistan: The changing life of the nomadic Hazarbuz. Carlsberg Foundation's Nomad Research Project. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01687-9. 
• Poladi, Hassan (1989). The Hazāras. Stockton, California: Mughal Publishing Company. ISBN 0-929824-00-8. 
• Kakar, M. Hasan (1973). The pacification of the Hazaras of Afghanistan. New York: Afghanistan Council, Asia Society. OCLC 1111643. 

See also

• Demography of Afghanistan
• Hazarajat
• Xionites
• Nikudari

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hazaras

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Hazara (Race).

• http://www.hazara.no/index.html
• The Outsiders: Afghanistan's Hazaras - National Geographic Magazine
• Hazaragiradio.net
• Hazara.org
• World of Hazaras - a blog that focuses on the Hazara people (in Persian)
• Ethnologue.com's entry on Hazaragi
• Google Groups: Azaranica