Pashtunistan

Pashtunistan پښتونستان
Historical region
Map of ethnic groups in Pakistan, with Pashtun-inhabited areas shown in green and shared with neighbouring Afghanistan
Countries	Pakistan  Afghanistan
Population  (2012)
• Total	c. 55–60 million[1][2][3]
Demographics
• Ethnic groups	Majority: Pashtuns Minorities: Baloch, Gujjar, Pashayis, Tajik, Nuristanis, Hazaras, Indus Kohistani
• Languages	Majority: Pashto Minorities: Dari, Gujari, Urdu, Hindko, Balochi, Brahui, Ormuri, Parachi, Torwali, Pashayi languages, Nuristani languages
Time zone	UTC+04:30 (Afghanistan) UTC+05:00 (Pakistan)
Largest cities	Peshawar Kabul Quetta Harnai Kandahar Mardan Mingora Jalalabad Ghazni Kunduz Bannu Khost Farah Lashkargah

Pashtunistan (Pashto: پښتونستان, lit. 'land of the Pashtuns', Persian: پشتونستان)^[4] is a region located on the Iranian Plateau, inhabited by the indigenous Pashtun people of Afghanistan^[5] and northwestern Pakistan,^[6][7] wherein Pashtun culture, the Pashto language, and identity have been based.^[8][9][10] Alternative names historically used for the region include Pashtūnkhwā (پښتونخوا), Pakhtūnistān,^[11] Pathānistān,^[12][13] or simply the Pashtun Belt.^[14][15]

During British rule in India in 1893, Mortimer Durand drew the Durand Line, fixing the limits of the spheres of influence between the Emirate of Afghanistan and British India during the Great Game and leaving about half of historical Pashtun territory under British colonial rule; after the partition of India, the Durand Line now forms the internationally recognized border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.^[16] The traditional Pashtun homeland stretches roughly from the areas south of the Amu River in Afghanistan to the areas west of the Indus River in Pakistan; it predominantly comprises the southwestern, eastern and some northern and western districts of Afghanistan, and Pakhtunkhwa and northern Balochistan in Pakistan.^[17]

The 16th-century revolutionary leader Bayazid Pir Roshan of Waziristan and the 17th-century "warrior-poet" Khushal Khan Khattak assembled Pashtun armies to fight against the Mughal Empire in the region. During this time, the eastern parts of Pashtunistan were ruled by the Mughals while the western parts were ruled by Safavid Iran. Pashtunistan first gained an autonomous status in 1709, when Mirwais Hotak successfully revolted against the Safavids in Loy Kandahar. The Pashtuns later achieved unity under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Durrani, who founded the Durrani dynasty and established the Afghan Empire in 1747. In the 19th century, however, the Afghan Empire lost large parts of its eastern territory to the Sikh Empire and later the British Empire. Many famous Indian independence activists emerged from the region include Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his anti colonial Khudai Khidmatgar movement to free the region from British control.^[18] In 1969, the autonomous princely states of Swat, Dir, Chitral, and Amb were merged into the Pakistani NWFP. In 2018, the Pashtun-majority Federally Administered Tribal Areas, formerly an autonomous buffer zone with Afghanistan, were also merged into the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (previously known as the NWFP), fully integrating the region with Pakistan proper.^[19]

The Pashtuns practice Pashtunwali, the indigenous culture of the Pashtuns, and this remains significant for many Pashtuns. Although the Pashtuns are politically separated by the Durand Line between Pakistan and Afghanistan, many Pashtun tribes from the FATA area and the adjacent regions of Afghanistan, tend to ignore the border and cross back and forth with relative ease to attend weddings, family functions and take part in the joint tribal councils known as jirgas.^[20]Depending on the source, the ethnic Pashtuns constitute 42-60% of the population of Afghanistan.^{[21][22][23][24][25][26]} In neighboring Pakistan they constitute 18 percent of over the 241 million population, which does not include Pashtun diaspora in other Pakistani cities and provinces.^[27]