Dominant Patterns Of Racism In Pashto Proverbs About Hindus

Abstract

The current study is about racist ideas in Pashto proverbs related to Hindus. Proverbs are a genre of the folklore and a social discourse as it is a well-known fact that discourses play an effective role in shaping the psyche of the folk of a society. Pashto proverbs about Hindus have evolved amongst the Pashtun majority about the Hindu minority and are apparently expressive of their jealousy towards them, may be based on a bias towards them as it naturally happens in traditional cultures. Hindu minority in the dominant Pashtun culture was a trading and business class, who were richer than Pashtuns. It is a natural phenomenon that communities develop jealousy about those groups, who are prosperous than others. Biases in societies about different communities about one another are undermined with education, enlightenment and open approaches. Hindus and Pashtuns along with other racial and religious communities had lived for centuries in harmony, peace and brotherly feelings towards one another. Even if the larger populations of different communities live in harmony, some sections of the same communities still grow biases towards one another. There may be similar inherent reasons about the evolution of proverbs in Pashto about Hindus, which are the transmitters of bias about a community, who were smaller in number than Pashtuns but were an important part of the population as business remained in their hands. Racist ideas in Pashto proverbs about Hindus does not signify the collective biased approach towards them by the whole Pashtun majority nor do these proverbs speak of an injustice and inequality towards them. One of the reasons of Pashtun bias and aversion, expressed through the proverbs about Hindus, can be their riches and prosperity, which may have put Pashtuns psychologically into an inferiority, compared to them, as there could be so many psychological factors behind the bias, which people of one community feel and thus express for others. There can be other reasons to the hatred and prejudice, which Pashtuns feel for Hindus, consciously or unconsciously expressed through the proverbs and which can be attributed to the religious and racial bias. The critical analysis of discourses, which are based on illogical bias and preconceived notions need to be explored and these have to give way to rational approaches. Things have changed rapidly in the modern world and so is the case about the orthodox and conventional approaches. Individuals need equal respect and approaches to opportunities in a world free from discrimination on the basis of race.