Pathans in India

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Pathans in India are citizens or residents in India who are of ethnic Pashtun ancestry. "Pathan" is the local Hindavi term for an individual who belongs to the Pashtun ethnic group, or descends from it. The Pashtuns originate from the regions of eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan, ethnolinguistically known as Pashtunistan. There are varying estimates of the population of Pathan descent living in India, ranging from 3.2 million people per the All India Pakhtoon Jirga-e-Hind to "twice their population in Afghanistan" as per Khan Mohammad Atif, an academic at the University of Lucknow. In the 2011 Census of India, 21,677 individuals reported Pashto as their mother tongue. Large-scale Pashtun migration began in the 11th and 12th centuries, as a result of the many Muslim empires and dynasties founded by Pashtuns in the Indian subcontinent. Pashtuns also arrived as traders, officers, administrators, diplomats, travellers, religious saints and preachers, students, and as soldiers serving...

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