Linguistic, Literary and Cultural Impact of Afghan Refugees on Pashto language, literature and culture in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

The current study is about the linguistic, literary and cultural impact, which the stay of Afghan refugees have left on Pashto language, literature and culture of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, a huge influx of refugees took place to foreign lands in order to take shelter there during that time of crisis. A larger number of Afghan Pashtun refugees came to Pakistan, specifically to Peshawar the metropolitan of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and other parts of it.  It is a well-known fact that migrants everywhere in the world influence the language, literature and culture of the natives and vice versa. Although the influence of local Pashto language, literature and culture on the Afghan Pashto language, literature and culture was minor, compared to the larger linguistic, literary and cultural influence of theirs on the local one. The undoubted reality remains that migrants do impact local cultures, languages and literature and so does it apply to the case of Afghan refugees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, specifically in Peshawar. A significant impact of Afghan refugees on the local Pashtuns was an awareness in them about the identity of their language, literature and culture which was previously not known to them. So, many words of pure Pashto were brought into use in the native Pashto due to the very near contact of local Pashtuns with Afghan refugees. The migrant Afghan students and scholars conducted researches from the Pashto Academy and department, due to which, they benefitted themselves from one another’s experiences. The impact of the local language, literature and culture on the migrant language, literature and culture, language and literature was a minor one. The Afghan poets also adopted the genre of poetry known as Haiko due to the influence of local literature on theirs, which has provided an opportunity to their poets for the expression of a variety of subjects and themes. The local poets and writers intensely felt the anguish Afghan tragedy and its untold repercussions. So many Afghan terms and names of places were introduced by the locals into their writings. The local poets have specifically referred to the Afghan tragedy with deep anguish in their poetry.