Traveller and documentalist Gurpreet Singh Anand reviews Inderjeet Singh’s book, “Afghan Hindus and Sikhs –History of a Thousand Years” and tells about this meticulously crafted book to understand the mystery of the growth of civilizations in the cradle of Afghanistan.

It is not very often that someone sits down to compile history of its people that are fast decaying as Inderjeet Singh has assiduously compiled in the last couple of years. The result is a landmark book “Afghan Hindus and Sikhs A History of a Thousand Years, “documenting prevalence of these vanishing people whose roots go deeper into the sands and cauldron of that pit of world’s civilisations -Afghanistan.

Though the author has collated much of the history from published works of travels through or into Afghanistan, what makes this a must buy is the documentation of hitherto unknown places.

The travails of Hindus and Sikhs in the twentieth century upheavals caused post the Russian invasion of Afghanistan is one of the significant aspects. As their number dwindles further from thousands to a couple of hundred only, someone was needed to record and preserve their stories.

As they migrate from war-ravaged Afghanistan to all parts of the globe, their stories would fizzle out with time and it is remarkable that Inderjeet Singh has chronicled them for posterity.

His is a painstaking effort to put on record prevalence of these two communities and their places of worship as also the role of Afghanistan in India’s freedom movement.

However I wish the author had also included the role of Sikhs in Afghanistan in the Kuka movement and of the Hindu and Sikh merchants in the escape of legendary Subhash Chander Bose from Calcutta to Germany via Afghanistan where Bose stayed for couple of days prior to his onward journey to Moscow and then to Berlin.

The author mentions dharamshalas of Hindu merchants in several places in Khorasan including in Bukhara which this reviewer too has visited during the course of his travels.

There is a very important Dharamshal in Baku that exists to this day in present day Azerbeijan which has on its walls “Mool Mantar” –the first stanza from Guru Granth Sahib, written in Gurmukhi script pointing to the presence of Shikarpuri merchants or Nanakpanthis there.

“As they migrate from war-ravaged Afghanistan to all parts of the globe, their stories would fizzle out with time and it is remarkable that Inderjeet Singh has chronicled them for posterity”.

This book is a delight for all those history lovers and anthropologists seeking roots beyond present written works.  I also wish the author had written about the hundreds of thousands of prisoners of Timur the Lame and Ahmedshah Abdali taken to Afghanistan. They left their marks on the magnificent buildings of Samarkand where in Registan Square one finds in geometrical blue tile work ‘sawastikas’ in the lofty square. These prisoners continued to live and marry and eventually co-existed with the local population.

How Hindus were taken prisoners and assimilated with the local population dawned on me one afternoon while I was on a visit to Hakim-at-Termizi, one of the famous Sufi saint’s tombs in Termez, Uzbekistan. A man came running and as I was with a local guide; he propped his arm next to mine and told me ‘I am his brother!’

When asked how, he told in Uzbek, that our features are same, our colour is same and his great great-grand fathers were brought from the Punjab by Timur as slaves for construction of palaces and tombs!

“AFGHAN HINDUS AND SIKHS HISTORY OF A THOUSAND YEARS 270 pages, Price Rs. 350, Published by Readomania. Available on Amazon.”

And then he told me through the guide that there is a place near Samarkand called Panj-Ab. I returned two days later to discover the place and visit the mosque there whose present moulvi showed me a video he had made of his grand-father giving details how all the people in that locality were rounded up by Timur and brought to his birthplace! Incredible! These stories of invasion and slavery have fascinating tales.

Inderjeet Singh has also made a reference to the wonderful documentary on the subject by London-based Pritpal Singh.

Inderjeet Singh has brought a book that makes history readable and interesting.