Afghans feel at home in Kolkata

Their main business is money lending

A lot of Afghans come to India for medical treatment and stay with local Khan families

The first thing that strikes one about Amir Khan is that he is a big man, much unlike the film star he shares his name with. A quintessential Pathan, he is slightly above six feet, broad-shouldered, with a shaggy mane of hair and hands large enough to lose most other hands in them when put forth for a handshake. He is also a man with an amiable face and a quick smile. Khan is the president of the Khudai Khidmatgar, the organisation that looks after the welfare of Afghans in India, founded by Frontier Gandhi Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan during the freedom struggle.

Since becoming the president of the organisation in India in 2010, Khan has been a man on a mission. Once a trader in dry fruits, asafoetida and readymade garments like most of his brethren, he has now given his full time to the organisation.

He confesses that he had made a lot of money once, besides inheriting a near-fortune from his father, all of which he squandered away on friends and other guilty pleasures of life. A changed man now, his only possessions are the clothes on his back and a Royal Enfield motorbike. Khan is also somewhat representative of an Afghan living in India,
albeit with a twist.

Unlike others, Khan does not believe in lending money for high rates of interest, a trade which the Afghans in Kolkata – widely known as Kabuliwalas – are most famous for. Khan prefers to be called a Pakhtun in a throwback to his Afghan tribal roots although while addressing his loose brotherhood of Kabuliwalas, he calls them “Khan log (people)”. He has lived in Kolkata all his life since his father came to the city in the 1940s although he has been to Kabul and to his ancestral home at Waziristan near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border as a child.

When pointed out that the name Waziristan has acquired a different significance in today’s lexicon with the area having produced dreaded and weather-hardened Mujahideen down the years, Khan offers a smile. He admits that the situation “back home” was bad.

“It has improved a lot since Hamid Karzai came to power. Now there’s electricity almost throughout the day. You can walk into a restaurant without the fear of it being shelled. You can even walk the streets after sundown. It’s much better than what it was a few years back,” he said.  He admitted that some areas are still trouble-torn but that is mostly in the tribal strongholds, far away from Kabul.

But, if the situation has improved, why doesn’t he go back to his homeland? “I’ve lived here all my life. I studied in a school here and have Indian friends. My wife is also Indian. I have nothing to go back,” he said. He pointed out that Khans have always been treated well in India, ever since they started coming to cities like Kolkata or Delhi since the early 20th century. “Khans still keep coming here because we share a good rapport with the people here. Indians believe us to be dependable. We have historic ties with India. Hundreds of Khans have settled down here,” he said.

Also, availability of visa to India is much easier than for other countries, he said. Talking about the ties, Khan recalled the recent visit by Afghan

Ambassador Shahida Abdulali to Kolkata, when he met industrialists and urged them to set up shop in Kabul and other places.

“Much before government level ties there have been people-to-people ties. A lot of Afghans come to India for medical treatment. They come here and stay with local Khan families. It’s a small community in Kolkata and people know each other. New arrivals from Afghanistan come with a reference. Otherwise, they are not entertained,” said the leader of the around 400 Pakhtuns living in Kolkata.
Khan, who has a lot of plans for his people in the city, aspires to increase interaction between Afghans and Indians. An important step towards this is to wean Pakhtuns off the trade of money lending. He believes that this makes Kabuliwalas a dreaded lot as they often have to resort to pressure tactics to get back the loaned amount. Although violence has never been their way, their presence outside the house of the defaulter can often be an unnerving process. “I believe within the next five years there will be no more Khan money-lenders. They can make enough money from other trades like selling dry fruits and readymade clothes,” he pointed out. Khan is also an advocate of Pakhtuns marrying Indians.

Although when he got married to an Indian woman in 1992 it was almost unheard of, these days many second or third generation Afghans are open to the idea of marrying Indians. “My daughter

married an Indian Muslim boy just like I married an Indian woman. My wife and I’ve lived happily for years and I’m sure my daughter will, too,” he said.

He sees a lot of young Pakhtuns from Kolkata having Indian girlfriends and some are eventually getting married. “A lot has, however, changed. We’ve adopted some Indian marriage customs. Even food habits are changing but we try and stick to some of the traditions,” he explained.

Khan’s latest crusade is to have a separate graveyard for Pakhtuns somewhere in West Bengal and he has started talking to people concerned for the purpose. “We need a graveyard because when our family members come from Afghanistan they often find it hard to locate the graves of their deceased relatives. I’m looking for a plot of land somewhere in Bengal. I plan to raise the money for it through subscription from our community,” he said. “We would have preferred someplace close to Kolkata but land is expensive here,” he rued.

Another plan is to set up a club where Pakhtun youths can meet and remain in touch with traditions like flying kites and a game of football, as they did on summer afternoons in Kabul.