Who, what, where for Central and South Asia. Some simple definitions of groups, places, - PowerPoint Presentation

Who, what, where for Central and South Asia. Some simple definitions of groups, places, and people.

Central Asia The “stans”Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, AfghanistanWaziristan, BaluchistanAlso sometimes includes the Uighur area of western China

Kazakhs Kazakh speakers of Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Socialist Republic, Independent when the USSR fell in 1989-91. Heavily Russified in the north, Kazakhstan has lots of oil and is the location of the Russian space activity.

Uzbeks Uzbek speakers of Uzbekistan. Uzbeks also compose a significant proportion of the population in other “stans,” including Afghanistan.

The same is true for the rest of the former Soviet Socialist Republics. But it’s different for Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s population is dominated by Sunni Pushtun (say “pooktoon”) speakers. The Taliban are Pushtuns. There is a significant minority of Hazaras, who are Shi’ites, who speak Dari, a Persian language related to Farsi of Iran. Shi’ite Hazaras are considered enemies of the Pushtuns and are oppressed by them. Read The Kite Runner .

Urdu The linga franca of Pakistan; a hybrid language that evolved from Hindi, Persian, Arabic, and Turkic languages. Also spoken in northern India and Kashmir and Jammu.

Pakistan is also different, it’s a multi-nation state, artificially created at the end of British rule in 1948. This is known as “Partition.” P for Punjab, a region of 5 rivers in northern Pakistan: Language: PunjabiA for Afghan: Pushtuns K for Kashmir: Kashmiri I for the Indus River Thus, PAKIstan , majority Sunni Muslim To be considered more later

Al Qaeda A Sunni terrorist organization responsible for the NYC 9/11/01 attacks on the World Trade towers and numerous other bombings in Southwest Asia and Europe. Considered to be the greatest threat to US domestic safety. Osama bin Laden founded Al Qaeda and moved it to Afghanistan to train and plot. Original Al Qaeda fighters were Saudis and Yeminis. Now many nationalities are represented, including Chechens. Many of the leaders have been killed, including bin Laden. Bin Laden and his followers are Salafists , those who live as Muhammad did, or claim to.

Mujahideen “Muslims who struggle in the path of Allah.” From the Arabic for “jihad” (holy war). Originally used in the West to describe a group of Afghani mountain fighters who fought British then Russian attempts to control their territory. Seen here on the Afghan/Pakistani border in 1985.

Taliban An Afghan homegrown Sunni militant group, dedicated to the implementation of sharia law in Afghanistan and the region, including Pakistan. The U.S. fights them still, after “defeating” them in 2003 when we went in to get bin Laden, but failed at Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan. A Pakistani Taliban has developed. The Taliban fight locally, Al Qaeda fights internationally.

Mullah Omar The spiritual leader of the Taliban, Afghanistan’s de facto leader from 1996-2001. Among the U.S. State Department’s most wanted, he has directed the Taliban insurgency against the Coalition Forces in Afghanistan.

Sharia Law Based on Koranic Law, many Islamic movements promote these laws, which have dramatic and constraining effects on behavior. For example, women must be completely covered in public and are restricted in many activities; thieves have their hands amputated; female adultery is often punished with rape, mutilation, or execution, sometimes by stoning. Honor killings are increasing. Public execution for a variety of crimes for both genders is increasingly common in many areas of the world that are dominated by fundamentalist Islamists (Salafists, or Salafis). The Taliban are perhaps the best-known promoters of this way of life, but it has been introduced by Salafi Arabs in Mali, Africa. Many Muslims are more moderate in their opinions about punishment, but most agree that Sharia is a reflection of Allah’s will for humankind. Please note that punishments are only part of Sharia. Many other aspects of life are also included. Definitions of it vary among scholars.

Haqqani Network Operating from Waziristan, the Haqqani Network fights the NATO Forces, the Afghan government, and the Pakistani Government. Led by Jalaluddin Haqqani (b 1950), they fought against the Russians in the 1970s. Haqqani introduced suicide bombing to the region.

Waziristan

Jamaat-e- Islami An Islamic political organization and social conservative movement founded in 1941 in British India by the Islamist theologian and socio-political philosopher, Abul Ala Maududi . It is the basis of Jihadi philosophy: to create Islamic states that operate only under Sharia law.

Hazaras English photographer John Burke accompanied the British army into Afghanistan in 1878 and worked steadily in the hostile environment of Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province, recording military and topographical scenes as well as the peoples of the country during the Second Afghan War (1878-80). Burke also photographed many darbars or meetings that took place between British combat leaders and Afghan chiefs which led to the uneasy peace treaties characteristic of the campaign. His two-year Afghan expedition produced a visual document which resulted in his achieving significance as the photographer of the region of the Great Game (the Anglo-Russian territorial rivalry). The Hazaras, thought to have Mongol ancestry, traditionally occupied an area in central Afghanistan extending from the central spine of the Hindu Kush southward though the foothills to Ghazni, Mukur, and almost up to Kandahar, and from the Paghman Range just west of Kabul to some distance east of Herat. This region was known as Hazarajat. The Hazaras practiced agriculture as well as livestock-breeding. Shia Muslims, the Hazaras speak a Persian dialect.

Group portrait of Besudi Hazara chieftains taken by John Burke in 1879-80, possibly at Kabul

Brahui An ethnic group of about 2.2 million people with the vast majority found in Baluchistan, Pakistan as well as Afghanistan , where they are native, but they are also found through their diaspora in Middle Eastern states. [1] The Brahuis are almost entirely Sunni Muslims

Uighurs Non-Chinese ethnic group of Muslims in western China, occupied by the Han Chinese. Uighurs increasingly fight against Chinese occupation and oppression and are experiencing a condition similar to that of Tibet. Considered an autonomous region of China.

Uighurs are horse people, Chinese bring urbanization . Buzkashi Urumqi nightscape

Baluchis The people of Baluchistan (Balochistan)

South Asia India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon)Maldives (Independent Island nation)Laccadives (Indian Islands)

World Religions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Q4rMCy2Tk

Hindus The majority of Indians are Hindus, a polytheistic religion, the origins of which are lost in the mists of time. However, their language, Hindi, is related to many of the Indo-European languages of the West.One definition of a Hindu is any Indian who is not a Muslim, a Christian, or a Buddhist.Most are vegetarian. There are literally thousands of Hindu gods and many rituals. Two of the most distinctive characteristics are the caste system and a belief in reincarnation based on one’s karma .

Caste system: Hindus believe that one remains in the caste to which he/she was born. Brahmins are the highest caste, a priest and privileged class close to nirvana, in which one is one with the universe, or the god-head, and is no longer reincarnated -- an infinite state of bliss. Reincarnation : One is born, lives, and dies, only to be reborn again many times to practice through ritual and prayer an escape from the mortal coil, or wheel of life. Life is suffering. Escape from want ends suffering and leads to nirvana.Karma: the quality of one’s acts. Kindness and generosity are good karma. Thieving and wicked meanness are bad. Good karma leads to Nirvana, bad to, well, more suffering, perhaps as a worm.

Hindu God, Krishna

Sadhus & Yogis A roaming Hindu wise man/teacher/holy person Expert practitioner of yoga, Sadhus are generally yogis tooMay be Hindus or Buddhists or Jains or non-religious Devotees of meditationMeditative poses are called asanas

Sadhu Hindu holy man, a wandering monk, often also a yogi.

Buddhists Buddhists follow the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the original philosopher of the way of life. Although Buddhism originated in northeastern India, it is more widely practiced in other parts of Asia (Tibet, China, Japan, SE Asia), where it takes on a variety of characteristics and practices. The main practices are meditative and contemplative, although the ceremonies in Tibet are quite spectacular. Like other believers in reincarnation, Buddhist philosophy teaches that good karma leads to Nirvana and bad karma leads to reincarnation into a harder life.

Buddhism Theravada: Teachings of the Elders from the Buddha’s original lessons (orthodoxy?) Mahayana: The Great Vehicle for a variety of schools of Buddhism

Muslims Islam, the youngest of the three monotheistic religions, came to South Asia in the 7th & 8th centuries, by sea across the Indian Ocean. It exploded in northern India in the 12th century. Therefore, there was a period when India’s rulers and many Indians became Muslims. Islam appealed to low caste Hindus for its emphasis on equality. However, it faded for the majority as Hinduism came to dominate once more after a few centuries, which were known as the Mughal Empire. Today, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are predominantly Islamic. The Hindu/Muslim conflict was attempted to be resolved in India at Partition in 1948 by moving Muslims from India and Bangladesh (West Pakistan until 1971), with a commensurate flow of Hindus from the regions back into India. This was the world’s largest human migration.

Muslims Islam, the youngest monotheistic religion Most South Asian Muslims are SunniPakistan is an Islamic stateBangladesh is a majority Islamic countryThere are 10 million Muslims in India The Mughal period was India’s most Islamic period. Islam appealed to people of low caste

Mughal Empire South Asia (India’s) major Islamic majority period, 1526-1757. Emperors and therefore their subjects embraced Islam.

Jains, Jainism Based in Hinduism, Jainism is a religious minority in Northwestern India. Small in number, but powerful economically and politically, the Jains practice a form of Hinduism that is non-violent and vegetarian in the extreme.

Sikhs, Sikhism A religious minority in the Indian Punjab Province and to a lesser extent in Pakistan’s Punjab. Sikhism is a monotheistic belief that evolved from a confluence of Islam and Hinduism, based on the philosophy and practices of the first Sikh guru, Nanak. The Sikhs, whose sacred city is Amritsar, are famous as warriors and farmers. There are about 30-40 million Sikhs worldwide. They, in a similar manner to the Nepali Ghurkas, have been an important part of the British colonial military and continued in a military capacity after independence. Sikh body guards assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984 after the Indian army conducted an assault on Sikh militants inside the Golden Temple at Amritsar. All Sikhs use the surname Singh.

Gurkhas Warriors of the British and Indian miliary of Nepalese origin, renowned fro their fighting prowess and strategy, Shown here in the BritishArmy in 1896.

Yogi Sanskrit term, a practitioner of yoga. Yogis are often also Sadhus, but the term broadly refers to anyone who practices yoga. A physical and meditative, and often spiritual practice, that focuses the mind and is inherently non-violent. Yoga positions are called asanas: Kukkuta shown here.

Levitation?

Kilt Yoga