So I’ve always been fascinated with ancestry and history and of course Shah Rukh Khan, and also I’ve realized not many people on this sub and irl are aware of this, so I’ll be busting SRK’s claim about being a “Pathan”. Another reason I’m also doing this is because SRK will most definitely double down on his Pathan claims with his new film. He’s even acted as one before:
https://images.app.goo.gl/R5jpvqxKXZPVDcvv6
SRK claims Pathan/Pashtun descent paternally. However a little digging around will reveal that it is a blatant lie and he’s actually of a mixed background on his paternal side.
SRK’s father, Taj Mohammed Khan (TMK), is from Qissa Qawani, Peshawar. Now many will correlate that Peshawar is predominantly Pashtun and therefore SRK is too, also Khan being a common Pashtun surname. However there is another prominent community in Peshawar known as Hindkowans, in fact this community are the native indigenous population and founders of Peshawar, with the Pashtuns being migrants who settled during the mid-14th century. Hindkowans are Punjabis that uniquely live in Peshawar, and speak a unique dialect of Punjabi known as Hindko. It’s also spoken in India, by the families of Hindu and Sikh migrants who came from Peshawar during 1947.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindkowans
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindko
Famous Hindkowans are the Kapoors of Bollywood and of course Dilip Kumar, SRK’s idol.
So Hindkowans themselves are a collection of various Punjabi tribes like Khatris, Awans, Khattars and Rajputs. The Kapoors are Khatris, Dilip Kumar is Awan, whereas SRK is specifically a Punjabi Rajput.
And to prove this is not that difficult, as SRK’s dad’s paternal cousin is a famous individual: Shah Nawaz Khan, a Punjabi Rajput who was part of the INA and trialed in the famous INA trials along with Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon and Prem Kumar Sehgal by the British Army (famously dramatized in the 2017 Bollywood film Raag Desh).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Nawaz_Khan_(general)
Now Shah Rukh isn’t completely Hindkowan/Punjabi paternally as his paternal grandmother is Kashmiri.
This is verified by the maternal branch of his paternal family:
So given this information, SRK’s father TMK is 75% Hindkowan and 25% Kashmiri, with no trace of Pashtun heritage. And of course, SRK’s mother is fully Hyderabadi, and therefore ancestrally SRK is:
37.5% Hindkowan
12.5% Kashmiri
50% Hyderabadi
So if he has no Pashtun ancestry, then why claim it? I guess there could be a number of reasons. Muslim Hindkowans sometimes claim Pashtun ancestry even when it’s not true, in fact even Anil Kapoor, a Hindu Hindkowan is guilty of this:
^ He falsely refers to himself as a Pathan in this Pakistani interview at 4:40, even though he’s a Hindkowan Khatri.
So it may be that Hindkowans claim Pathan ancestry as a means to assimilate into Peshawar’s Pathan dominated society in an attempt at social mobility, essentially embellishing their identity and origins, which unfortunately a lot of people falsely do in the subcontinent, and SRK might be guilty of this himself.
Or another reason could be that SRK’s main competitors, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan are ethnic Pathans and so maybe he wanted to be on the same leveled playing field as them? Pashtun ancestry can be verified by tribal lineages, which do not exist for SRK, but do for Aamir and Salman.
Aamir Khan’s paternal lineage can be traced to the Karlanri tribe from FATA and maternal lineage is from Herat.
Salman is Pathan only on his paternal side, and descends from the Alakozai tribe who settled in Madhya Pradesh as soldiers for the British, specifically in Indore.
Even Saif Ali Khan’s Pathan ancestry can be traced to the Barech tribe in Kandahar.
But for all his Pathan claims, SRK never once was able to produce a tribal association. This certifies that SRK is not a Pathan.
Now this post isn’t meant to belittle SRK or Hindkowans or anybody in fact. I am a huge SRK fan and even Pathans themselves are guilty of making fake claims of being descended from Arabs or being descendants of King Saul of Israel. This post is just to shed some light on SRK’s claims.
TL;DR: SRK is Hindkowan with a little bit of Kashmiri paternally, and not Pathan at all.
https://amp.reddit.com/r/BollyBlindsNGossip/comments/krhjkk/busting_srks_pathan_claim/
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