The Pathans of Tamil Nadu are

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

ancestry who have migrated to and settled in the

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

n state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. Their migration to the Tamil country had occurred in three main waves - first during the

Madurai Sultanate Ma'bar Sultanate ( fa, ), unofficially known as the Madurai Sultanate, was a short lived kingdom based in the city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu, India. The sultanate was proclaimed in 1335 led by Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan declared his independenc ...

between 1335 and 1378, second during the Mughal incursions into the Tamil country of the reign of

Aurangazeb Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...

and the subsequent establishment of the

Carnatic state The Carnatic Sultanate was a kingdom in South India between about 1690 and 1855, and was under the legal purview of the Nizam of Hyderabad, until their demise. They initially had their capital at Arcot in the present-day Indian state of Tamil ...

and lastly, during British rule when both the Tamil country as part of the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

and the

North West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ps, شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ولایت, ) was a Chief Commissioner's Province of British India, established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the Punjab Province. Followin ...

which formed part of the Pashtun homeland, were both part of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. Pathans in Tamil Nadu are generally called Pattan or Pattani and form a part of the larger Urdu-speaking community of

Tamil Muslims Tamil Muslims are Tamils who practise Islam. The community is 5.7 million in India, primarily in the state of Tamil Nadu where 70% of the Muslim community identified themselves as Tamils. The Tamil-speaking Muslims are descendants of marriage ...

. In Tamil Nadu, the term "Pathan" sometimes extends to all Urdu-speaking Muslim migrants from

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

, regardless of whether they are of Pashtun ancestry or not. They form one of the segments of the Tamil Muslim community along with Tamil-speaking

Labbai Labbay (Labbai, Labba, Labbabeen, Lebbay, Lebbai), is a Muslim trading community in southern India found throughout the southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. Etymology ''Labbay'' means "Here I am", and is used as a title ...

Marakkar Marakkar/Maricar/Marecar/Marikkar/Markiyar/Marican/Marecan (Malayalam:Marakkar; Tamil: Marrakayar)(Sinhalese: Marakkala), is a South Asian Muslim community found in parts of the Indian states of Kerala (The Malabar Coast), Tamil Nadu (the Palk ...

Rowther Rowther (anglicised as ''Irauttar'', ''Rawther, Ravuttar'' ''Ravutta'', ''Rahtore'', ''Ravuthar'') is a Tamil Speaking Muslim community from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Rowthers are Tamil tribes converted to islam by Preacher Nath ...

s and

Mappila Mappila Muslim, often shortened to Mappila, formerly anglicized as Moplah/Mopla and historically known as Jonaka/Chonaka Mappila or Moors Mopulars/Mouros da Terra and Mouros Malabares, in general, is a member of the Muslim community of same n ...

History

The first recorded presence of Pathans in Tamil Nadu was as a part of

Malik Kafur Malik Kafur (died 1316), also known as Taj al-Din Izz al-Dawla, was a prominent slave-general of the Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khalji. He was captured by Alauddin's general Nusrat Khan during the 1299 invasion of Gujarat, and rose to promi ...

's army in the 14th century AD. A Pathan general in the service of

Muhammad bin Tughluq Muhammad bin Tughluq (1290 – 20 March 1351) was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from February 1325 until his death in 1351. The sultan was the eldest son of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Tughlaq dynasty. In 1321, the youn ...

Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan (died 1340), also known as Jalal al-Din Ahsan Shah, was the first Sultan of Madurai Sultanate and father-in-law of the great traveller Ibn Battuta. Declaration of independence In 1335, Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan, the Muslim G ...

founded the

which ruled the city of

Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...

and surrounding areas for 43 years before being ousted by the

Vijayanagar Empire The Vijayanagara Empire, also called the Karnata Kingdom, was a Hinduism, Hindu empire based in the region of South India, which consisted the modern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and some parts of Telangana an ...

in 1378. Tamil Nadu was captured and occupied by Telugu Nayak Kings. Tamil Nadu saw constant invasion during this period. Marathas captured a sizeable portion of Tamil Nadu. In the late 17th century AD when Aurangazeb sent armies into Northern Tamil areas in order to conquer the territories as well as to subjugate the

Marathas The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...

. The whole territory to the south of Golconda and east of Mysore was erroneously referred to by these invaders as Karnatak or Carnatic and a Mughal viceroyalty was set up by that name to govern the areas. This area covered southern Andhra Pradesh and the northern parts of Tamil Nadu around

Gingee Gingee, also known as Senji or Jinji and originally called Singapuri, is a panchayat town in Viluppuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Gingee is located between three hills covering a perimeter of 3 km, and lies west of the Sa ...

and

Vellore Vellore (English: ), also spelt as Velur (), is a city and the administrative headquarters of Vellore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Palar River in the northeastern part of Tamil Nadu and is separa ...

. The first of the hereditary viceroys or ''Nawab''s was the general

Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jung Zulfiqar Khan or ''Nusrat Jung'' ( ur, ) born as Muhammad Ismail in 1657 ( ur, ) was the first Nawab of the Tamil Carnatic State. He was the son of Asad Khan, a Wazir of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and his wife Mehrunnisa (daughter of Asa ...

of Afghan extraction. In the early 18th century, Nawab

Saadatullah Khan I Sa'adatullah Khan I or Sa'adatullah Khan was Nawab of Carnatic (r.1710–1732) and founder of Nawayath dynasty. He was an adventurer from Konkan in Maharashtra. Life Mohammed Sayyid was the last mughal governor who was appointed as Nawab of ...

declared himself independent and ruled the so-called Carnatic State till 1801 and existed as a practically independent kingdom till 1855. During this period, a large number of Urdu-speaking Muslim intellectuals from

migrated to Tamil Nadu where they served in the court of the Carnatic nawabs. The state was eventually extinguished by the

Doctrine of Lapse The doctrine of lapse was a policy of annexation initiated by the East India Company in the Indian subcontinent about the princely states, and applied until the year 1858, the year after Company rule was succeeded by the British Raj under the ...

in 1855 but the Nawab retained most of his privileges and had the title "Chief Native nobleman of Madras" bestowed upon him by the Governor. There were also smaller migrations of Afghan traders during British rule in the subcontinent. These traders were fewer in number and usually preserved their items of dress, culture and language.

Language

The Pathans of Tamil Nadu speak Dakhni Urdu as their

mother tongue A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

. All of them are conversant in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

. Knowledge of

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

is considered a scholarly accomplishment.

Notes

{{Indian Muslim communities Muslim communities of India Social groups of Tamil Nadu

Islam in Tamil Nadu

History

Language

See also

Notes