How old is hindu kush

There are different versions to its history, but all converge on one fact — this was a place where Hindus were subjected to atrocities and were crushed to extinction. It is a testimony of Islamic savagery against Hindus and how they rejoiced in naming the mountain announcing the crushing deaths of the Hindus. And Hindus, once a large majority in Afghanistan, the Afghan Hindus, the Pathan Hindus simply became extinct and turned refugees taking shelter in Germany and other countries.

Hindustan never bothers about them. There are some Afghan Hindus living in Delhi. You can meet them to know what it cost them to be here. I can hear the cries and the laments of those helpless Hindus crushed on that mountain echoed in the frenzied slogans against CAB at Jantar Mantar.

India, ironically, still remains the last bastion of the Hindus and is a numerically Hindu majority nation though wrapped in an anti-Hindu political atmosphere felt shy to speak on Hindu issues till Modi-Shah regime of the BJP emerged and began a new narrative. Till BJP came to power, insult and humiliation of the Hindus was as natural as abduction of the Hindu daughters in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Christian organisations in Washington and in European countries speak so vociferously on atrocities of their flock in Pakistan but the Indian Church keeps a studied, strategic silence over such incidents in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.

Yes, they do speak politically but only when they have to attack the Hindus. They openly forge an alliance with Islamists, against Hindus in India and issue political instructions in press releases from the Church offices under their signatures against the BJP and the RSS.

Have you ever seen a single voice of protest to the Pakistan High Commissioner in Delhi sent by any conscientious archbishop about atrocities on Christians in Pakistan?

Shankar Lalwani, a Sindhi, whose family migrated from Pakistan under horrifying conditions, is a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, who was speaking with facts on CAB debate in the House when he was abruptly asked to end his speech and sit down. He was stunned as among all members, he had a special privilege to speak on the pains and sufferings of the Hindus who are subjected to most savage atrocities in Pakistan for being a Hindu.

But his is not the only case of those who want to support the CAB. Before the advent of Islam and Christianity, the entire land on this side of the river Indus was known to the world as Hindoostan, the land of those who profess a faith that has never been translated as a religion but is known as a way of living. Now even in a divided India, the India that was supposed to be a place — the only place on this planet, where Hindus can breathe happily as Hindus, the minimum space is being denied to them in the name of secularism, which has become practically a Muslim League 2 — mentality to humiliate the Hindus.

The south side of the mountains Nuristan, south Chitral lies on the fringe of the Indian summer monsoon, which has produced sometimes thick forest vegetation above a certain elevation.

From about 1, to 2, m sklerophyllous forests are predominant with Quercus and Olea wild olive ; above that up to a height of about 3, m one finds coniferous forests with cedars, Picea , Abies , Pinus , and junipers. The north and northwest sides of the mountains receive less rain, which falls mainly in winter and spring.

Here there are sparse juniper forests from around 1, m to 3, m. The inner valleys of the Hindu Kush are in the rain shadow and display desert vegetation apart form surface-water shrubs along rivers and streams. Above 5, to 5, m the Hindu Kush has glaciers, particularly on the northern slopes shadow sides of the peaks and ridges. The glaciers represent here an important natural resource, providing water for irrigation and energy all year round.

The population and its ethnic composition. The Hindu Kush extends over an area of around 55, km2, of which some 10, km2 is in Pakistan. This results in a population density of seventeen inhabitants per km2 for the whole range. This average, however, obscures large regional differences. The population density reaches as many as several hundred inhabitants per km2, however, in the agricultural areas, indicating the extent of over-population in the Hindu Kush.

The population of the Hindu Kush is strongly differentiated according to ethnicity, language, and religion. A generalizing overview may differentiate between three cultural areas, each of which is dominated by a different ethnic group:. Although the Nuristanis in Afghanistan only amount to around ,, they have aroused more interest in scholars and traveling researchers than any other people of the Hindu Kush.

The Kafirs practiced a religion in which belief in spirits and shamanism was subordinate to a pantheon reminiscent of that of the ancient Oriental cultures of west Asia Degener; Jettmar et al. Small groups of Kafirs who in fled into neighboring British India still live, together with Kalash, in a few valleys of lower Chitral close to the Afghan border.

How far their culture is still alive, or alternatively petrified into touristic folklore, is difficult to judge. The simple construction of their farms and the insignificance of fruit cultivation show that these groups moved here in more recent times, before which they pursued a nomadic way of life.

Among the most recent population groups in the Afghan Hindu Kush are the Pashtun nomads, who received large mountain pastures from the Afghan government at the end of the 19th century, as well as the Gujars, who started moving up from formerly British India to the northwest edge of the Hindu Kush in the s and occupied small ecological niches there. Agriculture and worker migrations. Agriculture uses all of the available resources, which are very restricted in the high mountains.

Where there is enough water for irrigation, the land is used intensively: the lower areas have rice up to about m and fruit, i. Cattle are also kept in varying numbers on the high pastures up to the glaciers. They are of particular importance in the highest villages. Straddling the borders between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India, the Hindu Kush is heavily populated. Though the valleys are heavily irrigated, growing crops at such high altitudes and low temperatures is difficult.

The residents also have to worry about earthquakes, which are common as the Eurasian and Indo-Australian tectonic plates continue to push against one-another.

This constant pressure and grinding create an average of four major measuring at least 5 on the Richter scale earthquakes a year. To the left are the relatively lower altitude plains of southern Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The fertile plains surrounding the northern strands of the Indus River are a deep green at the bottom center of the image a translucent veil of smog adds a gray tinge to the region.