Ethnic Make up in Afghanistan

Abstract

Afghanistan is a multiethnic democratic state with a population of around 32.2 million. It comprises around fifty ethnic groups. The Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, and Uzbek are the major ethnic groups constitute around 90% of the total Afghan population. The four major groups fought fratricidal wars against each other following withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan (i.e. 1990s). Since the fall of Taliban regime (i.e. 2001), these groups are playing dynamic role in the state and society to gain/maintain political power. Afghanistan lacks official scientific population census, consequently, in a politically fragile state like Afghanistan, the number game of population has got much salience: each ethnic group is trying to consider the population of their respective group greater than the other. In the absence of official census, there are available some surveys by private organizations (i.e. Wak Foundation, Asia Foundation, CIA World fact Book and some broadcasting companies) besides estimations made by some eminent Afghanologists/academicians about the ethnic compositions in Afghanistan, though, with varying results. It is critical to find out the ethnic compositions of major ethnic groups in Afghanistan in order to find a sustainable road map to democratic transitions. Hence, keeping in view the available demographic sources, this paper attempts to examine the ethnic make up in Afghanistan, particularly of the major ethnic groups. The methodology used in this paper is textual as well as quantitative.