Hinduism in Afghanistan is practiced by a very small minority of Afghans, about 30–40 individuals as of 2021, who live mostly in the cities of Kabul and Jalalabad. Afghan Hindus are ethnically Pashtun, Hindkowan (Hindki), Punjabi, or Sindhi and primarily speak Dari, Pashto, Hindko, Punjabi, Sindhi, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu).
Before the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan, the Afghan people were multi-religious. Religious persecution, discrimination, and religious conversions of Hindus in Afghanistan perpetrated by Muslims, has caused the Afghan Hindus, along with Buddhist and Sikh population, to dwindle from Afghanistan.
Prior to the contemporary conflict that began in 1978, Hindus lived across Afghanistan, notably concentrated in major urban centres such as Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz, Ghazni, and Khost. Additionally, significant rural population concentrations in villages traditionally existed in eastern portions of the country as documented by British travelers Jonas Hanway and George Forster in the 18th century, however, various exoduses and migration to urban regions of the country and eastwards to British India occurred throughout the 19th and 20th centuries as a result of occasional violence and conflict.
According to the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), the number of Hindus in Afghanistan has steadily declined over the past few decades. During the mid 20th century, in the 1970s, approximately 280,000 Hindus lived in Afghanistan; by 1992, prior to the fall of the government, the population was approximately 88,000, while by the start of 2021 roughly 160 Hindus remained, and by the end of the same year, the population reportedly declined below 50 persons.
Background Apart from the Hindkowans, the Indo-Aryan native inhabitants of the region, including Pashayi and Nuristanis, were also known to be practising what authors consider as a form of Indo-Iranian (Vedic- or Hindu-like) religion. Pashtuns, the majority ethnic group in Afghanistan (officially, no ethnic census ever made), have a component of Vedic ancestors from the Pakthas.India: from Indus Valley civilisation to Mauryas By Gyan Swarup Gupta Published by Concept Publishing Company, 1999 , , page 199.
Gandhara, a region encompassing the southeast of Afghanistan, was influenced by Vedism since the post-Vedic period (), and later became an important centre of Buddhism.*Schmidt, Karl J. (1995). An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History, p.120: "In addition to being a center of religion for Buddhists, as well as Hindus, Taxila was a thriving center for art, culture, and learning." Srinivasan, Doris Meth (2008). "Hindu Deities in Gandharan art," in Gandhara, The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Legends, Monasteries, and Paradise, pp.130-143: "Gandhara was not cut off from the heartland of early Hinduism in the Gangetic Valley. The two regions shared cultural and political connections and trade relations and this facilitated the adoption and exchange of religious ideas. [...] It is during the Kushan Era that flowering of religious imagery occurred. [...] Gandhara often introduced its own idiosyncratic expression upon the Buddhist and Hindu imagery it had initially come in contact with." Blurton, T. Richard (1993). Hindu Art, Harvard University Press: "The earliest figures of Shiva which show him in purely human form come from the area of ancient Gandhara" (p.84) and "Coins from Gandhara of the first century BC show Lakshmi [...] four-armed, on a lotus." (p.176) Later forms of Hinduism were also prevalent in this southeastern region of the country during the Turk Shahis, with Khair Khaneh, a Brahmanical temple being excavated in Kabul and a statue of Gardez Ganesha being found in Paktia province. Most of the remains, including marble statuettes, date to the 7th–8th century, during the time of the Turk Shahi. The statue of Ganesha from Gardez is now attributed to the period of Turk Shahis in the 7-8th century CE, rather than to their successors the Hindu Shahis (9th-10th century) as has also been suggested."It is not therefore possible to attribute these pieces to the Hindu Shahi period. They should be attributed to the Shahi period before the Hindu Shahis originated by the Brahman wazir Kallar, that is, the Turki Shahis." p.405 " According to the above sources, Brahmanism and Buddhism are properly supposed to have coexisted especially during the 7th-8th century A.D. just before the Muslim hegemony. The marble sculptures from eastern Afghanistan should not be attributed to the period of the Hindu Shahis but to that of the Turki Shahis." p.407 in The dating is essentially based on stylistic analysis, as the statue displays great iconographical and stylistic similarities with the works of the Buddhist monastery of Fondukistan, which is also dated to the same period. Hinduism further flourished under the rule of Hindu Shahis, but went into sharp decline with the advent of Islam through the Ghaznavids, who defeated the Shahis. Nonetheless, it continued as a significant minority in Afghanistan until the 21st century, when its number of followers fell to a few hundred."Contained within a clay urn were a gold bracteate with the portrait of a ruler, three early drachms of the Turk-Shahis (Type 236, one of which is countermarked), and a countermarked drachm of the Sasanian king Khusro II dating from year 37 of his reign (= 626/7). The two countermarks on Khusro 's drachm prove that the urn could only have been deposited after 689"
History
Prehistory and ancient period (3300–550 BCE)
By roughly 2000–1500 BCE, Indo-Aryan inhabitants of the region (mainly in the eastern parts of present-day Afghanistan) were adherents of an ancient form of Indo-Iranian religion. Notable among these were the Gandharis and Kambojas. The Pashayi and Nuristanis are present day examples of these Indo-Aryan Vedic people.
Persian, Greek, and Mauryan periods (550–150 BCE)
Most historians maintain that Afghanistan was inhabited by ancient Arians followed by the Achaemenids before the arrival of Alexander the Great and his Greek army in 330 BC. It became part of the Seleucid Empire after the departure of Alexander three years later. In 305 BCE, the Seleucid Empire lost control of the territory south of the Hindu Kush to the Indian Emperor "Sandrocottus" as a result of the Seleucid-Mauryan War.
Classical period (150 BCE–650 CE)
When Chinese travellers Faxian, Song Yun, and Xuanzang explored Afghanistan between the 5th and 7th centuries CE, they wrote numerous travelogues in which reliable information on Afghanistan was stored. They stated that Buddhism was practiced in different parts between the Amu Darya (Oxus River) in the north and the Indus River. However, they did not mention much about Hinduism although Song Yun did state that the Hephthalite rulers did not recognize Buddhism but "preached pseudo gods and killed animals for their meat".
Turk and Kabul Shahi, Zunbil dynasty (650–850 CE) Before the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan, the territory was a religious sediment of Zoroastrianism, Zunbils, Hinduism and Buddhism. It was inhabited by various peoples, including Persians, Khalaj, Turks, and Pashtuns. Parts of the territory South of Hindu Kush were ruled by the Zunbils, offspring of the southern-Hephthalite. The eastern parts (Kabulistan) were controlled by the Turk Shahis.
The Zunbil and Kabul Shahis were connected with the Indian subcontinent through Buddhism and Zun religions. The Zunbil kings worshipped a sun god by the name of Zun, from which they derived their name. André Wink writes that "the cult of Zun was primarily Hindu, not Buddhist or Zoroastrian", nonetheless he still mentions them having parallels with Tibetan Buddhism and Zoroastrianism in their rituals.André Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Brill 1990. p 118"Parallels have been noted with pre-Buddhist religious and monarchy practices in Tibet and had Zoroastrianism in its ritual". Al- Hind: The slave kings and the Islamic conquest. 2, page 118. By André Wink
The Kabul Shahi ruled north of the Zunbil territory, which included Kabulistan and Gandahara. The Arabs reached Kabul in 653–654 CE when Abdur Rahman bin Samara, along with 6,000 Arab Muslims, penetrated the Zunbil territory and made their way to the shrine of Zun in Zamindawar, which was believed to be located about south of Musa Qala in today's Helmand Province of Afghanistan. The General of the Arab army "broke of a hand of the idol and plucked out the rubies which were its eyes in order to persuade the Marzbān of Sīstān of the god's worthlessness."André Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Brill 1990. p 120
Though the early Arab invaders spread the message of Islam, they were not able to rule for long. Hence, many contemporary ethnic groups in Afghanistan, including the Pashtuns, Kalash, Pashayi, Nuristanis and Hindkowans continued to practice Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism. The Kabul Shahis decided to build a giant wall around the city to prevent more Arab invasions; this wall still stands today.
Hindu Shahi (850–1000 CE)
Willem Vogelsang in his 2002 book writes: "During the 8th and 9th centuries AD the eastern territories of modern Afghanistan were still in the hands of non-Muslim rulers. The Muslims primarily regarded them as Indians (Hindus), although many of the local rulers and people were apparently of Hunnic or Turkic descent. Yet, the Muslims were right in so far as the non-Muslim population of eastern Afghanistan was, culturally linked to the Indian sub-continent. Most of them were either Hindus or Buddhists. "by Willem Vogelsang, Edition: illustrated Published by Wiley-Blackwell, 2002 Page 188
In 870 AD the Saffarids from medieval Zaranj, located at the Nad-e Ali site of modern-day Iran (not to be confused with the similarly named modern city of Zaranj in Afghanistan), conquered most of Afghanistan, establishing Muslim governors throughout the land. It is reported that Muslims and non-Muslims still lived side by side before the arrival of the Ghaznavids in the 10th century.
The first confirmed mention of a Hindu in Afghanistan appears in the 982 AD Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam, where it speaks of a king in "Ninhar" (Nangarhar), who shows a public display of conversion to Islam, even though he had over 30 wives, which are described as "Muslim, Afghan, and Hindu" wives. These names were often used as geographical terms. For example, Hindu (or Hindustani) has been historically used as a geographical term to describe someone who was native from the region known as Hindustan (Indian subcontinent), and Afghan as someone who was native from a region called Afghanistan.
Decline (1000–1800 CE)
When Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni began crossing the Indus River into Hindustan (land of Hindus) in the 10th century, the Ghaznavid Muslims began bringing Hindu slaves to what is now Afghanistan. Martin Ewans in his 2002 book writes:
Al-Idirisi testifies that until as late as the 12th century, a contract of investiture for every Shahi king was performed at Kabul and that here he was obliged to agree to certain ancient conditions which completed the contract.Al-Idrisi, p. 67, Maqbul Ahmed; Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World, 1991, p. 127, Andre Wink. The Ghaznavid military incursions assured the domination of Sunni Islam in what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan. Various historical sources such as Martin Ewans, E.J. Brill and Farishta have recorded the introduction of Islam to Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan to the conquests of and Mahmud: