#wondering how many of my other ancestors lived in qadian as well since they all very strongly identify as ahmadi Tumblr posts
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thinking about the identity crisis i went though as a kid cuz my parents had told me very simply that my mom was pashtun and my dad was punjabi and they were both from peshawar and that was that. understandably they had simplified it so much for me cuz i was a kid, but whenever other brown people asked where i was from or "what are you" and i mentioned punjabi and they'd be like oh wow where? lahore? and i'd just be like nope lol peshawar and they would press me about how my dad could be punjabi if he was from peshawar and i just didn't have an answer. when i got a little older, i started saying well borders are manmade, you don't necessarily have to be from one ethnicity cuz you're from a certain area (and i was right! i just didn't know at the time why i was right).
as i got older and i found out more about our family background, it all made more sense to me as i came to know that the punjabi side of us was allegedly from a great-great-great grandfather from gurdaspur who had moved to bannu way back when. but as my interest in linguistics and anthropology and history grew, i realized that my old explanation of "borders are manmade" was true anyway!!! prime examples being speakers of Hindko and Derawali, as well as the Hazarewal community in general. anyways, i could go on about this, but it's all just so endlessly fascinating that i wouldn't know where to stop so i'll stop now.
#also thinking about the fact that my dads family speaks derawali / seraiki and i keep wondering how his family managed to maintain such a#strong punjabi identity despite being only a fraction punjabi 'by blood' and living in kpk for generations#their ancestral home is in bannu and they have no ties to gurdaspur anymore as far as i know#and we have more recent kashmiri and tibetan ancestors but that gets completely overlooked (that could prob be for patriarchal reasons too#since i rmr my dad once saying 'you are what your dad is' which is so stupid and makes no sense. made me roll my eyes so hard)#but anyways im wondering if any of his great-grandparents or whoever were originally from bannu/surrounding areas and thats why they kept#the language OH BUT IM ALSO REMEMBERING NOW my grandma grew up in gujarat (present day pakistan) and also both my grandparents lived in#qadian in india for quite some time in their youth bc they were ahmadi#wondering how many of my other ancestors lived in qadian as well since they all very strongly identify as ahmadi#qadian is in punjab so maybe they married people there as well!!!#anyways just... so many unanswered questions!
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