ABSTRACT
This chapter explains a general look at the evolution of Hazara history and society in leaps and bounds in order to arrive at the contemporary era. It shows how the Hazaras were transformed into ‘second class’ citizens, subject to humiliation and suppression, and left behind by the modernization drive at the centre. The chapter also shows how Afghan nationalism promoted ethnic, religious, and linguistic discrimination by the ruling Afghans, or Pashtuns, against all the other ethnic groups in Afghanistan. Economically, it explains how the pursuit of the government’s isolationist policies vis-a-vis the Hazaras led to the eventual famine of the 1970s in the Hazarajat, and how this impoverishment and undermining of the economic structure of Hazara society inevitably led to the weakness of the economy of Afghanistan in general. The study of the Hazaras demonstrates that only by leaving behind this social pyramid can Afghanistan make progress towards political stability, economic growth, and cultural evolution.
