Kalash girls in the Kalash valley during Chilam Joshi Festival

Kalash people used to live in a region called Kafiristan. They are Hindus and were secretly living in the Kafiristan region until a English explorer discovered them. The Kalash mistook the English person for some Godly figure and made him their king. He told the Afghanis all about them and they went there, burnt all the hundreds of year old mandirs and idols that were there. The only idols left were the ones taken as war treasure and are now at the Kabul Museum.

They have plenty of similarities to Hindus as they worship many Vedic deities including Lord Indra. Something special about them is that they dont attach importance to their name and so you will find many people called things like Table or Radio (lol). The modern Pakistani people and historians find it hard to understand them fully because many of their traditions are rooted in vedic texts which they have absolutely no understanding of. In my interactions with some historians on the other side of the border, a common sentiment I find is that they find it disappointing that Indians dont take interest in this as it would be powerful soft power tool for them to steer the narrative our way.

When they were massacred and essentially their population was finished, Lala Lajpat Rai and many other prominent figures had condemned the incident. It is sad that they survived all the way from 11th century to 19th century only to be finished so recently. The new modern Kalash are being converted very rapidly and the current Kalash are not allowed to learn the traditions of their religion - they only keep their culture as in their folk dance and unique clothes. The complex intricacies of the Kalash religion are now dying as the aged decease with only confused anecdotes of modern pakistanis trying to explain how the religion worked.

India must build its narrative very soon. It is stupid to know what all the people over there still believe in

/r/IndiaSpeaks Thread Link - i.redd.it