Preservation and Dissemination of Indigenous Knowledge in Pashtuns’ Culture: The Role of Hujra as a Learning Hub

Abstract

In Pashtuns’ culture, Hujra represents a unique facet of communal development and social uplift. It is a platform for the villagers for discussing various issues including but not limited to problems related to their personal and family matters, agricultural and farming, education and politics, and business and trading, with their focus on the immediate solutions, based on the community’s viewpoints, wisdom and inherited knowledge. The present era has misrepresented the role of Hujra as a forum of cultivating miscreants and ill-mannered posterity. Hence, the fact has been kept at the back burner that cultural codes of Pashtunwali, the unwritten/traditional norms termed as indigenous knowledge, have been transferred to the young generations through a communal Hujra. The present study aims at discussing and unveiling the multi-dimensional roles of Hujra. The study was an exploratory research for which qualitative method was used. The primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with the local/indigenous people, Maliks (Masharan, elders) and youngsters of the village, Daman Afghani, district Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The target population of the study was sixteen (16) individuals randomly selected from the population through Convenience Sampling Technique. The finding of this research focused not only on the role of a communal Hujra but also threw light on the status of a personal Hujra in dissemination of indigenous knowledge. Both play fundamental roles in the preservation of the cultural heritage, aims at promoting indigenous knowledge.