Did you know?

"Khan" or "Khanship" had been an appointment and post by the state where the appointee was to collect tolls & taxes for the state. The state would provide them with resource (money, munition, land-Jagir, sometimes army) to enforce state's writ & monopoly on taxes.

The appointment would come with certain terms set by the state. For example, when Khushal Khan Khattak, who was an appointee of the Moghuls before, revolted against the state, the state appointed his son as "Khan" and his terms included capturing of Khushal Khan - his own father.

"Khanship" is an alien construct introduced among the Pashtuns society & is in contradiction with Pashtunwali, the honor code of the Pashtuns, which considers all Pashtuns equals.

British also continued to reinforce the same concept of Khanship among the plains but they also

extended a variation of it to the tribal Pashtuns by introducing the appointment/rank of "Malik" and would pay them from the state treasury in return for their cooperation in various matters.

This should also explain why "Khans" grew powerful over the time & amassed so much wealth & land. Pashtuns used to have a land distribution system where each man of a tribe would be counted & would get piece of land accordingly. Wealthy & poor would receive the same size of land.

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan aka Bacha Khan used to label this equal land distribution system among Pashtuns as "pure socialism" and he would blame the British for corrupting the system. He also admitted that his own family was a beneficiary of such a "Khanship."

Before you question the above tweet re Bacha Khan Baba, here is an earlier thread where I posted excerpts from the book Two Servants of God by Mahadev Desai . https://twitter.com/NafeesRehmanDr/status/1078313863362347009?s=20