contributed by Sumant Chak taken from Internet
Roots – are they important in a nation?
For a variety of reasons human migrations have always been a norm. Here are a few little and few well known extracts from history of human civilisation. Most of them pertain to our sub-continent with odd references from other parts of the world.
It was at the third battle of Panipat that after the loss of the Battle, the Maratha Army was dispersed with many wounded and sick as also many women and followers. Maharaja Surajmal of Bharatpur organised return of all these people through escorts from various areas wherever they had found shelter after the battle, mainly in Haryana and western UP across the Yamuna. After Ahmed Shah Abdali left India, they were escorted back to Pune to their own native places. The Peshwa, feeling much obliged, offered to settle the escorting parties in Maharashtra. Many accepted the good offer. They are found around Nasik with surnames as Ahlawat, Mann, Malik and the like. But today they are as good Maharashtrians as any other, and speak chaste Marathi, with no trace of Haryanvi or any other traits.
Bal Thackeray’s father admitted to having fled from Bihar centuries ago, in his autobiography in Marathi, which chronicles the Thackeray family’s journey from Bihar to Dhar (MP) and from there to Maharashtra. So, the very question of ethnicity or being a ‘mool nivasi’ (original inhabitants) is a flawed one.
We’re all migrants. No one has an exclusive hold over a place, territory, language, or other specifications. Not just in India, this has happened all over the world.
Who was Napoleon Bonaparte from an ethnic point of view? Was he a ‘natural French’ or a ‘naturalised French’? When Napoleon was born in Corsica in 1769, it was a French colony, and Napoleon’s mother tongue was Italian, not French. But the great man’s Italian roots got obscured as he was called the ‘greatest Frenchman’!
Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestors came to undivided Bengal (Kushtiya, now in Bangladesh) from Kannauj region in the Central India. Bengalis call him the ‘greatest Bengali’ whereas his ancestors spoke Shaurseni (early Hindi). Dr Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, the first philologist of India, wrote about Tagore’s non-Bengali ancestry in his Oxford essay: ‘Who’s a Bengali’?
Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s ancestors came to Burdwan from Muktsar (Punjab) nearly six hundred years ago. Ethnically or anthropologically speaking, he was a Punjabi!!
Was Shivaji a Maharashtrian? Technically, he was a Rajasthani Rajput belonging to the Sisodia dynasty.
The Pawars of Maharashtra are ‘Panwars’ of Rajasthan who came to Maharashtra during Shivaji’s time.
Dixits of Maharashtra were Dikshits in UP. They were brought to Maharashtra from Kashi, Varanasi and Allahabad at the time of Shivaji’s coronation.
Are most of the Bengalis really from Bengal? They aren’t. The original Bengalis used to have slightly mongoloid features with small eyes and a big head. After 17th century, other communities came in contact with Bengalis and the resultant progenies lost those exclusive features.
Who’re Parmars and Solankis in Gujarat? Do they originally belong to Gujarat? No. Their ancestors fled from Rajasthan and settled in nearby Gujarat.
Mishras in Bengal came from Bihar and UP in the early 18th century and they don’t remember their Hindi (Khari boli) speaking roots.
It is surprising to know, that a large number of white skinned Portuguese and Danish pirates were subdued by Bengali Naval warriors and they were forced to live in the jungles of Sunderbans – today they are more Bengali than Europeans.
All Chatterjees, Banerjees, Mukherjees, Gangulys & Ghosals were Non Bengalis. The first four came to Bengal, from Kanauj (UP) & they are Upadhyas, while the Ghosals were Ghosles & came to Bengal from Maharashtra. The Jees were added by the British to pronounce easier in English tongue. Mukhyo Upadhyay thus became Mukherjee, Bando Upadhyay became Banerjee.
Go to Bithur near Kanpur. The 80% Maharasthrians settled there since the ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ in 1857, speak impeccable Hindi sans any trace of Marathi. They don’t identify themselves with Maharashtrian culture and community any longer.
Observe the lifestyle of a few Marwari families in the East, especially in Calcutta. They have almost become naturalised Bengalis as their ancestors came from the drought-prone Marwar region in the western Rajasthan more than 450 years ago at the time of Akbar’s coronation. All these Marwaris settled in Bengal speak immaculate Bengali and some even eat non veg. Garodiyas and Khetans are now naturalised Bengalis having lived in Bengal for over 400 years.
Rangey Raghav, one of the finest writers in Hindi who wrote ‘Kab Tak Pukaroon’, was actually a Tamil. His ancestors came from Tamil Nadu and settled in Rajasthan’s Bair district. In his relatively short life, Rangey Raghav could never relate to Tamil language and culture.
Theatre actor Tom Alter is more Indian than an average Indian. His missionary father came from the States and settled in Mussoorie. He speaks better Urdu than a Muslim and even writes the language with felicity.
The great William Shakespeare’s butcher father actually hailed from Galway in Ireland, who came to London’s Billingsgate fish and mutton market. Brits call William Shakespeare the ‘greatest Englishman’, whereas he should be called an Irish but then Ireland and England have always been at loggerheads because of sectarian differences. Irish people are Catholics and Brits are Protestants. We’re all rolling stones. ‘It’s mine, it’s theirs’ are petty issues when we look at mankind through the prism of a peripatetic context and entity, settled in a place and rooted itself with the passage of time.
The Rawals of Kumaon Brahmins have become Raval in Gujarat, after migrations.
Was surprised to learn that Rathores of Rajasthans are actually Karnataka Rashtrakutas.
Pants and Joshis of Kumaon were originally from Maharashtra.
Dravid were a great seafarers who travelled as far as the Americas. Their architecture is so similar to that found in present day Tamilnadu. The word “dravid” itself is said to have originated from “dravya” meaning sea. Hence, the word dravid referred to living close to sea or sea farers – do not recall the exact phrase now.
And what about the Muslims in India – most of them converted from Hindus. In Kashmir itself, most of the present day Muslims converted from Hindu religion with the spread of Islam in the 13th century and then rapidly due to forceful conversions during the time of Akbar to Aurangzeb. That’s why they still carry their surnames as Bagati, Bhatt, Handoo, Bhan, Hagroo, Pandit, Lone, Mattoo, Rathore, Dhar, Dar, Sapru, Kichlu, Kitchlew, Baqal, Sapru etc.
The Imam of Jama Masjid, Bukhari has his lineage from Bukhara in Uzbekistan in Central Asia.
In one of the books, it was mentioned that Hindus were originally living along the banks of the Indus River (called Sindhu in Sanskrit. People living along the West coast moved west and over a period of time Zoroastrianism came into existence with its Vedic roots. Both worshipped fire (Agni). As time progressed, Zoroastrianism gave birth to Judaism, Judaism to Christianity and Christianity to Islam. Sikh religion itself has drawn much from other religions. This does appear to be quite controversial – do not know how much of it is truth, though that book gave sufficient references.
And the Aryan migration from Caucasus lands is a myth. There is no mention of any migration in the Vedas.
And most of the rituals of Islam too are drawn from other religion(s).
And so it will continue to go on… the only permanence being the constant change!
