{"id":1297,"date":"2013-04-06T09:41:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-06T04:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/?p=1297"},"modified":"2013-04-13T21:39:07","modified_gmt":"2013-04-13T16:09:07","slug":"roots-are-they-important-in-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/?p=1297","title":{"rendered":"Roots – Are They Important In Nation ?"},"content":{"rendered":"
contributed by Sumant Chak taken from Internet<\/p>\n
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Roots – are they important in\u00a0a nation?<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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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\u00a0 civilisation. Most of them pertain to our sub-continent with odd\u00a0 references from other parts of the world.<\/span><\/div>\n
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It was at the third battle of Panipat that after the loss of the Battle,\u00a0 the Maratha Army was dispersed with many wounded and sick as also many\u00a0 women and followers. Maharaja Surajmal of Bharatpur organised return of\u00a0 all these people through escorts from various areas wherever they had\u00a0 found shelter after the battle, mainly in Haryana and western UP across\u00a0 the Yamuna. After Ahmed Shah Abdali left India, they were escorted back\u00a0 to Pune to their own native places. The Peshwa, feeling much obliged,\u00a0 offered to settle the escorting parties in Maharashtra. Many accepted\u00a0 the good offer. They are found around Nasik with surnames as Ahlawat,\u00a0 Mann, Malik and the like. But today they are as good Maharashtrians as\u00a0 any other, and speak chaste Marathi, with no trace of Haryanvi or any\u00a0 other traits. <\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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Bal Thackeray’s father admitted to having fled from Bihar centuries ago, in his autobiography in Marathi, which chronicles the Thackeray family’s\u00a0 journey from Bihar to Dhar (MP) and from there to Maharashtra. So, the\u00a0 very question of ethnicity or being a ‘mool nivasi’ (original\u00a0 inhabitants) is a flawed one. <\/span><\/div>\n
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We’re all migrants. No one has an exclusive hold over a place, territory,\u00a0 language, or other specifications. Not just in India, this has happened\u00a0 all over the world.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Who was Napoleon Bonaparte from an ethnic point of view? Was he a ‘natural\u00a0 French’ or a ‘naturalised French’? When Napoleon was born in Corsica in\u00a0 1769, it was a French colony, and Napoleon’s mother tongue was Italian,\u00a0 not French. But the great man’s Italian roots got obscured as he was\u00a0 called the ‘greatest Frenchman’!<\/span><\/div>\n
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Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestors came to undivided Bengal (Kushtiya, now in\u00a0 Bangladesh) from Kannauj region in the Central India. Bengalis call him\u00a0 the ‘greatest Bengali’ whereas his ancestors spoke Shaurseni (early\u00a0 Hindi). Dr Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, the first philologist of India,\u00a0 wrote about Tagore’s non-Bengali ancestry in his Oxford essay: ‘Who’s a\u00a0 Bengali’?<\/span><\/div>\n
Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s ancestors came to Burdwan from Muktsar (Punjab) nearly\u00a0 six hundred years ago. Ethnically or anthropologically speaking, he was a Punjabi!!<\/span><\/div>\n
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Was Shivaji a Maharashtrian? Technically, he was a Rajasthani Rajput belonging to the Sisodia dynasty.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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The Pawars of Maharashtra are ‘Panwars’ of Rajasthan who came to Maharashtra during Shivaji’s time.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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Dixits of Maharashtra were Dikshits in UP. They were brought to Maharashtra\u00a0 from Kashi, Varanasi and Allahabad at the time of Shivaji’s coronation.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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Are most of the Bengalis really from Bengal? They aren’t. The original\u00a0 Bengalis used to have slightly mongoloid features with small eyes and a\u00a0 big head. After 17th century, other communities came in contact with\u00a0 Bengalis and the resultant progenies lost those exclusive features.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Who’re Parmars and Solankis in Gujarat? Do they originally belong to Gujarat?\u00a0 No. Their ancestors fled from Rajasthan and settled in nearby Gujarat.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Mishras in Bengal came from Bihar and UP in the early 18th century and they\u00a0 don’t remember their Hindi (Khari boli) speaking roots.<\/span><\/div>\n
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It is surprising to know, that a large number of white skinned Portuguese\u00a0 and Danish pirates were subdued by Bengali Naval warriors and they were\u00a0 forced to live in the jungles of Sunderbans – today they are more\u00a0 Bengali than Europeans.<\/span><\/div>\n
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All Chatterjees, Banerjees, Mukherjees, Gangulys & Ghosals were Non\u00a0 Bengalis. The first four came to Bengal, from Kanauj (UP) & they are Upadhyas, while the Ghosals were Ghosles & came to Bengal from\u00a0 Maharashtra. The Jees were added by the British to pronounce easier in\u00a0 English tongue. Mukhyo Upadhyay thus became Mukherjee, Bando Upadhyay\u00a0 became Banerjee.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Go to Bithur near Kanpur. The 80% Maharasthrians settled there since the\u00a0 ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ in 1857, speak impeccable Hindi sans any trace of\u00a0 Marathi. They don’t identify themselves with Maharashtrian culture and\u00a0 community any longer. <\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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Observe the lifestyle of a few Marwari families in the East, especially in\u00a0 Calcutta. They have almost become naturalised Bengalis as their\u00a0 ancestors came from the drought-prone Marwar region in the western\u00a0 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\u00a0 lived in Bengal for over 400 years.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Rangey Raghav, one of the finest writers in Hindi who wrote ‘Kab Tak\u00a0 Pukaroon’, was actually a Tamil. His ancestors came from Tamil Nadu and\u00a0 settled in Rajasthan’s Bair district. In his relatively short life,\u00a0 Rangey Raghav could never relate to Tamil language and culture.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Theatre actor Tom Alter is more Indian than an average Indian. His missionary\u00a0 father came from the States and settled in Mussoorie. He speaks better\u00a0 Urdu than a Muslim and even writes the language with felicity.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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The great William Shakespeare’s butcher father actually hailed from Galway\u00a0 in Ireland, who came to London’s Billingsgate fish and mutton market.\u00a0 Brits call William Shakespeare the ‘greatest Englishman’, whereas he\u00a0 should be called an Irish but then Ireland and England have always been\u00a0 at loggerheads because of sectarian differences. Irish people are\u00a0 Catholics and Brits are Protestants. We’re all rolling stones. ‘It’s\u00a0 mine, it’s theirs’ are petty issues when we look at mankind through the\u00a0 prism of a peripatetic context and entity, settled in a place and rooted itself with the passage of time.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The Rawals of Kumaon Brahmins have become Raval in Gujarat, after migrations.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Was surprised to learn that Rathores of Rajasthans are actually Karnataka Rashtrakutas.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Pants and Joshis of Kumaon were originally from Maharashtra.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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Dravid were a great seafarers who travelled as far as the Americas. Their\u00a0 architecture is so similar to that found in present day Tamilnadu. The\u00a0 word \u201cdravid\u201d itself is said to have originated from \u201cdravya\u201d meaning\u00a0 sea. Hence, the word dravid referred to living close to sea or sea\u00a0 farers \u2013 do not recall the exact phrase now.<\/span><\/div>\n
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And what about the Muslims in India \u2013 most of them converted from Hindus.\u00a0 In Kashmir itself, most of the present day Muslims converted from Hindu\u00a0 religion with the spread of Islam in the 13th century and then rapidly\u00a0 due to forceful conversions during the time of Akbar to Aurangzeb.\u00a0 That\u2019s why they still carry their surnames as Bagati, Bhatt, Handoo,\u00a0 Bhan, Hagroo, Pandit, Lone, Mattoo, Rathore, Dhar, Dar, Sapru, Kichlu,\u00a0 Kitchlew, Baqal, Sapru etc.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The Imam of Jama Masjid, Bukhari has his lineage from Bukhara in Uzbekistan in Central Asia.<\/span><\/div>\n
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In one of the books, it was mentioned that Hindus were originally living\u00a0 along the banks of the Indus River (called Sindhu in Sanskrit. People\u00a0 living along the West coast moved west and over a period of time\u00a0 Zoroastrianism came into existence with its Vedic roots. Both worshipped fire (Agni). As time progressed, Zoroastrianism gave birth to Judaism,\u00a0 Judaism to Christianity and Christianity to Islam. Sikh religion itself\u00a0 has drawn much from other religions. This does appear to be quite\u00a0 controversial \u2013 do not know how much of it is truth, though that book\u00a0 gave sufficient references.<\/span><\/div>\n
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And the Aryan migration from Caucasus lands is a myth. There is no mention of any migration in the Vedas.<\/span><\/div>\n
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And most of the rituals of Islam too are drawn from other religion(s). <\/span><\/div>\n
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And so it will continue to go on… the only permanence being the constant change!<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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