About six month back, I had read a judgement of the Supreme Court about who are the initial aboriginals and Indian in our vast land? The judgement had clearly mentioned that the pre-Dravidian tribal people people such the Bhils, the Santhals, the Gonds, called Adivasis or Scheduled caste were the original inhabitants of India. Time changed fast, they are now hardly eight percent population of India today-that also neglected, discriminated, oppressed etc. Thereafter I have gone through an interesting article of the justice Markandey Katju in an English fortnightly , based on a speech delivered to non-resident Indians in California in June 2011 and other sources like various articles on the website,kgfindia.com, under the title "What is Urdu-, Great injustice to Urdu in India" and "Sanskrit as a Language of Science" about initial and real inhabitants of India, its language and culture, roles of successive rulers, immigrants' invasion to India, communal harmony etc.
All these facts and opinion of Kataju and various other writers have left my mind wandering that real and aboriginal Indians were put in the background and India now remained a country of immigrants like North America. Thus over 92 percent of population of India are not original inhabitants of India. Their ancestors gradually came from the outside, mainly from the north-west. Only because of that India has become country of diversity, having many religions, castes, languages, ethnic groups. Despite all these diversities in India, a common culture gradually had developed, called the Sanskrit-Urdu culture.
Before deliberating Sanskrit -Urdu culture in India, I want to put forward the present state of affairs in the country. India is passing through transitional phase, mainly from feudal agriculture society to a modern industrial society. Such situation in India, as per opinions of various historians and academicians, are very painful and agonising period in the history of the country. Such situation are expected to continue for some more years and only thereafter India will emerge as a stable and powerful country. For examples, history of Europe had also similar churning during 17th to 19th centuries. Many ups and downs were witnessed In Europe during those period. There were wars, revolutions, turmoils, intellectual ferment, chaos, social upheaval etc. Only after passing through such agonising periods, Europe emerged modern society! In north America, mainly immigrants came from Europe in over last 400 to 500 years.
India is country of old immigrants. In India people have been coming in for 10,000 years or so.Only on two occasions, the Indians had migrated to other countries. During British Raj, huge number of Indians migrated to South Africa, Fiji, Mauritius, West Indies , different islands etc as indentured labourers in 19th century. On an another occasion after independence in the last 30 to 40 years, b brain drain had happened in India and highly qualified engineers, scientists, doctors etc had migrated to Europe and America in search of better life! Except these two periods , hardly Indians had migrated to other countries as immigrants. Instead people continued to come to India as immigrants since long.
Usually people migrate from one place to other for greener pastures or comfort or earn livelihood.Justice Katju has rightly said, " the reason is obvious. People migrate from uncomfortable areas to comfortable areas, obviously because everybody want comfort. Before the industrial revolution which started in western Europe from 18 th century and then spread all over the world, there were agricultural societies every-where. Agriculture requires level land, fertile soil, plenty of water for irrigation, etc. All this was in abundance in the Indian subcontinent from Rawalpindi to Bangladesh and to the deep south up to Kanya Kumari. Why, will anybody migrate from to , say, AAfghanistan, which is cold, rocky and uncomfortable and covered with snow for four five months a year? For an agricultural society, India was really paradise, hence everybody kept rolling into India, mainly from the north-west and to a much lesser extend from the north-east."
Now the main crux of the facts about the original inhabitants of India! Originally, it was said that Darvidians were the original inhabitants of India. Gradually, this notion was faded away. Presently it is said that even Dravidian were also outsiders. Historians have cited certain proof like there is a Dravidian language called Brahui, spoken in western Pakistan even today by over three million people.
Now a new theory has come to light.. The original inhabitants of India were the pre-Dravidian tribal people. They are called Adivasis or Scheduled Tribes in India. They are Bhils, Santhals, the gonds, the Tedas etc- "that is, the speakers of Austric, pre-Dravidian languages like Munda and Gondvi. They are hardly seven to eight percent of the Indian population today. They were pushed into the forest by the immigrants and treated badly. Except them We are all of us are descendants of immigrants, who came mainly from north-west of India", this references have been quoted by Justice Katju, referring articles "Kalidas Ghalib Academy for Mutual Understanding" on the website kgfindia.com.
There are vast difference between China and India on this score. There is homogeneity in China-they have Mongoloid features, they have one common written scripts called Mandarin Chinese. Ninety-five percent population of China belonged to one ethnic group where as in India there is tremendous diversity, because which ever of immigrants came into India brought in its own culture, religion, language etc. Thus India is a nation at all or is it just group of hundreds of kinds of immigrants.However the immigrants, coming to India in phases in the last over 10000 years or so by their interaction and intermingling, created a common culture, which can be by and large be called the Sanskrit-Urdu culture, by far the present culture of India!
(IN MY NEXT BLOG, I WILL WRITE ABOUT FAMOUS SANSKRIT-URDU CULTURE)
All these facts and opinion of Kataju and various other writers have left my mind wandering that real and aboriginal Indians were put in the background and India now remained a country of immigrants like North America. Thus over 92 percent of population of India are not original inhabitants of India. Their ancestors gradually came from the outside, mainly from the north-west. Only because of that India has become country of diversity, having many religions, castes, languages, ethnic groups. Despite all these diversities in India, a common culture gradually had developed, called the Sanskrit-Urdu culture.
Before deliberating Sanskrit -Urdu culture in India, I want to put forward the present state of affairs in the country. India is passing through transitional phase, mainly from feudal agriculture society to a modern industrial society. Such situation in India, as per opinions of various historians and academicians, are very painful and agonising period in the history of the country. Such situation are expected to continue for some more years and only thereafter India will emerge as a stable and powerful country. For examples, history of Europe had also similar churning during 17th to 19th centuries. Many ups and downs were witnessed In Europe during those period. There were wars, revolutions, turmoils, intellectual ferment, chaos, social upheaval etc. Only after passing through such agonising periods, Europe emerged modern society! In north America, mainly immigrants came from Europe in over last 400 to 500 years.
India is country of old immigrants. In India people have been coming in for 10,000 years or so.Only on two occasions, the Indians had migrated to other countries. During British Raj, huge number of Indians migrated to South Africa, Fiji, Mauritius, West Indies , different islands etc as indentured labourers in 19th century. On an another occasion after independence in the last 30 to 40 years, b brain drain had happened in India and highly qualified engineers, scientists, doctors etc had migrated to Europe and America in search of better life! Except these two periods , hardly Indians had migrated to other countries as immigrants. Instead people continued to come to India as immigrants since long.
Usually people migrate from one place to other for greener pastures or comfort or earn livelihood.Justice Katju has rightly said, " the reason is obvious. People migrate from uncomfortable areas to comfortable areas, obviously because everybody want comfort. Before the industrial revolution which started in western Europe from 18 th century and then spread all over the world, there were agricultural societies every-where. Agriculture requires level land, fertile soil, plenty of water for irrigation, etc. All this was in abundance in the Indian subcontinent from Rawalpindi to Bangladesh and to the deep south up to Kanya Kumari. Why, will anybody migrate from to , say, AAfghanistan, which is cold, rocky and uncomfortable and covered with snow for four five months a year? For an agricultural society, India was really paradise, hence everybody kept rolling into India, mainly from the north-west and to a much lesser extend from the north-east."
Now the main crux of the facts about the original inhabitants of India! Originally, it was said that Darvidians were the original inhabitants of India. Gradually, this notion was faded away. Presently it is said that even Dravidian were also outsiders. Historians have cited certain proof like there is a Dravidian language called Brahui, spoken in western Pakistan even today by over three million people.
Now a new theory has come to light.. The original inhabitants of India were the pre-Dravidian tribal people. They are called Adivasis or Scheduled Tribes in India. They are Bhils, Santhals, the gonds, the Tedas etc- "that is, the speakers of Austric, pre-Dravidian languages like Munda and Gondvi. They are hardly seven to eight percent of the Indian population today. They were pushed into the forest by the immigrants and treated badly. Except them We are all of us are descendants of immigrants, who came mainly from north-west of India", this references have been quoted by Justice Katju, referring articles "Kalidas Ghalib Academy for Mutual Understanding" on the website kgfindia.com.
There are vast difference between China and India on this score. There is homogeneity in China-they have Mongoloid features, they have one common written scripts called Mandarin Chinese. Ninety-five percent population of China belonged to one ethnic group where as in India there is tremendous diversity, because which ever of immigrants came into India brought in its own culture, religion, language etc. Thus India is a nation at all or is it just group of hundreds of kinds of immigrants.However the immigrants, coming to India in phases in the last over 10000 years or so by their interaction and intermingling, created a common culture, which can be by and large be called the Sanskrit-Urdu culture, by far the present culture of India!
(IN MY NEXT BLOG, I WILL WRITE ABOUT FAMOUS SANSKRIT-URDU CULTURE)
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