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ROFLMAO.... Bharata clan? Bharatas? Give that man a noble prize in history...A must read for all interested in pak history:
Maps printed after 1947 sometimes show the republic of India not as `India' but as `Bharat'. The word derives from Bharata- varsha, `the land of the Bharatas', these Bharatas being the most prominent and distinguished of the early Vedic clans. By adopting this term the new republic in Delhi could, it was argued, lay claim to a revered arya heritage which was geographically vague enough not to provoke regional jealousies, and doctrinally vague enough not to jeopardize the republic's avowed secularism.
In the first flush of independence `Bharat' would seem preferable, because the word `India' was too redolent of colonial disparagement. It also lacked a respectable indigenous pedigree. For although British claims to have incubated an `India consciousness' were bitterly contested, there was no gainsaying the fact that in the whole colossal corpus of Sanskrit literature nowhere called `India' is ever mentioned; nor does the term occur in Buddhist or Jain texts; nor was it current in any South Asia's numerous other languages. Worse still, if etymologically `India' belonged anywhere, it was not
to the republic proclaimed in Delhi by Jawaharlal Nehru but to its rival headed by Mohammed Ali Jinnah in Pakistan.
Partition would have a way of dividing the subcontinent's spoils with scant reference to history. No tussle over the word `India' is reported because Jinnah preferred the newly coined and very Islamic-sounding acronym that is `Pakistan'. Additionally, he was under the impression that neither state would want to adopt the British title of `India'. He only discovered his mistake after Lord Mountbatten, the last British viceroy, had already acceded to Nehru's demand that his state remain `India'. Jinnah, according to Mountbatten, `was absolutely furious when he found out that they (Nehru and the Congress Party) were going to call themselves India'. The use of the word implied a subcontinental primacy which Pakistan would never accept. It also flew in the face of history, since `India' originally referred exclusively to territory in the vicinity of the Indus river (with which the word is cognate). Hence it was largely outside the republic of India but largely within Pakistan.
The reservations about the word `India', which had convinced Jinnah that neither side would use it, stemmed from its historical currency amongst outsiders, especially outsiders who had designs on the place. Something similar could, of course, be said about terms like `Britian', `Germany' or `America'; when first these words were recorded, all were objects of conquest. But in the case of `India' this demeaning connotation had lasted until modern times. `Hindustan', `India' or `the Indies' (its more generalized derivative) had come, as if by definition, to denote an acquisition rather than a territory. Geographically imprecise, indeed moveable if one took account of all the `Indians' in the Americas, `India' was yet conceptually concrete: it was somewhere to be coveted – as an intellectual curiosity, a military pushover and an economic bonanza. To Alexander the Great as to Mahmud of Ghazni, to Timur the Lame as to his Mughal descendents, and to Nadir Shah of Persia as to Robert Clive of Plassey, `India' was a place worth the taking.
The first occurrence of the word sets the trend. It makes its debut in an inscription found at Persepolis in Iran, which was the capital of the Persian or Achaemenid empire of Darius I, he whose far-flung battles included defeat at Marathon by the Athenians in 490 BC. Before this, Darius had evidently enjoyed greater success on his eastern frontier, for the Persepolis inscription, dated to 518 BC, lists amongst his numerous domains that of `Hi(n)du'.
The word for a `river' in Sanskrit is sindhu. Hence sapta-sindhu meant `(the land of) the seven rivers', which was what the Vedic arya called the Panjab. The Indus, to which most of these seven rivers were tributary, was the sindhu par excellence; and in the language of ancient Persian, a near relative of Sanskrit, the initial `s' of a Sanskrit word was invariably rendered as an apirate – `h'. Soma, the mysterious hallucinogen distilled, deified and drunk to excess by the Vedic arya, is thus homa or haoma in old Persian; and sindhu is thus Hind(h)u. When, from Persian, the word found its way into Greek, the initial aspirate was dropped, and it started to appear as the route `Ind' (as in `India', `Indus', etc.). In this form it reached Latin and most other European languages. However, in Arabic and related languages it retained the initial `h', giving `Hindustan' as the name by which Turks and Mughals would know India. That word also passed on to Europe to give `Hindu' as the name of the country's indigenous people and of what, by Muslims and Christians alike, was regarded as their infidel religion.
On the strength of a slightly earlier Iranian inscription which makes no mention of Hindu, it is assumed that the region was added to Daruis' Achaemenid empire in or soon after 520 BC. This earlier inscription does, however, refer to `Gadara', which looks like Gandhara, a maha-janapada or `state' mentioned in both Sanskrit and Buddhist sources and located in an arc reaching the western Panjab through the north-west frontier to Kabul and perhaps into southern Afghanistan (where `Kandahar' is the same word). According to Xenophon and Herodotus, Gandhara had been conquered by Cyrus, on of
Darius' predecessors. The first Achaemenid or Persian invasion may therefore have taken place as early as the mid-sixth century BC. That it was an invasion, rather than a migration or even perhaps a last belated influx of charioteering arya, seems likely from a reference to Cyrus dying a wound inflicted by the enemy. The enemy were the `Derbikes'; they enjoyed the support of the Hindu people and were supplied by them with war-elephants. In Persian and Greek minds alike, the association of Hindu with elephants was thereafter almost as significant as its connection with the mighty Indus. To Alexander of Macedon, following in the Achaemanids' footsteps two centuries later, the river would be a geographical curiosity, but the elephants were a military obsession.
If Gandhara was already under Achaemenid rule, Darius' Hindu must have lain beyond it, and so to the south or east. Later Iranian records refer to Sindhu, presumably an adoption of the Sanskrit spelling, whence derives the word `Sind', now Pakistan's southernmost province. It seems unlikely though, that Sindhu was Sind in the late sixth century BC, since Darius subsequently found it necessary to send a naval expedition to explore the Indus. Flowing through the middle of Sind, the river would surely have been familiar to any suzerain of the region. More probably, then, Hindu lay east of Gandhara, perhaps as a wedge of territory between it, the jana-padas of eastern Panjab, and deserts of Rajasthan. It thus occupied much of what is now the Panjab province of Pakistan.
Under Xerxes, Darius' successor, troops from what had become the Achaemenids' combined `satrapy' of Gandhara and Hindu reportedly served in the Achaemenid forces. These Indians were mostly archers, although cavalry and chariots are also mentioned; they fought as far as eastern Europe; and some were present at the Persians' victory over Leonidas and his Spartans at Thermopylae, and then at the decisive defeat by the Greeks at Plataea. Through these and other less fraught
contacts between Greeks ad Persians, Greek writers like Herodotus gleaned some idea of `India'. Compared to the intervening lands of Anatolia and Iran, it appeared a veritable paradise of exotic plenty. Herodotus told of an immense population and the richest soil imaginable from which kindly ants, smaller than dogs but bigger than foxes, threw up hillocks of pure gold-dust. The ants may have intrigued entomologists, but the gold was registered in political circles. With rivers to rival the Nile and behemoths from which to give battle, it was clearly a land of fantasy as well as wealth.
Herodotus, of course, knew only of the Indus region, and that by hearsay. Hence he did not report that the land of Hindu was of sensational extent, nor did he deny the popular belief that beyond its furthest desert, where in reality the Gangetic plain interminably spreads, lay the great ocean which supposedly encircled the world; Hindu or `India' (but in fact Pakistan) was therefore believed to be the end of terra firma,a worthy culmination to any emperor's ambitions as well as a fabulous addition to his portfolio of conquests. In abbreviated form, Herodotus' History circulated widely. A hundred years after his death it was still avidly read by northern Greeks in Macedonia, where a teenage Alexander `knew it well enough to quote and follow its stories'
John Keays
India: a history
(i) Pakistan indeed broke up from India. The act giving independence to both India and pakistan was called "INDIAN" Indiependece act see for yourself - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1947/30/pdfs/ukpga_19470030_en.pdf@Whirling_dervesh. Read the comments by Indian's here. From experiance they follow the typical trend. Broadly there are two responses informed by either the poster being 'dumb' or intentional duplicity.
(i) That Pakistan broke off India in 1947.
(ii) Any historical mention of 'India' was in referance to today's India.
(iii) Geographic India and political India are merged by Indian's to create this false notion of India having been there since time began when the actuall reality is India is one day younger then Pakistan. Bharat and Pakistan republics came in existance in August 1947.
The fact that prior to 1947 was a colony called 'British India' from which to have evolved Bharat, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar [ Burma ] is lost on dumb posters and others use that as a wordlplay to create illusion of 'Bharat' having a existance prior to 1947. Bharat and Pakistan had equal existance as they both were in the embryonic stage within the womb of British colony in thegeograhic sub continient.
At a intellectuel level I think we have a solid cogent argument but we face the real problem of centuries of inertia most of it coming from western writing, the British Indian history and finally our singualr failure post 1947 to develop a solid historical base for Pakistan. It is as if we are afraid of saying 'Pakistan' with referance to any history pre 1947. The reality is not many countries existed in nthe past but that does not stop for example the Afghans referring to a even in 500ad and using the name Afganistan.
I have struggled with this problem in differant fora and whilst I can articulate a fifinally prepared response but that entails a long drawn out discussion with the Indian's normally setting of smokescreen to make the task harder.The shortest sharpest response that I have come down is as follows.
The name Alex has been around for millenia. If you run into a Alexander today that does not mean that person is Alexander the Great or Alexander Fleming. Over the millenia Alexander has been used but we all know it cannot have been the same Alexander.
In the same way if you look at the name 'India' it has been used over the millenia but it's meaning has differant. Over time it settled for what we now call India. This is like the way Asia has been around but what it conveyed has gradually changed. This often happens witth words and is called linquistic drift.
Drift (linguistics) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
List of continent name etymologies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The word Asia originated from the Ancient Greek word "Ἀσία",[7] first attributed to Herodotus (about 440 BCE) in reference to Anatolia or to the Persian Empire, in contrast to Greece and Egypt. It originally was just a name for the east bank of the Aegean Sea, an area known to the Hittites as Assuwa. In early Classical times, the Greeks started using the term "Asia" to refer to the whole region known today as Anatolia (the peninsula which forms the Asian portion of present-day Turkey). Eventually, however, the name had been stretched progressively further east, until it came to encompass the much larger land area with which we associate it today, while the Anatolian Peninsula started being called "Asia Minor" or "The Lesser Asia" instead.
And to the Indian's we are not wanting to use the name India today. We just want the indus basin to have a clear historical link with us withot any obfuscation whatsoever. WE want to bring clarity and concisness not create confusion which is what we have at the moment because in this confusion many of your people use to pillage our history and legacy. All because of a name.
. And that ends the thread. No more propaganda and fake facts anymore. Ha ha ha.ROFLMAO.... Bharata clan? Bharatas? Give that man a noble prize in history...
(i) Pakistan indeed broke up from India. The act giving independence to both India and pakistan was called "INDIAN" Indiependece act see for yourself - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1947/30/pdfs/ukpga_19470030_en.pdf
(ii) Wrong. Historical reference to India was for "combined" landmass of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Only pakistanis claim historic reference to India was "only" for present day pakistan.
(iii) Wrong again. Independence to Pakistan was given at the same time as India, both on 15th Aug 1947 (see i). It is inferiority complex of Pakistan that lead it to celebrate it's independence day on 14th Aug (from 1948/49). Facts can't be changed just because you do not like it. India was a single "political" entity by (latest )during Maurya and Gupta rule.
What a rubbish, The Entire region East of Indus is called India.
When Vasco de Gama set sail to find India he did not land in Karachi, he landed in Souther part of India.
(i) Pakistan indeed broke up from India. The act giving independence to both India and pakistan was called "INDIAN" Indiependece act see for yourself - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1947/30/pdfs/ukpga_19470030_en.pdf
Haha, Pakistan has never even produced an empire lmao. You country has been conquered by Indian empires like Maurya and Gupta. You are a failed people.stupid history remembers it as Indus civilization, the riches of India was meant to be the riches of Punjab.
Haha, Pakistan has never even produced an empire lmao. You country has been conquered by Indian empires like Maurya and Gupta. You are a failed people.
Wiseguy, why not refer to section (2) which defines what 'India' is. It my son does not mean your humpty dumty republic but refers to a British Colony. If I share my name with Alexander does not MAKE me Alexander the Great. Present day Indian Republic, Pakistan, Bangladesh and burma are the succession states of British India. The only way you are any more especial is you share the name with the British product. Think alexander again. Do please read section 2 carefully.
India during the British Raj was made up of two types of territory: British India and the Native States (or Princely States).[20] In its Interpretation Act 1889, the British Parliament adopted the following definitions:
(1.) The expression "British India" shall mean all territories and places within Her Majesty's dominions which are for the time being governed by Her Majesty through the Governor-General of India or through any governor or other officer subordinate to the Governor-General of India.
(2.) The expression "India" shall mean British India together with any territories of any native prince or chief under the suzerainty of Her Majesty exercised through the Governor-General of India, or through any governor or other officer subordinate to the Governor-General of India.[1]
(ii) Wrong. Historical reference to India was for "combined" landmass of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Only pakistanis claim historic reference to India was "only" for present day pakistan.
Yes, and No. It depends which time in history your talking about. Read my post # 22 which shows you what 'India' meant in 5th century BC. Over time the meaning drifted to include almost all of South Asia and at one stage even included Burma. Also you must always bear in mind 'India' is used as a geographic term so don't confuse it with you Indian Republic. India in history was synonymous with terms like Europe, Scandanavia etc
(iii) Wrong again. Independence to Pakistan was given at the same time as India, both on 15th Aug 1947 (see i). It is inferiority complex of Pakistan that lead it to celebrate it's independence day on 14th Aug (from 1948/49). Facts can't be changed just because you do not like it. India was a single "political" entity by (latest )during Maurya and Gupta rule.
Mughals ruled from Delhi while forcibly converting your ancestors. And my ancestors rebelled against the Mughals and formed Benares state, nice try though.last I know Mughals kept your enslaved from Pakistan.
Why are you getting angry? Remember that we are your ancient rulersHey you Hindutwa fanatics - are you not able to properly advance your argument? Anybody reading this can say I have presented my argument in logical coherant way. All I am getting from you guy's is stupid comments. At least come up with some valid argument, if you can that is.