Q&A: ‘The word Hindu is Arabic. Why don’t they throw it out?’ - Interview with Prominent historian Irfan Habib

[-=virus=-]

How hard is it to conclude this one way or the other ?

Old Arabic stated in 100 BCE. Arabs were nobodies in history until the 7th century
The word Hindu was coined a few hundreds years BCE

sure, but its stuck.. it works, who cares what they call us ?

would you prefer "sanatani" ?

 

[Hyde]

I was surprised to know that the name for city of Allahabad is also changed to something else

India is on the spree of renaming everything related to Muslims or Islam in India.

In my opinion, we cannot eliminate Hinduism/Buddhism completely from Muslims of Pakistan and we cannot eliminate Islam from Hindus of India.

They have lived together for too long to wipe out history like this…

PS: We use basic terms like days of the week (Mangal).. is named after one of the so-called son of Shiva.. and we mention it regularly

We call Sun as Suraj which itself is Hindu name.. and we call star “Tara” which is one of the forms of their Goddess Parvati/Shakti etc

I could name hundreds of such examples that Muslims of Pakistan use in their daily life… and hundreds of such examples for Hindus of India but I fear they will both start fighting over it and start renaming them too…

We should both come to our senses and don’t rewrite the history which is not going to happen in this AI world of 2023.

 

[nahtanbob]

sure, but its stuck.. it works, who cares what they call us ?

would you prefer "sanatani" ?

Disclaimer -- I am not an anthropologist or sociologist here

It depends on how history goes. In Indonesia Chinese use Indonesian names. In Iran there will be pressure to use Persian Names. In Turkey there will be pressure to use Turkish names. I look at Africa. A lot of Christianity and even Islam co-opts local African traditions. That is just the way it it.

I do not see how Islam survives with Arabic influence in a Hindu dominated India especially with baggage of Pakistan and decline of the petro-dollar. The only thing that makes prediction of these things murky is that there is no uniform Indian culture, it is really several hundred odd Indian-subcultures

I was surprised to know that the name for city of Allahabad is also changed to something else

India is on the spree of renaming everything related to Muslims or Islam in India.

In my opinion, we cannot eliminate Hinduism/Buddhism completely from Muslims of Pakistan and we cannot eliminate Islam from Hindus of India.

They have lived together for too long to wipe out history like this…

PS: We use basic terms like days of the week (Mangal).. is named after one of the so-called son of Shiva.. and we mention it regularly

We call Sun as Suraj which itself is Hindu name.. and we call star “Tara” which is one of the forms of their Goddess Parvati/Shakti etc

I could name hundreds of such examples that Muslims of Pakistan use in their daily life… and hundreds of such examples for Hindus of India but I fear they will both start fighting over it and start renaming them too…

We should both come to our senses and don’t rewrite the history which is not going to happen in this AI world of 2023.

I fear India is going on the path of erasing Islamic influences. These things do not happen overnight. It is probably a multi-decade process

 

[AA_]

The ancient persians and mesopotamians called the region east of Indus as India/Hindustan and the people inhabiting the land as Hindu. That covers sindh, Punjab and lands east thereof. Interestingly, regions of Balochistan and NWFP were not considered to be India.

Bullshit dothead!
Our regions were always known “Indus” while you were some obscure folks living as you do today.

 

[-=virus=-]

I do not see how Islam survives with Arabic influence in a Hindu dominated India especially with baggage of Pakistan and decline of the petro-dollar. The only thing that makes prediction of these things murky is that there is no uniform Indian culture, it is really several hundred odd Indian-subcultures

it'll be fine I'm pretty sure

 

[Maira La]

Please bugger off. If you don't know, you shouldn't be here. There is an entire travelogue by an Ambassador of those times that dealt with this. Verb. sap.

Your impertinence is unbelievable.

If you're going to rescue him out of his BS then do it right - post the Persian and Mesopotamian sources that say lands east of Punjab is Hind or Sindh. I'll be waiting.

Bullshit dothead!
Our regions were always known “Indus” while you were some obscure folks living as you do today.

Until the British came a man in a Maharashtrian village or an Orissa village didn't know they were "Indian" or "Hindu".
99% 'Indians' today don't even realize they live in a made in UK psychological bubble.

 

[Maira La]

I fear India is going on the path of erasing Islamic influences. These things do not happen overnight. It is probably a multi-decade process

Once you're done, you'll be Bali again like in ancient times..

I doubt your leaders have the courage to accomplish that, though.

 

[nahtanbob]

Once you're done, you'll be Bali again like in ancient times..

I doubt your leaders have the courage to accomplish that, though.

Things go the way they go. I am no anthropologist or historian

Pakistan always has the Taliban Afghanistan to imitate

 

[wildlens]

They have this weird concept, that because Hinduism is LOCAL idol worship, we are forever stuck with it

So if once upon a time my ancestor worshiped some ugly idol made of dog shit, I and my children and my childrens children must forever worship the same crazy dog shit idol,,, because you know it's local


They don't get that we don't care if it was local ,it was STUPID, flying monkeys, elephant dude, and Kali maa demon woman, cows and cow shit and all the rest of it, to a faithful Muslim it was simply abhorrent and stupid


So hundreds of millions of people dumped Hinduism, and these dipsticks think force was needed to convince us that we should worship God instead of a flying monkey



Then they have the BRAHMAN view of Arabs, because they have a caste mentality,,
So even though Arabs were idol worshipping pagans too, who dumped idolatry to worship God, just like us

In the caste obsessed Hindu mind only the Brahman Arabs can worship God and we must run back to the open arms of their witch Kali maa or cow


1000 years of abuse did a number on the Hindi brain and it basically it gave them constant small dick syndrome from which they can't recover and they are constantly itching to try and convince Muslims to worship Freaking idols and animals


Crazy crazy people

Crazy people are those that go to the streets and behead people for the type of things you say.

 

[Joe Shearer]

Now to think Irfan Habib once wrote our history textbooks, & of course, one must not forget he was among the leading figures who had turned the Saraswati River into a mythical one using distorted facts

Michel Danino is neither an historian, nor an accurate narrator of the historiography of the Indus Valley Civilisation. He is among the foremost charlatan's who reflect the Hindutva brigade's efforts at twisting history to meet their need for an alternate mythology of pre-historic and proto-historic times.

The only thing that makes prediction of these things murky is that there is no uniform Indian culture, it is really several hundred odd Indian-subcultures

Precisely so. Only the figure is more likely to be around a thousand, perhaps even more.

I fear India is going on the path of erasing Islamic influences. These things do not happen overnight. It is probably a multi-decade process

Let the BJP stay in power that long. Their electoral record is actually quite dismal. They survive increasingly based on the support from Gujarat, due to undivided fanaticism after decades of grooming by the RSS, and UP, always a sink-hole of superstition and of religiosity, that is a state with a population that equals Pakistan.

Bullshit dothead!
Our regions were always known “Indus” while you were some obscure folks living as you do today.

We are not dotheads.

Bullshit dothead!
Our regions were always known “Indus” while you were some obscure folks living as you do today.

We are not dotheads.

If you're going to rescue him out of his BS then do it right - post the Persian and Mesopotamian sources that say lands east of Punjab is Hind or Sindh. I'll be waiting.

I have already told you where to look. Stop waiting and do your homework.

 

[Joe Shearer]

If you're going to rescue him out of his BS then do it right - post the Persian and Mesopotamian sources that say lands east of Punjab is Hind or Sindh. I'll be waiting.



Until the British came a man in a Maharashtrian village or an Orissa village didn't know they were "Indian" or "Hindu".
99% 'Indians' today don't even realize they live in a made in UK psychological bubble.

Neither of these were used within India. That is why, as in their renaming Allahabad Prayag Raj, and their wish to rename Hyderabad Bhagyanagar, the Hindutva brigade are trying to do away with the name India, as well as the constitution that names India a secular democracy.

 

[wildlens]

Neither of these were used within India. That is why, as in their renaming Allahabad Prayag Raj, and their wish to rename Hyderabad Bhagyanagar, the Hindutva brigade are trying to do away with the name India, as well as the constitution that names India a secular democracy.

It s a small minded narrative to go on a rebranding spree. But it happens all the time in India and other countries. Eg Lyallpur is Faislabad, Stalingrad is St Petersburg, Burma, Peking so on and so forth

 

[El Sidd]

I thought it's Persian

 

[JonAsad]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1656553071579889664

https://twitter.com/x/status/1656573262942572547

So if its arabic word ditch it, if its persian be proud.. wtf - still its foreign

 

[Vikramaditya-I]

So if its arabic word ditch it, if its persian be proud.. wtf - still its foreign

You are missing wood for trees, the origin of the word is not the target here. But the person is, Irfan Habib is a well-known historian and has been a target of the RW so, it's a big deal if he made a blunder which can be used to discredit his other works.