( ISSN 2277 - 9809 (online) ISSN 2348 - 9359 (Print) ) New DOI : 10.32804/IRJMSH

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MAPPING THE ‘HIND’ WITHIN ‘HINDUSTAN’: GEOGRAPHICAL CONNOTATIONS AND THEIR TRANSLATIONS IN MEDIEVAL TIMES

    1 Author(s):  AMIT CHAUDHARY

Vol -  4, Issue- 3 ,         Page(s) : 1114 - 1122  (2013 ) DOI : https://doi.org/10.32804/IRJMSH

Abstract

This paper argues that it would be impossible to determine the boundaries of the medieval area called by the word ‘Hindustan’ if we do not take into account its double usage. While, at one level, it referred to the Indian Subcontinent on a whole, it also referred to a regional area too. Ancient Sanskrit names like Jambudipa, Bharatavarsha, Bharata, Madhyadesa and Arab-Persian al-Hind and ‘Hindustan’ varied geographically and their usages seem confusing. This paper attempts tracing out which area was called as 'Hindustan' in the manner similar to the other regional constituents of the Indian Subcontinent like Malwa, Gujrat, Bengal, Sindh etc., in their contemporary meanings without involving the confusion of modern boundaries. Further, it also attempts to trace, in terms of region, the area attached with the word ‘Hindustan’, or its geographical translation. Pursuing this hypothesis can lead us to interesting and useful formulations regarding the modern usages of the older remnants of collective belonging for the development of nationalism (inclusive or exclusive) in the post-Partition nation-states in British India. It would also allow clearing the murky waters of the connotations and their geographical translations, which may not have been entirely clear to us so far.

  1.   E. H. Carr, What is History, England, p.30
  2.   The summary of these positions is found in Sekhar Bandyopadhyaya’s From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India, New Delhi, 2004.
  3.   Ibid, pp 184.
  4.   Eric Hobsbawm and Terrence Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge, 1983. They define “invented tradition as “a set of practices, normally governed by overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual or a symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with… a suitable historic past.” (pp.1)
  5.   Masood Ghaznavi, “Recent Muslim Historiography in South Asia: The Problem of Perspective.” Indian Economic and Social History Review XI, no. 2-3 (1974) p. 188 he quotes Pakistani historian Hafeez Malik’s interpretation of the poet’s verse written for Lahore in 11th century; see also Javed Alam, “The Composite Culture and its Historiography”, South Asia , XXII (Special Issue), 1999, pp.29-37.
  6.   See the chapter ‘Aurangzib and Indian Nationality’ for the significance of his rule that contributed to the emergence of Indian nationalism in Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, 2nd ed. 5 vols. Bombay, reprint 1952.
  7.   Aijaz Ahmad, “The Politics of Culture,” Social Scientist, Vol. 27, No. 9/10, 1999, pp. 65.
  8.   Louis Althusser, “Contradiction and Overdetermination”, in For Marx, London, 2005, pp. 87-128
  9.   Romila Thapar, Early India from the Origins to A.D. 1300, Penguin, London, 2002, p.38.
  10.   Ibid., p.38
  11.   D.N. Jha, “Looking for a Hindu Identity”, Presidential Address to the Indian History Congress, 66th Session, Santiniketan, 2006, p.4
  12.   Ibid. p.4 fn.11.
  13.   S.M. Ali, The Geography of the Puranas, New Delhi, 1966, third edn. 1983, p.109 
  14.   Thapar, op.cit. p.38
  15.   M.Athar Ali, “The Evolution of the Perception of India: Akbar and Abul Fazl” in Mughal India Studies in Polity, Ideas, Society and Culture, New Delhi, 2006, reprint 2011, p.110
  16.   Jha, op.cit. p.4 and See also, Ali, op.cit., p.134 holds that Hindustan of the Muslim historians and Madhyadesha were same and one.
  17.   Jha, op.cit. This paper originally explores and analyses the facts and fictions wrongfully thrust onto ancient times to look for traces for Indian Nationalism in earlier eras, an attempt nowadays encouraged by Hindu ‘jingoism’ in the name of nationalism. For particular references see pp. 8-9 and footnote 34.
  18.   Please refer to footnote 10. 
  19.   al-Beruni, Kitab fi Tahqiq ma li-l Hind, eng. tra. E.C. Sachau, 2 vols., London, 1888, vol.I,  p.198, 298 for names of constituents of Indian Subcontinent are given as Pancala, Magadha, Kalinga, Avanti i.e. Ujjain, Sindu and Sauvira, Harahaura, Madura, Kulinda.
  20.   al-Beruni, op.cit., p.198
  21.   Ibid., p.17
  22.   Ibn Battuta, Rehla, eng. tra. H.A.R. Gibb, Ibn Battuta Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354, London, reprint 1957, p.7
  23.   Ibid, p.119, 180 
  24.   Ibid, p.52, 180 here the river Indus is named as Panj Ab’ and said of Sind whereas river Gang[a] was seen as river of Hind;  p.229 see for Jhalawar.
  25.   Ibid, p.190
  26.   R.H. Major (ed. and tra.), India in the Fifteenth Century, Delhi, reprint 1974, p. 5,6,21.
  27.   Douglas E. Streusand, The Formation of the Mughal Empire, OUP, Delhi, 1999, p. 21 finds Hindustan in Mughal texts including the Indo-Gangetic plain and its immediate environs while excluding the Deccan, Kashmir and Afghanistan.
  28.   Zahiru'd-din Muhammad Babur, Babur Nama, tra. A.S. Beveridge, New Delhi, reprint 1979, p.199-200.
  29.   Ibid, p.229; 484.
  30.   Ibid, p.378.
  31.   Ibid, p.485.
  32.   Ibid., pp. 464, 480-481, 483,486.
  33.   William Foster (ed.), Early Travels in India (1583-1619), p.26.
  34.   Ibid., p.26 fn.3 and fn.1 at p.16 for Foster’s editorial clarity.
  35.   C.H.Payne, (tra. and ed.), Akbar and the Jesuits, New Delhi, reprint 1979, p.1 fn. 
  36.   Ibid., p.1
  37.   Abul Fazl, Akbarnama, eng. tra. H.Beveridge, Vol.I, New Delhi, reprint 1989, p.565
  38.   Ibid., p.886 one Hakim Ain-ul Mulk had his fiefs in Malwa and in Hind also.
  39.   Ibid., p.959 for the reference of Kashmir and p.960 for Bihar. Both the references show that in conversations Hind or Hindustan had a separate entity than to Sub-continental connotation.
  40.   S.N. Banerjee and John S. Hoyland, Commentary of Father Monserrate, Jalandar, reprint 1993, p.147
  41.   Ibid., p.26,75
  42.   Abdu-l Qadir Ibn-i- Muluk Shah al-Badauni, Muntakhabu-t Tawarikh, eng. tra. W.H. Lowe, vol.II, Patna, reprint 1973, p.18, 245
  43.   Ibid.,p.6 fn

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