The Origins of the Gujjars
The region where the Gurjars or Gujjars settled eventually came to be known as Gujarat. Animal husbandry and agriculture were once their primary occupations.
The term "Gurjars" does not refer to a single caste or religion. It is a broad group comprising people of various faiths and languages — among them Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. They speak many languages, including Gojri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Urdu, Pashto, Haryanvi, Sindhi, Bhojpuri, Marathi, and Balochi. Beyond India, significant Gujjar populations are also found in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Within the community, Rajputs, Jats, Ahirs, and Indo-Aryans are all represented.
There was once a Gurjar kingdom — around 570 CE — in the area that is now Rajasthan. The term "Gurjar" first appears in Banabhatta's Harshacharita, written around 630 CE. According to the accounts of Chinese travelers who visited India during the reign of Emperor Harsha, that very region was known at the time as "Buddha Desh" — the Land of the Buddha.
When such remarkable "unity in diversity" is so clearly visible through the course of history in this region, why are the current leaders of Gujarat so determined to destroy that diversity? It is certainly a question worth pondering.
Mughal History and Akbar's Legacy of Universality
When we look at the lineage of Mughal emperors who ruled India, the succession reads as follows: Timur, followed by his son Babur, then Babur's son Humayun, and Humayun's son — Akbar the Great. After Akbar came Jahangir, Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb, and finally Bahadur Shah Zafar. These are the names generations of Indians have studied in their history lessons.
Whether future generations will have the opportunity to learn these facts is now uncertain — because the current government is systematically altering the content of school textbooks. Their apparent intention is that Mughal history should not be studied at all. What deep grievance drives this agenda against those who do not subscribe to their ideology remains unclear.
The people of Gujarat lived under Muslim rulers for several centuries. History does not record, anywhere, that those Muslim rulers oppressed them.
Setting that aside, when we examine the Mughals individually, each emperor possesses a distinctive character. Among them all, it was Akbar who earned the enduring title of "Akbar the Great." The primary reasons are well documented: his practice of genuine religious tolerance, his marriage to a Hindu Rajput woman, his initiative to have Hindu spiritual texts translated into Urdu so that he could understand them, and his sustained and significant efforts to protect the principle of "unity in diversity" — a cornerstone of Indian civilization.
The Geographical and Political History of Gujarat
The Junagadh rock inscriptions make it clear that in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, the Gujarat region was a Buddhist kingdom. By the 8th and 9th centuries, it had come under the rule of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty. The Solanki and Vaghela kings followed in succession.
In 1299 CE, Delhi Sultan Alauddin Khilji defeated the reigning Vaghela king and assumed control of the Gujarat region. From that point — the 13th century — the region remained under Muslim rule for an extended period.
In 1411, a king named Ahmad Shah founded the city of Ahmedabad, naming it after himself, and made it his seat of power. By the end of the 16th century, the entire region had come under Mughal control. In the mid-18th century, the Marathas held it briefly, but by 1818, Gujarat had passed into the hands of the British East India Company.
Following Indian independence in 1947, the Gujarat province was merged into Bombay State. In 1956, Kutch and Saurashtra were incorporated as well. Then, on May 1, 1960, Bombay State was officially divided — Gujarat and Maharashtra were born as separate states, organized along linguistic lines, separating Gujarati and Marathi speakers into their respective homelands.
The Mention of 'Gujarat' in the Jahangir Nama
According to the Jahangir Nama, the word "Gujarat" took shape during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar. Its Hindi translation was carried out by Munshi Devi Prasad, and the relevant details appear on page 51 of that volume. Jahangir was not merely an emperor — he was also a writer. He composed his own autobiography, titled Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri, which became widely known as the Jahangir Nama. Its English translation was produced by Wheeler M. Thackston.
The Jahangir Nama recounts that once, while traveling to Kashmir, Akbar halted at the banks of the Chenab River. Enchanted by the pleasant surroundings, he decided to have a fort constructed at that very site. Because the Gurjar and Gujjar population was particularly dense in that area, he named the region Gujarat.
Over the centuries that followed, those who engaged in highway robbery in that region came to be called "Gujjars," and the fort built by Akbar along with the surrounding territories served as their refuge and shelter. However, during the India-Pakistan Partition, that fort and its surrounding areas fell within Pakistani territory. The remaining Gujarat stayed with India — initially within Maharashtra, and later as a separate state following the linguistic reorganization of states.
We Cannot Erase History — The Mughal-Rajput Connection
If the RSS-BJP government — which bristles at any mention of Mughals or Muslims — is genuinely consistent in its convictions, should it not immediately move to change the name of Gujarat itself? After all, it was Emperor Akbar who identified that region, gave it its name, recognized the significance of its Gurjar-Gujjar population, and even declared it a separate pargana — an administrative unit. To express their stated outrage against Akbar's legacy, they ought, by their own logic, to rename Gujarat without delay. Alternatively, they should abandon their selective renaming campaign and leave historical names as they are.
According to information found on pages 22 to 25 of the Jahangir Nama, many Hindu kings were not merely acquaintances of the Mughals — they were willing subordinates. The Kachwaha Rajput family of Man Singh had served the Mughal empire across three consecutive generations. Madhav Singh Jagannath, Raja Manohar, Rana Sagar, Raja Bir Singh Dev, and others are all recorded as loyal servants of the Mughal throne. They cultivated close relationships with the Mughal emperors and were, by their own initiative, eager to offer their daughters in marriage to them.
So why have their descendants today become so vehemently anti-Muslim? That is a question that deserves a sincere answer. Is there no room for self-reflection and honest reckoning? No government can permanently bury the past. Governments are transient; history endures.
British-Era Classifications and Modern Allegations
Those who proudly claim their identity as Gujjars would do well to pause and reflect. The British colonial administration itself documented in its official records that Gurjars and Gujjars were known for engaging in acts of rebellion. Even a century later, they were formally stamped with the label of "Criminal Tribes." Colonial writers continued to characterize them as a community prone to conspiracy, deceit, and fraudulent conduct — a stigma that was inscribed into the administrative and legal record of the era.
Information related to these "Criminal Tribes" classifications is available online for those who wish to research it further.
In that same historical spirit, those who today loot banks and flee the country, those whose names appear in the lists of the world's billionaires, and those who wield national power through misinformation and deception — are they not all, in some sense, Gurjars, Gujjars, or Gujaratis? One might argue they are faithfully continuing the occupation of their ancestors, the very lineage documented since Akbar's time.
Lalu Prasad Yadav's much-quoted remark is worth recalling here. He observed: "In sixty years, not a single Gandhi took money from this country and fled. But in eight years, three Gujarati Modis have looted and fled with lakhs of crores."
It is perhaps precisely this fear — that such secrets will be exposed — that drives the impulse to erase Mughal history from textbooks.
Conclusion — From Buddha Desh to Gurjar Desh, and Back?
It must be stated clearly: it is not the author's intention to suggest that all citizens of Gujarat are fraudsters. If that were the case, Mahatma Gandhi himself was from Gujarat. The point, rather, is this — those who commit fraud must not be forgiven, regardless of where they come from.
Everything transforms in the flow of time. The land that was once Buddha Desh later became Gurjar Desh. The people of this country neither desire nor deserve to have it remain a den of deceit and exploitation.
They think — and they hope — that history moves in cycles. And why should it not once again become a Buddha Desh, filled with humane values, compassion, and justice?
The author is a Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award winner and biologist.
Comments
Post a Comment