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| 'Origin, rise and growth of Gujjars' | | A book by Gh. Sarwar Chauhan - a critical survey | | Mahadeep Singh Jamwal | 3/10/2018 10:20:05 PM |
| Writing a book review is not just about summarizing; it's also an opportunity to present a critical discussion of the book that what is on the pages, how analyzed how the book tried to achieve its purpose. Keeping in mind these principles I dare to review the book of a retired Police Officer Mr. Gh. Sarwar Chauhan, belonging to Gujjar community, who happened to be my senior in the days of my active service. If we had a way to go back alive in time, we could have never got past account of our history in books; we would have never been able to pay tribute to our ancestry. We are not makers of history, we are made by history and it is an issue of human progression. When we chatter about 'Gujjar' history, we find that Gurjar or Gujjar are a group with populations in India, Pakistan and a small number in northeastern Afghanistan. When the image of Gujjar community haunts our mind about its less known facts, number of books, scripts and editorials on the subject comes to our rescue. Many such sources encountered me as an analytical mind and ultimately my inquisitiveness came to dead end when a comprehensive research work of G. Sarwar Chauhan (ex-SSP), as a complete book on origin, rise and growth of Gujjars touched down my library. Despite the fact, it is a compilation work based on historical facts with relevant references, but the texture of Hindi idiom 'Gagar mein Sagar' meaning 'Ocean in a pot' is the closing word that can be coined for the book. The writer has appealingly adventured the journey of Gujjar community by narration of its stops and advances through archival actuality traversing over sons of Noah, Manusmriti, king porus, Kushan Empire, Gurjara Pratihara dynasty, Gujjars in Mughal Era, gujjars in Muslim Era, Gujjars during British rule, Gujjars in freedom struggle of India and many more historical aspects. One senses crux of contentment and proud of this Gujjar community while moving on their chariot. In a very conceivable way the compiler at the beginning has relied upon the view of the history presented by Genesis 10 of the Hebrew Bible, about Noah and his family as only survivors to continue the human race after total destruction of population on earth by the flood. In line, 'Ham', 'Shem', and 'Japheth' were three sons of Noah. The author relying on calling of each other sometimes in the community may be as a satire "Yapheth Ki Aulad" has surmised Gujjars ancestry as from 'Japheth', and further based on the traditional claim of Armenian and Georgian as descendant from 'Togarmah', next generation falling in line with 'Japheth', affiliate Gujjars to Georgians also. In a very plausible way the hobbyist has referred 'Manu Smriti', for entitling progenitor of mankind as 'Manu' to be the first king to rule this earth who saved mankind from universal flood. The writer very honestly have gone in favor of population of human as descendant from same subject having two versions of it, as 'Noah' and 'Manu' versions and believe Gujjars are also one of them and reflects in his opinion as one theory of origin of Gujjars. Advancing pages of the text enrich our knowledge that after Mahabharata the Krishna after abandoning Mathura, united Kshatriya clan and his surviving Kshatriyas from his army into one and named them as 'Gurjar' and their government come to be known as 'Gujratar' with capital established in Dwarika. In first century AD, Gurjars have established reigns of two dynasties. The Nagar dynasty of Gurjars ruled Bengal, Bihar, Orissa (now Odisha), Uttar Pradesh and central India. The other dynasty as Kushan Gurjars ruled Peshawar and Agghanistan and Kanishka as their emperor. His reign spread up to Central Asia, as a result of which Gurjars could be seen dwelling in Afghanistan, Russia, and Iran even these days. Kushan Empire collapsed in 375 AD. Gurjar ruled as feudatories to Guptas till 455 AD when it collapsed due to Huan attack. The name 'Gurjardesa' was founded by Yashodharman in 480 AD (earlier it was Gujarat) after defeating Huna king. Many of the writings available on search engines but all had confused the origin of this community rather than to come on one platform. The chapter 8 of the book educates us about 'Who are Gujjars'. The claims of historians (almost 90%) that Gujjars originated in Central Asia and ultimately settled in Gujrat stand contested in the book. The author has placed its reliance that the Gurjars were established in the area near Mount Abu in Rajsthan around 6th century. The Gurjars were Hindus at the time they were first noticed in India. They have established a kingdom of their own at the time of Harsha of Thaneswar (607-647) about 640 AD. About 759 AD, the Chapa dynasty of Gurjars which had been in power for 200 years was displaced by Pratihars who carried till 1000 AD, when their power was broken by the coming of Mahmud of Ghazni who later migrated to mountains for pasture for the animals. The book civilizes us that Gurjar was most powerful Khsatriyan group of his time. The people liked them so much that their kingdoms were called Gurjaratra, Gurjar Bhumi, Gurjar Mandal, Gurjar Rashtra, Gurjar Desh, Gurjar Bhubhuj and their rulers were called Gurjarendra, Gurjareshwar, and Gurjranath by them. It also guide us that Rajput Sangh was formed to fight out the Muslims invaders somewhere during 13th century in Marwar region by famous Gurjar clans i.e. Pratihars, Parmars, Chalukyas, Chauhans, Gehlots, Chandels, Tomars, Chawdas, Dhamas, etc. The writer has efficiently show-cased the places named after Gujjars spread over to Punjab, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, J&K and also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Likewise reference of Gujjar personalities from across J&K, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, UP, Uttarakhand, Rajsthan, Nadhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and also from Pakistan excelling from all walks of society in chapter 33 is marvelous data compilation. Gujjars belong to Aryans and writer too have relied upon the work of Mr Baij Nath Puri (The history of Gujjars and Pratharas), K M Munshi (The Glory that was Gujjar Desh), Rana Ali Hassan Chouhan (The history of Gujjars), Mr Jatinder Kumar Verma (Gujjar Ithas).
J&K has conspicuous geographical concentration all over the state, except Ladakh. In the Kashmir division the concentration of Gujjars is on the mountain slopes and valleys side in the area of Kukernag, Kangan, Tral, Doru, Pahalgam, Shopian, Kulgam, Handwara, Karnah, Kupwara and Uri Tehsils whereas in Jammu division Gujjars dominate in the border tehsils along the LoC i.e. Haveli, Mendhar, Nowshera, and Bani with their pockets in Bhaderwah, Doda, Gool, Kishtwar, Kathua, Udhampur and Arnas. The language spoken by Gujjars and Bakerwals of J&K termed as 'Gujari' is a form of 'Marwari' and had its root in Sanskrit. Gujari speakers constitute the single largest group of its persons in the state after Kashmiri and Dogri speakers. A majority of Gujjars follow Hinduism and Islam, though small Gujjar communities following other religions Gujjars.
The most informative part of the book based on study by 'Tribal and Cultural Foundation J&K' is about the socio-economic condition of Gujjars in J&K and various reforms required in the field have been detailed. Similarly socio-economic condition of Gujjars Women in J&K describing woes and misery of Gujjar women still living primitive life projected in real perceptions as a matter of concern for the community. The encyclopedia of approximately 479 Gujjar clans finding reference in the memoir is marvelous.
Concluding when it comes to the possibilities of learning from history there are doubtless many things we could aspire to learn from this book. Some of those would be more practically useful, in terms of contributing to the normal and decent functioning of well-meaning societies than others. |
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