Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Where and what is Hindustan?

Many modern-day people seem to think of Hindustan as a synonym for the country India. This is an incorrect understanding of the word and the history behind it. Even the understanding of Hindustan as "land of Hindus" is a misconception.

Other people think of this as a regional term for the whole subcontinent. According to geographers and historians, the region of Hindustan covers the Ganges valley in Northern India and the Punjab and Sindh regions of Eastern Pakistan. It also includes Rajesthan and the Delhi region and perhaps parts of China which touches points of the Indus river.
It does not refer to the entire subcontinent, let alone all of India.

According to my knowledge, the word was used by the Mughals for the territories they controlled in South Asia, which was mostly North India, North Eastern Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The word Hindustan most likely has it's roots in Hind, which in term is a corruption of the word Sindh, from the Sanskrit Sindhu which came from "Sapta Sindhu" meaning "land of the rivers."

Sapta Sindhu or the land of the rivers included the river-covered areas of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India.
The Persians who frequently visited the subcontinent through out the centuries, referred to the region as "Hind." This word was most likely a synonym for Sindhu.

For those who do not know, the Mughals were a mostly Persian-led empire with an army of Turko-Mongols. But this army was one of many Persian armies that visited South Asia going back centuries before the common era.

If Hind had the same meaning behind Sindh, then being a Persian led force, the Mughals continued to use the word Hind to refer to the region of rivers in South Asia as their ancestors did, which was mostly the Ganges Valley in Northern India and the Indus Valley in central and eastern Pakistan.

If these theories are correct, it coincides with the original marking of Hindustan which cuts through North India and North Eastern Pakistan. The Mughal word Hindustan could very well be a continuation of the word Hind.

Below is the map of the territories controlled by the Mughal Empire:


Another misconception is that Hindustan had a religious meaning. This is not true at all. As already known to many, the reference to "Hindu" and "Hinduism" as a collective religion did not exist until the arrival of the British who termed all the indigenous religions of South Asia as "one."

If Hind had the same meaning as "Sindh" then Hindustan would also mean "land of the rivers" which makes sense, since the area of Punjab and the Ganges valley was rules by the Mughals.
Sindh was not under Mughal rule as far as any sources state , nor do any maps show most of Pakistan being under Mughal rule.

Conclusively, the correct meaning of Hindustan is the region that cuts through Northern India and North Eastern Pakistan. It does NOT refer to India as a whole or even the subcontinent.
Nor does it refer to all of Pakistan.

Hindustan is historically a geographic term despite the fact that is has been politicized now. Even Hind and "Hindu" had no religious meaning until the British labeled the various pagan cults of South Asia as such into one "Hinduism."

A basic map of Hindustan which includes areas of Southern China:

No comments:

Post a Comment