Re: Pakistani’s have a crisis of identity?
Sigh Dont pay any attention to that crap on wikipedia.
I’m a Butt/Dhar from Srinagar, speaking koshur. We have ancestral records of our relatives (Butt’s being scholars). My Butt side converted to Islam from Hinduism in the late 1300’s, whilst my Dhar side converted to Islam from Bhuddism.
Butt’s were Kashmiri Hindu Brahmins, I don’t know where this Jewish stuff comes from. DNA testing has shown that Kashmiris don’t have Jewish Ancestry, but apparently the sample was small (see this link http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v70n5/013572/013572.web.pdf?erFrom=7058756594199489470Guest)
In my experience it is mainly the people from Pakistan claiming Kashmiri ancestry who claim all this crap. Most Kashmiris know that they were either Hindu or Bhuddist before Islam came to the valley.
I’ve also paid almost $400 US getting extensive DNA ancestry testing. My Paternal haplogroup is J2a1b which is found in the 95% of Ashkenazi Jews, but my 2 of marker values are slightly off whilst the other 6 are of the same value (Values have to be EXACT to show affinity to a particular ethnic group). The haplogroup that represents 90% of northern Indians (Punjabis etc) is R1a, my paternal ancestor is apparently from where Turkey is today.
My mtDNA haplogroup is Haplogroup H, which is a typical European haplogroup, also found in the caucases, which makes sense since my mum/grandmum etc are all white and natural red heads.
This ancestry goes back 1000+ years!! so it just tells me where my ancestors came from. I would never call myself anything else but Kashur, as that is where my history/culture/language lies. My ancestors accepted Kashmir valley as their home and contibuted to its culture which I am very proud of.
All in all, my DNA ancestry makes quite a lot of sense, and I’m happy with it.
P.S. Dispite popular belief, people who claim moghul ancestry are not Perisan, but are ancestors of the Indian muslims who served in the moghul courts (they wrote in Persian keeping records for the Moghuls). It is the Parsis who are Persian.
P.S.S. Whilst it is likely that Kashmiris could be decendants of some Cannites from over 5000 years ago. 5000 years is far too long ago to still claim Jewish ancestry, its absurd frankly. We all came from Africa originally, yet we don’t all call ourselves African do we? These internet kiddies on wikipedia are fools.
P.S.S.S. If you want more info about my DNA ancestry etc, I’ll be glad to tell you more.