I don't know much about the history of my mother's side of the family, otehr than that they are originally from Hyderabad in India. My dad's family were historically hindus from Hyderabad. We were slaves owned by the Nizam of Hyderabad. After my family became muslims, we were freed and rapidly became wealthy aristocrats, marrying into minor royalty in Hyderabad. My great grandad (my dadi's father) was closely involved in founding Osmania University In Hyderabad and served as its first registrar.
My my other great grandad (dada's father), having been educated in Hyderabad, got admission to Cambridge University in England but became too ill to travel. SO he instead did his degree at Calcutta University, and eventually ended up becoming a Psychology professor there.
My dada, his brother, and my dadi's brother all served as officers in the British Army fighting against the Japanese. My dadi's brother was the most senior Indian officer captured at Hyderabad - he commanded the loyalty of the Muslim and Hindu prisoners, though the Sikhs turned against him. HOwever, he refused to cooperate with the Japanese prison authorities, and established a network that allowed many European prisoners to escape.On March 23rd 1942, he made to kneel in the sand whilst a Japanese Sargeant cut his head off. He won a George Cross for his service to Britain.
My grandad returned to Hyderabad after the war. At Partition, when Hyderabad remained independent, my family was content to stay where it was. However, in August 1948 the Indian army invaded and captured Hyderabad. They confiscated the weapons of all Muslims including my grandad, whilst not disarming Hindus. Fearing for their lives, about half my family (both parents' sides) went to Bombay and shipped out to Karachi.
Very cool topic! I don't know much about my Dad's side for a variety of reasons. All I know is that my Dada was an NCO in the Pak army (a mechanic I believe). He survived in many a war like situations but was killed in a car accident two years before my parents got married.
My Ammi Jan's side I know really well. My great-grandfather (Parnana) was a religious scholar of sorts and the local Imam and what not. I have been through his book collections and it was quite amazing. He had Iqbal's Kuliyat-e-Iqbal from the times when it was sold for a couple of rupees. He also had tonnes of books on Christianity, Hinduism and Ahmadiyyat which I'm told he used for research and learning about other religions. Ahmadiyyat has played a strange role in my family. My Parnana decided to convert to Ahmadiyyat when the movement was new. But then the scholarly man that he was, he continued digging into Ahmadiyyat. Eventually he decided to convert back to Islam. My Nana Jan had been married by that time and my Nani Jan obviously came from an Ahmadi family. She, however, decided to convert to Islam with her husband and his family. So all my immediate Nanhiyal wale became Muslim.
In general, both sides of my parentage always lived in Punjab and in a Muslim dominated area. So we did escape practically all effects of the partition. But my Nana got to see it because of religious allegiance. Near the partition, expecting bloodshed and imminent danger to Mirza Ahmed young Ahmadi men were summoned to Qadian to proctect him. My Nana (16-17 at the time) was also sent for this purpose by his father. He told me how he kept watch on the house with the other people in shifts and how the Hindus and Sikhs were always attacking. And he was at such an age too that he felt very sleepy only after a couple of hours of duty. Eventually these guards (including My Nana Jan) realized that their leader had actually already left. Then, all of the, decided to go back to their towns as well. My Nana managed to hang to a bus leaving for Lahore. And from Lahore he walked to Sialkot because there was no transportation available. Pretty amazing, huh!
He still says that the bus he caught was already full and was one of the last to leave. Had he not been able to hang on, I guess I would not be here.
[quote]
Originally posted by sambrialian:
**My Parnana decided to convert to Ahmadiyyat when the movement was new. But then the scholarly man that he was, he continued digging into Ahmadiyyat. Eventually he decided to convert back to Islam. My Nana Jan had been married by that time and my Nani Jan obviously came from an Ahmadi family. She, however, decided to convert to Islam with her husband and his family. So all my immediate Nanhiyal wale became Muslim.
**
[/quote]
MInd u many here would argue for ur definition of converting to muslim.
I know there is an old man who keeps such records for our clan. Everytime a child is born in our family he visits us and asks about the child, the father and the mother. It's very common to pay him everytime he comes. I've considered it to copy his books, just for the reason you mentioned.
Does anybody else know of something like this?
Pathwari, yes. There used to be people called "Maraasi" in punjab who used to memorize family trees going back hundreds of years. Our maraasi used to go back 20 generations but he died and his son was a nalaiq who did not listen to his father and memorize all that stuff....basically our master database is corrupted now.:)
Another source of such information in most Hindu and Sikh families is Pandits of Hardawaar(a holy city of Hindus). They still have wahis going back 20 generations.
About roots. I don't know a lot going back but as for as I know my elders lived in this village since it was founded by one of them, God knows when but estimates or at least 600/700 years ago. Everyone in the family since then lived in the same place. It does not matter to me where they were before that. One most probable theory is that Jatts of our clan lived in couple of big villages/towns thousand years ago and as they grew up in numbers they spread to different parts of Punjab and founded their own villages. So all of us in the clan belong originally to couple of places in Punjab but now spread thinly all over. I did not believe it first but now have met people of my clan from various other parts of Punjab who actually have relatives or some other connection to thsoe places. It is also known that these Jatts believed in Jathaira(ancestral) pooja and celebrated their days on their samaadhs and also celebrated most of the Hindu festivals culturally before they became Sikh sometime during 1600s. In fact some of the jatts of our clan still have smaadhs(kabars) of their ancestors and celebrate their urs/yearly mela or whatever there.
All my ancestors were freaks. My paternal grandpa was a schoolteacher. My maternal grandpa was a Professor of Math and Physics. My both grandmothers were tough cookies, not educated in school, but both could read. My maternal great grandpa was an ironsmith (Lohar) and made millions (ok, thousands) selling knives to the British Army (the gizmo that goes infront of a rifle). He wasted all his money on the courtesan dancers of Lukhnow, where he used to frequently travel. My maternal great grandpa was a merchant, who will travel back and forth between Punjab and Baluchistan to buy dried fruits, mostly on Camel Caravans. He ventured as far as Hyderabad India on a camel caravan turn of the century.
My family tree is merchants/farmers on mother’s side, and ironsmiths on father’s side. There are some pieces in the British Museum which were hand crafted by my great great grandfather.
I have my Shajra’e’Nasal (family tree) and someday I intend to study it. The legend has it that our roots go back to Asia Minor (I guess like most north Indians).
Every time I read a book on discovery of one’s roots, I get motivated to write a book of my own. The most recent one that I read was by Steve Dubner (Turbulent Souls), a great journey into discovering one’s roots. I just saw a write-up in today’s times about a young Princeton student writing about his roots and the book has gotten a lot of critical attention. I can’t wait to read it. It is “Everything is illuminated” by Janathan Foer.
Mad Scientist Yaara. I apologize. I know what it is called. I just didn’t know how to spell it. Sorry.
And by the way, that is just one of many products that my ancestors made. My great Grandpa could repair guns, he was so crafty that he would not hesitate to even fix a watch. They also made cutlery and the handles were made of either bone or sea-shells (in Punjabi it is called Sipi) (river shells actually, from River Jehlum that flows thru my village. I have a collection of silver passed on to my wife by my mother that was made by my great grandpa. I also have some Kirpans in my collection.
My great grandparents from my dad side came from Afghanistan and moved to Mardan, Rawalpindi and then finally settled in Farrukhabad, UP, India. My grandfather was a zamindaar and a very cool person. It should explain why I love so much to live in a village. Next time, I speak to my mom I will definitely tell her that NO I won't find it difficult to live in a village. She also thinks that I am lazy but I think it's in the genes too. My grandparents decided to migrate to Pakistan and had to leave everything there.
My mother's father was from Peeli Bheet, India and he got married to a Pathan girl from Mardan. He moved to Karachi as he thought it was too dangerous when his son started using Guns at the age of 12 which is a custom there.
I have visited the place where my mom lived in Mardan and have hope that one day I would visit India where my father was born.
Like most of you I can write pages and pages about my grandparents and a great deal would be about my beloved daadi who played an important role for this family.
[quote]
Originally posted by pathwari:
I know there is an old man who keeps such records for our clan. Everytime a child is born in our family he visits us and asks about the child, the father and the mother. It's very common to pay him everytime he comes. I've considered it to copy his books, just for the reason you mentioned.
Does anybody else know of something like this?
[/quote]
my mom told me that every child that is born in Pakistn is reported with "his name", father's name, and "date fo birth" to the committee ghar. we can trace our roots from the comittee ghar.
[This message has been edited by cool down (edited May 15, 2002).]
my mom told me that every child that is born in Pakistn is reported with "his name", father's name, and "date fo birth" to the committee ghar. we can trace our roots from the comittee ghar. <<
yup...if your roots are only 25 yr old. becuz thats when committee ghar was probably made.:)
moms side local rajputs zameendaar from punjab embraced islam 3 gen ago.... dad's side came from a village near Kandhar. Afghanstn..my perdada served in british army and we heard stories him about Col.D.H.Lawrance AKA Lawrance of Arabia...is company ecorted LOA somewhere in Bagdad. my dada was in Hermajesty's SAS only two daisees among em,.,later joined SSG a mortor took em out at an unknown location on LOC...
most relatives still live in Kandhar...will visit as soon as fireworks are a bit low...
My strength is the strength of ten because my heart is pure...
[This message has been edited by lastknight (edited May 16, 2002).]
“Allah extends His Hand at night so that He can forgive the sinner of the day; He extends His Hand in the day so that He can forgive the sinner of the night. He will continue to do so until the sun rises from the West (the Day of Judgment)”
[Related by Imam Muslim]
[This message has been edited by Hinna (edited May 17, 2002).]
I found out some old documents of my family and the names of my forefathers.
Ghulam Hussain (was my Grand Father) was son of Muhammad Yar, who was son of Chajawar, who was son of Marakh Singh who was son of Arora Singh.
Lets see .. my Grand father was born at the turn of the past century. Which means Chajawar was born sometime in the early 1800s and Arora Singh must have lived in the 1700s. That's cool! I wonder how they had lived and what did they do in spare time! We definitely need to have an anthropologist going to Punjab.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by ahmadjee: *
I found out some old documents of my family and the names of my forefathers.
Ghulam Hussain (was my Grand Father) was son of Muhammad Yar, who was son of Chajawar, who was son of Marakh Singh who was son of Arora Singh.
Lets see .. my Grand father was born at the turn of the past century. Which means Chajawar was born sometime in the early 1800s and Arora Singh must have lived in the 1700s. That's cool! I wonder how they had lived and what did they do in spare time! We definitely need to have an anthropologist going to Punjab.
[/QUOTE]
yaar each generation is not 100 yrs...it is only 20-30 years. They might have lived 100 years but you can not count each generation span as 100 years..3/4 generations co-exist at the same time..so when Ghulam Hussain was playing gulli-DanDA, aRooRa Singh was probably watching him sitting on a majhi under the dharaik tree.