Retired Supreme Court Justice Markandeya Katju recently in a tete a tete with Kapil Sibal declared Bharata a country of immigrants and only pre-Dravidian tribals of Tamil Nadu as ‘original’ natives. He failed to mention that ‘original’ Homo sapiens migrated from African continent to all corners of the globe lakhs of years ago and only Africans can claim to be ‘Mool Nivasis’ of Africa still dwelling over there. Probably ex-Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was not entirely off the mark when he declared Katju a megalomaniac and loudly wondered as to how he could hit Supreme Court bench.
But he is not alone in this silly exercise. Few months ago, Namesake Congress President Mallikarjuna Kharge had yelled on the floor of Rajya Sabha targeting BJP members on Treasury Benches, “You have come from outside. We are original natives of this country. We have to protect the country from you all.” This megalomaniac harped on defunct and trashed Aryana Invasion Theory crafted by British pirates and bandits who had traumatised our ancestors for close to two centuries yet overlooked it just to earn some political brownies and nurture separatism.
Does it really make a sense to raise heat and dust over the issue of original natives of anywhere in this era of Artificial Intelligence, heavy migrations all around, infinite waiting-lists of PRCs/Green Cards, intensive conjugal inter-mixing of races and persistent demands to open borders from several quarters ?
Nobel Laureate Ravindranath Thakurs ancestors migrated from Kannauj district of UP to Kushtia, now in Bangladesh, then to Calcutta. His ancestors spoke fluent Shaurseni, a dialect of Hindi while Bengalis are very proud of his being the ‘greatest Bhumi-Putra Bengali’ ever known. Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee had described his non-Bengali lineage in his Oxford essay, “Who is a Bengali ?”
Ram Mohan Roy was anthropologically a Panjabi as his ancestors had migrated from Muktasar in Panjab to Burdvan in Bengal six centuries ago. Original Bengalis used to have somewhat mongoloid features with small eyes and wide forehead. Those features gradually lost their exclusivity 17th century onwards. In fact most of Chatterjees, Mukherjees and Banerjees are originally from UP.
Another Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul was originally a ‘Kurmi’ from Gorakhpur district of UP. In fact, West Indies and some Carribean countries are almost entirely inhabited by migrants from UP and Bihar while Fiji and Mauritius by Biharis mainly. Tamilians in Singapore, Shri Lanka and Gujaratis, Panjabis in UK and Canada are prominent migrants in those countries. African countries have too many Gujarati migrants. When BD Pandey, ex-Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago went to Azamgarh district of UP to identify his roots, he was surprised to discover that to be of Yadava community. Former Commonwealth Secretary General SS Ramphal too, belong to eastern UP.
Founder of Shiv Sena Bala Thakerays ancestors had migrated from Bihar to Dhar in Madhya Pradesh centuries ago, then to Maharashtra as confessed by his father himself in his autobiography written in Marathi language. The man of ‘Amchi Mumbai’ was himself originally not a “Mool Nivasi’ though his gang members used to thrash migrant job-seekers from Tamil Nadu, UP and Bihar on Mumbai roads in full public view. His nephew Raj Thakeray too, excelled in this felonious act later.
Maharashtrian Dixits are all originally Dikshits of UP having migrated from Varanasi and Prayagraj for coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja who himself originally belonged to Rajasthan from Shishodia dynasty. Similarly Pawars too happen to be Panwars of Rajasthan having migrated during his coronation. In Bithur near Kanpur district of UP, almost 80% Maharashtrian have been there since 1857, can’t even speak Marathi anymore. Bithur was ‘Karmabhumi’ of great freedom-fighter Nana Peshva. Parmars and Solankis of Gujarat originally belong to Rajasthan while Trivedis to UP. Mishras, Tripathis of Bengal and Odissa originally belong to UP only. Rangeya Raghava was originally a Tamilian who migrated to Rajasthan, then became a brilliant author in Hindi, could barely relate himself to Tamilian culture at all. Marwaris of Rajasthan are assimilated into Bengal like milk and water. They had migrated from western Rajasthan some 500 years ago during Akbars coronation. All of them are fluent in Bengali with natural accent and many of them have adopted non-vegetarianism influenced by Bengalis.
Abroad too, human migrations have been consistently happening. Actor Tom Alter was son of an American missionary settled in Bharata, William Shakespeare an Irish albeit known as the ‘greatest Englishman’ while Napolean Bonaparte originally an Italian later recognised as the ‘greatest Frenchman’. Alberto Fujimori of Japanese descent, was President of Peru for three terms, committed corruption and absconded to Japan when criminal proceedings were launched against him. Several US Presidents like John Kennedy, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses Grant, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Lyndon Johnson, George Bush etc. were Irish migrants originally. Similarly several British Prime Ministers viz. Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson, Anthony Blair, David Cameron etc. too, were of Irish origin. Britain had a Hindu Prime Minister in Rishi Shunak too, till recently.
We all are migrants because to migrate is a fundamental human nature, as instinctive as eating, drinking, sleeping, copulating etc. Not only migration is a fundamental human nature but also fundamental right too, denial of which amounts to infringement of fundamental rights. With the world becoming smaller and closer, no one can claim absolute and ultimate right to any place. No one enjoys an exclusivity over a place, territory, language or any other attribute. It is a global trend, undeniable and unavoidable. ‘Mine’ and ‘theirs’ are too petty issues when we behold universalism vs. humanity encompassing entire mankind. It is entirely a blasphemy to challenge or question anyones originality anywhere.
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