[Reader-list] Hindu Kush means Hindu Slaughter

[M Javed]

Dear Pawan
We all know "Hindu Kush" means Hindu killer, but an even basic
question is: what has been the meaning of the word "Hindu" itself all
these centuries? Does Hindu mean the follower of a religion
(Vaisnavite, Shaivite or whatever) or the resident of a region beyond
the river Sindh? Who started using the word Hindu first, and what did
they mean by it when they started using the word Hindu-kush. The
various meanings you have presented assume that this was the region
where the followers of Hinduism were massacred. But what did Hinduism
mean in those days?

Javed

On 7/12/09, Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hindu Kush means Hindu Slaughter
>
> By Shrinandan Vyas
>
> ________________________________
> All the Encyclopedias and National Geographic agree that Hindu Kush
> region is a place of Hindu genocide (similar to Dakau and Auschwitz).
> All the references are given. Please feel free to verify them.
> ________________________________
> ABSTRACT
> All Standard reference books agree that the name 'Hindu Kush' of the
> mountain range in Eastern Afganistan means 'Hindu Slaughter' or 'Hindu
> Killer'. History also reveals that until 1000 A.D. the area of Hindu
> Kush was a full part of Hindu cradle. More likely, the mountain range
> was deliberately named as 'Hindu Slaughter' by the Moslem conquerors,
> as a lesson to the future generations of Indians. However Indians in
> general, and Hindus in particular are completely oblivious to this
> tragic genocide. This article also looks into the reasons behind this
> ignorance.
> 21 References - (Mainly Encyclopedia Britannica & other reference
> books, National Geographic Magazines and standard history books).
> ________________________________
> INTRODUCTION
> The Hindu Kush is a mountain system nearly 1000 miles long and 200
> miles wide, running northeast to southwest, and dividing the Amu Darya
> River Valley and Indus River Valley. It stretches from the Pamir
> Plateau near Gilgit, to Iran. The Hindu Kush ranges mainly run thru
> Afganistan and Pakistan. It has over two dozen summits of more than
> 23,000 ft in height. Below the snowy peaks the mountains of Hindu Kush
> appear bare, stony and poor in vegetation. Historically, the passes
> across the Hindu Kush have been of great military significance,
> providing access to the northern plains of India. The Khyber Pass
> constitutes an important strategic gateway and offers a comparatively
> easy route to the plains of Punjab. Most foreign invaders, starting
> from Alexander the Great in 327 BC, to Timur Lane in 1398 AD, and from
> Mahmud of Ghazni, in 1001 AD, to Nader Shah in 1739 AD attacked
> Hindustan via the Khyber Pass and other passes in the Hindu Kush
> (1,2,3). The Greek chroniclers of Alexander the Great called Hindu
> Kush as Parapamisos or Paropanisos (4). The Hindu name of the Hindu
> Kush mountains was 'Paariyaatra Parvat'(5).
> ________________________________
> EARLY HISTORY OF HINDU KUSH REGION (UP TO 1000 AD)
> History of Hindu Kush and Punjab shows that two major kingdoms of
> Gandhaar & Vaahic Pradesh (Balkh of Bactria) had their borders
> extending far beyond the Hindu Kush. Legend has it that the kingdom of
> Gandhaar was established by Taksha, grandson of Bharat of Ayodhya (6).
> Gandhaar's borders extended from Takshashila to Tashkent (corruption
> of 'Taksha Khand') in the present day Uzbekistan. In the later period,
> Mahabharat relates Gaandhaari as a princess of Gandhaar and her
> brother, Shakuni as a prince and later as Gandhaar's ruler.
> In the well documented history, Emperor Chandragupt Maurya took charge
> of Vaahic Pradesh around 325 BC and then took over Magadh. Emperor
> Ashok's stone tablets with inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic are still
> found at Qandahar (corruption of Gandhaar?) and Laghman in eastern
> Afganistan(3). One such stone tablet, is shown in the PBS TV series
> 'Legacy with Mark Woods' in episode 3 titled 'India: The Spiritual
> Empire'. After the fall of Mauryan empire, Gandhaar was ruled by
> Greeks. However some of these Greek rulers had converted to Buddhism,
> such as Menander, known to Indian historians as Milinda, while some
> other Greeks became followers of Vishnav sects (Hinduism)(7). Recent
> excavations in Bactria have revealed a golden hoard which has among
> other things a figurine of a Greek goddess with a Hindu mark on its
> forehead (Bindi) showing the confluence of Hindu-Greek art (8). Later
> Shaka and KushaaN ruled Gandhaar and Vaahic Pradesh. KushaaN emperor
> Kanishka's empire stretched from Mathura to the Aral Sea (beyond the
> present day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Krygzystan)(9).
> Kanishaka was a Buddhist and under KushaaN influence Buddhism
> flourished in Gandhaar. Two giant sandstone Buddhas carved into the
> cliffs of Bamian (west of Kabul) date from the Kushan period. The
> larger Buddha (although defaced in later centuries by Moslem invaders)
> is about 175 ft tall (10,11). The Kushan empire declined by 450 AD.
> The Chinese traveller Hsuan-Tsang (Xuan-zang) travelled thru the
> region in 7 th century AD and visited many Buddhist religious centers
> (3) including Hadda, Ghazni, Qonduz, Bamian (3,10,11), Shotorak and
> Bagram. From the 5 th thru 9 th cenury AD Persian Sasanians and
> Hepthalites ruled Gandhaar. During their rule Gandhaar region was
> again influenced by Hinduism. The Hindu kings (Shahiya) were
> concentrated in the Kabul and Ghazni areas. The last Hindu Shahiya
> king of Kabul, Bhimapal was killed in 1026 AD. The heroic efforts of
> the Hindu Shahiya Kings to defend the northwestern gates of India
> against the invaders are described by even al-Biruni, the court
> historian of Mahmud of Ghazni (12). Some excavated sites of the period
> include a major Hindu Shahiya temple north of Kabul and a chapel that
> contains both Buddhist and Hindu images, indicating that there was a
> mingling of two religions (3).
> Islamic invasions on Afganistan started in 642 AD, but over the next
> several centuries their effect was marginal and lasted only a short
> time after each raid. Cities surrendered only to rise in revolt and
> the hastily converted returned to their old religion (Hinduism or
> Buddhism) once the Moslem armies had passed (3).
> THUS TILL THE YEAR 1000 AD AFGANISTAN WAS A FULL PART OF HINDU CRADLE.
> ________________________________
> HINDU KUSH AND THE HINDU GENOCIDE
> Now Afganistan is a Moslem country. Logically, this means either one
> or more of the following must have happened:
> a) original residents of Hindu Kush converted to Islam, or
> b) they were slaughtered and the conquerors took over, or
> c) they were driven out.
> Encyclopedia Britannica (3) already informs us above about the
> resistance to conversion and frequent revolt against to the Moslem
> conqueror's rule from 8 th thru 11 th Century AD. The name 'Hindu
> Kush' itself tells us about the fate of the original residents of
> Gandhaar and Vaahic Pradesh during the later period of Moslem
> conquests, because HINDU KUSH in Persian MEANS HINDU SLAUGHTER (13)
> (as per Koenraad Elst in his book 'Ayodhya and After'). Let us look
> into what other standard references say about Hindu Kush.
> Persian-English dictionary (14) indicates that the word 'Kush' is
> derived from the verb Kushtar - to slaughter or carnage. Kush is
> probably also related to the verb Koshtan meaning to kill. In Urdu,
> the word Khud-kushi means act of killing oneself (khud - self, Kushi-
> act of killing). Encyclopedia Americana comments on the Hindu Kush as
> follows: The name Hindu Kush means literally 'Kills the Hindu', a
> reminder of the days when (Hindu) SLAVES from Indian subcontinent died
> in harsh Afgan mountains while being transported to Moslem courts of
> Central Asia (15). The National Geographic Article 'West of Khyber
> Pass' informs that 'Generations of raiders brought captive Hindus past
> these peaks of perpetual snow. Such bitter journeys gave the range its
> name Hindu Kush - "Killer of Hindus"'(10). The World Book Encyclopedia
> informs that the name Kush, .. means Death ..(16). While Encyclopedia
> Britannica says 'The name Hindu Kush first appears in 1333 AD in the
> writings of Ibn Battutah, the medieval Berber traveller, who said the
> name meant 'Hindu Killer', a meaning still given by Afgan mountain
> dwellers who are traditional enemies of Indian plainsmen (i.e.
> Hindus)(2). However, later the Encyclopedia Britannica gives a
> negationist twist by adding that 'more likely the name is a corruption
> of Hindu-Koh meaning Hindu mountains'. This is unlikely, since the
> term Koh is used in its proper, uncorrupted form for the western
> portion of Hindu Kush, viz. Koh-i-Baba, for the region Swat Kohistan,
> and in the names of the three peaks of this range, viz. Koh-i-Langer,
> Koh-i-Bandakor, and Koh-i-Mondi. Thus to say that corruption of term
> Koh to Kush occurred only in case of Hindu Kush is merely an effort to
> fit in a deviant observation to a theory already proposed. In science,
> a theory is rejected if it does not agree with the observations, and
> not the other way around. Hence the latter negationist statement in
> the Encyclopedia Britannica must be rejected.
> IT IS SIGNIFICANT THAT ONE OF THE FEW PLACE NAMES ON EARTH THAT
> REMINDS US NOT OF THE VICTORY OF THE WINNERS BUT RATHER THE SLAUGHTER
> OF THE LOSERS, CONCERNS A GENOCIDE OF HINDUS BY THE MOSLEMS (13).
> Unlike the Jewish holocaust, the exact toll of the Hindu genocide
> suggested by the name Hindu Kush is not available. However the number
> is easily likely to be in millions. Few known historical figures can
> be used to justify this estimate. Encyclopedia Britannica informs that
> in December 1398 AD, Timur Lane ordered the execution of at least
> 50,000 captives before the battle for Delhi, .. and after the battle
> those inhabitants (of Delhi) not killed were removed (as slaves) (17),
> while other reference says that the number of captives butchered by
> Timur Lane's army was about 100,000 (18). Later on Encyclopedia
> Britannica mentions that the (secular?) Mughal emperor Akbar 'ordered
> the massacre of about 30,000 (captured) Rajput Hindus on February 24,
> 1568 AD, after the battle for Chitod' (19). Another reference
> indicates that this massacre of 30,000 Hindu peasants at Chitod is
> recorded by Abul Fazl, Akbar's court historian himself (20). These two
> 'one day' massacres are sufficient to provide a reference point for
> estimating the scale of Hindu genocide. The Afgan historian Khondamir
> records that during one of the many repeated invasions on the city of
> Herat in western Afganistan, 1,500,000 residents perished (11).
> Since some of the Moslem conquerors took Indian plainsmen as slaves, a
> question comes : whatever happened to this slave population? The
> startling answer comes from New York Times (May-June 1993 issues). The
> Gypsies are wandering peoples in Europe. They have been persecuted in
> almost every country. Nazis killed 300,000 gypsies in the gas
> chambers. These Gypsies have been wandering around Central Asia and
> Europe since around the 12 th Century AD. Until now their country of
> origin could not be identified. Also their Language has had very
> little in common with the other European languages. Recent studies
> however show that their language is similar to Punjabi and to a lesser
> degree to Sanskrit. Thus the Gypsies most likely originated from the
> greater Punjab. The time frame of Gypsy wanderings also coincides
> early Islamic conquests hence most likely their ancestors were driven
> out of their homes in Punjab and taken as slaves over the Hindu Kush.
> The theory of Gypsie origins in India was first proposed over two
> centuries ago. It is only recently theta linguistic and other proofs
> have been verified. Even the Gypsie leadership now accepts India as
> the country of their origin.
> Thus it is evident that the mountain range was named as Hindu Kush as
> a reminder to the future Hindu generations of the slaughter and
> slavery of Hindus during the Moslem conquests.
> ________________________________
> DELIBERATE IGNORANCE ABOUT HINDU KUSH
> If the name Hindu Kush relates such a horrible genocide of Hindus, why
> are Hindus ignorant about it? and why the Government of India does not
> teach them about Hindu Kush? The history and geography curriculums in
> Indian Schools barely even mention Hindu Kush. The horrors of the
> Jewish holocaust are taught not only in schools in Israel and USA, but
> also in Germany. Because both Germany and Israel consider the Jewish
> holocaust a 'dark chapter' in the history. The Indian Government
> instead of giving details of this 'dark chapter' in Indian history is
> busy in whitewash of Moslem atrocities and the Hindu holocaust. In
> 1982, the National Council of Educational Research and Training issued
> a directive for the rewriting of school texts. Among other things it
> stipulated that: 'Characterization of the medieval period as a time of
> conflict between Hindus and Moslems is forbidden'. Thus denial of
> history or Negationism has become India's official 'educational'
> policy (21).
> Often the official governmental historians brush aside questions such
> as those that Hindu Kush raises. They argue that the British version
> is the product of their 'divide and rule' policy' hence their version
> is not necessarily true. However it must be remembered that the
> earliest reference of the name Hindu Kush and its literal meaning
> 'Hindu Killer' comes from Ibn Battutah in 1333 AD, and at that time
> British were nowhere on the Indian scene. Secondly, if the name indeed
> was a misnomer then the Afgans should have protested against such a
> barbaric name and the last 660 plus years should have been adequate
> for a change of name to a more 'civil' name. There has been no effort
> for such a change of name by the Afgans. On the contrary, when the
> Islamic fundamentalist regime of the Mujahadeens came to power in
> 1992, tens of thousands of Hindus and Sikhs from Kabul, became
> refugees, and had to pay steep ransom to enter into Pakistan without a
> visa.
> In the last 46 years the Indian Government also has not even once
> demanded that the Afgan Government change such an insulting and
> barbaric name. But in July 1993, the Government of India asked the
> visiting Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra to change its name because the
> word Jerusalem in its name is offensive to Moslem Fundamentalists.
> ________________________________
> CONCLUSION
> It is evident that Hindus from ancient India's (Hindustan's) border
> states such as Gandhaar and Vaahic Pradesh were massacred or taken as
> slaves by the Moslem invaders who named the region as Hindu Kush (or
> Hindu Slaughter,or Hindu Killer) to teach a lesson to the future Hindu
> generations of India. Unfortunately Hindus are not aware of this
> tragic history. The Indian government does not want the true history
> of Hindu Moslem conflicts during the medieval ages to be taught in
> schools. This policy of negationism is the cause behind the ignorance
> of Hindus about the Hindu Kush and the Hindu genocide.
> ________________________________
> COMMENTS & FUTURE WORK
> Although in this article Hindu Kush has been referred to as Hindu
> slaughter, it is quite possible that it was really a Hindu and
> Buddhist slaughter. Since prior to Moslem invasions influence of
> Buddhism in Gandhaar and Vaahic Pradesh was considerable. Also as the
> huge 175 ft stone Buddhas of Bamian show, Buddhists were idol
> worshipers par excellence. Hence for Moslem invaders the Buddhists
> idol worshipers were equally deserving of punishment. It is also
> likely that Buddhism was considered an integral part of the Hindu
> pantheon and hence was not identified separately.
> This article barely scratches the surface of the Hindu genocide, the
> true depth of which is as yet unknown. Readers are encouraged to find
> out the truth for themselves . Only when many readers search for the
> truth, the real magnitude of the Hindu genocide will be discovered.
> ________________________________
> REFERENCES
>
> Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 th Ed, Vol.5, p.935, 1987
> Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 th Ed, Vol.14, pp.238-240, 1987
> Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 th Ed, Vol.13, pp.35-36, 1987
> The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great (as described by Arrian,
> Q.Curtius, Diodoros, Plutarch & Justin), By J.W.McCrindle, Methuen &
> Co., London, p.38, 1969
> Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History, by Veer Savarkar, Savarkar
> Prakashan, Bombay, 2nd Ed, p.206, 1985
> Chanakya - a TV series by Doordarshan, India
> Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 th Ed, Vol.21, pp.36-41, 1987
> V.Sarianidi, National Geographic Magazine, Vol.177, No.3, p.57, March 1990
> Hammond Historical Atlas of the World, pp. H4 & H10, 1993
> W.O.Douglas, National Geographic Magazine, vol.114, No.1, pp.13-23, July
> 1958
> T.J.Abercrombie, National Geographic Magazine, Vol.134, No.3,
> pp.318-325, Sept.1968
> An Advanced History of India, by R.C.Majumdar, H.C.Raychaudhuri,
> K.Datta, 2nd Ed., MacMillan and Co, London, pp.182-83, 1965
> Ayodhya and After, By Koenraad Elst, Voice of India Publication, p.278, 1991
> A Practical Dictionary of the Persian Language, by J.A.Boyle, Luzac &
> Co., p.129, 1949
> Encyclopedia Americana, Vol.14, p.206, 1993
> The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol.19, p.237, 1990
> Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 th Ed, Vol.21, pp. 54-55, 1987
> An Advanced History of India, by R.C.Majumdar, H.C.Raychaudhuri,
> K.Datta, 2nd Ed., MacMillan and Co, London, pp.336-37, 1965
> Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 th Ed, Vol.21, p.65, 1987
> The Cambridge History of India, Vol.IV - The Mughul Period, by W.Haig
> & R.Burn, S.Chand & Co., New Delhi, pp. 98-99, 1963
> Negationism in India, by Koenraad Elst, Voice of India Publ, 2nd Ed,
> pp.57-58, 1993
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