Europeans could not pronounce Sindhu word so used to call Indu which became Hindu later: Dr Syed

ISLAMABAD, (Parliament Times) : Earlier aliens to India had come from Central Asia and multiple ethnic groups continue to pouring into India in a great number. The original inhabitants of India, as per sources and historians, are Dravadians or untouchables, who are considered at the lowest ebb in the Indian society, said Prof Emeritus Aslam Syed.

He was responding to a question at a Webinar on Discourse on Indo-Pak History: From Antiquity to Modernity here.

The guest speaker Prof Emeritus Aslam Syed has been serving the Center for Religious Studies, Ruhr Universität, Bochum, Germany. He remained Chairman, Department of History, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and also served the NIHCR as its Director.

Giving an example, he said that the same treatment meted out to Aborigines who were original inhabitants of America by casting them as Red Indians and were sidelined from the American society.

The Webinar, arranged online by the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research (NIHCR), Centre of Excellence, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, was attended by over 700 participants ranging from students, teachers and researchers to have greater insights into the valuable views of the guest speaker.

Replying a question, Dr Syed said that ancient name of India was Bharat or or Bharatvarsha. Ancient monographs of history or literature point out Bharat either name of an ethnic tribe or a ruler that is why Indian constitution also keeps Bharat as name of country. The ancient Greeks used to refer Indians as Indoi. Sindhu was the area comprising old Sindh province. Since Europeans could not pronounce Sindhu, they used to call it Indu which ultimately became Hindu due to extensive usage, he recalled.

It was 20th consecutive session on the Discourse of History, a brainchild of the NIHCR Director Dr Sajid Mahmood Awan. This activity inculcates interest to learn more and more about history not only among students, scholars and historians as well as among ordinary people belonging to any field of life to know about nations’ ways of running their States in a journey from antiquity to modernity.

Responding to a question on India’s concept of history, Prof Syed viewed that India has universalized history by preserving it through the Ramayana and the Mahabharata as those contain this underlying concept.

Replying a question on application of class struggle between classes in Indian history, he said Marxist historians have applied this ideology in a plenty of their theses that an upper class controlled all other classes of society for greater benefit of all and sundry. No doubt certain middle classes of the society, such as the new professions, have emerged.

The NIHCR Director Dr Sajid Mahmood Awan conducted the Webinar by triggering a dialogue with Dr Syed for substantiating this discourse. This inclusive activity has been taken up every week for the benefit of students in general and capacity-building of the teachers and researchers in particular, he said.