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Taimur Ali Khan Kareena Kapoor's Baby Named For Destroyer Of Delhi?

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So is gutter... Why not name gutter..... However its purely the prerogative of parents ... .

Its one thing to name the kid "gutter", quite another to announce it to the world.

When they announce it, they should be prepared to hear echo's, for the world is a mirror.
 
The Taimur controversy illustrates Hindutva's self-inflicted neurosis regarding Islamic history

In most human cultures, the birth of a child is an unambiguously happy event. This moral framework does not, it seems, apply to some sections of social media, where for the most part of Tuesday, Tweeters bemoaned the birth of a new Bollywood baby. Born to A-list film stars, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, the boy had been named Taimur – a highly objectionable christening for some, given the name’s association with a 14th century Turkic king and one of the world’s most successful conquerors.

What was wrong with Taimur? Social media users were ostensibly objecting to the brutal nature of his conquests. Of particular concern was Taimur’s campaign against his fellow Turkics, the Tughlaq Sultanate of Delhi. Conducted in 1398, the Timurid invasion eventually led to the sack of Delhi city where, by some accounts, the entire population of the city was massacred.

So deeply felt was this sack that 700 years later, Indians on Twitter would call the new-born baby a “terrorist”, a “jihadi” and in general wish harm upon it.

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While it may be easy to dismiss this as the work of trolls, the frankness of social media provides us an important window to attitudes that might otherwise not be aired publicly. With Hindutva in the ascendant, this incident shines a bright light upon how India’s medieval age is treated with a mixture of ignorance and paranoia by those who follow this ideology. Hindutva pushes a narrative of ahistorical Muslim rule and then, is the first victim of its own misrepresentation. This distorted image of Muslim conquests projected by Hindutva creates a deep inferiority complex right at its centre. So much so that it was eventually expressed as tragi-comic social media rage against a day-old infant.

Heroes and villains
Historical narratives are tricky things to construct, especially when people want to superimpose moral lessons on them. Who is a hero and who isn’t is extremely subjective and even more so when one goes as far back in time as the 14th century. The past truly is a different country and to make it fit modern standards of morality, a fair bit of invention needs to be indulged in.

Let’s take a force that is near-universally seen as the “good” guys in popular Indian history: the Marathas. The Marathas were successful towards the end of the Mughal period, building up a confederation over large parts of the subcontinent. Of course, this was done through war and conquest and in the chaos of the Mughal twilight, contemporary accounts of the Marathas are often rather negative, cutting across what we would today see as “Hindu” and “Muslim” sources.

In the 18th century, the Marathas invaded Bengal killing, by one account, four lakh Bengalis. Repeated raids and conquests of neighbouring Gujarat were also, as almost everything in medieval India, a rather violent affair. In another case, Maratha armies raided a thousand-year old Hindu temple to teach Mysore sultan Tipu Sultan – who was its patron – a lesson. The Brahmin Peshwa rulers of the Maratha state enforced untouchability so brutally that BR Ambedkar actually saw their defeat at the hands of the British to be a blessing.

Contemporary accounts of the Marathas in Bengal are obviously far from flattering. Similarly, as late as 1895, there were strong objections in Gujarat to the plans of Bal Gangadhar Tilak to institute a Shivaji festival across India, with the Deshi Mitra newspaper of Surat disparaging it as a “flare up of local [Marathi] patriotism”.

India’s medieval period did not have the sort of nationalisms and community mobilisation that modern India would see under the Raj. As newspapers and technology knit the peoples of India together, a Hindu consciousness would revise the image of the Marathas as “Hindu”. Calcutta city’s intelligentsia at the time, in fact, celebrated a Shivaji festival and the city still has statues of Shivaji. Gujarat, where Hindutva has been a powerful political force for decades now, has adopted Shivaji with even more gusto, building statues in cities like Surat, which, ironically, were sacked by the Maratha chief early on in his career. This confusion is nothing new. Today, Punjabi Muslims in Pakistan see themselves as inheritors of the Mughals but in 1857 signed up enthusiastically for the East India Company’s armies to defeat the Mughal-led revolt against the Raj.

That which we call a rose
Naturally, then, the name Shivaji or Bhaskar – a Bhaskar Pandit led the Maratha raids on Bengal – are hardly taboo in modern India given this modern narrative of the Marathas.

It is the same for other names as such Ashoka or Alexander, both of whom led bloody campaigns but are common names among the supposed peoples they conquered. Sikandar, the Persian version of Alexander, is a common name across Iran and the subcontinent – a Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian’s son is, in fact, named after the Macedonian conqueror. Moreover, one would assume Ashoka carries no particular taboo in Orissa in spite of the Kalinga war.

In fact, this linking of a name to a supposed historical villain is a particularly egregious example of just how puerile Hindutva can be. It is a bit silly to think that someone would be outrage over the fact that a baby is named Joseph just because of Stalin’s role in the Soviet Union or “Manu” would be taboo simply because he was supposed to have authored the castiest Manu Smriti, a book of law linked to India’s crippling 2,000 year old system of caste apartheid.

This near-comical understanding of history, though, is not a new thing for Hindutva. The ideology has built a curious understanding of India’s medieval period, which it sees primarily through the lens of supposed invasions by Muslim kings and emperors. The founder of Hindutva, Vinayak Savarkar would, for example, even use this grievance to validate modern wrongs – in one case justifying the use of rape as a political tool. Prime Minister Modi, a lifelong member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has often claimed India has suffered from 1,200 years of slavery.

Inventing an inferiority complex
This rage is, of course, largely ahistorical. Taimur, for example, finds little mention in historical works written by Hindus at the time or even hundreds of years after. In fact, his negative image is taken solely from Muslim writers, given that his brutal invasions were led almost exclusively against Islamic empires such as the Ottomans and the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria. Ironically, even in India, his invasion targeted what Hindutva would characterise as a Muslim and therefore “foreign” dynasty, the Tughlaqs.

However, the invention of this distorted history has had a rather deleterious effect on the Hindutva mind. Tales of a “thousand years of slavery”, as one could very well imagine, create a sort of mass inferiority complex. Even in this case, for example, as important a driver of rage as the name “Taimur” was, almost as significant was the incipient anger at the fact that a Hindu woman, Kareena Kapoor, had married a Muslim man. The shadow of so-called love jihad, which once was a Bharatiya Janata Party policy position itself, only ends up harming Hindu women, given that it assumes they themselves aren’t free to make their own choices, romantic or otherwise.

This mass self-flagellation, a near masochistic nurturing of grievance, produces a highly distorted modern politics, showing how far Hindutva is from assuming any mantle of intellectual leadership, in spite of capturing political power at the federal level in India. An ideology that needs to pick on a little baby to prove its spurs has a long way to go before it can sit at the high table.

Hindu girls shld learn frm Kareena, think before u speak & look before u marry. Or else ur kids will be Chengiz Khan, Aurangzeb & Taimur.

— Dr Neelakshi Goswami (@DrNeelakshiGswm) December 20, 2016
Final point. If this controversy forces some Hindutva ideologues to pick up a book and read the history of Taimur, we might be in for another storm. Taimur’s heir and the next ruler of the Timurid dynasty was a man named, well, Shah Rukh.

We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in.





Glad that Saif-Kareena named their son Taimur (it's not lame)

I am glad Saif and Kareena named their son Taimur. I really don't care much about Taimur the Lame and what he did. We are not talking about deeds, we are talking about names. Taimur is a name, a man's name, bona fide and meaningful, unlike Hrevyaan, which sounds exotic and means nothing at all.

That Saif went against the celeb wave of having to invent names and then having to invent their meanings just because mommy and daddy were high on cocaine and poor mommy had to deliver another celebrity. Invented, cold-calculated, numerologically verified, nouveau names that the nouveau riche will nod in approval of.

This disease called nomenclatura exotitis has spread to the average Indian household where Sushil and Sunita Mandal can't mispronounce their daughter Zezune's name. She won't have a second name because surnames are eternal, not a fad.

Names are fashionable now, this overbearing fad of finding first-time names from obscure books so that names are obscure and, yes, unique. Your child is not unique or special. There are millions of them born every year. That's how unique they are.

So get off the haute horse and name your child Prakash or Geeta, somebody? Because Prakash and Geeta are bona fide names. So are Raj, Rajiv, Rajesh, Charulata, Babita, Ranjit, Nadim, Javed, Samiya, Sanjay, Suresh, Piyush and Rahul. I work with these people with normal, natural Indian names and can confirm they are fine people with fine tastes and talent.

You find names for things you invent. Since something did not exist before, the need for a completely new name. There is no need for fresh names for things you did not invent. Like children. Don't make naming a child a real estate project that has to sound faux luxe like, say, Regalia Sanatoria, South of South Gurugram.

Human beings have had glorious naming conventions and these did not involve marriage of Greek words with Sanskrit words to give birth to Granskrit words, certified by a numerologist of Sanjay Jumaani's intellect.

By the way, I am sure no other Sanjay will be born in the Jumaani family because Sanjays have stopped being born. Now is the time for Divit, Kiaan and Inaara who goes to the playschool with Aarav, Advik and Schovit. No, really.

The parents know the child has their shallow genes, so they desperately look for an intelligent-sounding name. Well, here's the news. These names are not intelligent-sounding. They sound like pompous wind from your kitchen garden smelling more of turnip than tulip. These carefully chosen names don't compensate for anything, least of all the trouble of spelling your name every time you have to say it. "My name is Ileaka, I.L.E.A.K.A. Ileaka." Get out of here.

I mean, even before we could get around with the Greek Anika from Andheri East, we have Inaaya and her friend Kiara, who has an imaginary tiara on her carefully coiffured head. She is competing in bonny baby beauty contest against Kimaya next month.

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Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan have named their newborn son 'Taimur'. [Photo credit: Agencies]
And by the way, Myra, what happened to Kajal? Why would a parent name a beautiful girl Nyasa? So that she can carry a PET bottle of the same brand? These people are ashamed of their middle-class names like Shilpa and Ajay. And what does Viaan mean? Is it Vian or Viaan? Who added the extra 'a' without the consent of the child, technically a minor?

Did these people consult Rakesh who missed out on calling himself Hrakesh, because getting a new ration card would have been such a hassle? But that creative man's dream has had a genetic fallout. Son Hrithik passed on that redundant H to his unsuspecting little ones whose little shoulders have to carry that incomplete ladder called H for life.

I have nothing against the letter H if it did an honest, silent job. But they don't. They stand out and obstruct, inspite of being of no use at all. Don't you miss the days when H used to be useful? Remove the H from Hasmukh or Haldiram and the whole thing changes. Rehaan sounds like a nice boy, H or no H. So does Ridhaan. You can roll the Rs instead of twisting your tongue.

I am also tired of Arhaan, Ahan and Ayaan and all these A list kids. It disturbs the balance of the name universe. Yes, your name is in or among the top of the list if and only if the list is alphabetical. Life is not alphabetical. Life begins with an L and has a big IF that haunts you until it all ends with an E.

So dear, Arin, when you grow up, have a man-to-man conversation with your dad and ask him what was he high on. Because your mom did object to it. Every mother who has gone through nine months of bloat and that top-up terror of her water breaking, won't bear her labour lost in four letters, of which three came from a washing powder. No woman would conceive, forget about executing this devious plot to humiliate her child.

I tend to forgive people who mix their initials and create a name. Adira, Misha, purely for the reason that parents take equal responsibility for however the kid turns out. So Aditya and Rani named their daughter Adira and Mira and Shahid went for Misha. Half daddy's, half mommy's. Like the baby, like the name.

I was given the name Luv, which my family found two syllables too short. In their quest to add a couple of syllables, they changed the whole thing around. From Lord Ram's son's name, my name moved on to Lord Vishnu himself. It wasn't till 2000 that good people from Amdavad attempted to suffix a bhai to my name mistaking me for a Gujarati and immediately establishing brotherhood.

No longer. I hear there are real Patel babies named Arav and Diania. In Gujarati, or any other language, Diania means nothing. Because it's made up. Artificial like the relationship she will have with her parents who gave her the name because they were scared of calling her Diya, now much lowered in name status list. I hope Diania grows up and falls in love with Taimur, triggering a useless controversy over love jihad, and not a useless controversy about baby names.



http://www.dailyo.in/humour/taimur-...rithik-roshan-exotic-names/story/1/14664.html
 
Hindu means Indian. And actually followers of Hinduism are Aryans.

First Aryan.

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not followers but those who have stolen Hinduism were Aryans. it is a lengthy debate and we have debated the Aryan topic to death many years back. the fact is Aryans were not hindus. now coming back to this thread well iwill rephrase by saying Hindutvas need to take a break Taimur is a common name not necessarily king taimur .
 

lol bro at least leave the Sikh out of it? I've seen plenty of dark Pakistani Punjabis. A Punjabi is a Punjabi on either side. Even if dark outside, the heart is that of a lion. No comments about other Indians.
 
lol bro at least leave the Sikh out of it? I've seen plenty of dark Pakistani Punjabis. A Punjabi is a Punjabi on either side. Even if dark outside, the heart is that of a lion. No comments about other Indians.
I was talking about Super beautiful GOd choosen Uper caste Indian Hindus not sikhs
 
You see, it does not work that way in real life.

They named the baby and announced his birth to the world via social media to receive blessings.

Only they ended up receiving more curses for their son.

This is what happens when people are too smart by half. ....... common sense naam ka bhi kuch cheez hai.

That is the dilemma you guys do not have common sense but blind ranting emotionalism.
 
So is gutter... Why not name gutter..... However its purely the prerogative of parents ... .

We do not know about Hindus how and on basis of what they name their kids but being Muslims, Allah tells us in Quran that we should have names for our kids which have good meaning. Now according to Islamic teachings word gutter does not carry any good meaning so thus NO we do not give such names to our kids.

Personally, I think its a really ugly name. Nothing to do with Muslim or anything.

How it is ugly? It has good meaning not bad one so how it is ugly?
 
How it is ugly? It has good meaning not bad one so how it is ugly?

Maybe its a cultural thing and we are not used to hearing such names often here.

I mean Salman, Adil, Amir, etc. are common. This one sounds .... alien.
 
Maybe its a cultural thing and we are not used to hearing such names often here.

I mean Salman, Adil, Amir, etc. are common. This one sounds .... alien.

Taimur is a very common name but it seems most of the Indians know Muslims names through Bollywood hence it sounds alien . Even saif might sound alien to you :)
 
Taimur is a very common name but it seems most of the Indians know Muslims names through Bollywood hence it sounds alien . Even saif might sound alien to you :)

Ya I don't know any Saif besides Saif. My best friend actually used to work out with him at Barbarian (a posh Bandra gym) at one time.

Taimur sounds Mongol.
 
This is not islamophobia , since the mongols lead by taimur also ravaged Islamic empires in the Middle East.

People are naming their kids after the marauders and looters who made towers with skulls of their ancestors on their way to India.
 
This is not islamophobia , since the mongols lead by taimur also ravaged Islamic empires in the Middle East.

People are naming their kids after the marauders and looters who made towers with skulls of their ancestors on their way to India.

:lol: well it is paranoid Tarek Fateh who has nothing to do these days but trying to cling on straws, by making an issue out of name of Saif's son.

As if Taimur was nobody's else name but of Tamerlane.

Ya I don't know any Saif besides Saif. My best friend actually used to work out with him at Barbarian (a posh Bandra gym) at one time.

Taimur sounds Mongol.

What's wrong in having Mongol names?
 
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