Rig Vedic if you think I am imposing political boundaries to the past then what do you think you do when you call our forefathers Indian? You are doing exactly what your accusing me.
Do you really think that the people of Ghandara called themselves Indian? Do you really think the people of Sindh in the past called themselves Indian? Do you really think the Punjabi's of yore called themselves Indian? No sir, they did not. You are imposing labels coined up only in the last few hundred years.
Even than if the term India was used in classic times it did not mean what it means now. If you say 'Indian' today it would be natural for people to think of modern Indian Republic with it's tricolur. I am quite certain that the 'term' India even as and when used in the classic times did not mean what it means now.Therefore it is you
who is imposing today's meaning onto the past under the cover of the term'Indian'. Like the word 'gay' means one thing now and meant something else 50 years ago, the term Indian has gone from meaning a generic region to a political state today with its captal in New Delhi..
So it is disingenous of you to continue to use a term that obfuscates what is a complex subject. That might work on some but not on me. I know I can be difficult sometimes, once when I was about 10 years old in a discussion with my dad I insisted that we split off from East Bengal. My dad insisted East Bengal split from us.That discussion lasted couple of hours until I had worn out my dad. I agued that when something breaks off it is always the smaller piece that breakes off the whole. If a saucer handle breaks off nobody says the saucer broke off the handle. Even today my dad and me have not settled that one
So Rig Vedic you know what India means
today and you know that non of those people we are talking about, for example residents of Ghandara of the past do not fit within the meaning of what is understood as 'India'
today in 2012. So why
impose todays meaning on a people in the past?
And yes, I am ware that punjabi has differant branches, I happen to come
from the region we are discussing. Hazara is between NWFP, Punjab and Kashmir. If you have ver been to Hazara you will see that the peopole appear to have a mixed heritage in tyerms of culture and genetics. There is a strong Pashtun infusion in names like Tanoli, Kakar etc. Once you cross over the Indus river Pashto becomes dominant. There is also strong Gujjar presence also. This is perfectly normal, Change is never abrupt. This area is a fracture zone so you are going to get that mixed , graduated change before the total cross over to Central Asian peoples take place.
And for god's sakes man don't bring religion into this. I said before for a people from a secular country at a drop of the hat you bring religion into everything. This is a complex subject not one dimention theological discussion. I have to now to break off from the discussion. It is very late here.