Why the Meo Muslims in Mewat remember Mahatma Gandhi in December every year
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leonblack08
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Just two days ago ...
In Modi's rule..
Haryana: 40 Muslim families convert to Hinduism
Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
‘Had converted to Islam during rule of Aurangzeb’: 250 Muslims from 40 families convert to Hinduism in Haryana
A local resident Satbir who had recently converted to Hinduism to cremate his 80 year-old mother Phooli Devi,as per Hindu customs, has conceded that he belonged to the Doom cate whose families had converted to Islam during the rule of Aurangzeb.
This is sad.
But isn't there a chance of False flag propaganda photo op? I would certainly think so.
Those are actually OLD pics where muslims doing Ghar wapsi and genuine, no new pics of above iincident are released till now.
Search VHP,Bajarangdal and Agniveer social media accounts for genuine conversions.
HAIDER
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Well, muslim economic condition due to Hindu religious extremist forced them to leave Islam.
Pan-Islamic-Pakistan
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Right, it is a forced conversion. These started in 1947 in full force, but had been going on under British as well.
Naofumi
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Can you post a pic?
Pakistani Fighter
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third eye
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A small write up on Meos - for those who'd be interested to know.
The Meos—Their Distinctiveness and Origins
THE DISTINCTIVE physical features of the Meos, their dialect, their dress and their cultural patterns all serve to make them a people slightly apart from the rest of the people inhabiting the Mewat. It is this distinctiveness that has led to various and somewhat far-fetched theories of their origin itself being different from that of other castes and tribes of the region. Analysis, however, suggests that this distinctiveness is due not to a difference of origin but to the strict rules of consanguinity which has prevailed among the group over several centuries.
That which makes them particularly more conspicuous to us today is perhaps the fact that they are a Muslim community and yet most of its members proudly claim even in periods of Hindu-Muslim tensions -that in ancient days they belonged to the Kshatriya caste of the Hindu social order and that their origin can be specifically traced to the Chandrabansies, the Suryabansies and Agnikuls of the Rajput nobility glittering with such appellations as the Tomars, the Yadavs, the Chauhans and the Rathors
Early Muslim Period—1200 to 1500
The Mewat, or the land of Meos, does, however, find a place, and a conspicuous place, in the history of northern India during the three centuries of Muslim rule preceding the Moghal Empire. During those troublous and uncertain times the Mewat constituted a distinct geographical as well as a political entity and its rajahs constantly aspired to, and sometimes even enjoyed, undisputed sovereignty. In any case they were factors to be reckoned with by any of those who would rule from Delhi.
Some British historians refer to the Tarikh-eFirozshahi wherein it is mentioned that the Mewat had been brought under control by Altamash (died, 1235). It is stated that the Governors of Hansi and Rewari distinguished themselves in the war against the Mewaties. Although this is said to be almost the first reference in any renowned work of history it is obvious that their power had already existed before that date. And it is equally clear that the subduing effects of this campaign were only short-lived. Within the next two or three decades the Mewat rulers had again become a force to be dealt with
About the middle of the 13th century the Meos had become a major irritant to the Delhi Sultnate.They had infested the roads in the neighbourhood of Delhi and depopulated the villages of the Bhyana district. They had extended their depredations eastwards nearly as far as the base of the Himalayas. When Balban was about to launch a campaign in 1260 they looted the camels of the royal army. With ferocious alacrity Balban left Delhi on the 9th March of that year, he reached the heart of Mewat, some 50 miles to the south, in a single march and took the Meos completely by surprise. For twenty days the work of slaughter and pillage continued and the ferocity of the soldiery was stimulated by the reward of one silver tonga for every head and two for every living prisoner from the Meos. On the 29th March, 1260, the army returned to the capital with 250 chieftains of the tribe as prisoners and a booty of 124 horses and 2 million tongas
But the Meo spirit was not crushed. Later in the same year those who had saved themselves by flight return¬ ed to their homes and ventured on guerilla activities by infesting the highways and slaughtering wayfarers. Balban, having ascertained from his scouts the haunts and movements of these bandits, surprised them as before by a forced march, surrounded them on all sides and put to the sword some 12,000 men, women and children. Inspite of these invasions and wholesale slaughter of the population, it appears that during the early Mohamedan kingdoms, the area known as Mewat had never been permanently conquered and the depre¬ dations of its inhabitants, the Meos, extended at times to the walls of Delhi and beyond the Jumna into the Doab.
There is no matter of wonder therefore that even by the time that Firoze Shah Tughlaq died in 1388, after a reign of 37 years, the ruling families of the Meos had accepted Islam and some had come to be known as Khanzadas. But this did not mean that the Meos had lost their urge for independence or that they had permanently accepted the suzerainty of Delhi. The songs then sung by their bards still echo the theme that... ‘‘Now or anon, the Tomars own Delhi !”
At the time of Timur’s invasion in the end of the fourteenth century, the Mewat was ruled by Bahadur Nahar, one of the most powerful chiefs in the neighbourhood of Delhi. His tomb still stands in Alwar. Notwithstanding this renowned leader, the Meos still plundered on the roads to Delhi, entered the city by night and robbed the inhabitants in their houses. Even in broad daylight they took delight in stripping the water-carriers, employees of the administration, and even women drawing water from the large reser¬ voirs just within the city walls. It became necessary to shut the gates on the western side of the city (immediately after the hour of afternoon prayers. Bahadur Nahar played an important part in the fate of the Tughlaq dynasty during the last twenty five years of their rule. He was, in fact, one of the king¬ makers, siding with one prince at one time and with another as and when his own interests dictated. In October 1398, Timur, the Muslim descendant of the pagan, Chengiz Khan, invaded India with his host of 90,000 cavalry. His hordes put the Royal forces of Delhi to flight and the capital was subjected to ruth¬ less massacre, loot and arson. On 1st January 1399, when Timur marched through Ferozeabad to Wazirabad, Bahadur Nahar arrived in his camp with valuable gifts including a famous talking parrot, and made his submission...
Babur’s victory at Panipat on 21st April 1526, marked the beginning of the new era and may be regarded as marking also the end of the Meos as a significant political power. It was in this very year that the last, and probably the most decisive battle fought by the Meos, took place. Raja Hasan Khan of Mewat joined forces with those of Rana Samgram Singh and both offered tough resistance to Babur and, despite a decisive defeat continued to offer underground resistance. Babur later referred to Hasan Khan as the chief trouble maker behind all the confusions, intrigues and encounters he had to face in his early days as the Emperor of Hindustan
The power of the Meos, then known also as Khanzadas, who, according to Babur, had ruled over Mewat consistently for about 200 years, finally broke down under the terrible blows dealt by Babur himself. With Hasan Khan of Mewat went the last brave, powerful and intelligent ruler of this community and but for a brief period under Salam Shah, successor to Sher Shah (d. 1545), the Mewat remained under Moghal Governor appointed from Delhi till about the end of the Moghal power
But the Meos appear to have remained Meos. Even a hundred years later, under the leadership of Ikram Khan they gave trouble to Aurangazeb, the last of the great Moghals. About 1685 Aurangazeb had to send a powerful army under the command of Raja Rai Singh who inflicted heavy casualties on the Meos and conquered the fort of Alwar making it his headquarters for some time. Jai Singh was later assigned other responsibilities when the Mewat had again become normal.
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
During the decadent period of the Moghal Empire, when Jats, Marathas and others under local chieftains organized themselves and fought against one another, or sometimes even invaded Delhi, the Meos fought mostly as an unorganized force. Gopal Singh, one of the Sardars of Raja Suraj Mai of Bharatpur, had to build the mud fort at Dorola only to control the Meos and bring them under submission. Time and again, several rulers of Alwar, the names of Bakhtawar Singh and Jai Singh being more prominent among them, had to fight against the Meos and bring peace to the region. In the middle of the nineteenth century the upsurge for release from British domination could not but affect the Meos. In 1857 they too rose against the British rule in the Gurgaon region of Mewat and carried out massacres of both army and civil personnel in the British cantonments. They looted Government property and burnt down offices and godowns and even considered themselves as independent. Reprisals were inevitable and laving been soon subdued, they were massacred with equal ferocity by the British. Even today elderly Meos remember and recount what their fathers had told them about the trees and the spots on which their grandfathers had been hanged, beheaded or flayed alive in the days following the national uprising.
The first political outburst in recent times was in 1932 when, the British Government was annoyed with the Maharajah of Alwar. The Unionist Party of the Punjab was therefore used to organize the Meos by religious slogans against the Rajah. Unfortunately the Rajah himself had initiated certain policies which injured the religious sentiments of the Meos. He was fond of hunting and therefore forbade the killing of pigs and even the building of fences as a protection against them ! And, as you know, pigs not only spoil crops but also arouse religious abhorrence. The Meos would have suffered silently if deer or even elephants were to be allowed to graze in their fields ! To add injury to insult the Maharajah forbade the teaching of Urdu in the schools ! The Meos were seething with discontent and with the help of the Unionist leaders, one of whom was himself a Meo graduate, a large-scale movement was started against the Rajah. One day there was a scuffle between the Maharajah’s soldiery and a crowd of the Meos when a few Meos lost their lives. The news spread like wild fire and there were loud protests by Muslims from all over India. The British Government utilized this opportunity to ask His Highness to quit and appointed its own Political Agent. This movement lasted for over a year and to the Meos who knew little of the machinations of the powers above, it represented a fight for the independence of the Mewat as a consolidated and autonomous State under the British Crown. The movement however fizzled out after the British Viceroy had removed a Ruler with nationalistic aspirations. But a sense of resentment lingered in the Alwar soldiery against the Meos.
Resettlement
As it happens always and everywhere, this outburst of 1947-48 has been followed by a period of re-adjustment. The intervention of Mahatma Gandhi, as well as the sympathy which is always a reaction to ferocity, ushered in a wave of sympathy for the Meos. Government agencies as well as the inhabitants of the villages to which the Meos returned made sincere efforts to rehabilitate them in the houses and lands which they had abandoned. No one dared to oppose the efforts of some Muslim leaders to reconvert those who, in their bewilderment had offered, or agreed under duress, to apostasize.
The distinctness of Meo traditions is portrayed in "their names: “In the Alwar and Bharatpur regions many Meos are still given mixed or Hindu names such as Munshi Ram, Fateh Singh, Sher Singh, Kanahyya Khan, Surjan Singh etc. Thus it is the common practice to add a ‘Singh’ to a Muslim name or a ‘Khan’ to a Hindu name—although unambiguous Muslim names or even unadulterated Hindu names are not a rarity, even in the Nuh region which was regarded until 1947 as coming under Angreji Raj, and therefore free from the coercive influence of the Hindu rajahs. “Even tatooing of hands and face, a process eschewed by Muslims in general, is still to be found in many villages of the Mewat.”
Beliefs and Rituals
The cultural patterns and values of a people die hard : “A large number of Meos still revere Hindu gods and goddesses side with side by believing in the one God as enjoined in Islam. Local deities, assumed to be responsible for diseases such as small-pox and fevers of long duration, are still propitiated. A whole system of demonology still haunts the minds of most Meos. Things beyond their understanding are still attributed to evil spirits.” One peculiar superstition is attached to the writing down of a person s name. On several occasions people displayed almost a panic when their names were being entered in the general questionnaire. This has been attributed by some to the fear of disclosing their identity inherited from a past when theft and loot were common occupations and any noting down of names was likely to lead to arrest or worse.
Feasts and Gatherings
Unlike Muslims in general, whose feasts of Ramzan and Bakrid and Muharram follow a purely lunar cycle, independent of the seasons, the Meos are strongly attached to seasonal festivals, such as Holi, Desehra, Teej, Chhatt.Seasonal melas are marked by the presence of large groups of Meos and Meonies who mingle at ease with men and women of Hindu communities.
Dress
Being an outward symbol, the dress of the Meo has undergone distinct change ever since the Tablighi and the Suddhi movements were initiated after the failure of the Khilafat movement in the early twenties. The leaders of the two movements had emphasized the features which served to differentiate Hindus and Muslims and suppressed those which served to unite them. Until the twenties there was no distinction between the dress of the Jats and the Meos. The men of the both communities wore dhoti, kurtha and turban, while the common dress of the women was lehanga, choli and orhni. But, notwithstanding the fact that these customs are still to be found occasionally even in the villages of Nuh, they have given way generally to shalwar and qamis for women and kurtas and tahbands for the men. One of those who answered the question, was a Vice-Chairman of a Panchayat and was once a candidate for the Lok Sabha. He stated that the change in dress had been so marked that he has specially preserved the dress of his own father to show to his sons and grandsons how radically it had changed
The Meos—Their Distinctiveness and Origins
THE DISTINCTIVE physical features of the Meos, their dialect, their dress and their cultural patterns all serve to make them a people slightly apart from the rest of the people inhabiting the Mewat. It is this distinctiveness that has led to various and somewhat far-fetched theories of their origin itself being different from that of other castes and tribes of the region. Analysis, however, suggests that this distinctiveness is due not to a difference of origin but to the strict rules of consanguinity which has prevailed among the group over several centuries.
That which makes them particularly more conspicuous to us today is perhaps the fact that they are a Muslim community and yet most of its members proudly claim even in periods of Hindu-Muslim tensions -that in ancient days they belonged to the Kshatriya caste of the Hindu social order and that their origin can be specifically traced to the Chandrabansies, the Suryabansies and Agnikuls of the Rajput nobility glittering with such appellations as the Tomars, the Yadavs, the Chauhans and the Rathors
Early Muslim Period—1200 to 1500
The Mewat, or the land of Meos, does, however, find a place, and a conspicuous place, in the history of northern India during the three centuries of Muslim rule preceding the Moghal Empire. During those troublous and uncertain times the Mewat constituted a distinct geographical as well as a political entity and its rajahs constantly aspired to, and sometimes even enjoyed, undisputed sovereignty. In any case they were factors to be reckoned with by any of those who would rule from Delhi.
Some British historians refer to the Tarikh-eFirozshahi wherein it is mentioned that the Mewat had been brought under control by Altamash (died, 1235). It is stated that the Governors of Hansi and Rewari distinguished themselves in the war against the Mewaties. Although this is said to be almost the first reference in any renowned work of history it is obvious that their power had already existed before that date. And it is equally clear that the subduing effects of this campaign were only short-lived. Within the next two or three decades the Mewat rulers had again become a force to be dealt with
About the middle of the 13th century the Meos had become a major irritant to the Delhi Sultnate.They had infested the roads in the neighbourhood of Delhi and depopulated the villages of the Bhyana district. They had extended their depredations eastwards nearly as far as the base of the Himalayas. When Balban was about to launch a campaign in 1260 they looted the camels of the royal army. With ferocious alacrity Balban left Delhi on the 9th March of that year, he reached the heart of Mewat, some 50 miles to the south, in a single march and took the Meos completely by surprise. For twenty days the work of slaughter and pillage continued and the ferocity of the soldiery was stimulated by the reward of one silver tonga for every head and two for every living prisoner from the Meos. On the 29th March, 1260, the army returned to the capital with 250 chieftains of the tribe as prisoners and a booty of 124 horses and 2 million tongas
But the Meo spirit was not crushed. Later in the same year those who had saved themselves by flight return¬ ed to their homes and ventured on guerilla activities by infesting the highways and slaughtering wayfarers. Balban, having ascertained from his scouts the haunts and movements of these bandits, surprised them as before by a forced march, surrounded them on all sides and put to the sword some 12,000 men, women and children. Inspite of these invasions and wholesale slaughter of the population, it appears that during the early Mohamedan kingdoms, the area known as Mewat had never been permanently conquered and the depre¬ dations of its inhabitants, the Meos, extended at times to the walls of Delhi and beyond the Jumna into the Doab.
There is no matter of wonder therefore that even by the time that Firoze Shah Tughlaq died in 1388, after a reign of 37 years, the ruling families of the Meos had accepted Islam and some had come to be known as Khanzadas. But this did not mean that the Meos had lost their urge for independence or that they had permanently accepted the suzerainty of Delhi. The songs then sung by their bards still echo the theme that... ‘‘Now or anon, the Tomars own Delhi !”
At the time of Timur’s invasion in the end of the fourteenth century, the Mewat was ruled by Bahadur Nahar, one of the most powerful chiefs in the neighbourhood of Delhi. His tomb still stands in Alwar. Notwithstanding this renowned leader, the Meos still plundered on the roads to Delhi, entered the city by night and robbed the inhabitants in their houses. Even in broad daylight they took delight in stripping the water-carriers, employees of the administration, and even women drawing water from the large reser¬ voirs just within the city walls. It became necessary to shut the gates on the western side of the city (immediately after the hour of afternoon prayers. Bahadur Nahar played an important part in the fate of the Tughlaq dynasty during the last twenty five years of their rule. He was, in fact, one of the king¬ makers, siding with one prince at one time and with another as and when his own interests dictated. In October 1398, Timur, the Muslim descendant of the pagan, Chengiz Khan, invaded India with his host of 90,000 cavalry. His hordes put the Royal forces of Delhi to flight and the capital was subjected to ruth¬ less massacre, loot and arson. On 1st January 1399, when Timur marched through Ferozeabad to Wazirabad, Bahadur Nahar arrived in his camp with valuable gifts including a famous talking parrot, and made his submission...
Babur’s victory at Panipat on 21st April 1526, marked the beginning of the new era and may be regarded as marking also the end of the Meos as a significant political power. It was in this very year that the last, and probably the most decisive battle fought by the Meos, took place. Raja Hasan Khan of Mewat joined forces with those of Rana Samgram Singh and both offered tough resistance to Babur and, despite a decisive defeat continued to offer underground resistance. Babur later referred to Hasan Khan as the chief trouble maker behind all the confusions, intrigues and encounters he had to face in his early days as the Emperor of Hindustan
The power of the Meos, then known also as Khanzadas, who, according to Babur, had ruled over Mewat consistently for about 200 years, finally broke down under the terrible blows dealt by Babur himself. With Hasan Khan of Mewat went the last brave, powerful and intelligent ruler of this community and but for a brief period under Salam Shah, successor to Sher Shah (d. 1545), the Mewat remained under Moghal Governor appointed from Delhi till about the end of the Moghal power
But the Meos appear to have remained Meos. Even a hundred years later, under the leadership of Ikram Khan they gave trouble to Aurangazeb, the last of the great Moghals. About 1685 Aurangazeb had to send a powerful army under the command of Raja Rai Singh who inflicted heavy casualties on the Meos and conquered the fort of Alwar making it his headquarters for some time. Jai Singh was later assigned other responsibilities when the Mewat had again become normal.
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
During the decadent period of the Moghal Empire, when Jats, Marathas and others under local chieftains organized themselves and fought against one another, or sometimes even invaded Delhi, the Meos fought mostly as an unorganized force. Gopal Singh, one of the Sardars of Raja Suraj Mai of Bharatpur, had to build the mud fort at Dorola only to control the Meos and bring them under submission. Time and again, several rulers of Alwar, the names of Bakhtawar Singh and Jai Singh being more prominent among them, had to fight against the Meos and bring peace to the region. In the middle of the nineteenth century the upsurge for release from British domination could not but affect the Meos. In 1857 they too rose against the British rule in the Gurgaon region of Mewat and carried out massacres of both army and civil personnel in the British cantonments. They looted Government property and burnt down offices and godowns and even considered themselves as independent. Reprisals were inevitable and laving been soon subdued, they were massacred with equal ferocity by the British. Even today elderly Meos remember and recount what their fathers had told them about the trees and the spots on which their grandfathers had been hanged, beheaded or flayed alive in the days following the national uprising.
The first political outburst in recent times was in 1932 when, the British Government was annoyed with the Maharajah of Alwar. The Unionist Party of the Punjab was therefore used to organize the Meos by religious slogans against the Rajah. Unfortunately the Rajah himself had initiated certain policies which injured the religious sentiments of the Meos. He was fond of hunting and therefore forbade the killing of pigs and even the building of fences as a protection against them ! And, as you know, pigs not only spoil crops but also arouse religious abhorrence. The Meos would have suffered silently if deer or even elephants were to be allowed to graze in their fields ! To add injury to insult the Maharajah forbade the teaching of Urdu in the schools ! The Meos were seething with discontent and with the help of the Unionist leaders, one of whom was himself a Meo graduate, a large-scale movement was started against the Rajah. One day there was a scuffle between the Maharajah’s soldiery and a crowd of the Meos when a few Meos lost their lives. The news spread like wild fire and there were loud protests by Muslims from all over India. The British Government utilized this opportunity to ask His Highness to quit and appointed its own Political Agent. This movement lasted for over a year and to the Meos who knew little of the machinations of the powers above, it represented a fight for the independence of the Mewat as a consolidated and autonomous State under the British Crown. The movement however fizzled out after the British Viceroy had removed a Ruler with nationalistic aspirations. But a sense of resentment lingered in the Alwar soldiery against the Meos.
Resettlement
As it happens always and everywhere, this outburst of 1947-48 has been followed by a period of re-adjustment. The intervention of Mahatma Gandhi, as well as the sympathy which is always a reaction to ferocity, ushered in a wave of sympathy for the Meos. Government agencies as well as the inhabitants of the villages to which the Meos returned made sincere efforts to rehabilitate them in the houses and lands which they had abandoned. No one dared to oppose the efforts of some Muslim leaders to reconvert those who, in their bewilderment had offered, or agreed under duress, to apostasize.
The distinctness of Meo traditions is portrayed in "their names: “In the Alwar and Bharatpur regions many Meos are still given mixed or Hindu names such as Munshi Ram, Fateh Singh, Sher Singh, Kanahyya Khan, Surjan Singh etc. Thus it is the common practice to add a ‘Singh’ to a Muslim name or a ‘Khan’ to a Hindu name—although unambiguous Muslim names or even unadulterated Hindu names are not a rarity, even in the Nuh region which was regarded until 1947 as coming under Angreji Raj, and therefore free from the coercive influence of the Hindu rajahs. “Even tatooing of hands and face, a process eschewed by Muslims in general, is still to be found in many villages of the Mewat.”
Beliefs and Rituals
The cultural patterns and values of a people die hard : “A large number of Meos still revere Hindu gods and goddesses side with side by believing in the one God as enjoined in Islam. Local deities, assumed to be responsible for diseases such as small-pox and fevers of long duration, are still propitiated. A whole system of demonology still haunts the minds of most Meos. Things beyond their understanding are still attributed to evil spirits.” One peculiar superstition is attached to the writing down of a person s name. On several occasions people displayed almost a panic when their names were being entered in the general questionnaire. This has been attributed by some to the fear of disclosing their identity inherited from a past when theft and loot were common occupations and any noting down of names was likely to lead to arrest or worse.
Feasts and Gatherings
Unlike Muslims in general, whose feasts of Ramzan and Bakrid and Muharram follow a purely lunar cycle, independent of the seasons, the Meos are strongly attached to seasonal festivals, such as Holi, Desehra, Teej, Chhatt.Seasonal melas are marked by the presence of large groups of Meos and Meonies who mingle at ease with men and women of Hindu communities.
Dress
Being an outward symbol, the dress of the Meo has undergone distinct change ever since the Tablighi and the Suddhi movements were initiated after the failure of the Khilafat movement in the early twenties. The leaders of the two movements had emphasized the features which served to differentiate Hindus and Muslims and suppressed those which served to unite them. Until the twenties there was no distinction between the dress of the Jats and the Meos. The men of the both communities wore dhoti, kurtha and turban, while the common dress of the women was lehanga, choli and orhni. But, notwithstanding the fact that these customs are still to be found occasionally even in the villages of Nuh, they have given way generally to shalwar and qamis for women and kurtas and tahbands for the men. One of those who answered the question, was a Vice-Chairman of a Panchayat and was once a candidate for the Lok Sabha. He stated that the change in dress had been so marked that he has specially preserved the dress of his own father to show to his sons and grandsons how radically it had changed
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