Drupad Kanakia August 29, 2006

Tags: gujaratis martial cowards

href="/tag/india">india but only terrorise the "hapless" muslim minority because of their obvious numerical majority . As a gujarati and a bania at that...i would like to clarify a few things about gujaratis in general and banias in particular.

MYTH 1: Gujaratis are vegetarian
Reality: Obnoxious nonsense , if one leaves out the brahman bania upper castes and the wannabe upper-caste kanbis(patels) the rest including the rajputs , ahirs , lower castes and tribals are totally meat-eating...in population terms 70% of gujarat is non-vegetarian

MYTH 2: Gujaratis are all bania cowards....banias (jain , hindu and muslim) form 3-4% of gujarat , brahmins form close to 5% , rajputs 7% , the gujjar castes 13% ( includes various artisan , nomadic castes..for eg..the kathi (as in Kathiawad) rabri etc) these are the people who descend frm the central asian migrants who gave gujarat its name , patels form 12% , the muslims close to 8% and the rest are the ones who qualify for reservation.

MYTH3 : there are no gujaratis in the armed forces...
REALITY: totally incorrect , the fourth chief of the indian army was
General Maharaj K.S. Rajendrasinhji, DSO
C-in-C, 14 Jan 1953 - 31 March 1955
COAS, 01 April 1955 - 14 May 1955
Armoured Corps, 2 Lancers
a kathiawadi rajput
Infact, when the modern day Grenadiers Regiment was formed, most state forces of kutch and the kathiawad peninsula were megred into it. Some of them were later merged into the mechanized infantry and the brigade of the guards.
Most of the BSF cadre in the kutch region of gujarat and mewar of rajasthan are kutchi and kathiawari rajputs...if anyone of you has relatives in the BSF, you can cross-check.
As for the gujarati representation in the standing army, Keshubhai patel (gujarat’s former CM) , Mr. LK advani and the current CM narendra Modi have time and again demanded a seperate gujarat regiment and a proposal to create one was in advanced stages during the BJP rule, though it was shot down by General VP malik saying that the army doesnt need any more regiments based on state or linguistic identities...and i totally agree with this. Moreover most gujarati rajputs join the rajputana rifles and the rest join the grenadiers...so a seperate regiment is not required.
As far as kargil is concerned...there is a widespread myth on the net that no gujarati died in kargil...heres a link of the gujarati soldiers who died in kargil http://armedforces.nic.in/airforce/afkargil/arguj.htm
i believe we come fourth.
And by the way, if anyone expects a mr. shah or a mr. mehta to join the army , it really makes no sense , a majority of the soldiers who died in kargil are from the shekhawati region of rajasthan, also home to the many marwari bania castes , but somehow one doesn’t find any agarwal or porwal or jain in the martyrs list. Similarly there are scores of martyrs from the cow-belt states, suprisingly enough one doesn’t find a gupta amongst them.
All this is for a simple reason the vanik or merchant castes of north india have been strictly vegetarian for the last millenium, they have never participated in any physical warfare...so its nonsensical to expect them to join the armed forces, atleast not the standing army, the same is true for the banias of gujarat.
Moreover, Gujarat has a strong martial history:
the gurjar-pratihara clan which ruled gujarat in the middle ages controlled most of western and central india

When mohammed of ghor invaded gujarat to sack somnath...he was beaten many times ...finally when he did manage to sack somnath...it wasnt a cakewalk for him...his army sufffered serious losses and 100000 solanki rajputs perished defending somnath...i dont think this smacks of cowardice...(on his way back the sindhis(another supposed cowardly race) harrased him so much that he gave up the thought of invading india after that)


i can quote many such examples

Myth 4: gujaratis are communal cowards who kill unarmed muslim children and rape muslim women
REALITY:
since independence 5 major riots have taken place in gujarat the major one being the ahmedabad riots of 1969....each of these riots has been started by the muslims (the riot of 1969 was started when hindus were murdered in the jama masjid area of the walled city of ahmedabad. that particular riot resulted in 5000 casualties most of whom were muslim.
PS: the local muslims still call that part of the city "bhadra" as a grand temple to goddess bhadrakali, the patron deity of Karnavati’s rajputs...was destroyed by the invading musalmans and converted into an ugly mosque( the so-called jama masjid)

The hindu response was as severe in 1969 as it was in 2002...what was lacking in 1969 was a media controlled by marxist bongs and semi-negroes from rajnikants domain...so i guess the "intellectual" discomfort with the previous riot was not much. Well times change

i hope i have clarified a large portion of myths pertaining to gujaratis
if you have any questions pls do forward them,
Thanks,
Drupad Kanakia

"service is lowly and agriculture is noble...but only trade is profitable"
- an old Bania proverb