Gujarat

"The element that binds the people of Gujarat, across differences of religion and region, caste, communities or creed, is the Gujarati language. Evolved during the Chaulukya era on the foundation of Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhransh, Gujarati acquired its distinct character in the Sultanate era. During the Mughal era, it was further cultivated by saint poets on the one hand and merchants on the other. As the court language of both the Gujarat Sultanate and the Mughals was Persian and because merchant communities had extensive linkages with Arabic-speaking West Asia, the influence of Persian and Arabic is immense and pervasive. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it is impossible to write good Gujarati without using Persian or Arabic words. In addition to administrative and legal words like zilla (district), taluk (block), jamin (land), jaydad (property), faujdari (criminal), diwani (civil), adalat (court) and insaaf (Justice), Persian and Arabic words related to human existence like dil (heart), dimaag (mind), jindagi (life), lohi (blood), jaban (speech), hayati (existence) and khud (self) have been internalized by Gujarati."

"It cannot be said that at the time these inscriptions were set up at Anhilwãd Pãtan, Prabhas Patan, Khambat, Junagadh and other places, the Hindus of Gujarat had had no taste of what Islam had in store for them, their women, their children, their cities, their temples, their idols, their priests, and their properties. The invasion of Ulugh Khan that was to subjugate Gujarat to a long spell of Muslim rule, was the eighth in a series which started within a few years after the Prophet’s death at Medina in AD 632. Five Islamic invasions had been mounted on Gujarat before Siddharãja Jayasimha ascended the throne of that kingdom in AD 1094 - first in AD 636 on Broach by sea; second in AD 732-35 by land; third and fourth in AD 756 and 776 by sea; and fifth by Mahmud of Ghazni in AD 1026. Two others had materialised by the time the Muslim ship-owner set up his inscription in AD 1264 on a mosque at Prabhas Patan. The sixth invasion was by Muhammad Ghuri in AD 1178, and the seventh was by Qutbu’d-Din Aibak in AD 1197. The only conclusion that can be drawn from the evidence is that either the Hindus of Gujarat had a very short memory or that they did not understand at all the inspiration at the back of these invasions. The temple of Somnath which stood, after the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni in AD 1026, as a grim reminder of the character of Islam, had also failed to teach them any worthwhile lesson. Nor did they visualize that the Muslim settlements in their midst could play a role other than that of carrying on trade and commerce."

"“It is true that Mosque architecture in Gujarat only began in the 14th century. When ‘Ala-al-Din Khalji conquered and annexed the country to the Delhi Sultanate in the later part of the 13th century, there still flourished a singularly beautiful indigenous style of architecture. The early monuments of Gujarat, notably at Patan (Anhilvada) tell the same story of the demolition of local temples and the reconstruction of their fragments… “…In the beginning, at the Qutb, the Hindu element was confined architecturally to the trabeate constructive methods, and to part of the decoration, Islam contributing the plan and the embellishment of the Arabic lettering. In Gujarat, notably in the entrance porches of the Jami‘ Masjid at Cambay, much may fairly be described as literal reconstruction of Hindu work, as units in the established plan of a Muslim place of worship. These entrances have their parallels in the pavilions and mandapas of Hindu and Jaina temples still standing, for instance, at Modhera and Mount Abu…”"

"In 1299 he (Alauddin Khalji) despatched a large army for the invasion of Gujarat. There all the major towns and cities like Naharwala, Asaval, Vanmanthali, Surat, Cambay, Somnath etc. were sacked. There the temples were broken, wealth looted and large numbers of captives of both sexes captured, including the famous Malik Kafur and the Vaghela king’s consort Kamala Devi. In the words of Wassaf, the Muslim army in the sack of Somnath “took captive a great number of handsome and elegant maidens, amounting to 20,000, and children of both sexes… the Muhammadan army brought the country to utter ruin, and destroyed the lives of inhabitants, and plundered the cities and captured their offspring…”"

"If the Congress Party proxies like Teesta Setalvad, Shabana Azmi, and Shabnam Hashmi had their way, they would have wanted economic and political sanctions against Gujarat of the kind faced by South Africa during the apartheid regime. Without declaring an open war against the State government, the UPA government at the Centre has treated the Gujarat government under Modi with more lethal hostility than ever displayed towards Pakistan even after repeated attacks by Pakistan-trained terrorists. The Congress-led government has tried its best to crush Gujarat economically by stalling its development programs through many devious means."

"Those who derive satisfaction by perpetuating pain in others will probably not stop their tirade against me. I do not expect them to. But, I pray in all humility, that they at least now stop irresponsibly maligning the 6 crore people of Gujarat."

"The mantra of my entire work style is ‘Our Gujarat’. This sense of ‘ourness’ means everything to me—‘Our Gujarat, Unique Gujarat’. How do we further highlight the diversity of Gujarat, how to make it shine brighter, how do we strengthen the sense of ‘Ourness’?"

"I am not the ruler of Gujarat, I'm a servant of Gujarat. The environment in which I grew up, sewa is treated as a dharma, not power."

"And strangely enough (my Muslim brethren will forgive me for saying so), the most safe place for Muslims today is Gujarat, only because its Chief Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has “banned” entry to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in Gujarat....After “banning” IB, the Muslim atrocities in Gujarat have stopped. That is what is required to be done if we want to put a full stop to fake encounters, false terror attacks, their fabricated investigations and arrests of innocent Muslim boys..."

"For nearly the whole of the next century [c. 13th century], Gujarat remained independent. Perhaps "no other Indian dynasty put up a more sustained or successful resistance against the Muslims for a longer period.""

"About conversions through enslavement, Dr. Satish C. Misra, who has made a special study of the history of Gujarat, writes that “the conflict (in Gujarat) veered round two main objectives - land and women. The conqueror inexorably demanded, more often forcibly wrested, both land and women…”"

"Of all the provinces of India, Gujarat is the richest in the number and variety of its historical records."

"In the year AH 817 (AD 1414), Mullik Tohfa, one of the Officers of the King’s government was ennobled by the title of Taj-ool-Moolk, and received a special commission to destroy all idolatrous temples, and establish the Mahomedan authority throughout Guzerat; a duty which he executed with such diligence, that the names of Mawass and Girass were hereafter unheard of in the whole kingdom."

"Thereafter in AH 823 (AD 1420-21) he proceeded to different parts of his Kingdom for establishing order and good government… He got temples demolished and palaces and mosques constructed in their stead…"

"It is not just Modi, but the entire Gujarati society has moved on, and is reconstructing a new equation with Muslims. After 2002, we took it upon ourselves to ensure that no Muslim child would be deprived of education simply because his or her family can not afford the fees or buy books. Many Hindus gave us money for it. For example, at the start when we sponsored a Muslim girl’s education in a medical college, one of my Hindu friends said that he will pay for that semester’s fee for the girl. That really boosted my morale and convinced me that humanitarian spirit is alive even in Gujarat. Those who say that there is a lot of Hindu-Muslim hatred in Gujarat are perpetuating a myth. That hostility stayed alive for some time after the riots. Even after 2002, once things settled down and the ice was broken, it is Hindus who extended help to Muslims to rebuild their lives. How much can the Muslims do alone?... Hundreds of Hindu families came for our daughter’s wedding. As the state is experiencing genuine social peace and security, inter-community relations have become far more relaxed. I tell my fellow Muslims, we also must take the initiative to promote social interaction. Muslims cannot continue to live in an alienated, insulated manner. We have not made much effort to familiarise our Hindu brothers about our culture....But today such social interaction has begun to take place all over Gujarat because the ruling party is not acting as a divisive force. It is providing a sense of security by upholding the rule of law. People don’t view each other with as much suspicion as they did when riots were engineered routinely."

"I want the glory of Gujarat to reach the whole world."

"In testimony before the NCM, Nayak notes that “Christian missionaries in the area” are converting tribals with means that are “ clearly questionable and even illegal”. ” He asserts, “They have been using a curious mix of blind faith and allurements to entice the innocent tribals into the Christian fold.” ...Nayak notes that converted tribals under the influence of preachers desecrated Hindu idols at least fifteen times in the three years preceding the Dangs violence. Converted tribals have also abused Hindu idols as “devils” and urinated on them. According to Nayak, “The ire against Christians in the area has been rising for past few years and has reached a boil now because of the provocative activities of the Christians, under the influence of their preachers”."

"The veteran Gandhians reveal that while the VHP and its affiliates have no worthwhile presence in Dangs, the church has imported as many as five hundred missionaries in recent years to speed up conversions. They charge that “during the last five years, nearly two dozen idols of Lord Shiva and Hanuman, revered by all tribals, have been desecrated or broken. The ancient beliefs of the tribals have been mocked at openly and every effort has been done to browbeat and harass them into submission.” Tribal resentment, they say, has long been simmering, and merely came to a boil on December 25 when Christians began stoning a Hindu Jagran Manch rally... A scrutiny of the concerted response to the Gujarat events is equally enlightening. The nation-wide chorus of condemnation against the VHP, despite contradictory reports by the local press, was a shade too organised. The Congress conducted the orchestra skilfully, playing up Sonia Gandhi’s visit to Dangs by alluding to her alleged reluctance to identify with “her community.”"

"It was Gujarat, however, that has always remained the Jain country par excellence. Here kings are reported to have been 'seized by a desire for asceticism' and committed religious suicide in the Jain style by starving themselves. Here, in Valabhi, Saurashtra, the canonical Jain works were put to writing in the fifth century AD.81 Jain temples are found in Gujarat as early as the sixth and seventh centuries AD. The religion was patronized by the Cha vadas, Solankis and Vaghelas of Anahilvada, by the Maitrakas of Valabhi, while the Caulukyas, in particular the Shaivist king Kuma rapala (1144-74), under the guidance of Hemacandra, set out to make Gujarat a Jain state. Edicts were promulgated against the taking of animal life, and Kumarapala is said to have erected another 14,140 Jain temples. Many Jain temples in Gujarat, especially in Anahilvada, in effect, date from the middle of the twelfth century.85 Jain architecture, always chaste and elegant, was basically Hindu, but because of their wealth the Jains were much more given to temple-building, becoming the greatest patrons of architecture in Western India, and patronizing mosques at times. Mter Kumarapala's reign, Jainism went into decline even in Gujarat. His successor Ajayapala (1173-76) began to destroy many of the temples built in the previous reign and in general did not favour Jainism much. Jain temples were beginning to be swept to destruction by the Muslims in Anahilvada as early as 1298 AD.88 From the end of the thirteenth century until Akbar's reign, at the close of the sixteenth century, no Jain or Hindu temple of any pretensions was raised in Gujarat, but destroyed temples, like at Satruiijaya, Palitana, and at other places, were sometimes rebuilt. Early Portuguese writers still testify to the strength of Jainism in Gujarat in the sixteenth century but opine that the Gujaratis were deprived of their kingdom by the Muslims because of their kind- heartedness. Varthema describes the Gujaratis as 'a certain race which eats nothing that has blood, and never kills any living thing ... and these people are neither Moors nor heathens; ... if they were baptized, they would all be saved by virtue of their works, for they never do to others what they would not do unto them."

"Painted and printed calicoes constituted the most important class of Indian fabric exported from Surat in the seventeenth century. They covered a wide range of quality, the best and the more expensive being painted rather than printed . . . . In the former case, dyes and mordants were applied to the cloth, not with a wood-block, but free-hand with brush. Thus. each painted design had the character of individual drawing with the human and sensuous touch, instead of being limited to the repeat pattern imposed by the print-block. Sometimes painting and printing techniques were combined, but the finest decorative calicoes from both western India and the Coromandel Coast were of the painted kind."

"The walled city, with its twelve gates and numerous mosques, temples and towers, was founded in 1411 by Ahmad Shah on the eastern bank of the Sabarmati River. Despite its dilapidated condition, the Indian Islamic architecture and the houses decorated with wood carvings attest to its affluent status."

"The first to move beyond the walls with the growth of the city’s population were the wealthy mill-owners. They built s in the northern suburb of . From the early 1920s, wealthy members of upper-caste groups began moving to the western side of the river, where they constructed housing societies. These small cooperative apartment buildings, alongside buildings, became the new residential pattern in the area."

"The temple of Dwarica, the most celebrated of all the shrines raised to Crishna [Krishna], is built upon an eminence rising from the sea-shore, and surrounded by a fortified wall, which likewise encircles the town, from which it is, however, separated by a lofty partition-wall, through which it is necessary to pass to see it to advantage. The architectural character of this temple is that to which we are accustomed to give the name of pagoda. It may be said to consist of three parts: the munduff, or hall of congregation; the devachna, or penetralia (also termed gabarra); and the sikra, or spire…the chisel of Islam had been also at work, and defaced every graven image, nor is there enough remaining to disclose the original design: nevertheless, this obliteration has been done with care, so as not to injure the edifice. The basement, or square portion of the temple, from which springs the sikra, was the sanctum in former ages, when Budha-trivicrama was the object of adoration, anterior to the heresy of Crishna, who was himself a worshipper of Budha, whose miniature shrine is still the sanctum-sanctorum of Dwarica, while Crishna is installed in a cella beyond. The sikra, or spire, constructed in the most ancient style, consists of a series of pyramids, each representing a miniature temple, and each diminishing with the contracting spire, which terminates at one hundred and forty feet from the ground. There are seven distinct stories before this pyramidal spire greatly diminishes in diameter; each face of each story is ornamented with open porches, surmounted by a pediment supported by small columns. Each of these stories internally consists of column placed on column, whose enormous architraves increase in bulk in the decreasing ratio of the superimposed mass, and although the majority at the summit are actually broken by their own weight, yet they are retained in their position by the aggregate unity. The capitals of these columns are quite plain, having four cross projections for the architraves to rest on; and by an obtuseness in the Silpi not to be accounted for, several of these architraves do not rest on the columns, but on the projections; and, strange to say, the lapse of centuries has proved their efficiency, though Vitruvius might have regarded the innovation with astonishment. The entire fabric, whose internal dimensions are seventy-eight feet by sixty-six, is built from the rock, which is a sand-stone of various degrees of texture, forming the substratum of the island; – it has a greenish hue, either from its native bed, or from imbibing the saline atmosphere, which, when a strong light strikes upon it, gives the mass a vitreous transparent lustre. Internally it has a curious conker-like appearance. The architraves are, however, an exception, being of the same calcareous marine conglomerate, not unlike travertine, as already described in the temple of Somnat’h."

"The foundation of this shrine must have been laid in the solstice, as its front varies ten points from the meridian line; and as the Silpi, or architect, in these matters, acts under the priest, we may infer that the Surya Siddhanta was little known to the Goorgoocha Brahmins, the ministrants of their times, who took the heliacal rising of those days as the true east point; its breadth is, therefore, from N.N.W. to S.S.E. Contrary to custom, it has its back to the rising sun, and faces the west. Crishna is here adored under his form of Rinchor, when he was driven from his patrimony, Surasena, by the Budhist king of Magadha. A covered colonnaded piazza connects the cella of Crishna with a miniature temple dedicated to Deoki, his mother; and within the ample court are various other shrines, one of which, in the S.E. angle, contains the statue of Budha Tri-vicrama, or, as he is familiarly called, Tricam-Rae and Trimnat’h, which is always crowded with votaries. Opposite to this, or at the S.W. angle of the main temple, is a smaller one, dedicated to another form of Crishna, Madhu Rae, and between these is a passage leading by a flight of steps to the Goomtee, a small rivulet, whose embouchure with the ocean is especially sacred, though is would not wet the instep to cross it. From the grand temple to the sungum, or point of confluence, where there is a small temple to Sungum-Narayn, the course of the Goomtee is studded with the cenotaphs of those pilgrims who were fortunate enough to surrender life at this “dwara of the deity.” Amongst them are four of the five Pandu brothers, countenancing the tradition that the fifth proceeded across the Hemachil, where, being lost sight of, he is said to have perished in its snows, and whither he was accompanied by Baldeo, the Indian Hercules, whose statue is enshrined in the south-west corner of the great munduff, several step under ground. Baldeo is represented on his ascent from patal, or the infernal regions, after some monstrous combat."

"After AD. 1411 came to be erected the oldest extant fortification of the city, viz., the square Bhadra towers, which with massive form included the royal citadel on an area of about 16 hectares."

"Its wealth of wooden architecture of settlements is also a great heritage for which the city is well known since centuries and is considered a storehouse of integrated crafts which extended from block making for textile printing to some of the finest expressions in traditional houses and temple building arts...Its economic enterprise sustaining the city and state, its wisdom in financial expertise and its guild tradition for community co-existence, leading to a world class status in textiles in 19th century."

"Ahmadabad is a curious amalgam of conservative traditions and cosmopolitan trends. Reputed as 'Manchester' of India, is a busy industrial city situated in cotton-growing hinterland north of Gulf of Cambay, about 100 km upstream of the mouth of the Sabarmati river."

"It is true that Mosque architecture in Gujarat only began in the 14th century. When ‘Ala-al-Din Khalji conquered and annexed the country to the Delhi Sultanate in the later part of the 13th century, there still flourished a singularly beautiful indigenous style of architecture. The early monuments of Gujarat, notably at Patan (Anhilvada) tell the same story of the demolition of local temples and the reconstruction of their fragments…"

"…In the beginning, at the Qutb, the Hindu element was confined architecturally to the trabeate constructive methods, and to part of the decoration, Islam contributing the plan and the embellishment of the Arabic lettering. In Gujarat, notably in the entrance porches of the Jami‘ Masjid at Cambay, much may fairly be described as literal reconstruction of Hindu work, as units in the established plan of a Muslim place of worship. These entrances have their parallels in the pavilions and mandapas of Hindu and Jaina temples still standing, for instance, at Modhera and Mount Abu…”"

"The earliest recorded building in Gujarat is the Adina Masjid at Patan (Anhilvada), as stated above. This bears the same unusual name as that of the Mosque built by Sikandar Shah at Hazrat Pandua about fifty years later. The tomb of Sheikh Farid and the Adina Masjid at Patan, which are dated C. AH 700/AD 1300, correspond in their utilization of Hindu building material with the tomb and the Mosque of Zafar Khan Ghazi at Tribeni in Hooghly, Bengal, which are dated C. AH 705/ AD 1305. The now demolished Adina Masjid at Patan, is said to have had one thousand and fifty pillars of marble and other stones taken from destroyed temples. Erected by Ulugh Khan, ‘Ala’-al-Din Khalji’s Governor, it measures 400 feet by 300 feet…”"

"Unlike the Patan Mosque, the Jami‘ Masjid of Bharoch, which is also dated C. AH 700/AD 1300 is a new creation. Although it does incorporate Hindu pillars, it is built on the usual Mosque plan with which we are familiar in earlier works. The brackets of the incorporated pillars and the carved interior of the corbelled domes are particularly fine. They, of course, necessarily recall the much earlier work of the Quwwat al-Islam at Delhi. It is important to realize that these primitive methods were still being used in the Indian provinces two hundred years after they were fully developed at Delhi."

"The Mosque of Cambay demonstrates the imposition of Khalji features, such as the arched screen of the Jama‘at Khana Masjid at the Dargah of Nizam-al-Din Aulia in Delhi, upon the local trabeate forms of Gujarat Hindu architecture. Codrington writes, ‘The Jami‘ Masjid at Cambay was finished in 1325, and is typical of these earlier buildings. It has all the appurtenances that Islam demands-cloisters, open court-yard, the covered place for prayer, mimbar and mihrab-but only the west end is in any sense Islamic. As at Delhi and Ajmir, the pillars of the cloisters, and notably the entrance porches as a whole, are the relics of sacked Hindu shrines."

"[P.K. Thomas observed that the rhinoceros] is identified from a large number of Harappan and Chalcolithic sites ... [and] inhabited a major part of the Gujarat plains in the protohistoric period. ... The identification of large herbivores like rhinoceros, wild buffalo and probably wild cattle at many of the Gujarat Harappan sites suggests that the ecological conditions were more congenial for animal life during the protohistoric period in Gujarat."