The Mughal emperor Jahangir celebrates Holi with ladies of the zenana.

Ganga–Jamuni Tehzeeb (Hindustani for Ganges–Yamuna Culture),[1] also spelled as Ganga-Jamni Tehzeeb or just Hindustani Tehzeeb, is the composite high culture of the central plains of northern India,[2][3][4][5] especially the doab region of Ganges and Yamuna rivers, that is a syncretic fusion of Hindu cultural elements with Muslim cultural elements.[2][3][6][7][8] The composite Ganga-Jamuni culture emerged due to the interaction between Hindus and Muslims in the history of South Asia.[9][6][7]

The tehzeeb (culture) includes a particular style of speech, literature, recreation, costume, manners, worldview, art, architecture and cuisine which more or less pervades the Hindustan region of the plains, Northern South Asia as a whole and the old city of Hyderabad in South India.[10][11] Ganga Jamuni culture manifests itself as adherents of different religions in India celebrating each other's festivals, as well as communal harmony in India.[12][13]

Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, is a poetic Awadhi phrase for the distinctive and syncretic Hindu-Muslim culture, is reflected in the fused spiritual connotations, forms, symbols, aesthetics, crafts and weaves, for example, Kashmiri Muslim carpet makers feature Durga in their patterns, Muslim sculptors making idols of Durga, and Hindu craftsmen create the Muharram tazia.[14][8]

Etymology

Ganga-Jamuni is a Hindi term that means, literally, "mixed," "composite," "alloy".[15][16][17] The term additionally references the Ganga and Jamuna rivers, that merge to form one entity, just as two cultures come "together to form a seamless single culture that draws richly from both traditional Hindu and Islamic influences", creating "a vibrant, multidimensional, peerless and syncretic culture."[1] Tehzeeb is an Urdu term (from Arabic: تہذيب tahẕīb) meaning civilisation, culture, politeness, or progress/development.[18]

Festivals

Nawabs of Awadh were fore-runners of this culture. [19] The region of Awadh in the state of Uttar Pradesh is usually considered to be the center of this culture.[20][21] Allahabad, Lucknow, Kanpur,[22][23][24] Faizabad-Ayodhya,[21][25] and Varanasi (Benares)[26][27] are a few of the many centers of this culture. In Lucknow, one prominent example of this culture is that not only Shias but also Sunni Muslims and Hindus participate, both historically and today, in the mourning and religious customs during the Islamic month of Muharram.[28][29] The Hindu festival of Basant and Persian tradition of Nowruz were also patronised by the Shia rulers of Awadh.[30]

Hyderabad, the capital city of Telangana in south-central part of the India, is also a big example of communal harmony where the local Telugu Hindus and Hyderabadi Muslims live with peace and brotherhood, where Hindu temples serve the dry dates fruits to mosques for Iftar Muslim festival.[31][13]

Language and literature

With the Turko-Afghan conquests over the Indo-Gangetic plains in medieval India, Delhi and its surrounding plains along the river Yamuna became the political and cultural capital of these Persianate dynasties. Delhi came to prominence because of its strategic location, the west of which was the fertile but open Indus plains and east of which began the populous Gangetic plains. The local language of Delhi arose into Hindavi or Hindustani, the eventual sociolect of the descendants of the conquerors, the nobility, the courtiers, and hence the cultured. The official language of these empires was Classical Persian and the usual mother tongue of these upper echelons was an Indian language albeit with heavy Persian influence, hence Hindavi or Hindi was the word used which still implies Indian in Persian. The Turkic word Urdu was instead derisively connoted as the speech of the camps and troops. As the empire enlarged, Persianised Khariboli, popularly known as Hindavi and Hindustani, became the basis for the lingua franca different Indo-Aryan speakers on the plains and beyond used to communicate. Among the many Hindustani varieties that arose, Deccani being the major one, a form of Khariboli that migrated from the banks of Delhi and mixed with Marathi, Telugu and Kannada in the Deccan.

The word Surahi ("pitcher") is written in two different scripts, Devanagri and Nastaliq, used for Hindi-Urdu in unison.

The literary tradition in Hindustani began in the Mughal North with the appreciation of Deccani Hindi, a medium of literary exchange in the Deccan South, until then Hindavi was not a court language as was previously during the Delhi sultanate. This event laid the foundation towards the first standardisation of the Hindi language, this polished courtly speech begun to be specifically called "Urdu" which is today the national language of Pakistan and an official language in India. The second standardisation of the Hindi language took place during the British Raj, which is now one of the two official languages of GoI, along with English. This second standardisation though was in the Sanskritized register retained the inevitable name Hindi instead and hence Hindi refers to both the official sanskritised standard as well as the many related dialects of the Hindi languages, not necessarily but including Urdu, according to norm.

The first Deccani author was Khwaja Bandanawaz Gesudaraz Muhammad Hasan. Bahamani Sultanate were the pioneers, writers such as Bande Nawaz, Shah Miranji and Shah Buran. Sultan Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah of Golconda, Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur, and Wali Mohammad Wali were important writers in Deccani. Influenced by this, Urdu Prose and Poetry, as is now called also began in the Hindustan region, chief writers being, Ghalib, Khaliq, Zamir, Aatish, Nasikh, Zauq, Momin and Shefta. Malik Muhammad Jayasi's Padmavat in Awadhi and the Works of Kabir Das. An age of tremendous integration between the Hindu and the Islamic elements in the Arts with the advent of many Muslim Bhakti poets like Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana who was a minister to Mughal emperor Akbar and was also a great devotee of Krishna. The Nirgun School of Bhakti Poetry was also tremendously secular in nature and its propounders like Kabir and Guru Nanak had a large number of followers irrespective of caste or religion.[32][11]

One of the best examples of syncretic faith is captured in one of Kabir's doha (verse), "some chant Allah, some chant Ram, Kabir is a worshiper of true love and hence reveres both."[4]

Devanagari Nastaliq Roman Translation
कोई जपे रहीम रहीम

कोई जपे है राम

दास कबीर है प्रेम पुजारी

दोनों को परनाम

کوئی جپے رحیم رحیم
کوئی جپے ہے رام
داس کبیر ہے پریم پجاری
دونوں کو پرنام

 Koi jape rahim rahim

Koi jape hai ram

Das Kabir hai prem pujari

Dono ko parnaam

 Some chant O Merciful [Allah]

Some chant Ram

Kabir is a worshiper of true love

And reveres them both

Etiquette and costume

Jama worn by the Nawab of Carnatic and his son.

Awadh has a special place in the etiquette of this culture along with Delhi and Hyderabad; in fact Lucknowi Urdu still retains the polished and polite language of Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb.[20][33][34][35] Delhi Sultanate, Bahamani Sultanate, Deccan Sultanates, Mughal Empire, Nawabs of Awadh, Bhopal, Carnatic and the Nizams of Hyderabad were forerunners of this tehzeeb. The greeting Aadaab from the Arabic word آداب, meaning respect and politeness, is a hand gesture and expression used in the Indian subcontinent for greeting, especially between Muslims and non-Muslims.[36] It is associated with the Ganga-Jamuni culture because it originated out of a necessity for a more non-religious greeting from the Arabic Assalamu Alaikum and Sanskrit Namaste.

Sherwani, Jama, Topi, Kurta, Dupatta, Salwar, Kameez, Shawl, Pajama and Socks are few of the major attire still present in India.

Recreation and cuisine

Mehfil-e-Mushaira at Hyderabad, 1820.

Art and architecture

Emperor Jahangir Visiting the Ascetic Jadrup.
Taj Mahal, a quintessential structure of this culture.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Lal, Aloke; Lal, Maanas (15 February 2022). Murder in the Bylanes: Life and Death in a Divided City. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-93-5435-255-3. The culture (tehzeeb) that has evolved in the Great Plains is called Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb. The idea of the two rivers joining to form one great entity, Ganga, symbolises how two disparate cultures coming together to form a seamless single culture that draws richly from both traditional Hindu and Islamic influences. The result is a vibrant, multidimensional, peerless and syncretic culture. People from different religions share elements and ideologies to bring together all aspects of life to prosper, making society a bouquet of many hues and fragrances. The leitmotif of this culture is pluralism.
  2. 1 2 Warikoo, K. (2010). Religion and Security in South and Central Asia. Routledge. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-136-89020-8. Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb compares the Hindu-Muslim harmony and friendship to the holy confluence of India's major rivers - the Ganga and Yamuna. It assumes a peaceful merging of Hindu and Muslim culture and lifestyle in Banaras as expressed in their friendships, joint festivities and interdependence. As such, the Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb reminds people of the incomparable unison they share across religious communities. This in turn sets a parameter for the people to uphold the religious peace. The metaphor is especially popular in the intellectual discourse as it coincided well with the Nehruvian rhetoric of a composite culture.
  3. 1 2 Dhulipala, Venkat (2000). The Politics of Secularism: Medieval Indian Historiography and the Sufis. University of Wisconsin–Madison. p. 27. The composite culture of northern India, known as the Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb was a product of the interaction between Hindu society and Islam.
  4. 1 2 Chari, Pushpa (28 July 2018). "Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb: Syncretic ethos in weaves and crafts". The Hindu. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  5. ↑ Shaban, Abdul (10 January 2018). Lives of Muslims in India: Politics, Exclusion and Violence. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781351227605.
  6. 1 2 Āzād Hindūstān, māz̤ī aur mustaqbil: rūdād aur maqāle, qaumī simīnār, munʻaqidah Jāmiʻah Hamdard, Naʼī Dihlī, 29-31 Agast 1998. Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library. 2000. p. 60. During their political rule, over a period of about 1000 years, both Hindus and Muslims lived together, shared each other's culture and gave rise to the emergence of a new type of Hindu-Muslim culture (Ganga-Jamuni Tahzib).
  7. 1 2 Socialist Party (India) (2007), Janata, Volume 62, ... the ganga-jamuni tehzeeb (composite culture) regarded both religious communities as two eyes of a beautiful bride and their long history witnessed 'give-and-take', at many levels ...
  8. 1 2 Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb: Syncretic ethos in weaves and crafts, The Hindu, 18 July 2018.
  9. ↑ Cousins, Linwood H. (5 September 2014). Encyclopedia of Human Services and Diversity. SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1-4833-7083-5. Sometimes this trend brings a new culture of integration. It is evident in Indian Hindu-Muslim culture popularly known as Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb, manifesting the values and belief systems of the two.
  10. ↑ minhaz, ayesha (16 July 2015). "Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb helps maintain peace". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  11. 1 2 Understanding Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb: How diverse is the "Indian multiculturalism", Daily News and Analysis, 15 June 2014.
  12. ↑ Steven Wesley Ramey (15 September 2008), Hindu, Sufi, or Sikh: contested practices and identifications of Sindhi Hindus in India and beyond, Macmillan, 2008, ISBN 978-0-230-60832-0, ... the continuing joint Muslim and Hindu participation in public festivals, relating it to "Ganga-Jamun Tahzeeb," the attitude of refined hospitality and harmonious relations that historically characterized this region ...
  13. 1 2 "Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb: Temple serving Iftar Dates to 5 Mosques in Hyderabad". 26 June 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  14. ↑ Tripathi, Priyanka; Das, Chhandita (2020). "Decoding the Postcolonial Geo-Linguistic Sangam in Allahabad: A Study of Neelum Saran Gour's Requiem in Raga Janki". The IUP Journal of English Studies. IUP. XV (3): 6. "Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb" is a poetic Awadhi phrase that implies the distinct and syncretic fusion of Hindu-Muslim culture and it is primarily the ethics of central plains in North India.
  15. ↑ McGregor, R. S. (1993), "गंगा-जमनी = mixed, composite, of whitish grey colour, made of alloy, an alloy", Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, p. 248
  16. ↑ Chaturvedi, Mahendra (1970), "गंगा-जमुनी = made up of two colours or two metals (like gold and silver)", A Practical Hindi-English Dictionary, Delhi: National Publishing House
  17. ↑ Dasa, Syamasundara (1965–1975), Hindi sabdasagara, Navina samskarana (in Hindi), Kasi: Nagari Pracarini Sabha, गंगाजमुनी (p. 1190) गंगाजमुनी— वि० [हिं० गंगा + जमुना] १. मिलाजुला । संकर । दो- रंगा । २. सोने चाँदी, पीतल ताँबे आदि दो धातुओं का बना हुआ । सुनहले रूपहले तारों का बना हुआ । जिसपर सोने चाँदी दोनों का काम हो । ३. काला उजला । स्याह सफेद । अबलक ; 2) गंगाजमुनी (p. 1190) गंगाजमुनी २— संज्ञा स्त्री० १. कान का एक गहना । २. वह दाल जिसमें अरहर और उर्द की दाल मिली हो । केवटी दाल । ३. जरतारी का ऐसा काम जिसमें सुनहले और रुपहले दोनों रंग के तार हों । ४. अफीम मिली हुई भाँग । अफीम से युक्त भाँग की सरदाई (बनारस)
  18. ↑ "Meaning of tahzib in English". Rekhta Dictionary. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  19. ↑ Descendants of Nawabs keep Holi traditions alive, The Indian Express, Tue 10 March 2009, 15:35 hrs
  20. 1 2 Malika Mohammada (2007), The foundations of the composite culture in India, Aakar Books, 2007, ISBN 978-81-89833-18-3, ... developed in Awadh as a genre of composite creativity. ... of multiple Indian cultural traditions and provided glimpses of the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb of north India with Lucknow as its centre ...
  21. 1 2 Plaint Of Ayodhya, The Financial Express, Sunday, 22 August 2004 at 0000 hrs IST
  22. ↑ "Hindus form human chain around Muslim baraat in violence-hit Kanpur, escort them to safety | Kanpur News - Times of India". The Times of India. 26 December 2019.
  23. ↑ Festival has origin in city's composite culture, TNN, 13 May 2009, 06.52am IST
  24. ↑ Karbala revisited Archived 11 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Express News Service, Saturday, 12 February 2005
  25. ↑ Twin towns welcome verdict with humility, grace, Deccan Chronicle, 1 October 2010
  26. ↑ An apt reflection of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, Naveen Kumar, TNN, 25 September 2009, 10.09pm IST
  27. ↑ Stories behind the masks, Shailaja Tripathi, NEW DELHI, 4 November 2010, The Hindu
  28. ↑ Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman (2017). Introduction to: Awadh Symphony: Notes on a Cultural Interlude. New Delhi: Rupa Publishing. pp. xv. ISBN 978-81-291-4650-2. OCLC 993125025.
  29. ↑ Aslam, Mahmud (2017). Awadh Symphony: Notes on a Cultural Interlude. New Delhi: Rupa Publishing. p. 3. ISBN 978-81-291-4650-2. OCLC 993125025.
  30. ↑ Aslam, Mahmud (2017). Awadh Symphony: Notes on a Cultural Interlude. New Delhi: Rupa Publishing. p. 5. ISBN 978-81-291-4650-2. OCLC 993125025.
  31. ↑ minhaz, ayesha (16 July 2015). "Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb helps maintain peace". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  32. ↑ Karen Pechilis Prentiss (2014), The Embodiment of Bhakti, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195351903, pages 15-16
  33. ↑ Aslam, Mahmud (2017). Awadh Symphony: Notes on a Cultural Interlude. New Delhi: Rupa Publishing. pp. 25–6. ISBN 978-81-291-4650-2. OCLC 993125025.
  34. ↑ An apt reflection of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, Naveen Kumar, TNN, 25 September 2009, 10.09pm IST
  35. ↑ Descendants of Nawabs keep Holi traditions alive, The Indian Express, Tue 10 March 2009, 15:35 hrs
  36. ↑ "Adaab in a Time of Allah Hafiz". University of Wisconsin–Madison. 1 May 2012. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2023. Originating from a North Indian Islamicate high culture, "adaab" as a form of greeting was imbued with a certain class hierarchy. It was a familiar greeting even in many elite non-Muslim households in North India.
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