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Thursday 5 March 2015

Heard in India: An error corrected

Back in January 2014 I wrote a series of blog entires entitled HEARD IN INDIA. Yesterday I received the following comment about these blog entries:
It was nice to read the vocabulary you have prepared about the words you might have read in history books about India. But I am really sad to read the meaning you have included for the the word Gujjar. I am also a Gujjar and we constitute about 20 million of the population of India. Kindly give a second thought about what you have included here on this page. Gujjar was the tribe who actually started the revolt of 1857 and the Gujjars died fighting with Britishers during that fight. Even their proprietary rights were taken by East India Company at that time and they were made to live in very extreme conditions as they were included into the Criminal Tribes of India. I would kindly like to tell you that Gujjar or Gurjar was a very brave tribe not just during the reign of Britishers, but also in later Ancient India and Medieval India. They gave name to the state like Gujarat when they were once in power and also they have blood of Hepthalites, the white Huns, Scythians, Kushanas. Please, with a humble request, do not make them little by calling them hereditary thieves.

Sincere regards

Rahul Singh
I defined the Goojura as being hereditary brigands or thieves ... and did so in good faith. (I copied the definition from a Victorian memoir.) In light of Mr Singh's comment it would appear that I was in error, and I am therefore only too pleased to correct that error.

16 comments:

  1. Phf,

    I think that I am as I was born and brought up in Britain.

    'Britisher' is not a word I would normally expect to see in use, but I assume that Mr Singh was writing his comment in what was probably his second or third language.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  2. Often seen in 'war comics' when I was a lad in a sound bubble attached to a German soldier.

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  3. Jim Duncan,

    I seem to remember 'Englander' also being in fairly common use by comic magazine Germans ... which must have been a bit of an insult for you Jim!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  4. An 'insult' only if the recipient was a 'Jock' but he might also have been a 'Taffy' or a 'Paddy'.

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  5. Jim Duncan,

    Ah, the joys of national name stereotyping!

    In the world of war comics all Scots are called 'Jock', Welshmen are 'Taffy', Irishmen are 'Paddy', anyone from the North East is 'Geordie', Liverpudlians are known as 'Scouser', and Cockneys say 'Gawd blimey, guv'nor!'

    All the best,

    Bob

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  6. Nice correction Bob! And thanks to Mr. Singh for taking the time to enlighten us all.

    I'm from the colonies so may well have been some of the above.

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  7. William Stewart,

    I am always willing to correct errors when they are pointed out to me ... and Mr Singh's comment was so polite and informative that I felt that I had to share it.

    Are you - by chance - a wild (or a mild) colonial boy?

    All the best,

    Bob

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  8. Good evening Bob - just wanted to congratulate you on another elegantly polite post in response to Mr Singh's note to you. I'm frequently impressed by the sense of "old world" correctness in your communications with those of us who sometimes post a comment - and it makes for very pleasing reading! I shall be most interested to see how your napoleonic battles work out - especially with the Blucher" rules - with which I am totally unfamiliar. I'm planning my own 'Facetime" long distance Waterloo recreation via the ipads of myself and my old chum Steve Sykes - using a very small table, some heavily modified Neil Thomas "One Hour" rules - and a great deal of excited anticipation! kind regards Ken

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  9. Ah, the joys of national name stereotyping!

    Re Geordies. I once got a right bollocking at a party from a girl who sounded like a Geordie so I asked what part of Newcastle she was from.

    I'm a 'mackem' she said (Sunderland to those not in the picture). What a mistake to make!

    I wonder what current 'war comics' use for a more specific 'britisher' these days.

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  10. Ken H,

    Thank you very much for your kind comment.

    I have a very simple philosophy when it comes to comments made by blog readers, and that is that if they have been kind enough to take the time to read my blog and to write a comment, then they deserve the courtesy of a reply. Like opening doors for people, saying 'please' and 'thank you', and offering your seat to someone on the bus or train, politeness and courtesy was dinned into me from an early age ... and it stuck. In the modern world a lot of people don't do these things anymore ... and I think our world is all the worse for it. (End of speech ... especially as it reads as being far more self-righteous that it is intended to be!)

    I like a lot of the concepts used in the BLÜCHER rules, but I am not sure that I will be using the rules for all my Napoleonic battles as I already had some ideas for my own set of hex-based rules sketched out … but we shall see! As to your own Facetime battle … well that sounds like it will be a very interesting experiment. I have though of using iPads and Facetime to fight a long distance wargame, but have never got around to it. I will be very interested to hear about your experience using this technology for wargaming.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  11. Jim Duncan,

    I suspect that in today's politically correct world the use of national stereotypical names for characters is not only actively discouraged but probably in the process of being banned!

    As to Geordies and Mackems sounding the same to the untutored ear... well I am sure that they cannot tell the difference between people from north, south, east or west London ... but locals can (or so I am told)!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  12. Hi Bob
    "Facetime" wargames via ipad. My chum Steve Sykes and I have been using our ipads for a sunday afternoon wargame for some weeks now. We have been working our way through neil Thomas's Scenarios, and amending his rules for our use along the way. First rule has been to keep the games to one hour - but this isss easily achievable as most time in wagames derives from the numberss of unitss deployed, and that conssequently have to be moved. I set up the scenario on my 3' X 3' bespoke board. We have found it useful to show the 1' grid liness, ass thiss helps Steve to identify distances more quickly on his screen. Our rules modifications thus far have added very little to time, but have ironed out some of the issues around fighting to the last unit! I short, we have added a very basic morale rule, immediately after "Shooting' which is a simple D6 roll when units have ssuffered 8 hits. We have also removed some of the superhuman rules ( Zouaves superhuman movement ability!). But the basic rules structure iss incredibly fast, simple to understand, and with a few very simple tweaks, gives a very satisfying one hour game. The huge benefit is that the two of us, in Sjropsshire and the Yorkshire dales, play a regular game, deploy the toys, and have fun! Takes me all the way back to clutching my first copy of "Advanced Wargames" by Donald Featherstone - I sstill have the book, and loved every single page in it. Our weekly one hour wargame has rekindled that ssspirit. We have much to thanks neil Thomass for - a small table, simple rules, a few units. Not unlike your own approach to the portable wargame! Kind regards Ken

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  13. Apologies - my Ipad's bluetooth keyboard has developed an "ssss" fetisssh!

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  14. Ken H,

    Your use of Facetime sounds very interesting and makes excellent use of the technology. I also like the changes you have made to the rules, and would seriously think about using them myself.

    My copy of ADVANCED WARGAMES is well-thumbed and occupies a place of honour on my shelf of wargame books. It has now been joined by several of Neil Thomas's books, and I agree that ONE-HOUR WARGAMES is very similar in approach to my PORTABLE WARGAME.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  15. Ken H,

    iPads and iPhones are great ... but they do seem to develop the odd idiosyncratic 'tick' at times. Recently mine kept closing down Safari every time I pressed 'p' on the keyboard, the only way I could 'cure' it was to switch off my iPad and restart it.

    All the best,

    Bob

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