Over a century ago (1882), Mazahar Khan arrived on the shores of British Guiana to work as an indentured laborer; he was bound for Caledonia Estate on the Essequibo Island of Wakenaam. Although we know of his life as a contract laborer and his later generations in British Guiana, little was know of his past, his family and his birth place. And so it was, that 106 years later, one of his grandsons, would make this historic journey to the motherland of India to find the answers to these and many other burning questions.

In September of 1998, Uncle Ayube decided to embark on this very important and exciting mission to India armed with the only document available, Mazahar Khan's Emigration Certificate issued in Calcutta on August 22nd. 1882.

He flew from New York to Delhi and was met by his tour guide/ driver / interpreter RAGU. Early the next day he was picked up from his hotel and driven 80km North East of Delhi to the city of "MEERUT". Their first stop was at the Police Station in "MOOANAH" Meerut. Ragu knew that if they were to find this village where Mazahar was born, they would need to get information from the local police station. In that part of the country where villages can literally disappear overnight, there was no guarantee that the village had still existed. As luck would have it though, Somdut was still in existence and the police was able to give general directions to Ragu and Uncle Ayube. The excitement was building in Uncle Ayube as he got closer to his quest of finding his roots.

From Mooanah, Meerut they set out to find the village of Somdutt, a treacherous journey that would have them both debate on several occasions, the possibility of discontinuing their search. As they ventured slowly into the unknown remote areas of Meerut, their progress was hampered by terrible dirt roads, many of which had severely eroded to unsafe conditions. These washed out roads made driving perilous but Uncle Ayube was encouraged by Ragu courage and driving 'skills'. On many occasions along they way they stopped to get directions from the locals.

After what seems to be an eternity, they finally arrived at the village of Somdutt, it had been nine long hours since they left the police station at Mooanah.

At the mosque in Somdutt, Uncle Ayube informed the Ustaad about his mission an inquired about "Khans", the Ustaad said that all of the "old people" from the village had passed away and he had no idea who would know that kind of information, the only old person that he knew was this "old man" that could hardly walk and doesn't hear too well. Not wanting to believe that his efforts were in vain, and having traveled so far, Uncle Ayube agreed to meet this person.

A few members of the masjid went to the old man's house and bodily carried him to the mosque where he met with Uncle Ayube. The whole village turned out and through the interpreter, the Ustaad and the grandson of the old man, a long discussion ensued. At the end, to everyone's amazement and Uncle Ayube disbelief, it was discovered that the old man was related to him. This man happened to be OUR OLDEST LIVING ANCESTOR. His name is Hurma Khan, 110 yrs. old, and son of Chand Khan who was the brother of Sujati Hassan Khan father of Mazahar Khan. In other words, Hurma Khan is the first-cousin of Mazahar Khan.


oldest living ancestor
Hurma Khan 1998 It was then learnt that Mazahar Khan was a freedom fighter during the 1880's revolution against the British, (history claims that the revolution started in Meerut). In an attempt to retaliate, the British rounded up the "trouble makers" and sent them "kalla-paanie". Although Uncle Ayube was familiar with "kalla-paanie" from Guyana, he learnt a new meaning of the phrase in his conversation with the policemen at Mooanah, Meerut. It seems that when someone was sent "kalla-paanie" (black water) he or she was not expected to be heard of again. We can just imagine Hurma Khan's surprise when he found out that Mazahar Khan did survive "kalla-paanie" and arrived safely in British Guiana.

Uncle Ayube was well received and was even invited to spend some time with Hurma Khan.

From the Emigration Certificate we learnt that Mojohur Khan, son of Hassein Khan was 22 yrs. old when he was put on the "PLASSEY" bound for Caledonia estate in British Guyana. He was from the village of Somdutt in Meerut. His identification mark was a scar on his right cheekbone.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude to Uncle Ayube for making such a tremendous effort to research our ancestors, to make the contact that can, Insha-Allah, help us to extend our horizons of kinship and to bridge the gap of generations. May Allah (SWT) reward him generously.

Now that this important step has been taken, it is up to the young generation to hopefully capitalize on this historic achievement and use these links for further research into our bloodline that still exist in India today.

Well - well-- eh -- eh - Cuzo Freaky.

I see that you post some information on one brance of my family tree.

Hurma Khan. whom Uncle Ayube met is my two daughters great-great-great grand uncle.

quote:

Originally posted by Demerara_Guy:
Well - well-- eh -- eh - Cuzo Freaky.

I see that you post some information on one brance of my family tree.

Hurma Khan. whom Uncle Ayube met is my two daughters great-great-great grand uncle.

Back up deh cuz....me ent read de hole ting wah Freaky rite...but ah tell yuh fuh shore iz all abbey famalys he talkin bout!

quote:

Originally posted by Demerara_Guy:
Well - well-- eh -- eh - Cuzo Freaky.

I see that you post some information on one brance of my family tree.

Hurma Khan. whom Uncle Ayube met is my two daughters great-great-great grand uncle.

Salaam brother,

we dea pon close branches if not dem same ones

quote:

Originally posted by DaFreak:

Salaam brother,

we dea pon close branches if not dem same ones

Salaam Cuzo Freaky.

I am glad that you are reviewing the Website for "The Khans" which I gave to you when we first become aware that we are related as cousins in 2005.

That website has "tons" of information.

It's pretty strange even though we are hindus, my grandfather had Khan on his passport, as his last name. My dad doesn't have an explanation as to how that came about. He has a theory that when his grandfather came on the ship that he didn't come with his parents and someone with the name Khan was his guardian and gave him their last name.

Rosita, or maybe your grandfather converted to Islam on the ship. How old was he?

BK, it's pretty sad but I don't know much of my ancestry only tidbits from my Dad but he did say because my grandfather didn't come with his parents, he had to have a last name and this was given to him on the boat. Don't know how we ended up with out current last name.

Rosita, that is not necessarily true (the last name part) since many servants that came had only one name on their certificate (no last name was recorded). That is why I am thinking that he probably prior to signing up for indentureship.

BK, i going to drill my pappi to see how much his lil ole brains remember about his grandfather..i know he (my great grandfather) went back to India and started over - but my grandfather and family stayed behind.

gyal you might find out that you related to one branch of these Khans. that would be interesting

quote:

Originally posted by Rosita:
It's pretty strange even though we are hindus, my grandfather had Khan on his passport, as his last name. My dad doesn't have an explanation as to how that came about. He has a theory that when his grandfather came on the ship that he didn't come with his parents and someone with the name Khan was his guardian and gave him their last name.

Rosita very possible. There were instances where the single parents died enroute and the person who became custodian for the orphaned child took the last name of that person . There was a man in Leonora named Jhuman Maraj who came as a child . he and his father were moslem but the person who took custody of him was Maraj hence Jhuman Maraj . My mom wrote a story about him , he was a koker watchman at Leonora .

or it could very well be a mistake becasue of phonics. Freak gave an example a few months ago.

quote:

Originally posted by Jansher:
or it could very well be a mistake becasue of phonics. Freak gave an example a few months ago.

Jurakhan when it shuda been Jurakhun

quote:

Originally posted by DaFreak:

quote:

Originally posted by Jansher:
or it could very well be a mistake becasue of phonics. Freak gave an example a few months ago.

Jurakhan when it shuda been Jurakhun

Exacly, its difficult to spell a Hindi or Urdu Name using the Georgian Alphabet. The phonics are quite different. Amir and Aamir are different names for example.

yuh tink Ramakant shuda been Ramakhan

quote:

Originally posted by DaFreak:
yuh tink Ramakant shuda been Ramakhan

I tend not to think so, Ram and Khan cant go together since fullahs dont worship Ram. There is Ramkaran, Ramkant, etc, but Khan was like Singh and when people mention a name that was soc lose to Khan them fools make it Khan.

You know you have to pronounce Khan from the throat....lkke Khaan. My mother name is Zubeida Khan and even after marry my father insisted in keeping her name.

Jansher, remember the British used to spell Khan as Khaw also.

If Ram and Khan don't go together how do you explain a name like Ramzaan - Ram and Zaan!

Well i found out a little bit more. Apparently the man who brought my grandfather (was not his real father)was named Abdulah Khan so he gave my grandfather his last name Khan and claim him to be his son or my grandfather wouldn't have been able to come on the ship. Somewhere along the way my grandfather changed his last name to a hindu name (found out about his real name from Abdulah Khan). At least that's the explanation I got.

quote:

Originally posted by Jansher:

quote:

Originally posted by DaFreak:
yuh tink Ramakant shuda been Ramakhan

I tend not to think so, Ram and Khan cant go together since fullahs dont worship Ram. There is Ramkaran, Ramkant, etc, but Khan was like Singh and when people mention a name that was soc lose to Khan them fools make it Khan.

You know you have to pronounce Khan from the throat....lkke Khaan. My mother name is Zubeida Khan and even after marry my father insisted in keeping her name.

Was ur momma's family educated in Islamic law? because that is the law in islam that the kissmeass white man changed..in Islam the woman keeps her name always. In India the issue never came up as people went by first names. Ther goes our vaunted westernization: where the woman was such a property she could not even keep her name. And many of us today say with pride: I want to be mrs so and so. Bullcrap. YOu should keep your own family name. In Jansher momma's case, she was way ahead of her time..or just keeping in line with fiqh.

quote:

Originally posted by BK:
Jansher, remember the British used to spell Khan as Khaw also.

If Ram and Khan don't go together how do you explain a name like Ramzaan - Ram and Zaan!

A duosyllabic name does not indicate a combination of two separate names. Ramzaan is the persianed "Z' of the heavy arabic "D"...from ramadan...

quote:

Originally posted by dara shikoh:
A duosyllabic name does not indicate a combination of two separate names. Ramzaan is the persianed "Z' of the heavy arabic "D"...from ramadan...

I am familiar with the Persian Z and the Arabic D - my question was in reference to Jansher's comment on Ram being affixed to an Islamic name such as Ramzaan (since Muslims do not worship Ram), that's the extent of my comment - which I don't intend to take further.

quote:

Originally posted by Rosita:
Well i found out a little bit more. Apparently the man who brought my grandfather (was not his real father)was named Abdulah Khan so he gave my grandfather his last name Khan and claim him to be his son or my grandfather wouldn't have been able to come on the ship. Somewhere along the way my grandfather changed his last name to a hindu name (found out about his real name from Abdulah Khan). At least that's the explanation I got.

To be honest, this happened to a number of orphans on the boats, at least Abdullah Khan told your grandfather about his background and who is really is/was.

quote:

Originally posted by dara shikoh:

quote:

Originally posted by Jansher:

quote:

Originally posted by DaFreak:
yuh tink Ramakant shuda been Ramakhan

I tend not to think so, Ram and Khan cant go together since fullahs dont worship Ram. There is Ramkaran, Ramkant, etc, but Khan was like Singh and when people mention a name that was soc lose to Khan them fools make it Khan.

You know you have to pronounce Khan from the throat....lkke Khaan. My mother name is Zubeida Khan and even after marry my father insisted in keeping her name.

Was ur momma's family educated in Islamic law? because that is the law in islam that the kissmeass white man changed..in Islam the woman keeps her name always. In India the issue never came up as people went by first names. Ther goes our vaunted westernization: where the woman was such a property she could not even keep her name. And many of us today say with pride: I want to be mrs so and so. Bullcrap. YOu should keep your own family name. In Jansher momma's case, she was way ahead of her time..or just keeping in line with fiqh.

My mother used to have big time debates with our local ulema She is a well read women in many genres. WHen she was married Mr. Leila Sankar gave her a collection of encloypedia, stove,refrigerator, etc. Her marriage to my father was in the the early 1950s. She was always referred to as the fullah lady since she did not convert nor changed her name her last name. Dara the days when the got married as my mother love to share lang time stories; the marriage was done in the old traditions, man down stairs , ladies upstairs and the messenger goes back and forth, until she says kubool. Majie Ayube married my parents. She did not partake in any other cermonies.

quote:

Originally posted by BK:
Jansher, remember the British used to spell Khan as Khaw also.

If Ram and Khan don't go together how do you explain a name like Ramzaan - Ram and Zaan!

we are fortunate to know this and can educate others. Imagine what they will do in guyana without idp if they dititalize the records.

quote:

Originally posted by Rosita:
Well i found out a little bit more. Apparently the man who brought my grandfather (was not his real father)was named Abdulah Khan so he gave my grandfather his last name Khan and claim him to be his son or my grandfather wouldn't have been able to come on the ship. Somewhere along the way my grandfather changed his last name to a hindu name (found out about his real name from Abdulah Khan). At least that's the explanation I got.

Rosita it very logical and makes sense. You have a right history.

quote:

Originally posted by dara shikoh:

quote:

Originally posted by BK:
Jansher, remember the British used to spell Khan as Khaw also.

If Ram and Khan don't go together how do you explain a name like Ramzaan - Ram and Zaan!

A duosyllabic name does not indicate a combination of two separate names. Ramzaan is the persianed "Z' of the heavy arabic "D"...from ramadan...

yes like in Azaan vs Adhaan, Ramadhan vs Ramazan, eid ul adha vs eid ul azhah.

quote:

Originally posted by Jansher:
we are fortunate to know this and can educate others. Imagine what they will do in guyana without idp if they dititalize the records.

bai jaan the PPP government don't care about digitizing the records and I doubt that they need IDP help. Didn't you read some of the comments by the other poster who always accuse others of selling out to the white man but still doesn't see the hyprocracy in parading as a whiteman who doesn't know its own roots.

Lynn, Figgy, Dara, Freaky:

From our discussions, please check this page from The Khans geneology tree - The family of Mojohur (Mazahar) Khan -- and see which family names "ring a bell" with you.

http://www.geocities.com/ajokhan/Genealogy06/Khans2006/index.html

We can then provide more information, in a private setting - in addition to any general and non-personal discussions on this thread.