User talk:DrSPhukan

POTATO

Nature had originally planted potato in the Peruvian-Bolivian Andes mountain range in South America, known to be cultivated there since last 1800 years. The Quecha Amerindian people used to call it ‘papa’ and the Spaniards named it ‘patata’ or ‘batata’. The Spaniards whose incursions into the South American Andes mountains followed the Christopher Columbus’s new world discovery, brought it to Europe in the 16th century. As its flowers and fruits were similar to some poisonous nightshade plants many were reluctant to accept potato as an eatable vegetable initially. On the other side many found it endowed with exotic powers, like ability to cure impotence and others, which increased its rarity and dearness then. The potato extended all over Europe and became a major crop in Ireland by the end of 17th century, getting a new Irish name ‘pratie’. The events of the blight epidemic of potato in Ireland (1845-47), the famine that followed and the Irish immigration to Americas is history. The potato itself is an immigrant from Europe to North America rather than from South America and is known in the USA as the ‘Irish potato’. Recognising its potential as food, Germany in 1744 and Sweden in 1764 issued royal edicts for its cultivation. Its arrival in the Indian subcontinent coincided with the arrival of the colonial powers firstly the Portuguese and later the English. Biologically the potato is a modified stem with a swollen appearance, hence its name ‘tuber’. It is a monocotyledonous annual herb, scientific name Solanum tuberosae. Taxonomists have grouped it in the family Solanaceae under the genus Solanum. But the potato is unrelated to sweet potato which is the tuberous root of a perennial plant Ipomea batata, of the same family as that of the Morning Glory creeper. Sweet potato is known in Italy as ‘American potato’. Skin colour of potato tuber varies from brownish white to deep purple and that of the flesh between white to light yellow. Some Andean varieties have purple flesh. Recent reports tell of the purple types being more disease resistant. Reproduction of the potato plant can be effected from the sprouts coming out of the tubers. In such cases the potatoes actually clone themselves and hence become more vulnerable to disease. Nowadays cultivation from potato seed is encouraged.

The potato plant develops small fruits resembling green tomatoes when unripe and yellowish when ripe, they are poisonous. All green and photosynthetic parts of the potato plant are poisonous and more so after exposure to sunlight. Take sufficient green vegetables specially leafy ones, but for potato “no greens and horns”. All green parts of the potato including sprouts should be cut out before eating. The poisonous principles consists of a mixture of Solanine glycoalkaloids mainly Solanine and Solanidine concentrated solely in the green parts of the plant. Solanine is a steroidal glycoalkaloid which is broken down by hydrolysis in the gut to release free alkamines responsible for the malady. Solanine poisoning causes symptoms called by many as ‘abdominal flu’. The onset may be delayed from one hour to two days from the ingestion time. Children are more sensitive to Solanine though fatalities are rare. There occurs symptoms of gastro-enteritis starting with a scratchy feeling in the throat, nausea, vomiting from mild to severe degree and diarrhea at times bloody. There may be involvement of the nervous system heralded by headache and circulatory and renal involvement in severe cases. Patients are treated with cautious gastric lavage to clean the stomach by introducing water or saline. Antacids are given to adsorb the toxins and neutralize it. Diarrhoea is allowed, to remove the gut contents and fluid and electrolytes balance adjusted as per requirement. Only in the extreme instances is respiratory assistance and haemodialysis necessary. In spite of the poisonous nature of the green parts of the potato plant, the potato tuber is one of the most excellent vegetable gifted by nature to man. Even the poisonous parts are used by some herbalists and homoeopaths as useful remedy for many ailments. The potato tuber is rife with easily digestible starch, some essential amino-acids, useful minerals, vitamins and a lot of taste in it. According to some nutritionists consumption of 2.2 kilograms of potato and 900 millilitres of milk a day can provide all nutrients essential for human diet. DR SATYAKAM PHUKAN JORPUKHURIPAR, UZANBAZAR GUWAHATI, ASSAM P.I.N : 781001 PHONE : 99540 46357

Email : sphukan@email.com

THE KHAN STORY
Khan

The name “Khan” brings to one’s mind the common surname taken by many a Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. The famous amongst them includes the great Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, the Frontier Gandhi, the celebrity cricketer Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi better known by his popular name Imran Khan. Then there are the multitude of the "Khans" of the Indian film world starting with Yusuf Khan, known commonly by his screen name Dilip Kumar. The musical world of the subcontinent has it’s share of the “Khans”, from Ustad Bismillah Khan to Amjad Ali Khan.

The name “Khan” in it’s origin has nothing Islamic with it, rather it was imported into the Muslim realm. The name has a unique attractiveness with a macho touch that has drawn people from various backgrounds to adopt it into their names right from it’s genesis in Central Asia to many other parts of the globe from Eastern Europe to South Asia. Originwise “Khan” and the expanded versions “Khakhan” or “Khaqan” was the honorific title of Mongol rulers of Central Asia. It was taken up by the Turks as well, who were associated both as subjects and participants of the Mongol empire. The name “Khan” entered the international scene with the rise of the Mongol emperor Chengis Khan, commanding one of the largest empire in the history from Asia to Europe, conquering in all directions by his whirlwind campaigns.

Chengis Khan became the “Great Khan” or Khakhan or Khaqan of the Mongols in 1206 after he unified the fragmented Mongol tribes into a unified entity. He deputed his sons Jochi Khan, Chagatai Khan, Ogodai Khan and Tolui Khan to rule over major parts of his empire. He died in 1227 and was succeeded by his son Ogodai Khan as the “Great Khan”, who was followed by his son Kuyuk Khan. Then came Tolui Khan’s son Mangu Khan, who was then succeeded by another of Tolui Khan’s son the famous Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan conquered China and founded the Yuan dynasty there.

Mongol domain expanded in all directions and by 1260 four power centers emerged. Kublai Khan remained as the leader of all Mongols and his dominion centered around China. He had shifted the capital of the empire from Karakorum in Central Asia to Peking in China. Turkestan region was given by Chengis Khan to his second son Chagatai Khan and this area was what was known as the Chagatai khanate, peopled mostly by Turks. Chengis’s grandson, son of his youngest son Tolui Khan, Hulagu Khan, conquered the middle-east region of Asia knocking out the Abbassid Caliphs of Baghdad. He started the dynasty of Il-Khans of Persia. Jochi Khan’s son Batu Khan turned towards Europe and conquered upto southern Russia. This khanate founded by Batu Khan was known as the Golden Horde. Batu Khan passed away in 1258 and reins of power of the Golden Horde came into the hands of Bereke Khan his brother. Bereke Khan was the first of the Mongol rulers to take up Islam as religion. Mongols’ own religion was a form of Shamanism.

The main fighting force of the Mongol army consisted chiefly of Mongols, Tatars and Turks. The west and southwards conquest brought them into contact with the Islamic culture. Finding Islam suitable a religion for their fervor most Turks and Tatars and many Mongols embraced this faith. There resulted much fusion and intermixing between the co-religionist Turks, Tatars and Mongols. A mixed breed of Turko-Mongol people emerged, some identified as Turks only, some as Uzbek, Turkoman, Mughal etc. As an example Babur the Mughal conqueror of India descended from the Turkish Timur (Lame) from his paternal side and directly from the family of Chagatai Khan, the son of Chengis Khan from his maternal line. These people poured into Afghanistan and Persia. The name “Khan” as a title or surname traveled with them.

The Mongols of Mongolia  on the other hand came under the influence of Tibetan form of Mahayana Buddhism and still continue in that religious faith.

Although the Arabs were the first Muslims credited with making conquering inroads into the Indian subcontinent starting with Muhammad-bin-Qasim’s conquest of Sindh, it is the Turko-Mongol Muslims who effected the actual Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent. The name element “Khan” gained popularity to such an extent that it assumed the status of an integral part of the Indo-Muslim culture. The “Khan” title was taken up by a large segment of Muslims of Afghan extraction and other Muslims of the Indian subcontinent including those who converted to Islam from Hinduism. During the British era in India, the British rulers conferred honorific title of “Khan Bahadur” to loyal Muslims of repute in contradistinction to “Rai Bahadur”given to similar persons of Hindu extraction.

The title or the surname “Khan” crossed the confined of the Indo-Islamic realms to be used by Hindus and Buddhists. Of those Hindus, some used it as a title on being bestowed by the Muslim rulers mainly in the province of Bengal. One such Bengali Hindu Khan family was known to be residing in Shillong, the capital of the Indian state of Meghalaya, where they owned the well known Khan automobile works.

Although Assam or more properly Kamrup of the medieval era was mostly outside the perimeter of the Muslim rule, some of the Assamese Hindu elite added the title “Khan” after their names. One such historical personality was Bura Khan who happened to be an uncle of the revered Assamese saint Sankardeb. Bura Khan was his nickname because he married at an older age, his actual name was Ram Chandra Khan. His descendants include the famous Barua family of Gauripur which produced luminaries like the famous Indian film-maker Promothesh Barua and many others like the famous folk singer of Assam Protima Pandey Barua. The Bura Khan’s family originally hailed from Alipukhuri in Nagaon of middle Assam and later they moved to western Assam. Incidentally it was in a religious ceremony held in the residence of Bura Khan that Sankardeb for the first time got better of his Brahmin opponents intellectually. Another Assamese Hindu Khan mentioned in historical literatures was one Gabharu Khan, many Mahanta (Non-Brahmin religious preacher) families of Nalbari area claim descent from him.

The early rulers of the Chakma tribe of the Chittagong Hills ( now in Bangladesh) who have been of the Buddhist faith all along, took fancy to the title “Khan” and had used it in the past. The lineage of such Chakma “Khan” chieftains in chronological order is as follows.

Sher Daulat Khan (alias Pagla)

Chaman Khan

Tabbar Khan

Jabbar Khan

Jallal Khan

Shermust Khan

Jan Baksh Khan

Dharam Baksh Khan

After the last named, the use of Khan as a title stopped among the Chakma chiefs.

In case of Bulgaria a Slavic nation,the nation itself began with a Turkic people named Bulgar ruling over a majority Slav subjects. The first ruler of importance was Khan Asparukh. Another notable to follow him was Khan Krum also known as “Krum the terrible”. The Bulgars over periods of time got assimilated with the Slav populace and the title of  the “Khan” got replaced by the the Slavic title “Tsar”. This began with Khan Boris accepting Christianity for himself as well as for his subjects.

Mongols may have won militarily a large portion of the globe but lost out in the cultural front to many of the cultures they came to control, be it in China, Persia, Indian subcontinent, Europe etc. A glaring example are the Hazaras, an important tribe of Afghanistan. They are the descendants of the Mongol soldiers of Chengis Khan who married local Afghan women. Their physical features still evince their Mongol origin but they speak a form of Persian, not the Mongol tongue and profess the Shia sect of the Islam religion.

The Mongol language has contributed two important words to the Indo-Islamic milieu. One is the name of the language Urdu, derived from Mongol word for tent “yurt”, in this case denoting an army encampment. The other word is “Khan”

Dr Satyakam Phukan Jorpukhuripar, Uzanbazar Guwahati, Assam (INDIA) P.I.N. : 781001 Phone : +91 99540 46357 E-mail : sphukan@email.com DrSPhukan (talk) 12:29, 2 November 2009 (UTC)